by Dan Decker
“There are political implications to this that I cannot get into right now, suffice it to say that if her existence is ever discovered, it will cause a war.”
“What makes her special?”
“She’s special to me,” Roth said, dodging the question and putting an arm around the girl as if to protect her. “The peace that we have built with—” Roth abruptly cut off. “All you need to know is that we have to keep her existence quiet. She must survive this attack, and we have to get her off-planet. Can I count on your help?”
“Of course, you don’t even need to ask.” I shook my head. “But I still don’t understand why her existence is such a big deal.”
Some of the tension drained out of Roth’s face.
“General Roth,” I asked, “is this your child?”
Roth glanced back at the little girl, her eyes fluttered, and then she nodded.
“Yes.”
I thought back to the doll I had seen poking out of a bag in the general’s office and thought it strange that something so innocuous and innocent, could be classified.
How can a little girl threaten so many lives?
“I will give you the answers you want,” Roth said, noticing my face, “but not here, not—”
An explosion cut Roth off, it was distant, but there was no doubt as to the source. I ran to the elevator shaft and looked up to see a massive fireball.
It was heading our way, slowly but with growing momentum, like a flow of lava downhill.
“Fire,” I said. “It’s coming down.”
Roth paled. “Quick, into the girl’s room, it should keep us safe.” She added something that sounded an awful lot like, “Hopefully.”
The girl had already run inside, Roth was right behind her, and I went in last.
Roth pushed a button and the doors shut.
I heard the roar of fire outside several moments later.
54
To: Lieutenant General Regina Adams
From: Brigadier General Katrina Roth
Log date: 00429.211-19:03:01
Re: The asset
General Adams,
The asset is safe.
Leave it alone.
Brigadier General Katrina Roth
55
The fire went on for some time, raging just on the other side of the door. I put a hand to the metal, without remembering that I was in a suit, but could still feel the warmth of it on my skin. Apparently, the synaptic sense of the suit’s hands extended to hot and cold sensations. During all the time I had flown around in my suit, I had not once felt the wind or the burning sun. There was some way the suit distinguished between what it would relay and what it would not. Once the noise of burning fury dissipated, Roth tried to get the doors to open, but they would not work. Smoke came from the screen she had used to control them.
“Out of the way,” I said.
Roth curled her arms around the girl and pulled her to the far side of the room.
I tested a door with my fist before giving it a good solid punch, not much happened. I bashed it again and again until I saw light streaming through a crack between the doors. After hitting it several more times, I made a hole big enough that the child could squeeze through. It did not require much more effort to remove one of the doors, allowing me to slide all the way out.
I had been concerned about Roth’s suit, but I need not have worried because it appeared to be in good working condition, despite being a little scorched. Her admonition to always close the suit had paid off for her.
“What’s the plan now?” I asked Roth once we were outside.
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like that slow ball of fire. I think it’s a new weapon.”
I looked at the child and wondered if Roth was thinking a nuclear device of some sort had gone off. That would make sense—minus the slow-moving flames—but I hoped that was not the case. If it was, they would be toast anyway because they were already exposed to the radiation.
Wouldn’t the suit be smart enough to notify me if there was a problem with radiation?
“Think it was radioactive?” I asked.
“Probably not,” Roth said after a hesitation, “it is something else. I assume you don’t have any flashing icons?”
“Nothing I didn’t have before.”
Roth gave me a look. “What?”
“I got hit by a volley of blasts and a red light started flashing.”
“And you haven’t recharged—” Roth cut herself off. “I didn’t teach you about that. The button by your right middle finger recharges your shields, when you press it, the flashing icon will go away.”
I pressed the button and the light disappeared.
“Any chance you can disable the five-second delay on the laser?”
Roth gave me a long look and nodded.
“I suppose you have earned that privilege. Hang on.”
Roth commanded her suit to open, which it did. It closed around her when she got inside.
The little girl whimpered.
“Don’t worry honey, I’ll be right out.”
Roth got out of the suit a moment later.
“I’m surprised it survived the fire,” I said.
“The shields on these are excellent. It will withstand direct contact with a star under the right conditions, at least for a few minutes.”
Roth approached until she stood right beneath me, making me feel like a giant who dwarfed her even more than usual.
“I have fully activated your suit. Be careful to not press any of the other buttons until I teach you what they do. I would do that now, but we must go before we have another experience with a new type of weapon.”
I pointed at the broken elevator shaft. “Are you going to just hold the girl?”
Roth took one look at her daughter and shook her head.
“Alana is going in the suit.”
I gave her a look, forgetting she couldn’t see my face without her suit.
“It is engineered to carry a small child,” Roth said.
“Why are the suits made for children?”
“You would stop asking questions if you knew what was good for you.”
The girl must have understood what her mother was talking about, because she started to whimper. I guessed she was about four or five.
“Don’t worry honey, everything will be fine.”
I looked over at Roth. “Will she be able to use it?”
“I will control it from my watch.”
Roth said something to her suit that I did not catch, the inner mechanisms began to shift.
“Alana,” she said, “I need you to come over here and stand by the suit so it can adjust to your size.
The little girl walked forward, bravely looking at the suit while tears trickled down her face. Roth was right by, hand on her shoulder and whispering into her ear while saying words I could not catch.
Figuring I should give the mother and daughter a moment, I walked over to the elevator and looked up at the shaft. I could make out light at the top, which hopefully meant we could get out. At the same time, I was worried about the overall integrity of the shaft.
Debris still fell.
What did the top of the shaft look like now?
I turned back to Roth. “While you get this sorted out, I’m just gonna pop up real quick to look around.”
“Wait. We will be ready in just a moment, I don’t think it’s wise we separate.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but she gave me a stern look. I backed down because her daughter was already climbing into the suit. If it looked like it was going to take longer than just a moment, I was going up anyway, regardless of what Roth said. If she had a problem with that, I would remind her of how she had abandoned me.
Twice.
After the little girl crawled into the suit, the straps snaked down around her back and held her like little slings. Once those were in place, the rest of the suit adjusted to give her maximum support, pedestals making up
the distance from the suit’s feet to her own. After this was done, Roth stepped back and said the words to close the suit.
As she did she wiped a tear away from the corner of her eye and gave me a challenging look as if daring me to say anything, but I just shrugged. I could not tell if that action translated through the suit, so I looked away and made no comment.
Roth soon stood beside me, peering up through the elevator shaft.
“Is there any protective gear you can wear?” I asked.
“Not that’s close by, maybe we get lucky and find something up there, but it’s unlikely.”
I hesitated, thinking of offering her my suit, but if worst came to worse, I was in a better position to make unbiased decisions.
Her girl would be safe enough in the suit.
Besides, my anti-gravs wouldn’t work until they were fixed.
Roth brought up her watch and said something I didn’t catch while pressing one of the buttons. A holographic display opened up around her wrist. The suit walked over to us after she manipulated something on the display.
“Go into the shaft,” Roth said, “but only go up a few feet.”
I skated into the shaft and ascended until I was twenty feet up. Roth followed me, using her anti-grav boots as deftly as an Olympic skater.
She ascended until she was level with me and brought out her little girl, keeping her fingers on her watch.
Roth did not have any trouble moving it, though I could not make sense of the controls.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked.
“Unless you know of another way.” Roth licked her lips. “Go.”
I went up, conscious that the slightest wrong move might send me careening into the top of the elevator and send debris raining down on Roth and Alana. When I envisioned Roth unconscious at the bottom of the shaft, I had mixed feelings about it.
I slowed when I was just one level away from the top and examined the damage. The top of the shaft was not as bad as I had expected.
I peered out at the first floor after I had closed the distance. It was clear, so I slid out and did a quick survey, surprised that the structure still stood after all the damage from the fire. It had harmed everything but the actual structure. I reported back to Roth after I determined it was safe enough.
The desks were gone. The computers had been incinerated, and even the wall separating the two rooms had been destroyed, yet the outer walls of the building remained as they had before, though the paneling on the inside was burned away.
The ceiling had been burned as well. It appeared that the starting point of the fireball had been here, but I could not see what caused it.
Not unless it was an aftereffect of the bomb the lurker had detonated right before I’d gone down. I tried to calculate how much time had elapsed between that explosion and the fireball. I guessed it was ten minutes, possibly more, so that wasn’t likely.
Roth slid out with Alana right behind her. After a moment, the suit was back on the floor.
“Try to walk, honey,” Roth whispered quietly to her daughter.
Alana took a step, walking with greater ease than I had expected, but that was how it had been for me when I first got in the suit, so I should not have been surprised.
Roth deactivated her anti-grav boots and landed beside her daughter.
“Great job, honey.”
I stayed in the air, so I was ready to maneuver if any lurkers showed up.
“I like what you did with the place,” Roth said dryly.
“It wasn’t this bad when I came down. A lurker set off a bomb just before, it’s what destroyed the elevator, but I’m not sure what caused the fireball.”
“I may have heard about this. It’s supposed to destroy all biological matter in its path, it also takes out electronic equipment as well, though we are not sure why.” She bit her lip. “The rolling fire is new. It’s like they wanted to make sure to get everything.”
“When you say biological matter, you mean humans obviously, trees and plant matter too?” I asked, looking at the walls.
“Anything that wouldn’t be classified as rock or metal.”
“So this building has become unstable?”
“Probably. It is best to get out as soon as possible.”
I headed towards the large opening the lurker had made, as it was closer than the door we had used to enter the building, and peeked out.
The battle was still going strong. Suited soldiers flew through the air, lurkers dove and chased after them, or vice versa, and lasers cut through the sky.
I turned to Roth, who had followed me with her daughter in tow.
“So where do we go from here?” I asked. “How do we get off-planet?”
Roth was doing something with her watch and didn’t answer right away.
A moment later she looked up. “There is a transport nearby that is still intact, but I don’t like it. It should have been long gone by now.” She must have noticed the curious look I gave her because she went on. “All unsuited soldiers were ordered to evacuate an hour ago, and as you and I both saw, there were still soldiers running around down here.”
“The transport is broken,” I said flatly, “or they would have taken it.”
“Most likely.”
“How far away is it?”
“Two buildings over.” She gave me a searching look. “How about you hop over and find out?”
“You don’t want to come with? I thought you said we should say together.”
“We’ll follow after, but I want you to determine if it’s a waste of time or not. And we are staying together, we’ll be in close proximity.”
“Let’s go,” I said, trying not to be annoyed as I stepped out and looked around.
A figure walked down the street.
I recognized him.
“Winston?” I called out while pressing the pinky button so my voice would carry.
He turned back but only for a moment.
“Winston,” I said again.
He went around the corner, apparently not hearing me over the battle. I hesitated as the ramification of what I had just seen settled down onto me.
Winston had survived the fall or he had been resurrected.
Could Jeffords come back?
I was tempted to dismiss the thought out of hand because I had seen him die, Roth had made sure of that five times over.
But yet…
The thought of Jeffords returning filled me with so much anger that it became difficult to see. I forced myself to focus on the street.
I examined the lurker I had killed before, one of its legs still twitched, but it was dead. I brought up my hand and thought about sending another shot into it just to make sure, but then looked back and decided Alana didn’t need to see that.
I crossed to the next building over—it looked unaffected by the battle raging around it—and bashed in the wall, making a hole big enough for Roth and Alana to get through.
I stepped back and surveyed my handiwork. “Roth, how about you guys come over here? It’ll be better than waiting in that condemned building.”
Roth gave a short nod. “This place is a death trap.”
I waited, keeping an eye out as they crossed and entered through the hole. Once they were safely inside, I activated my anti-gravs and pushed my toes down, leaping to the top of the building and hovering just a few inches above the roof.
The building shook.
“Roth, what was that?”
In the distance I noticed that there were no longer just suited soldiers and lurkers in the air, but flying grenlings had joined the melee as well.
Why did they join the fun? Are they still hunting us?
The building underneath me shook again. I turned, wondering if it was an earthquake, but it appeared that the only building that was moving was the one I had just sent Roth and her daughter into.
The other surrounding structures started to shake now too.
Earthquake.
“Roth,
you need—”
A crack formed right under my feet. I forgot I was already in the air and tried to jump, my toes going down and sending me higher before I corrected. I expected the building to crumble, but it followed the crack, separating down the middle. Other buildings along the newly forming ravine did the same.
A large ravine opened.
To my left, a small building was wholly engulfed as it opened wider, far wider than the ravine that had formed the day that I had first met Roth.
I heard cries from the grenlings in the distance.
When I looked down I expected to see grenlings coming up from below, but instead, I saw the most massive monster I’d ever seen.
I thought at first that it was an oversized grenling but discarded the idea. This was something else entirely, a thing that nightmares were made of.
It crawled out of the ravine, passing by me, not even noticing me as if I were as inconsequential as a gnat beside it, which compared to its size, I was.
It towered over the building.
It looked at the battle around it and let out a roar as it fixed its eyes on the lurker ships in the sky. A lurker buzzed by its head, it reached out and flicked it with a claw, severing it in two and sending the remains flying.
“Anders, I need a little help down here!” Roth yelled.
With a final look at the monster, I dove into the broken building, searching for Roth as it bellowed again, seeming to shake everything.
I spotted her perched precariously on the edge of a cliff, trying to scramble back up before she fell into the ravine.
Her daughter was nowhere to be seen.
Before I could get there, Roth lost her grip and fell, knocking her head against a protruding rock.
For a moment, all the anger and fury I had felt at everything that it happened to me seemed focused on this one moment.
I didn’t want to kill Roth, but should I keep her from dying?
The question danced in my mind as I watched her fall and heard her plea for help.
Don’t be a fool! I thought.