“No, they don’t want us to take it back.” Ch’len hesitated with a gulp. “They want us to land and fix it manually. They’re sending through all the schematics now.”
Roland turned to his small friend. “Can you do that? Can you fix it?”
Ch’len flicked his finger through the air, sifting through the information on the hologram. “This is Terran tech mixed with Conclave tech. I might just be the only one who can… But, I’m not going out there! It’s just open space as far as the eye can see. Nope. We’re just going to have to find a quiet sector of space and wait for this whole thing to blow over.”
Roland rolled his eyes and took the Rackham into a dive, heading straight for the Starforge.
Telarrek emptied the last of his rifle’s magazine into the corridor, filling it with smoke, blood, severed body parts, and the distinct smell of ozone. With only three of the guards left by his side, and a handful of helpless councillors, the Novaarian pushed forward, stepping over the slithering nanocelium before it coalesced into another body and tried to kill them.
“We have to try and take back the command room,” Councillor Ordak suggested urgently. The large Raalak was injured having taken an Intrinium round to the shoulder, but he was the only other member of the present Highclave who wielded a weapon.
“The control room is gone,” Telarrek replied quietly. “We have to get out of here and reach the High Spire.” That revelation started the other five councillors whispering fiercely.
“The High Spire?” Ordak echoed. “That’s in the centre of Clave Tower! It’s so far down you can’t even see it from up here.”
Telarrek held his reply for the moment, hugging the corner of the next corridor and checking to see if the way was clear. Three Shay were in the middle of the hall doing their best to break into a secure room. Telarrek glanced at the survivors behind him, aware that they didn’t have long before the Shay they had recently killed came back to life and hunted them down.
“The previous Highclave ran most of the day-to-day operations from the High Spire,” Telarrek explained. “There is a backup control system in the heart of the Spire, one that we can use to link back with the fleet and the central AI. We have to reach it.”
A pale Brenine, cowering behind one of the guards added, “That’s if we make it out of this place alive…”
It was a comment that did nothing to help their current situation, but Telarrek couldn’t blame any of them for being terrified. None of them had been in combat before or even a life-threatening situation.
The Novaarian held out his hand and accepted the fresh magazine from one of the gold-clad guards. The rifle made a satisfying sound when reloaded, though, in truth, Telarrek would happily never hear it again. He nodded to the guards and all four of them rounded the corner with their weapons levelled at the Shay. Intrinium bolts illuminated the corridor in brilliant blue, tearing through Shay muscle and on into the wall beyond.
A banshee-like scream resounded down the halls from back the way they had come. The Shay were on their trail again.
“Run!” Telarrek barked, leading the charge.
More Shay erupted from access corridors and from behind closed doors, each too slow to avoid the barrels of the weapons firing on them. The Tularon councillor yelled out in pain from the back of the group and they all heard the alien hit the floor. Telarrek halted the group in his effort to turn back and see what was happening, but it was Ordak who responded first, firing his rifle with one hand into the Shay who was dragging the furry Tularon away.
“Grab him!” Telarrek ordered.
The other councillors were frozen with fear at the sight of the oncoming Shay and did nothing to help their colleague. One of the guards, a pink Atari, pushed through and dashed down the corridor to scoop up the Tularon. He fired wildly over his shoulder and Telarrek added his own rifle to the mix, slowing the progression of the masses.
Once the group was back together, there were only a few metres between them and the infected Shay, who were crawling along every available space in the corridor. Telarrek did his best to react as quickly as possible and put down those who sprung from the shadows in front, but the low emergency lighting made it harder to see everything.
“Take a left!” one of the guards instructed.
The Novaarian trusted his guard’s sense of direction and made a left at the T-junction. The signs flaring in the darkness indicated that the outdoor landing pad was at the end of this corridor. Telarrek dared to hope. There had to be some kind of craft on the pad after so many had arrived at the Clave Command Tower.
Another scream from the back of the group had only the bravest among them turning back to see who had fallen. Telarrek caught a brief glimpse of the Laronian guard being swallowed up by the Shay, her rifle blasting about wildly.
“Get as far out on to the pad as you can!” the Atari guard yelled over the sound of the scrambling Shay.
Telarrek looked down to see the golden-armoured Atari reaching for a grenade. Again, he could only trust the well-trained soldier to know what he was doing. The doors parted swiftly as they ran through and on to the landing pad. The Atari guard hung back and threw his grenade underhand back into the corridor, before activating the door controls. The explosion from inside was powerful enough to blow off the doors. Telarrek and the others had thankfully run far enough on to the pad to avoid being hit by them.
“Get ready!” The Atari guard warned, finding his feet after the explosion.
As one, those who wielded weapons levelled them at the smoking doorframe and waited for the survivors to barrel through. It was an agonising delay, but the Shay didn’t keep them waiting for long. Intrinium fire erupted forth and sent the infected aliens back into the ruins of the corridor.
Telarrek lowered his rifle and slowly turned around, more than aware that they were standing on an empty landing pad.
“There’s no ship!” One of the councillors trembled.
“Now we’re stuck up here…” another complained hopelessly.
Telarrek walked over to the edge, his gaze absent as reality set in. They weren’t going to survive this. They had nowhere else to run with only minutes, if that, before more Shay flooded the platform and tore them all to pieces. This wasn’t how he wanted to die, at least not without knowing whether the Conclave would live on. Still, there was Kalian. He had to believe that they would win.
“More are coming!” The Atari guard shouted, crouching on one knee with his rifle aimed at the smoking doorway.
Telarrek sighed and banished his thoughts of simply stepping off the platform. If he was to die now, he would die fighting…
Roland ran across the flat ground as the heavy rain pelted down from above. He pushed the hover sledge ahead of him, blinking the rain water out of his eyes to better see Ch’len in the distance. The small alien was busy working to gain access to the control panel on the side of the crescent machine.
“Here!” The bounty hunter yelled over the hammering rain. “I just brought everything!” Indeed he had. The hover sledge was stacked with every piece of equipment and tool he could find in Ch’len’s workshop.
“I need cover!”
“Right…” Roland constructed a small pavilion out of some canvas and spare pipes, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of drowning under such a barrage.
With the heavy rain held at bay, Ch’len was able to inspect the hologram floating beside him with the Starforge’s schematics. Roland felt helpless just standing there and watching him work. He tapped the slight depression in his temple and connected with the Rackham’s AI. He had the ship’s array constantly monitoring for any sign of trouble. The enemy had to know that a craft had breached the atmosphere, especially one so close to the Crucible.
“It’s just fried!” Ch’len moaned. “It took a direct hit to the cooling system. Even if I could get it working again, we’d have maybe a few seconds before it overheated and exploded!”
Roland sighed, looking from the Starforge to the r
ocky horizon, over which sat the Crucible. They were so close.
“Keep working on it. Pull it apart and rebuild it if you have to.” The bounty hunter flicked up the collar on his hide coat and turned back to the Rackham.
Ch’len stopped his tinkering for a moment. “Where are you going?”
“To see if anyone’s home.”
Back under the relentless rain, Roland could barely hear his co-pilot’s protests. He didn’t stop to hear it all, he just kept on walking until he was inside the Rackham. Now he had to figure out how he was going to strap so many weapons to his body without hindering his ability to walk.
Chapter 27
It felt good to have his feet back on solid ground again. Kalian looked down at his black nanocelium boots on Evalan’s sandy surface and knew he should feel like he was home… but he didn’t. As nice as it felt to be standing on a real world again, he felt more at home floating among the stars, beside the Gomar.
Walking through the streets of New Genesis, Kalian had to wonder if others felt as if they were in a foreign land. A single battlecruiser, the Galaron, had arrived shortly after the population made it through the Starforge and had deposited numerous tanks and ground-to-air missile launchers. Looking around, the tanks walked through the streets on their six legs, their cannons pointed to the skies, and the launchers were being bolted into the ground, overseen by three C-Sec soldiers.
The human populace were running about, preparing themselves and their neighbours for the inevitable assault. The Galaron had supplied them with a few hundred ground transports in order to quickly evacuate everyone from the city, though their exact destination was still being decided by the human council. Kalian reached the end of the street and cast his gaze between the buildings, focusing on the mountains in the distance. He knew the caves within were an option being discussed, but he also knew that no planet was safe to hide on.
Not when your enemy consumed planets like snacks…
What sounded like a squadron of Darts whipping over the city made Kalian look up. Of course, there were no Darts on Evalan and the Galaron had already departed the system. He turned on the spot and tracked the Gomar flying above the city, free of their bulky armour and enjoying the slimline nanocelium exosuits. The super subconducer had granted all of them much needed training in a matter of hours rather than the years it should have taken.
Kalian stepped aside when one of the tanks wanted to carry on its patrol to the edge of the city. Ultimately, their presence helped to keep everyone feeling a little safer, but they were really on New Genesis to help maintain order when the evacuation took place. There was no tank or missile launcher that could stop a nanocelium-based ship. Finding the Gomar in the sky once again, Kalian could see the only weapons in the galaxy capable of fending their enemy off.
Crossing the street, heading farther into the city now, Kalian came across a family with two children. The parents were perhaps the only ones in the area who weren’t busy packing belongings and readying supplies. They were spending time with their son and daughter. It almost broke his heart to watch, aware that these parents believed they were all to die soon, and that they just wanted to spend time with their children before the end.
There was nothing he could do or say that would give them hope. How many tragedies had humanity already gone through up to this point? This family could have come from the terraforming project or they might have been aboard the Paladin. Either way, they had survived to know of Earth’s and Century’s destruction, along with who knows how many of their loved ones.
Now they were being forced from one planet to another and used as bait to help save others; aliens that most of the people in New Genesis didn’t really care for. And how could they? The Conclave had rejected them since their arrival. Despite their continued survival against the odds, this family was used to being on the losing side.
Kalian balled his fist. Damn it if he wasn’t going to try.
“Are you not preparing for the evacuation?” he asked them, disrupting their play.
The parents stood up and the young children briefly hid behind their father’s leg. “Oh, Mister Gaines!” he said with a smile.
Kalian held up his hand. “Please, call me Kalian. I haven’t been Mister Gaines since I was lecturing.”
The father appeared somewhat uncomfortable. “Kalian. Um, we were just messing around before we get stuck in. We weren’t on the capital for very long so we’re just…” he looked down at his children.
“I’m sorry about all the moving around,” Kalian replied, unsure what he was hoping to achieve anymore. “Is there anything I can help with?”
“Your help?” the father echoed incredulously. “It’s thanks to you that we’re all still…” he glanced at his children again. “Well, it’s thanks to you that we’re all still here. I only wish we could help you when, you know, when they get here.”
Kalian wanted to tell them that they were going to win. That right here, on their home planet, they would draw a line in the sand and their enemy would finally be defeated. But his wrist vibrated to notify him that he was receiving a communication.
“Excuse me,” he said, turning to open his palm and activate the holo-emitters in his fingertips.
Li’ara’s head took shape through the formation of the orange light. “The meeting is coming to an end here,” she stated. “Fancy going on a date Flyboy?”
That brought a smile to his face, even if he felt like weeping for the family behind him. “I’ll be there in a second.”
Li’ara smiled. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he replied affectionately before closing his fist and ending the hologram. He turned back to the family apologetically. “I have to go. If you need any help, the C-Sec officers have been instructed to assist us in any way.”
“Thank you, Kalian,” the mother said softly.
Kalian swallowed hard before meeting their gaze. “We will win,” he said boldly, looking over the young children. There was more he wanted to say, but he was about to go and see Li’ara where they would be going exactly what this family were doing: spending time together before the end.
As natural as it was now, Kalian’s senses stretched out and encompassed the family. He could feel the nanocelium flowing through their blood and scurrying around inside their organs and over their muscles. They didn’t know it yet, of course, but this family would be together forever, never knowing death, and only ever growing. They all would; all of humanity. That was a legacy he didn’t mind leaving behind. He only wished he would be present to watch it all unfold.
Bending his knees, Kalian pushed off from the ground and let the surface fall away from him. With the speeds he was capable of, it only took a couple of seconds to clear the top of the city and reach the council building. He landed softly on one of the balconies and made his way inside the air conditioned halls. Li’ara’s unique brain frequency was easy to find, pulsing through the universe like a beacon in the dark. He dipped his own mind into hers for the briefest of moments and found her talking to Captain Fey.
The door to her office opened and Kalian entered upon invitation. Captain Holt was also present, though he appeared to be on his way out with Commander Vale in tow.
“Kalian,” he nodded on his way past.
“Jed,” he replied. “Samantha.”
Commander Vale offered him a genuine smile as they left the office, something Captain Holt struggled with.
Kalian waited for the door to shut before turning to Li’ara and Fey. “You don’t have to be telepathic to know he’s not happy with me.”
Fey took her seat behind the hovering desk. “He still believes himself to be solely responsible for the hundred thousand people who were aboard the Paladin. Though he shares the load, his concerns are valid. There’s a chance, and it’s a big one, that the harvesting ship will come here and do to Evalan what it’s done to every other planet it has come across.”
Li’ara added, “He doesn’t like us being used a
s bait.”
Kalian frowned. “And he thinks I do?”
“No,” Captain Fey interjected. “He’s just concerned and frustrated. He feels as hopeless as the rest of us mere mortals and he needs someone to blame.”
That pulled on a thread that Kalian had ignored for too long. “What if you weren’t mere mortals?”
Both women looked at him quizzically. “What are you talking about?” Li’ara asked.
“I looked into the nanocelium found in your blood,” he began. “It’s in everyone now, not just those who have experienced rejuvenation. It came from the Gommarian. Every time anyone touched part of the ship, several thousand nanocelium rubbed off and infiltrated your body through the pores. Like a virus, it spread through the population and into those who came here on the Paladin.”
Captain Fey stood up and looked worryingly at the back of her hand. “Will we end up like Professor Jones?”
“No,” Kalian responded quickly. “This nanocelium came from ALF. Its programming is designed only to help humans. What it’s actually doing is preventing your cells from decaying.”
Li’ara held her hand to her mouth in shock. “Are you saying… are you saying we’re…”
“Immortal,” Kalian finished with a smile. “The older people among us will notice the differences first but, over time, it will become apparent that no one is dying anymore.”
“Is it inside you?” Fey asked.
“No, it’s not,” Kalian said, looking down at himself. “My Terran abilities keep all foreign bodies out of my system subconsciously. One day, when the Terran genes begin to activate in the rest of the population, the nanocelium keeping you all alive will become redundant and be flushed away.”
Kalian could see that Li’ara was trying desperately to keep her tears inside. They had fallen out in the past over the debate of how their relationship could ever work with their different lifespans. Now, she knew she could live forever with him…
“This is incredible!” Fey exclaimed. “I can’t… I can’t even imagine it. We’ll never die?”
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