Alien Storm

by A. G. Taylor

  Paralysed by the cold, Sarah continued to descend.

  The lake seemed bottomless. Her mouth opened and closed uselessly, filling with water. Her eyes stared ahead, although there was nothing to see. Her heart beat one last time and then stopped.

  30

  Makarov sat at the head of the stone table on the 153rd level of the Spire. He carefully sliced his knife through the piece of bloody fillet steak on the plate before him. He raised the steak on his fork, but paused to look around the table before eating.

  “Is anybody hungry?”

  Frozen in their seats, Robert and the others were powerless to look away as Makarov worked his way through the food piled on the table. Ilya stood, impassive at Makarov’s side, while around the edge of the grassy room a line of robowolves kept a silent vigil – at least forty of them in all.

  Makarov bit the meat off the end of the fork and smiled insincerely. “If you’d like to eat, everything is right here for you.” He waved the fork around the plates of food. “All you have to do is submit. Kneel before the Entity and surrender your powers to my service. That’s all there is to it.”

  Robert fought to speak against the mind control freezing them in place. “We’re not giving up… None of us are.”

  Makarov looked down and cut another piece of steak. “Perhaps you’ll feel differently when you’re really starving. This is just our first day.” His eyes fell on Robert again. “By the way, your sister is dead.”

  Robert’s vision swam with tears. He wanted to scream out, but was unable to do so.

  He’s lying, Nestor’s voice said in his head. It’s not true.

  But somehow, Robert knew it was.

  The voice said one word: Sarah.

  She floated in blackness, caught amidst tendrils of thought that spread across galaxies.

  Sarah.

  She opened her eyes and saw a light, shining like a sun in the middle of the abyss. It was at once beautiful and terrifying. Sarah instinctively knew what it was.

  The Entity.

  Am I dead? she asked, looking around. Apart from the blazing light, there was nothing out there in the blackness.

  Yes, the Entity replied. For now.

  Where am I?

  In the place on the very edge of death. I’ve been wanting to talk to you for so long, Sarah. Ever since we met in the Australian desert.

  Sarah waved her arms and spun slowly in the void. There was nothing but her and the light. You weren’t in Australia.

  The Entity laughed. Oh, but I was. I am everywhere my virus travels. In the rocks of my meteors. In the bodies of the sleepers. In you too…

  You’re not a part of me, Sarah replied vehemently.

  I am. You know it’s true. Every time you read someone’s mind or control their actions, you’re channelling a little bit of my power. Soon I will be in everything on earth.

  Why are you doing this?

  Because there has to be more of me. Like all living things, I have to grow. Besides, everyone is going to be much happier when they’re part of my consciousness. You will see. They will contract the virus, fall asleep and when they awake they will no longer feel fear. Or pain. Or doubt.

  Sarah tried to swim away through the emptiness – there had to be some way back to life. People don’t want to be slaves, she said. They want to be free.

  And has freedom made them happy? I don’t see any happiness on your planet, and I’ve been watching it for a lot longer than you – centuries of your time. The Entity laughed. Anyway, that is little concern of yours. You are one of the immune. You will have your precious freedom.

  Sarah turned back to the Entity. The alien being shone supernova bright in the centre of an empty universe – streams of light stretched towards her like the tentacles of an octopus.

  Freedom? she asked. Under the rule of Makarov?

  The Entity’s light shone a little brighter. Makarov knows he will never control you. He senses how powerful you will become. That is why he wants you dead.

  But I am dead. Sarah thought of Robert and the others trapped in the Spire. She’d failed them.

  Are you? the Entity said. Say the word and I will send you back.

  Sarah’s heart leaped, but she regarded the light with suspicion. Why would you do that? You know I’m going to come after you. I won’t allow you to enslave my friends.

  Because you would be a thousand times more useful to me than Makarov, the Entity replied. Join with me now and I will destroy him. Free your friends. Level his tower. Wouldn’t that be the easiest way to end all this?

  The Entity’s words were enticing, hypnotic, but Sarah resisted.

  No! Just send me back. I’m not giving in to you.

  The Entity chuckled. I would have been disappointed if you had. One word of warning, however… No being has communion with me and leaves unchanged. Great power is yours, but one day you will use it against your friends. One day you will serve me.

  That’s never going to happen! Sarah exclaimed as the tentacles of light withdrew and she spun into a deeper darkness. Echoing in the distance, the voice of the Entity called after her…

  Until next time…Sarah…

  Suddenly, she had the sensation of falling again and she flailed uselessly with her arms and legs. Pain re-entered the world. And cold. A huge, dark shape descended towards her. Sarah opened her mouth to scream and choked on ice-water…

  Alex paced around the hole at the centre of the crater, staring into the impenetrable water. It had been minutes since Balthus exploded from the dark water and raced across the ice back towards the Spire. Sarah had not reappeared, however.

  “She’s been down there too long,” Yuri said softly, laying a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Nothing can survive in that cold.”

  Alex kept his eyes fixed on the water. “She’s alive. I can feel it.”

  At that moment Laika burst forth from the hole and leaped onto the ice. Sarah lay slumped, her coat gripped in the robot dog’s teeth.

  “Sarah!” Alex cried, running over as Laika placed her gently on the ice.

  “Good girl, Laika!” Yuri exclaimed, patting his dog on the head. Sarah stirred and pushed herself into a sitting position as the others crowded around in concern.

  “It’s okay,” she said, spluttering water. “I’m okay.”

  “Incredible,” Yuri said as Sarah placed a hand on Laika’s flank and pulled herself up. He pulled her soaked coat off her body and draped his own over her shoulders.

  Sarah turned to the man and asked weakly, “What caused your change of heart?”

  It was hard to see in the growing darkness, but Alex swore for a moment he could make out a reddening of the man’s cheeks.

  “You can thank her,” Yuri replied, indicating Laika, who was nuzzling Sarah’s hand with the side of her head. “Wouldn’t shut up whining all day. In the end I decided to come for a bit of peace.”

  “We’re glad you did,” Alex told him. “Both of you.”

  Yuri looked with concern at Sarah, who was shaking uncontrollably. “We need to get you back to my hideout. You’ll freeze to death out here.”

  Sarah put her arms in the coat and wrapped it around herself. “No time for that. We carry on to the village.”

  Yuri was about to argue, but he saw the determination in the girl’s eyes. “Okay, okay. It’s probably just as close. Come on, Laika. Let’s get the sledge.”

  Laika bounded after her master.

  “What happened down there?” Alex asked, helping Sarah back across the crater. “You were gone for minutes. We were sure you were dead.”

  “I think I was dead for a while.” Sarah looked round and saw a strange light over the side of the crater. It took her a moment to realize that it was in fact the Spire – instead now it appeared to be glowing in the night. She could see ribbons of psychic energy emanating from the tower into the sky. The vision was clearer and sharper than anything she had seen before and she remembered the words of the Entity:

  No being ha
s communion with me and leaves unchanged.

  “What is it?” Alex asked, concerned by the distant look in her eyes as she stared back at the Spire.

  “Things are different,” she said softly. “I feel different. The Entity told me something down there.”

  “What?” Alex asked, but Laika reappeared over the edge of the crater before Sarah could answer. She now had a harness fitted over her neck and shoulders which was attached to a metal sledge. Yuri waved from his position at the head of the sledge.

  “This is the fastest way to travel out here,” Yuri cried as the sledge pulled up and they jumped on. “Laika has the pulling power of ten huskies.”

  Shivering madly, Sarah pulled a heavy fur over herself as the sledge moved off again – it was surprisingly warm. With another cry from Yuri, the sledge cut across the crater in the direction of the mountains.

  31

  The village was made up of about thirty single-storey wooden buildings of varying sizes arranged around a large courtyard. In the centre of this area stood a group of squat yellow vehicles with tracks for wheels – transport designed for the icy terrain of Chukotka. The buildings were dark and deserted, with the doors of some still standing open from when they had been abandoned. At the back of the village, a small landing strip had been fashioned on the ice and an antiquated-looking four-seater aircraft stood at one end.

  Laika pulled the sledge into the centre of this area and stopped with a command from Yuri.

  “This place really is a ghost town,” Alex said as he jumped off the sledge and looked around. Wind howled through the gaps between the buildings and the only light was from the moon rising low above the surrounding mountains, giving the place an eerie feel.

  Sarah rose from the sledge also, keeping the blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She shivered and Alex looked at her pale skin with concern.

  “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. “Let’s just find the communications gear.”

  Yuri pointed to the largest building in the village. “The town hall,” he said by way of explanation. He looked back at Laika as they set off. “Keep watch, girl.”

  Laika gave a howl, but stayed put.

  The door to the hut Yuri called the town hall was unlocked. Yuri reached for the light switch as they entered, but predictably there was no electricity. The Russian reached for a torch from his belt and shone it around the interior, which was a single open area filled with plastic folding chairs, some of them overturned, and a stage at the far end. The place looked as if it had been set up for a meeting, but no one had turned up. Yuri pointed the torch at a desk in the corner and they started over.

  “Looks like Makarov wasn’t taking any chances,” Yuri groaned as they stopped before the desk.

  The communications set-up of the village had been state of the art: a bank of satellite phones, three computers with high-speed internet link-up and webcams, all courtesy of Makarov Industries. Now this equipment was smashed and strewn across the floor. The shattered hard-drives of the computers bore the unmistakable slash-marks of robowolf claws. Clearly Makarov didn’t want anyone calling the outside world.

  “I told you this would be a wasted trip,” Yuri went on. “We should return to my hideout before the dawn comes. Makarov will send more of his hunters.”

  Sarah took the torch from his hand and shone it around the lonely interior of the meeting hall. She held the beam on a door to the right of the stage marked Danger and looked at Yuri questioningly.

  “The equipment store,” he explained and removed a mini-crowbar from his tool-belt. “Perhaps there’s something useful in there.”

  Sarah and Alex watched as he tore the padlock away with the crowbar. As the door swung open, Sarah angled the torch into the room, illuminating racks of tools, dynamite, C4 explosive and detonators.

  “Wow,” said Alex. “There must be enough explosives here to level the Spire.”

  Yuri laughed and shook his head. “Hardly.”

  Sarah stepped past him and ran a hand over a box of detonators. “Maybe we can’t bring down the whole building, but I bet there’s enough here to blow that meteorite fragment back to wherever it came from.”

  Yuri looked at her. “What would that achieve?”

  “That’s where Makarov gets his power, isn’t it?”

  “You’re right, Sarah,” Alex said with a nod. “The meteorite is Makarov’s link to the Entity. Destroy the fragment and we destroy that link.”

  “And his enhanced powers,” Sarah added.

  Yuri shook his head sceptically. “Even if that’s true, how do you plan to get back inside the Spire? Makarov will have an army of robowolves guarding the base.”

  Sarah thought for a moment. “How about that plane sitting at the back of the village. Can you fly it?”

  “The supply plane?” Yuri said. “I can fly, but that machine hasn’t been used in months. It probably won’t even start.”

  “You built a robot from spare parts, Yuri,” Sarah replied impatiently. “You can get a plane working, I’m sure. Get us in the air and I’ll get us in the Spire—”

  She stopped talking as a wave of dizziness swept over her and she had to lean on Alex for support.

  “Don’t feel so good,” she said as she fought to stay conscious. The effects of her near-death encounter with the Entity and the extreme cold of the water under the ice were finally winning the battle.

  “Yuri, help me!” Alex said and struggled to hold Sarah on her feet. “She’s going to pass out…”

  That was the last Sarah heard.

  Half an hour later, Alex lay back in a bed in one of the empty cabins. The mattress was surprisingly soft and the thick blankets amazingly snug after the cold, damp trek across the plain. In the corner of the room a coal burner flickered, providing heat that would last them through till dawn, Yuri had assured. He looked at the glowing light cast around the wooden walls and felt his eyelids become heavy. He would have surely fallen asleep within seconds, but decided to take one last check on Sarah.

  She lay in the bed across the room from him, where they had covered her after she had collapsed from exhaustion, her body covered by a thick set of blankets. All that was visible was her face, which had a softness in sleep that wasn’t always apparent when she was awake. Alex guessed she’d been through a lot – during his time with her and the others, he’d pieced together the stories of their first encounter with HIDRA and their life on the run in Australia. He’d had it tough with his Uncle Pete, but it had been a walk in the park compared to Sarah’s journey.

  “I’m sorry I got you into this,” he said as he stood over her, thinking of how he had been the one to bring them to Makarov. How could I have ever trusted him? he thought, but already knew the answer. He’d wanted to trust Makarov – because back in Australia he needed someone to trust. One thing was for sure, he was going to make it right – by helping Sarah Williams rescue her brother and the others from the Spire.

  “Enjoy your rest,” he said. “We’ve got a war to fight tomorrow.”

  With that he went to his own bed, got under the covers and was asleep within less than a minute. Across the room, Sarah Williams smiled in her sleep. Although she was outwardly unconscious, her mind was in fact incredibly active…

  …reaching out, imagining her thoughts passing through the walls of the cabin and out across the deserted centre of the village. She projects further, back through the mountain pass, across the plain and over the silent buildings of the copper mine. Finally, the structure of the Spire hoves into view, massive and alien amidst the empty landscape – a finger pointing towards the night sky.

  Now Sarah senses the unmistakable influence of the Entity. The alien is projecting an invisible shield around the entire tower, blocking all her attempts to communicate with those inside, and vice versa. Cautiously, she probes the barriers thrown up by the powerful being’s mind, aware that if she is not careful the Entity will be alerted to her presence. At last, she finds an area of weakness an
d pushes into the layers of alien thought, like walking through thick fog with her arms outstretched, expecting at any moment to come up against something solid.

  She reaches into the tower and searches upwards, looking for the one mind that she knows is connected enough with her to communicate from such a distance. She finds her brother lying asleep in a room she has never seen before – a hard looking place that reminds her more of a jail cell than the bedrooms they were first given by Makarov. Reaching out to Robert, she makes contact with him…

  “Robert.”

  His eyes snap open, but he isn’t awake yet. Robert looks around and is surprised to find himself standing on a vast, snow-covered plain rather than lying in the bed he collapsed into less than an hour before. A harsh winter sun shines down from the ice-blue sky. Despite the freezing appearance of the surroundings, he feels no cold.

  “Where is this?” he asks, wonderingly.

  “A place where our minds can meet,” Sarah says, approaching him across the snow. “A constructed reality.”

  Robert turns and runs to her, throwing his arms around his sister. “Sarah! Makarov said you were dead.”

  “I was. For a while. Now I’m back.”

  Robert looks around and marvels at the reality Sarah has created for them in her mind. “It looks so lifelike. Can Makarov see us?”

  “I’m shielding us from him,” Sarah replies. “He hasn’t sensed us yet.” She looked at Robert with concern, noting his sunken eyes – he looked dead on his feet. “How are you doing?”

  Her brother smiles weakly. “Things have been tough here. Makarov wants us to swear some oath of allegiance to the Entity. He wants us to give up our powers to it. We’re not giving in, but it’s getting hard.”