by Liam Clay
“That's got to be the control room door!” I shout to Tikal.
“Probably!” She shouts back, leaning out to fire down the hall. “But that doesn't help us much.”
We stop talking to focus on the fight. Rockets blow the floor mosaic to pieces, and tear chunks out of the walls. The flooding must have topped out over the stairs, because water is gurgling in to pool around our feet. The plinth in this alcove supports a painted urn. It survives for a remarkable length of time before exploding into plaster shards. I lean out into the hall to shoot, and a bullet grazes my shoulder. We're not going to last like this.
“Cover me!” I say to Tikal. She nods grimly, takes a breath, and comes out firing. Further up the hall, Francis and Lucy do the same. And now I'm running for the steel door. On the way, I risk a glance behind me. My friends have succeeded in pushing the Null back for the moment. They haven't been reinforced since the firefight started either, which is a good sign. Maybe the battle isn't going all their way. I reach the comms panel. Jamming my thumb against the intercom button, I say, “Amy, it's us! Please open the door!”
For a moment, nothing happens. Then her voice comes over the comm. “Anex, is that you?”
“For now, but I'm going to be a corpse if you don't open up!”
“Hold on!”
Steel grinds against stone, and the door starts to slide open.
“Hey Tikal?” Lucy calls out. “I'm going to need your help with Francis!” The poker player is standing fully in the hallway now, keeping the Null at bay with a barrage of gunfire. But Francis is slumped against the wall of their alcove. A piece of shrapnel has clipped his temple, sending blood sheeting down the side of his face. He looks dazed and unaware of his surroundings.
Leaving the safety of her alcove, Tikal pelts across the hall. She gets a shoulder under Francis’s arm, hauls him upright and starts to shuffle toward me. I go back to help her. And together, we carry our friend toward the threshold. But we've only just reached the door when I hear a fleshy slap. I look back. Lucy has been shot in the upper chest, about ten centimeters in from the shoulder. As I watch helplessly, she drops her weapon and staggers into an alcove. The Null start to advance down the hall.
“Run!” Tikal shrieks. Lucy shakes herself, pushes off the wall, and obeys. She’s almost reached us when the first bullets rip into her lower back. She falters, but keeps her feet somehow. Then another bullet strikes her, high up in the spine this time, and she falls into my arms. Lucy’s weight sends me tumbling through the door. I land hard on my back with her on top of me.
“Close it!” Tikal shouts from what feels like a great distance. Bullets pound the door’s outer surface as it starts to grind shut.
Lucy smells of blood and gunpowder. The stubble of her shaved head scrapes my cheek every time I take a breath. I think I can feel her heartbeat against my chest, but it is too faint to be sure. Then Amy speaks into my ear, shouting to be heard over the gunfire.
“I'm going to slide her off you, okay? Try not to move.”
I nod almost imperceptibly. She takes Lucy gently by the shoulders, and shifts her sideways onto the floor. I sit up. Tikal is still shooting through the closing door. But before it can shut all the way, a bullet bites into the meat of her calf. She reels backward just as a Null woman appears in the gap. I expect her to start shooting, but she has other plans. Crouching down, she wedges her body into the doorway. There is a sickening crack as it crushes her in a stainless steel vice. A rattling breath signifies lung collapse, and the life goes out of her eyes.
The pulverized body is a hideous sight. But my attention lingers there, putting off the moment when I will have to look at Lucy. But there is only so long I can wait. The door isn't shut all the way; the Null can still get in.
I turn my head. Lucy's back is like a blood moon, pocked with red craters and misshapen mounds.
“Is she still alive?” I choke out.
Amy puts her hand to Lucy's mouth, and nods. Then she glances up, raises a handgun and fires. An emotionless face vanishes from the gap in the doorway. But another replaces it. Amy shoots again... and misses. The soldier levels his assault rifle.
But before he can deliver a goodnight bullet, the soldier gets blown up. The blast dents the door and casts flames through the gap, lashing my face with terrible heat. But it is not a killing blow, or even a damaging one. Smoke drifts through the room, slowly dissipating until I can see again.
The soldier's body is still wedged in the door, holding it open. But the slice of hallway I can see through the gap is empty of soldiers. Then a familiar voice speaks from just outside.
“Don't shoot! We're coming in.”
CHAPTER 29
Peace steps over the dead soldier and into the room. Delez is right behind her. The sniper sees Lucy. Her eyes go wide, but then they travel past our injured friend, landing on something further back in the room. I twist around to look. And there, resting on a table cluttered with tablets and comms equipment, is the black box. The thing does not look as I’d expected. The box itself is a scratched steel rectangle with the word Loop stenciled on its side. But the device sits within a framework of mesh, padding and straps that combine to form a heavy duty backpack. Balthazar is standing behind the table. With her white garments, tattoos and piercings, she looks like a character from a fantasy epic. But her face is hard.
“What is he doing here?” She demands, pointing to Delez.
“What he has to.” Peace replies. “The same as me. Now hand it over.”
At first, I can't understand what she means. And when I realize what she's doing, the information still doesn't fully compute.
“But Peace...” I whisper. “Look at Lucy. She needs our help.”
Tears are flowing unchecked down the sniper's cheeks now. But she does not balk, and the gun in her hand speaks volumes.
“The sooner you give us the box, the sooner you can get her the medical attention she needs.”
To my left, Tikal is trying to stand. But Delez raises a rifle to cover her, and she freezes. Amy doesn't know about his black hole theorem, or Peace's acceptance of it. But the sniper's new allegiances are clear for her to see.
“Whatever he told you, it's not true.” The girl says evenly. “Don't let him play you like this.”
“He's not playing anyone.” Peace replies with iron control. “And besides, we already know the Null aren't building a space station. Which means that orbital supremacy isn't their goal. So what does it matter if we give them the black box?”
“And what about the Mindrack?” Tikal says. “Are we supposed to let them walk into the Hive and take that too?”
“Why not? I'll bet you barely remembered it existed until today.” She spreads her arms in supplication. “Please, just let us go... and do everything you can for Lucy. She's come too far to die now.”
“If you really cared about her, you wouldn't be doing this.” Francis says.
“I'm doing this because I care. If we stop the Null from building their escape ship, the entire human race will be wiped out. Including her.”
And now Balthazar speaks. “I don't know what you're talking about. But I am not giving you the black box.”
Peace sighs. “I never expected you to. Delez?”
He nods and walks forward, rifle held at waist level. Reaching the table, he loops an arm through one of the box's straps and shrugs it onto his back. In order to do so, he has to switch his gun from one hand to the other. And in that split second of time, the Queenfisher acts. Lunging forward, she grabs a machine gun off the table and points it at Delez.
But Peace is faster. She shoots Balthazar in the meat of her gun arm - an incredible shot, I can't help but think beneath my dread. The Queenfisher grunts, hits the table and rolls off, her weapon skittering across the floor.
“No!”
Amy has dropped to her knees. Cradling Balthazar's head in her arms, she looks up at Peace.
“What have you done?”
“I'm so sorr
y, Amy. But she was about to kill my husband! Surely you can understand.”
“I don't understand any of this!” Amy wails, sounding for a moment like the child that in some ways she still is. Then, with an incredible display of will, she calms herself down. “But it doesn't matter. Just take the box and go, so that I can treat my people.”
“They're my people too.” Peace whispers.
“Not anymore.”
“It is time to leave.” Delez tells his wife. And for the first time, her resolve wavers.
“But they're our family.”
“And you are trying to save their lives, even though they refuse to believe it.”
Taking Peace gently by the arm, Delez draws her away from us. They pass back through the door, and are gone. Amy goes to work right away. She runs to a drawer, pulls out a medical kit, and returns to Balthazar's side. But the Kogi pushes her away.
“It's not life threatening.”
“But -”
“Don't argue with me! Your friend needs treatment first.”
Amy hesitates, and then shifts her attention to Lucy.
“Someone get her armor off. I'll prep my supplies.”
Tikal crawls to my side. Francis sits across from us. And together, we look down on Lucy's still form. And in that moment, all three of us realize the truth.
She's already gone.
Rationally, I knew this would happen one day. We have fought too many battles, used up our nine lives and then some. Eventually, one of us was always going to die. I just never thought it would be today. Or any actual day. Death was always a fact for the future, in some shadowy time disconnected from the present by months or years. But now mortality has found us, and we will never be the same.
“I need to see her face.” Francis says. He reaches out with shaking hands, and rolls her over. I'd hoped that hiding Lucy's wounds might lessen the pain of seeing her like this. But the glassed over eyes, the slack mouth... are far worse. There was a time when this woman's death would have been a relief to me. She used to be a constant thorn in my side, questioning my motives at every turn. But shared experience changed our relationship long ago. Like Peace said, these people are my family. And now there is a hole in it that can never be filled.
Amy is the first to recover. She attends to Balthazar's wound, and then Tikal's - which is minor as well. No one has anything to say. Yesterday at this time, we were all riding high off our victory in Ninetown. The future was actually starting to look bright. I should have known it was a trick, though. If there is a god, it abandoned our species a long time ago.
While my thoughts roam these dark places, my gaze wanders over the control room. Two of the chamber's four walls are taken up by banks of monitors, dials and gauges. This equipment is used to keep the Kogis safely in stasis, so they can live out their lives in the virtual world I remember so well. But it is also a security system. The monitors are displaying feeds from cameras located around the cryobunker. And it looks like the battle is over. Barely anyone from either side has survived. On feed after feed, I see nothing but bodies.
Except in the entry cavern.
Two figures are swimming through a maelstrom of waterspouts there. They are heading toward the arch where the spitfires are being kept. I point to the screen.
“Look.”
Tikal stands up and limps over to the bank of screens.
“It's Peace and Delez.” She says. “They must be planning to fly out of here. But to do that, they will need to raise the entire pillar to the surface, and then lower the inner section to create a vertical tunnel. And that will take time.” She swings around to face us. “We could still catch them.”
“And do what?” I ask. “Shoot down our own friends? They're just doing what they think is right. Or Peace is, at least.”
“But they're going to give the black box to the Architect! We can't let that happen. So I say we follow them, and reclaim the box when they try to make the handover.”
Amy looks from Francis, to Tikal, and then to me.
“You go, then.” She says. “But I'm not leaving my people. Not again.”
“I understand.” Tikal says solemnly. “And if we don’t make it back, can you give Lucy a Kogi funeral?”
“I will do what I can.”
Francis pushes unsteadily to his feet, and gives Amy a hug.
“We have to stop saying goodbye to each other like this.” He says.
“I think this might be the last time.” She replies softly.
Tikal and I say our goodbyes to her as well. Balthazar wishes us luck, and then it's time to go. But before we do, I make myself look at Lucy one last time. It hurts me how quickly I will forget the details of her, until she is just a Lucy shaped presence in my thoughts. So I make an effort to imprint her face into memory. But I have tried this before, I already know it won't work. Maybe forgetfulness is just another survival mechanism, meant to protect us from the pain of outliving our loved ones.
And then our time together really is at an end. We squeeze through the doorway and into the hallway. The water comes up to my knees, obscuring the shell mosaic beneath. The plinths with their artifacts have all been destroyed. In the alcoves where they once stood, corpses now float, creating marshes of gory red.
We travel the hallways for endless minutes. Twice, we encounter Null. And twice, we leave their bodies in our wake. We see one group of Kogis, but they run from us. After what seems an age, we reach the entry cavern. The waterspouts continue to hammer down. Hot vapor billows through the space, and it is impossibly loud. Through the mist we can see that the pillar has been raised, and its inner section lowered.
And now a new sound layers itself over the cacophony. A lone spitfire flies out of the parking lot, banks hard, and punches straight up through the pillar's hollow interior. I catch a fleeting glimpse of Delez in the pilot's seat, and then the plane is gone, vanished into the rock. In spite of what their departure means for us, there is no denying that it was a wild exit. One that we will shortly have to imitate.
We're about to enter the seething waters when Tikal spins around, gun raised. But she lowers it just as quickly. I look back... and there is Arella Calendo: battered and bloody but very much alive. She talks to us, but the words are swept away on a tide of sound. Realizing the futility of speech, the mercenary leader points to the first archway. Tikal claps her old friend on the shoulder, nodding her agreement.
With Calendo leading the way, we step down into the water and strike out across the cavern. The waterspouts have created whirlpools, currents and riptides that hurl us around the chamber. Once, I have to swim directly under a spout, or risk being crushed by its pounding weight. But we reach the arch unscathed. Most of the opening is underwater. Pulling in a breath, I swim down and through.
And resurface in the squid chamber with its banks of vertical tubes. But there is a problem: the corridor leading to the spitfire chamber is completely submerged. Calendo doesn't hesitate though. She dives under again. Another deep breath, and I'm inside the corridor. It isn't a long swim, but a strong counter-current makes every meter a struggle.
By the time my head breaks the surface again, white sparks are exploding inside my eye. When they clear, I take a look around. This chamber has a lower ceiling than the others. The water reaches most of the way up its walls, stopping just a few meters short of the roof. The spitfires occupy almost all of the available space. In a few minutes, their carapaces will be touching the rock above. The archway too, will be submerged in a very short time. We have to go now. Tikal finds her new spitfire, and Calendo locates her old one. Francis climbs into the merc's gunner seat. I drop in behind Tikal. Our carapaces slide shut, blocking out all sound in the process.
Switching on the comm, Tikal addresses Calendo.
“Did any of your crew survive the battle?”
“I don't know.” She replies with forced indifference. “We got separated early on. But I'm more concerned about these beautiful machines you see around you. If Balth
azar can't stop the flooding soon, they're going to get a tad soggy.”
Calendo is obviously just pretending to be okay, but maybe faking it is the best thing for all of us right now.
“Aren't spitfires amphibious?” I ask stupidly.
“More like water resistant. But there's nothing we can do about it, so let's get going.”
“Are you ready for this?” Tikal asks me.
“I'm planning to close my eye, actually. Vertical ascents through hollow oceanic pillars are your territory.”
“That's not what I meant. Delez will be looking to rendezvous with the Architect, and it sounds like she is closing in on Opacity and the Hive. So we may be flying into an aerial war.”
“Land, sea, air: it's all the same to me.”
“Good, because I will need you on guns. Oh and Anex?”
“Yes?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“I know. Now try not to piss yourself this time.”
She fires the engine and cranks the revs. We cut through the water, weaving between the tightly grouped spitfires. Our nose swings up. The archway looms, and we pass underneath it, carapaces scraping the lintel. Then Tikal wrenches back on the joystick. The plane turns 90 degrees in a matter of meters. The g-force throws me into my seat, and I black out for a second. When I come to, we’re flying straight upward. I can see a rocky tunnel, with a square of ocean within that and finally, the light blue of the sky.
It takes four seconds to pass through them all. Now by all accounts, I have lived an odd life; but the experience of flying an airplane up through the ocean, watching curious fish swim by, is definitely a first. We shoot out of the pillar like a bullet from the barrel of a gun. Calendo is right behind us. Tikal switches on the comm, and we hear Francis screaming at the top of his lungs. Calendo, on the other hand, is laughing maniacally.