by Chris Reher
“I have no idea how to reverse it. And I’m not about to link to any part of this ship.” He pointed to the body on the floor. “Who knows how that happened.”
Seth ran his hand over his eyes. The pain in his head sent shards of broken glass from his forehead all the way down the back of his neck. “Then how the hell do you think we’re going to get back? That Alpha is just going to keep calling to its kind. None of us are safe.”
The technician shook his head. “This room and the cockpit are fully shielded. We’ll make it just fine if we don’t engage.”
“And who knows how many entities will escape into real space on the other side? There is a lot of Air Command waiting to arrest your scrawny neck. They will be exposed.” Seth looked over the control console. Only one way remained to shut this down. “Where is she? The alien you took from me.”
“Stored in the containment chamber of course. It’s a perfect example of a viable Dyad. Tague meant to offer it to the Brothers once we render the process safe for other species.”
Seth shook his head and drew his pistol. “I can’t let you do this,” he said, adjusting the gun’s setting. “Have a nap.”
“What are—” The Human dropped the floor, unconscious.
Seth went to the com panel mounted above the main control board to hail the bridge. “Caelyn? Are you up there?” He squinted through his headache at the monitor.
His fears about the flight crew proved correct when he saw the pilots in the grip of the sub-space entities. The Centauri captain stared at his hands as if in some deep contemplation. Caelyn hunched beside the com officer sprawled by the door. The navigator, like some of the volunteers in the back, mumbled to himself as he rocked back and forth in his bench.
“The crew is disabled,” Palas looked up through the camera at Seth. “Acting very strangely. That man over there is dead. The ship is in emergency stand-by mode. You were correct about the air supply. If we don’t leave here soon we won’t make it to Csonne.”
“So much for shielding the cockpit,” Seth grumbled. “Hold this position. We’re not ready to jump back.”
“What do you mean? Systems are green. We need to rejoin Major Terwood’s fleet in case we have to offload these people.”
“Just stand by,” Seth said, a little irritated. “Get the shields ready for jump, but hold off.”
Palas turned from the camera when Caelyn said something too low to understand.
Confident in Caelyn’s ability to keep the pilot from rushing back into sub-space, Seth stepped over the body on the floor to study the lab’s control console. None of it made any sense. He was at home in just about any cockpit but this system resembled nothing he had seen before. It was most definitely not of Union-made components although he recognized a few Caspian symbols. Hesitantly, he hovered his hand over what seemed to be the main input panel to see if it would even allow him access.
Seth smiled when he realized that the system was engaged and unaware that Tague no longer needed it. “You’ve lost your mind,” he said to himself. “But we’ve established that.” He reached for the one control that he recognized, the one that was part of any sophisticated processor. The one that linked to the operator’s neural interface.
“Khoe?” he spoke aloud when he made contact, his eyes closed as he leaned heavily on the board. “Khoe, are you in there?”
He waited. Raised voices filtered through the door, but no one was shouting now. The monitors showed a calmer situation. Most of the victims had either succumbed, had been sedated, or were actually getting to know their visitors. He saw a few of the doctor’s staff move through the space, shifting bodies. Someone sat on a cot, crying.
“Khoe? We’re kind of in trouble here. Please answer me!” He directed his thoughts around the unfamiliar processor, eyes on the overhead displays, finding nothing he dared to explore. He was so used to his familiar, comfortable interface with the Dutchman that looking around this machine seemed like entering some alien world. “I’m here, Khoe. Can you feel me?”
Nothing.
Are you alive? he thought, fighting a terrible surge of grief threatening to overwhelm him. Perhaps she had simply disintegrated in her shielded prison, cut off from him and from the Alpha that had given her life to begin with. The thought that she was gone forever felt worse than to think she had simply been taken from him.
Khoe, please! I can’t do this without you. He concentrated, no longer worried about touching the wrong thing inside the processor. He felt a little like a madman ransacking through a cluttered room in search of a dropped jewel.
Nothing.
He disengaged the link and returned to the com panel by the door. “Caelyn, we’ve got to find a way to shut this experiment down before we jump back. I could use your help up here. Maybe you can figure this out.”
Again, nothing.
“Caelyn?” Seth peered up at the screen. The bridge was empty of all but the unresponsive crew. He cursed. “Can that Delphian not stay where you put him for even a minute?”
He opened the door and hurried through the main lab. Some of the people here looked up curiously when he rushed past them and a technician moved to stop him but Seth paid no attention.
When he stepped into the small control room outside the cockpit the sight of a Delphian on the floor forced a strangled cry from his lips. He rushed to turn the man over to see that it was Palas, not Caelyn who had fallen here, dead.
He drew his gun and rose to move silently into the cockpit. He adjusted the surveillance system to check each camera in turn, looking for clues. The control room with the dead doctor and his assistant. An empty storage room. The main lab, crammed with people. A cramped access way.
And then a view of a gangly body on the ground near the air lock, his long blue braid clearly visible on the monitor. Seth froze, then forced himself to breathe evenly. He could hear his teeth grind when he shoved his sudden fury and guilt aside to focus on his next move. Where was the Human crewman they had brought aboard?
He shifted the camera again, zooming into the image until he saw the uniform among the people in the main lab. The Human stood like some unmovable boulder in the room, talking to apparently no one. Seth watched as he grasped a passing technician by the throat, shouted something, and tossed him aside. The others shrank back when he aimed a gun and simply shot one of them. Cowed, they rushed to the far wall of the lab and sat on the floor, apparently by some command.
The engineer moved to the containment system and placed his hands on it as if very familiar with the mechanism. As soon as he did, a row of yellow indicator strips lit the monitor panels above him.
A soft hiss escaped Seth when he realized why something had seemed not quite right when this man came aboard. Something felt oddly familiar, even without Khoe in his head to hone his instincts. This was another Dyad, like him, here aboard the Stoyan, murdering people without provocation. And now he had his hands on the machine that entrapped Khoe and the Alpha.
Seth crept through the ship’s control space and tried a panel set into a bulkhead. From what he had seen on the surveillance system, this access should lead around the main lab to a side entrance, far less conspicuous than the main corridor.
The space was narrow – little more than a service way to the ship’s environmental services. He slipped out of his jacket and dropped it when it snagged on the edges of some conduits, slowing him down. The sound of only one voice reached him when he stepped out of the passage.
“I don’t care,” the Human said when Seth peered into the lab. He was shuffling through the narrow space between the bunks toward the control room. His eyes twitched, as did his lips and even his chin. The muscled legs seemed barely able to keep him upright and he shifted continuously to keep his balance. “That’s not what you said earlier,” he said to no one.
Seth stepped into the room and fired his gun.
Nothing.
Deve looked up when the movement caught his attention. He glared at Seth blearily. “No guns
allowed,” he said in a strangely high-pitched voice accompanied by a giggle. “He broke them all.” He seemed confused by the pistol in his own hand and tossed it aside before taking a few lurching steps toward Seth. “You’re the other. One of us.”
Seth ducked around the lumbering Human toward the mechanical monster holding Khoe hostage. Although slow, the man had a terrific reach and surely wielded considerable strength. More worrying than that was the certainty that, just like Khoe’s, his touch was deadly.
“Back,” Seth said, now standing in front of the containment system. He put his hand onto a control panel. “We’ve recoded the transmitter. Any closer and we’ll kill your Alpha. You know we can.”
Strangely, Deve stopped, apparently fooled by Seth’s feeble bluff. Perhaps, Seth thought, the presence of so many newly-created Dyads here simply confused his senses.
Seth rubbed his arm, feeling for the thin edge of the com chip hidden beneath his tattoo. He shifted a miniscule tab to open the link from his neural interface to the embedded transmitter. Dammit, Khoe. Wake the hell up! I need you.
“They’re evil,” the Human before him said. “Did you know that? They’ll destroy us all.”
Seth frowned. “Who?”
“Who the fuck to you think!” Deve roared. “He told me. He’s going to bring them all here. And they’ll kill anyone who gets in their way.” He suddenly doubled over as if someone had kicked him hard in the middle. Foam spewed from his lips when he grunted in pain. “All right! Just stop it. Just stop!”
The processor behind Seth whirred and coolers kicked in when something went into operation. Information that meant nothing to him scrolled over a slotted display and indicators had something to say to those who understood the message.
“He’s found it,” Deve cried. “Found the sire. You can’t harm us now, Centauri.”
Seth took a step forward. Something terrible was going on in the man’s mind. Deve wrung his hands as if fighting to keep them to himself. His body shook from taking blows only he felt. A trickle of blood seeped from his nose, unnoticed.
“You don’t want this,” Seth said. “You can be free of that thing in your head. I can help you.”
“Shut up!” Deve barreled at him, fists raised. He slammed into Seth to throw him back, over the cots and onto the floor. Stars exploded before Seth’s eyes when his head met the edge of a bunk but there was none of the deadly surge of power he had expected. The Dyad was simply used up; unable to generate the energy it took to kill Seth.
He rolled under the next cot and then the one after that while Deve simply crashed through the obstacles in his way. He sprang to his feet and then ducked when one of the bunks flew through the air. Blood trickled down his cheek but when he groped for his interface node he found it still firmly seated in his temple. Some of the techs who hadn’t already crept from the lab during this confrontation scrambled for the corridors.
“Stoyan,” they suddenly heard a harsh voice emit from the com band on Deve’s forearm. It took a moment for both men to realize that Air Command had arrived, ready to deal with the aliens and their dying hostages. “Prepare for boarding.”
An alert sounded, accompanied by a discreet change of illumination. Seth cursed when he realized that the Stoyan was powering up. The creature inside Deve’s head had taken control of the helm, ready for the return to Csonne.
“You can’t outrun them,” Seth said. “That’s a Ghoster out there.”
Deve’s broad lips stretched into a smile. “They won’t kill us. They want to get their hands on us. Let them follow. They’ll all wake up with a new friend in their heads. I’ll even wait for them to catch up.” He stalked toward Seth, lifting his feet only with tremendous effort. “But I don’t need you along. You’re dangerous. Both of you.”
“Stoyan! Respond immediately or we will destroy you.”
Deve halted and pressed his hands to his head. “Stop this,” he pleaded. “Stop me. Make it stop, dammit!”
Seth reached into a pocket on his thigh and withdrew the folding knife he had taken on Csonne. It snicked open, gleaming with double-edged menace. He moved to his left, forcing Deve to turn. Surely, the Dyad, weakened by whatever had taken its toll on the Human’s body, would not be able to control the Alpha, pilot the Stoyan, and fight a faster adversary all at once. That, then, left only Deve to oppose him.
His knees buckled when he felt a bolt of pain drill into his skull, only to fade as something familiar took hold right there inside his head. He felt it expand and then realized with a breathtaking sense of relief that whatever shaped Khoe in his brain had returned. She touched him, recognized him, and remembered these past days with a growing sense of joy.
“Seth?” He felt the word in his head like a sweet melody. “You’re here. I was so lost!”
Find the Alpha, he sent urgently as he lunged at Deve. Keep this Dyad away from it.
Khoe squealed in fear and surprise when he dove under the fist that Deve, driven by Lep Ako, swung at him. The other fist glanced past his shoulder, instantly numbing his arm. He spun and stabbed his knife deep into Deve’s chest.
The Human bellowed in pain and stumbled backward, staying on his feet take another shambling run at Seth who barely dodged out of his way.
“He’s with the Alpha!” Khoe exclaimed. “Don’t kill him. Please don’t kill him!”
Too late. Deve pounced and Seth thrust the knife forward, feeling it slip between two ribs to find the man’s heart. He sidestepped the heavy body as Deve crashed to the ground, his groans bringing bubbles of blood to his lips.
“Don’t let him go!” Khoe cried.
Bewildered, still breathing in harsh gasps, Seth crouched and put his hands on the Human’s wound. There was nothing here to stop the bleeding. He felt a surge of energy trickle through his fingers, barely there, and then the dying man gave up, taking his invader with him.
Seth came to his feet and looked up to see that the control displays on the containment system had calmed. Only a steady hum remained. He couldn’t remember if it had hummed before. “Do you have it?” he said to Khoe. “The Alpha. Is it there?”
“Wait.”
She finally shimmered into view, looking like she always did, with long braids tangled around her shoulders and a pretty smile on her lips. But she hovered uncertainly in his mind, weakened by her isolation, deprived of the energy she needed to draw from him.
Seth pulled her into his arms, needing to assure himself that she was really here. “I thought I lost you.” He kissed her and then kissed her again.
“I’m back in your head. It feels so good!” She gave him a confused half-smile. “I’m not sure that was the plan. Was it?”
“No. But I need you in there. Don’t leave.”
“What are you saying?”
He drew back, as surprised by his words as she was. “I guess I meant that. I just about died when I realized you were gone.” He stroked her pale cheek with his thumb. “I’m a Dyad now. I want you with me. Here in real-space.”
She smiled hesitantly. “You want me to stay? With you? That’s big.” When he seemed at a loss for words she looked around. “Are those people dead? Where are we? What is this place?”
“We’ve gone through sub-space and brought out more of your kind. It didn’t go well. You need to get into the doctor’s program. Download what you find to the Dutchman and then wipe it out. Everything. Then figure out a way to shut the transmission down.”
“That resonance is created by the Alpha. You can’t shut that down.”
“His assistant said something about changing the frequency they were using to capture your people. It’s the way they separated you and me. See if you can find that. If that’s not possible, maybe we can get at least the Alpha back home. It’s not fused with anyone.”
She nodded and shifted her attention to the lab’s processors. “I’ll write a program that’ll drop the shielding on it as soon as we’re in sub-space. Once it’s back home it’ll stop others from leav
ing.”
The Stoyan shuddered when a warning shot from the Ghoster glanced off her minimal shielding. Seth headed for the main corridor leading to the cockpit. “Air Command is coming for us,” he explained. “We need to get out of here now. They won’t let us jump.”
“Want to see if I can deflect their guns?”
He turned to her to see if she was joking when something in the dim passage caught his eye. “Caelyn!” Seth rushed to the air lock where one of the medics knelt beside the Delphian. He sagged against the wall, holding a bloodied bandage to his head.
“Next time, Centauri…” he began when he saw Seth.
“Yes, I know. Remind you to stay home. We need to jump back right now. Are you up to it? Khoe is feeling a bit wobbly.”
Caelyn came to his feet, aided by the medic and Seth. “Khoe? I thought she’s gone.”
“I got her back! I was scared green for a while.”
“Why?” Caelyn peered into Seth’s face, acquainted with the species well enough to read his expression. “Gods, Sethran. Don’t tell me you fell for the girl!”
Seth shrugged and grinned with a sidelong glance at Khoe.
“Listen to me. She can’t stay with you. Quine said—”
A tremendous blast off the portside of the ship nearly threw them off their feet. Seth hustled the Delphian into the cockpit where he rather impolitely shoved the captain out of his bench. The man barely blinked when he slid to the floor and Caelyn took his seat.
“Come on! Air Command isn’t going to play much longer. Can you get us some juice, Khoe?” Seth closed the cockpit door, grateful that the medic had dragged the dead com officer away with him.
She was already pouring every bit of the ship’s energy into coaxing top speed out of the vessel. Caelyn brought the Stoyan into its approach trajectory to the keyhole. “I don’t know if we can keep this up. That Union ship is going to overtake us.”
Seth tipped the catatonic navigator out of his chair and dropped into it. “We have one chance. And only if you get that resonance worked out.” She slipped into his lap. Somehow, the fact that she was safely back here with him still hadn’t quite become real to him. Feeling her close helped.