by Jason Kent
Kate picked up the helmet and paused with it poised above her head. She thought back to the lab. Sparrow had nearly been lost in the depths of the orb. Kate was sure the Link Sprite had been able to find her way back thanks to her loved ones being nearby. She glanced out the window as Sparrow continued her preparations with the key. Kate was overwhelmed by the strong feeling that whatever Sparrow had in mind would require all the help and support Kate was able to provide. Kate turned her attention back to Tivon.
"Whatever Sparrow's facing, I'm going to be at her side." Kate said firmly. She snapped the helmet into place.
Tivon bit her lip but nodded. She threw her arms around Kate and gave her a fierce hug. "Do me a favor," Tivon said then pulled away. She swiped at the tears in her eyes and added, "Try and stay alive!"
"I'll give it my best," Kate smirked. "But we'll see what the Ater have to say about that!" Kate had meant it as a joke but the words fell flat and a look of terror crept onto Tivon's face. Kate tried to put on a brave expression as she snapped the helmet into place. She quickly turned away from Tivon and stepped into the airlock so the archivist wouldn't see the tears in her eyes. Kate hit the door controls and sealed the lock. She muttered, "I'm sure I don't want to find out what the Ater have to say..."
The airlock completed its cycle and Kate hurried back outside. Merrick gave her a sidelong look.
"Not safe enough for you in there?" Merrick asked, his tone grim.
Kate moved to Merrick's side and crouched behind the cart. She let her arm brush against his, happy for the moment to be close to him. "I can help more by being close to Sparrow."
Merrick grunted but did not take his eyes off the dust swirling in front of them. Kate thought she saw a smile cross his lips.
"Just keep your head down," Merrick advised Kate. His eyes strayed to their ship, its engines whining, ready for takeoff. Kate thought he might be considering moving everyone aboard Blade before he added, "I'm not sure anywhere is safe for us right now."
Kate turned her attention to Sparrow at her other side. The Link Sprite was running her fingers over the indentations and glowing lines of the artifact. While the symbols on the key glowed, Kate noted the pyrotechnics previously surrounding the orb had subsided. Gone were the blue flames and flickering lightning they'd seen when they pulled the orb out of the engine containment unit. As Sparrow worked with the key, the orb sat quietly nestled in its crate, shining with an inner light deep beneath the faceted surface but nothing more. In the time it took to get out of EMTEC and through the city, the Aether Source appeared to have calmed down considerably. Kate's eyes flicked up at the Ater ship, hovering menacingly overhead and then back to Sparrow. She wondered what Sparrow planned but did not want to interrupt her friend's concentration by asking for details. Kate had the feeling they would be seeing the unrestrained energy erupt from the orb. Soon.
"Tral," Ross muttered from the far side where the big marine was shielding Sparrow from the approaching threat of the Ater. He locked the muzzle of his assault rifle onto a dark figure as it materialized out of the red-tinged gloom.
"Hold your fire!" Merrick ordered evenly.
Kate held her breath. She knew if the Ater started shooting now, it'd be over in an instant. Sparrow was preoccupied with the key and the orb. They did not dare disturb her to put up another shield.
The shadowy form solidified and stopped twenty meters in front of them. He was joined a moment later by a dozen other Ater troopers. The aliens stood tall, their weapons aimed at the humans. Kate noted they didn't even bother trying to take advantage of the cover offered by the low wall circling their landing pad. The first Ater, apparently the ranking member of the squad took a long step forward and pointed at the glowing orb.
"Surrender!" the mechanical voice of the Alien's translator unit rasped through the thin atmosphere. It was followed by a chittering clack of teeth and a guttural cough. Kate figured the cough was some sort of Ater exclamation point. Whatever it was, it sent a chill up her spine.
"Yeah right," Ross grunted.
"I need a few seconds!" Sparrow called, never taking her attention from the key.
Kate eyed Sparrow and then the Ater waiting a stone's throw away. She cleared her throat and stood up slowly. Merrick stopped her half-way to her feet by laying a hand on her forearm.
"Not a good idea," Merrick said matter-of-factly.
"None of this is a good idea," Kate said and managed to put a smile on her face. "Sparrow needs time. I'm going to give it to her..."
Merrick considered this for a moment then pulled his hand back to his weapon. Kate stood up straight and tilted her head toward the Ater commander. She ensured her external speakers were turned up their maximum volume before replying.
"The Aether Source belongs to us!" Kate tried to put as much confidence into her voice as possible. She wasn't sure how well she succeeded. The Ater grinned back at her, baring his needle-sharp teeth.
The Ater clacked his teeth together sharply and barked an imitation of a human laugh. His response was straightforward.
"No..." More clacking and deep throated chittering. "The Ignis... was stolen..." The Ater jerked his head at the troopers to either side of him. As one, the line advanced half a step.
"Crap," Ross muttered. "Anytime, Sparrow!"
"We did not steal your...Ignis!" Kate replied as calmly as she could.
The Ater clacked his teeth angrily.
"I don't think they care!" Ross said with a snort.
Something clicked, drawing Kate's attention to Sparrow. Kate let her eyes slide away from the Ater commander to the Link Sprite. Sparrow was pulling her hands away from the orb. She had inserted the key into a slot Kate had not noticed earlier. As Kate watched, the orb accepted the key and pulled the curved end flush with the surface. The Ater took notice of Sparrow's action as well and began an eerie chittering from their throats. As the aliens raised their weapons, Kate figured her ability to stall them any longer was over.
"Surrender...the Ignis..." The Ater clacked its jaws definitively behind his mask. "NOW!"
"I think not," Sparrow stated. She stood, her arms outstretched over the orb.
"Sparrow!" Kate hissed, her voice carried through the external speakers in her suit. "Get down!" Sparrow looked over at Kate and smiled behind her faceplate.
"Trust me." With those words, the upgrades in Sparrow's hands flared to life and the orb rose from the cradle of the ACU.
"Crap!" Kate dropped down beside Merrick, her eyes wide as she watched the orb float upward.
Every Ater save for the leader genuflected before the sight of the Aether Source, their Ignis, rising before them. The Ater commander chittered angrily over his shoulder and the troopers slowly got back to their feet. He turned and snapped his jaw.
"Surrender!" the Ater roared. "OR DIE!"
"Should have had your boys stay on the ground," Sparrow replied smoothly. She tilted her head forward, her eyes focused on the Ater commander.
"Oh tral!" Kate shouted. She dived away from Sparrow, tackling Merrick in the process.
As soon as she saw the Ater ship descending from the blood red sky, Sparrow knew exactly what she needed to do. The only problem was that she wasn't sure she or any of her friends were going to survive the power about to be unleashed.
The key. Sparrow was not sure why it had been separated from the orb in the first place. Maybe to keep someone from doing exactly what she was about to attempt. The orb was a magnificent device containing access to infinite data storehouses and drawing power from the underlying fabric of the universe. The key acted as both control hardware and easy-to-use software, but the link between the Aether and the orb could never be broken. It took all of Sparrow's upgrades and processing power to comprehend even a small percentage of the orb's potential. Now, with the key and the orb joined together once more, Sparrow possessed precision and control of the orb's unbounded energies. She could unleash the cold power of the universe upon those who threatened her life and the
lives of her friends.
In her hands, Sparrow held the lives of the Ater arrayed before her...even if they didn't know it yet. And more...so much more...
Everything fell into place for Sparrow.
Knowledge. When she'd touched the orb, Sparrow had become disoriented by the limitless information bombarding her. During her plunge into the cold and darkness, she'd absorbed the ability to control and use the orb the way it had been originally conceived. Built as the ultimate weapon, the Aether Source's ability to tap into the knowledge stored across the galaxy was merely a by-product of its creation. The orb was meant to tap into something else entirely.
Power. Quantum energy state manipulation. The Aether Source was designed to draw on the limitless power found within each and every atom found in the past, present, and the future. Harnessing all of the energy on this scale was impossible. But diverting a relatively miniscule amount of kinetic energy from the vast potential charge of entire star systems, this, the Ater had discovered, was possible. They'd built the orb and proven it worked only to have it stolen by the Voti in ages past. Sparrow knew the only way to save those she cared the most about was to demonstrate the awesome capability of the Aether Source; to unleash its power upon its creators.
Death. The power drawn by the orb was not even equivalent to one solar flare or even a minor volcanic eruption, but it could be focused. The output of the orb could be controlled, its energies directed either to constructive work or destructive ends. Propulsion, power conversion, or simply lighting and heating an entire city, afterthoughts to the orbs creation. On the flip side, the power of the orb could be turned from applications benefiting a society into a force capably of obliterating entire civilizations. Sparrow chose destruction.
The Link Sprite focused her mind on the Ater arrayed before her. As the commander opened his maw to issue yet another demand for surrender, she spoke.
"Enough." The command was calm, made by someone with supreme confidence. Sparrow knew she could back it up with unimaginable force.
Blue lightning leapt away from the orb suspended between Sparrow's hands. Multiple bolts intersected where each enemy trooper stood. The lightning pierced through the swirling dust behind the Ater, seeking the next rank of approaching soldiers. Screams told them they bolts struck home. The Ater she'd struck crumpled to the ground. Sparrow turned her attention away from the Ater on the ground and shifted her gaze up to the massive black ship hanging over head.
Sparrow raised her arms higher and the orb floated up and away from her. She glanced over at Kate and gave her friend a small smile to allay the mix of awe and concern so evident on her face.
Oh Kate, Sparrow thought. It was just like her friend to worry about her when they were all in such grave danger. Kate cared for her in a way no one had in a very long time. Sparrow knew Kate instinctively needed to shield her from the dangers of the world, to somehow regain the Link Sprite's innocence. Sparrow let the smile slip from her face to be replaced by a grim mask of determination. Sparrow was under no such illusion; her innocence was long gone and she was about to add more red to her ledger. No one could do what she'd just done to the Ater, what she was about to do to their ship and its crew, and still claim to be innocent. Someone had to die and it wasn't going to be Sparrow's friends and loved ones.
"Sparrow!"
Ross' voice sounded as if it were coming from a million miles away. Sparrow looked over at the big marine standing next to her, one hand shielding his eyes from the burning fires wreathing the orb, the other holding his rifle at his side, the gun temporarily forgotten. Sparrow's sensors detected the targeting systems of the warships big cannons focus on her and the orb. They weren't safe. Yet.
Ross stared into Sparrow's face and nodded. He was accustomed to violence and knew there was more to come. He reached out and laid a hand on Sparrow's shoulder.
"Do it," Ross growled and turned his attention to the ship.
Sparrow felt the heat and reassuring weight of Ross' touch through her jacket. She welcomed the touch...longed to find herself wrapped in his embrace. If they survived this, she promised herself, she and Ross would find a nice quiet get-away. For now, the Ater needed to die.
She felt the Ater looking down their powerful weapons at her. It was now or never. Sparrow focused on the Ater ship's weapon pods and released the orbs power with the barest twitch of her fingers.
Ross whooped and Sparrow realized she was grinning. She imagined she looked like a demon rather than a kindly sprite right about now. She didn't care.
Sparrow had become death.
"Next time, think twice before messing with the human race," Sparrow announced as the Ater ship was struck by unrelenting bolts of destruction.
Kate threw up her arms to shield her eyes from the storm of brilliant lightning lancing upward from the orb. She dared to lower her arms only when curiosity got the best of her. She wanted to see what was happening to the enemy vessel. Kate's mouth dropped open as every gun pod in sight exploded within seconds of each other, their armor overwhelmed by the sheer ferocity of Sparrow's attack. She joined Ross and cheered as the smoke cleared to reveal the ship had been disarmed right before their eyes.
The Ater on board must have realized their chance to take the orb had passed and that their destruction was imminent if they did not attempt to flee. The big ship fired lift thrusters and began rising ponderously into the sky.
"Oh no you don't," Sparrow said through gritted teeth. She tilted her hands and the orb rose even further from the ground. The Link Sprite narrowed her eyes and focused her attention on the rear of the ship. She muttered, "Main reactor core...corner pocket..."
Kate held her breath while Sparrow pursed her lips and exhaled. Time seemed to slow as Sparrow flicked her fingers wide open. The orb released a storm of energy unlike anything Kate had seen thus far. The reason Sparrow had sent the orb higher became immediately clear as the flames already surrounding it grew exponentially, tearing through the air like a vortex threatening to engulf all of Mars.
Focused lighting exploded from the maelstrom surrounding the orb. It slashed through the dust kicked up by the Ater ship's thrusters as it attempted to flee Sparrow's terrible wrath. The unrestrained energies caused the hull to ripple before finally ripping jagged pieces of metal away. Smoking pieces of reinforced armor were flung into the sky and wheeled end over end, leaving trails of fire and smoke in the air. Several burning chunks of debris crashed into ships parked on nearby landing pads. Blade remained untouched.
The Ater ship was breached. Kate watched in horror as Sparrow poured still more destruction into the maw she'd created in the enemy vessel's outer defenses. The energy pouring from the orb increased yet again, sending wave after wave of raw power deep into the heart of the crippled starship.
The Link Sprite must stop...
The sound of Nemus' voice in her head confirmed what Kate already suspected; Sparrow was about to cause the Ater's engine core to explode. If that happened when the ship was this close to the Martian surface, the blast would undoubtedly cause widespread damage. Not only would Kate and the others be killed by the blast, Huygens City would be utterly annihilated.
"STOP! Sparrow!" Kate yelled. "Don't breach the core!"
Sparrow eyes widened as the implications of what Kate was saying sank in. She clenched her hands into fists and let her arms drop to her sides. The lightning stopped immediately. Flames still wreathed the Aether Source, but even that began to diminish as Sparrow's driving will was withdrawn.
Above them, the great Ater ship listed, smoke pouring from the massive wound in its side. An explosion tore apart one of the ship's protruding engine pylons. The engine fell away from the main body of the ship and crashed to the ground, crushing a line of shipping containers. A second explosion came from deeper inside the ship. The vessel shuddered violently and hastened toward the surface, tail first.
The impact of the crash caused the ground to heave, throwing everyone off their feet. All along the Ater ship,
armor buckled then split apart as the vessel crumbled into a pile of wreckage. After the initial blast of dust and grit washed over her, Kate sighed, glad the core had not gone critical as Nemus had feared. The last thing they needed was to be at ground zero during a rather large thermonuclear explosion.
"Wait..." Sparrow said. She had one hand outstretched to the still-floating orb and the other pointed at the smoldering Ater ship. A frown formed on her face. In a hushed tone, she uttered, "Oh no..."
"What?" Kate asked, dreading what her friend might say. Her eyes darted from Sparrow to the downed ship.
"I may have been a little overly enthusiastic," Sparrow admitted and nodded at the orb.
"Tral," Ross muttered. "Does that mean we're about to blow up?"
"In about thirty seconds," Sparrow said. "My bad."
"MOVE!" Merrick shouted, shoving Kate toward Blade's airlock.
When Sparrow made no move to follow them, Kate pulled up short and yelled back at her, "There's nothing you can do!"
"Maybe..." Sparrow replied, looking thoughtful. She kept one hand pointed at the orb and the other at the smoldering ship. She looked sideways at Ross, still offering what support he could. "Please, go."
"I'm not going anywhere," Ross said. He stepped closer to Sparrow to prove he meant what he'd said.
Sparrow smiled back, relief sweeping over her face. Hurriedly, she instructed, "At least step back! This is probably going to hurt..."
Ross reluctantly took a step away but moved around so he was standing where she would be able to see him. He announced, "No matter what happens, I'll be here with you!"
Sparrow turned her head toward Kate as Georges joined her on the tarmac. "Take Blade and leave...I'll do what I can..."
Kate swallowed and moved to Sparrow's other side, opposite from Ross. "We're with you, Liana."
Georges said, "Guess it takes more than a core meltdown to get rid of us."