by Michael Kan
Hate. The Enforcer had told her to feel and embrace it. Even now, his echoes continued to pester her.
Unleash your destruction, the machine had said. Summon your power.
So she did. Farcia wasn’t content to sit and rest. She stood up from the corner, angry. Extending her right hand, she concentrated and let her fingers reach.
Revenge. Yes, she felt it, toward him the Enforcer.
Farcia heard the machinations in her mind and whispered back. The ancient words of her people spoke, clear and firm. They entered the surrounding cosmos and inspired a change that was swift. The result came blasting into space.
The Endervar ships are attempting to intercept, the Destroyer said.
He watched the scans with Arendi. The enemy swarm continued to roll toward the mother ship, but Farcia was there to provide some resistance. It was fierce. A barrage of particle-beam fire was streaking through the vacuum. The energized bolts carved into the darkness and rammed headlong into the approaching waves of drone craft.
Her kin were on the move, accelerating and ripping through the area. Their bombardment widened and ran rampant. The enemy swarm was forced to react and scatter. Some drones even began to die; the explosions cleaved away their numbers and diverted their approach.
Arendi stared at Farcia. The woman’s face and the skin around her eyes had turned gray and black, and her anguish swelled as she honed and released her power. She swatted away at the enemy swarm, with all her might. The frail fingers of her right hand clutched the air.
You will feel my pain, she muttered. Her every shot sought to char the soul-less machine.
The Endervar ships continued to fire wildly. The particle beams whipped and lashed, striking down the mechanical foes. The Enforcer, however, would not let this offense stand. The advantage was still his. Farcia had only eleven Endervar ships. Not enough to stop the enemy swarm. His drones stretched far and wide. Then they converged, hammering back.
The machine enemy closed in, ready to die. The drones maneuvered and then smashed into the Endervar ships. Meanwhile, the remaining brethren fired, dropping bombs and plasma into the fray. Farcia could feel the retaliation. Her kin was sustaining damage. With each blow, she remembered the agony and then the Enforcer’s whisper.
I am your only hope
The words gave her pause. She heard the machine bellow in her ear. Farcia tried to ignore it and drown it all out. She focused on her kin but could only feel them fall, one by one.
Help me or lose everything.
The Enforcer warned her. Then he punished. The swarm stabbed, blazing. The explosions hit and echoed in her mind, like burning ash falling over exposed skin. But as if that weren’t enough, Farcia herself began to doubt. She heard another whisper, this time from herself.
Remember your promise. Remember
Farcia’s right hand flinched. She lost her grip and felt nothing. Her kin was trying to regroup and fight back, but it was almost over. The swarm moved, agile and too vast in numbers. Thousands of them still remained.
Farcia threw her hand down, sullen. The revenge left her; there was only more pain, mixed with regret. She closed her eyes, absorbing every ounce of it.
No, she said. I don’t know
Her mind was searching for the answer. But there was none. There was only her.
Thank you, Arendi said, in a moment of relief. She smiled back, even as pieces of skin had been burned and torn off her android face.
The enemy swarm still approached, fearless and unopposed, but Arendi said it anyway. Any resistance would help.
It’s given us some time, she said. More of the mother ship is coming back online.
The command center lit up. Additional holoscreens were starting to appear, each connected to some individual component on board. Farcia saw the neon lights begin to bathe the area, casting away any remaining darkness. A bright glow fell over her ashen face. But even so, the relief didn’t last.
The Gateway technology, the Destroyer said. It’s crossed into the containment field.
They all could see it. The main holoscreen inside the control center brought up the visual. Farcia stepped closer, witnessing the point of contact. The remains of her people floated in their own corner of space. She saw the collection of dead matter and the red and black luminescence. It still shone with potential, only to face the shadow.
The Enforcer and his machine presence emerged. The Gateway technology traveled forth. The mechanical apparatus opened wider, seeking to consume and claim its subject. It then fully entered the field of exotic matter and began to harness the power.
***
The masked woman entered the control center and confronted the sight. The coming doom was there on the screens.
The danger dawned in the distance, fomenting a mysterious and growing light. Within the cluster of dead matter, the unknown began to brew. It was held back, for now, behind a containment field inside an area of secluded and changing space. But it wouldn’t be long before the whole phenomenon broke out. The physical laws and everything the existing universe had once achieved might then very well crumble and fall apart.
The woman pulled the mask from her face and squinted up at the images. She had seen something like this before. Not long ago, in fact.
Though limping and aching, she voiced the dread. Farcia could sense the woman’s strain, along with her every mental thought. Alysdeon was light-headed and sore. Her ribs were fractured, and her mind throbbed. The four-hundred-year-old woman quietly shuddered, clutching her sweaty and flustered face.
Farcia realized why. She had nearly killed Alysdeon. The Enforcer had demanded it. The agony had transferred from one mind to the next. It should have been a crippling, if not a life-threatening, blow. She had murdered many others in the same way scalding them with thoughts of death and regret. Forcing them to relive her every fear and all the trauma.
Clearly, it had been a harrowing experience. Alysdeon’s hands shivered. Her step was slow and doubtful. She wiped her swollen eyes and dried the tears.
But ultimately, the pain had come and gone. The four-hundred-year-old woman sighed and then straightened her back. She quickly regained a sense of herself. She had to. The battle was still raging on.
For a moment, Farcia assumed that Alysdeon would join Arendi inside the control room. Every holoscreen on board seemed to display some form of danger. Whether it be the Enforcer’s swarm or the Gateway building, it was all rather bleak. The alerts over the incoming data shrieked. The enemy was essentially everywhere. Maybe even here, in this very room.
Farcia stood alone, on her side of the control center. She was no friend. She was supposedly the foe. If anyone should be blamed or reviled, it would be her, this outcast from another universe. She was the shadow. A phantom living inside this frail and decidedly different body. Farcia did not belong here.
Nevertheless, Alysdeon noticed her. The woman slowly shifted her gaze and waved hello. Even with all the danger around her, she crossed the distance. Alysdeon then grabbed the back of her gold hair and pointed to the device at the base of her neck.
Her next reaction took Farcia by surprise. Alysdeon smiled, pretending it was all painless. She gave a deep breath, gorging on more oxygenated air. Remarkably, the woman wasn’t afraid or angry. Rather, she was curious and questioning.
The woman then stared up at the holoscreens inside the control room. The predicament displayed there was almost the same as her memory.
You witnessed the end, Farcia said bluntly, sensing it. The end of my world.
Farcia spoke of the downfall. Of the tragedy that had scarred her mind. A new universe had emerged to lay waste to the old. It had killed billions of h
er kind, blowing them apart, then choking off the rest. Indeed, perhaps history was replaying itself. The grim fate and all its finality was here.
But Alysdeon didn’t entirely agree.
Although the hurt was still emblazoned across the woman’s face, her violet eyes still glimmered with warmth.
Farcia heard this and shunned the thought. No. There’s nothing left, she wanted to say. Without my people, I am nothing.
It was why she had tried so hard. The guilt, the fear, the desperation. Farcia had been chasing this promise, sacrificing everything to make it real. But too much had gone wrong. That was obvious. Again, she felt nothing. Whatever prior conviction she’d had drifted.
Farcia shivered. Her anger could tell one story, but the remorse told another.
All I’ve done is fail, she confessed. All I’ve done is hurt and kill.
Alysdeon said.
The woman then opened her hand and placed it over Farcia’s shoulder.
Alysdeon looked up at the holoscreens and watched as the cataclysm in the distance continued to churn and grow nearer.
No, Farcia thought. I don’t know how.
To come this far, only to let it all unravel Even if she wanted to, Farcia had nothing left to offer. She felt the last of her influence expire and die in her mind. Her remaining Endervar ships had just been cut to pieces. The enemy swarm had killed them in a hailstorm of fire, and the rest of her kin were still light-years away. Too distant to make any difference.
Farcia closed her eyes, searching, but ultimately powerless.
I’m sorry. Maybe it’s too late, she said. Forgive me.
Chapter 48
The mother ship trembled. The first wave of enemy drones was starting to burn and attack. They shot out of the dark, surrounding and then besieging the vessel. The machine flyers set the area aflame and began strafing it. Blaster beams and missiles started to chip away and then crack into the protective shielding.
The whole control center swayed; the supercharged ammunition was nearly bashing against the hull. For now, it was only a few hundred enemy craft, mainly harassing from a distance and causing a rumble. But inevitably the rest of the swarm would close in and do the same.
The Destroyer stood unshaken. Despite the thrashing and the approaching doom, he was the confident commander of this vessel a massive fortress attempting to hold its foe at bay. His human form flickered into existence. The blond-haired man walked the control room floor as though he were manning the ramparts. He then stroked his lower lip, thinking and strategizing. Without engine power, the mother ship had no choice but simply to stand its ground.
This will have to do, the Destroyer said with a smirk. Admittedly, he didn’t fully understand the mother ship or its defense capabilities. But the man found reason to grin. His machine troopers and their combined computing power had just made a breakthrough. The makeshift network formed across the vessel and began achieving greater access into the mother ship’s systems.
Arendi noticed it. Weapons control, while limited, was hers. Her mechanical claw itched with the calculations and the firing solution.
Targets locked, she said. I hope this works.
Arendi gave the order, and the sequence took hold. The first salvo went off unimpeded. The mother ship’s central particle beam cannon awoke as the whole fortress boomed. The charge coalesced at the vessel’s outer shell and lanced into space.
The enemy drones balked and wavered, taken by surprise. The intensity of the particle beam magnified. It would have been enough to damage and destroy any ships caught in the kinetic blast, but the weapons fire soared on, spinning past the clutter of machines. Instead, Arendi eyed the true threat. The beam strike accelerated toward the Enforcer and his Gateway.
The colossal mass of exotic matter loomed in the distance. Its energy readings roared, as though reality were about to devour a whole colony of stars. At the core, the decayed and crumpled remnant of another universe started to crystallize and fuse in white. The containment field preserving the substance continued to hold, sustaining the process. Total destruction was almost at hand; the field of exotic matter was starting to swirl and react.
Arendi watched, hoping she could stop it or slow it down. Her particle beam a javelin of spiraling energy shot out.
Negative, the Destroyer said. The blow had missed. The weaponized energy weakened and then evaporated. At this range, the distance was still too great to hit the target effectively.
Arendi turned to the holoscreens and saw the blast fail to connect. The Gateway, on the other hand, continued to gestate. The matter inside seemed to burgeon; it shimmered in unknown colors. She blinked at the view, wishing it were gone. To Arendi, the Gateway was a bomb of world-ending proportions. With each waning moment, the technology at work was ticking down.
Alysdeon joined her at the control room, watching the scans.
Not sure, Arendi said. At best, an hour. At worst, several minutes.
They spoke as their own surroundings continued to rock and sway. The enemy swarm was launching another barrage. The plasma shots drummed into space and blistered over the mother ship’s hide.
To deflect the strike, the protective shielding was rotating. New sheets of force field shifted to replace the demolished and damaged layers. But it was only a matter of time before the entire swarm attacked. Eventually, the enemy flyers would envelop and bombard every inch of the ship.
Hmph the Destroyer said. Then perhaps death it is.
He stood on the ramparts, firing back at the swarm. Defense turrets, these packing short-range cannons, opened across the hull. The line of guns sprayed rounds of heated ammunition into the harassing foe.
Arendi told herself, however, to forget the incoming drones. We have to move, she said. Get closer to the Gateway.
Their true target was past the swarm the exotic matter itself. A series of pylons was holding the rare energy together behind a vast containment field.
The ring of structures had already been attacked during the Destroyer’s initial assault. Dozens had fallen, but still the majority remained. Now it was time to finish off the rest. If the pylon network was gone, then perhaps the whole Gateway might collapse. It was only a question of how.
Any update on the engines? Arendi asked.
The Destroyer stroked his chin; the smirk on his face ebbed. Although he had more access to the vessel, the man continued to work in the dark, tinkering and pulling at whatever might work.
Still on it, he said. Stand by
***
Watching all this was Farcia. She felt the ground shake and heard the bulkhead creak under the stress. The holoscreens above her fizzled with each impact. The shield strength was declining by the second as more enemy drones emerged from the dark and fired.
Arendi, however, continued to fight. She didn’t care if it was a losing battle. The targets were in her sights.
We have to take down all the pylons, she said. That’s the key.
Farcia listened and realized what was being asked. In other words, destroy it. Destroy every last piece of her world.
The remnants teemed in the distance. The dead matter was alive with light. The holoscreens displayed reminders of the ill-fated past but now it was becoming something else. Farcia didn’t know what. She only had the Enforcer’s word and her own desire.
Remember your promise
Farcia heard the echo and sniffed. The promise, she thought. Perhaps it had been flawed from the start. She couldn’t see or feel it anymore, and she knew why. The vow was all laced in anger and lies. The Enforcer and her own delusions had pushed her to
the extreme. Now she had been betrayed and cast aside. The tired desperation of the promise. She had to let go. The hate could only take her so far.
Let them die this universe doesn’t deserve to exist they are your enemy. Restore your people the true people no matter the cost.
No, Farcia whispered. I can’t. It’s not right.
She pushed the echoes out of her mind. Instead, she cradled the other promise. The other potential. It was there, in her belly, and it was real. The sensation was small and crawling. Maybe even reaching. For once, Farcia didn’t fight it or feel the need to suppress it. She decided to imagine the unborn life. But it wouldn’t survive. None of them would. The tremors at her feet wouldn’t stop.
The enemy swarm continued to maul the mother ship. The beam blasts, missiles, and even fusion bombs threatened to clobber the vessel into dust. The impacts grew louder with every moan and whine across the control room.
Farcia heard the bulkhead burst and bang from afar. It made her suddenly think of the sound of rubble falling. It roared through the surrounding corridors; the wall, the armor, and the force field protecting the ship were collapsing. In a sense, the enemy was almost at the doors. She could hear them knocking.
Arendi went to the main guns and fired off another javelin. The particle beam swiped across the vessel’s bow and crashed into a wave of enemy drones.
Engines! she shouted. Arendi needed them on immediately. Her mechanical claw itched, urgent and angry.
But what did it matter? They were but one vessel against a whole army. The swarm itself still numbered in the thousands. With that kind of resistance, the mother ship would never reach the target, let alone survive. At least, not like this not against these odds.
If only we had more ships.
The thought came to Farcia as she watched Arendi struggle and fight. She and her companions were seemingly on their own at the edge of the galaxy, trying to hold on. They were but a small pocket of resistance, firing away at the abyss. But still, the coming reality couldn’t be denied.