Roland dived to the side as the Shay’s foot slammed down into the table, breaking it in half. The bounty hunter pile-drove into the alien and took them both into the kitchen counter. The impact stunned the Shay, giving Roland the opportunity to land several blows to its gut and face. It was only after landing the fourth gut punch that the bounty hunter realised he was beating a creature that didn’t feel pain.
The Shay, a calculating and emotionless being, took the beating while its left hand reached up for the butcher’s knife magnetised to the rack. The moment its last digit wrapped around the handle, the blade cut through the air left and right, pushing Roland back until he felt the sofa behind his legs.
Roland side-stepped the thrusting knife and locked the Shay’s arm between his own. His muscle memory took over and bent the alien’s arm against the direction of its natural bend, snapping the joint. It refused, however, to drop the knife. The nanocelium controlling its motor functions obviously didn’t require a complete skeleton to keep the fingers and wrist moving.
The bounty hunter swung the locked arm around, opening up the Shay’s midriff for a push-kick to the chest. The alien flew from its feet and barrelled over the kitchen counter. Roland didn’t give it a second to recover and hopped over the counter to meet it in the middle of the kitchen, grabbing a frying pan as he went.
He swung the pan from left to right, each strike connecting perfectly with the Shay’s face. One last wide swing knocked the knife from its hand and Roland ended his assault with a final elbow to the Shay’s eye. The alien crumpled into the kitchen cupboards covered in streaks of its red blood, visibly peppered with black nanocelium dots.
Roland made a dash for the blank wall on the far side of the kitchen and commanded it to reveal his stash of toys. The wall panel slid away and an array of weapons, blades, and grenades were displayed majestically before him.
“Rackham, give me an update.”
The Rackham’s female voice paused the music to speak. “Roland, you have three minutes and forty-eight seconds before the destination is reached.”
The bounty hunter swore and reached for the flamethrower custom built by Ch’len. He had been itching to find the right time to use it on anything other than the Zorbats that skulked around in the Rackham’s ventilation system. As his fingers touched the cool metal, a pair of cybernetic fingers gripped his shoulders and threw him backwards. Roland caught his hip on the corner of the kitchen unit and dropped to one knee with shooting pains running up his back.
The infected Shay paused only to flick the carving knife on the floor up into its waiting hand. Roland was just happy the alien didn’t reach for one of the weapons behind it.
“Come on then, asshole.” The bounty hunter staggered to his feet and cracked his neck. “Let’s skip to the good bit…”
The Shay crossed the gap between them in a single bound and thrust the knife at Roland’s face. With his hand already wrapped around the nanocelium hilt at the base of his back, the bounty hunter whipped the blade up vertically. Using his free hand, Roland batted the carving knife aside and shoved the nanocelium blade up through the alien’s jaw and into its head.
“Let’s go for a walk.”
Roland kept one hand around the Shay’s wrist while the other applied an upwards force on the nanocelium blade, lifting the alien by the head. The added weight was hell on his injured leg, which was beginning to make itself known now that the adrenaline was wearing off, but he half-carried, half-dragged the Shay towards the ship’s hold.
“Rackham,” he said through the exertion. “Is the Planet Killer ready?”
“The missile is prepped and ready for launch, Roland. There is, however, a discrepancy between my preliminary scans and what I can see now. It appears the radiation leaking from the Marillion has provided some interference.”
Roland twisted the nanocelium blade, sure to keep the alien from fully repairing its brain around it. “What kind of discrepancy?” he asked.
“The bedrock at the base of the fissure is thicker than I previously believed.”
Roland groaned as he tossed the Shay into the centre of the hold. “Too thick to fire the missile through?”
“It can be weakened by a salvo of nanocelium rounds,” the AI answered.
“Great, let’s do that then,” Roland replied through laboured breath. He only had a moment more before the Shay woke up.
“It will require us to fly into the fissure and descend to twenty-six kilometres.”
Roland sighed. “How does that affect our chances of survival?”
“I am programmed never to give such accurate information regarding chance.”
The bounty hunter chuckled to himself. “So it’s slim then…” The Shay’s extremities began to twitch. “Do it, Rackham. Take us into the fissure, but warn me before the missile is launched.”
“Affirmative.”
The Shay’s eyes snapped open, and it flipped on to its feet again.
Roland pointed his blade at it. “You and I have about sixty seconds left to dance. Best make ‘em count.”
Whether the Shay understood or not, he would never know, but it certainly came at him with renewed fury. Legs and arms were swung and thrust at him from every angle, and the carving knife made more than one cut across the bounty hunter’s exposed arms.
Roland gave back as good as he received, weaving his use of the nanocelium blade into his fighting style. A dash to the left allowed him to lock the knife arm in place and push the tip into one of the Rackham’s unyielding hull. The carving knife fell from the Shay’s hand, and Roland was sure to stab the alien at least twice in the chest before it hit the floor. He used the wall to jump and gain enough height to bring a devastating elbow down on to the alien’s head, knocking it back into the centre of the hold.
Roland spat on to the floor. “Time’s almost up you ugly bastard.”
The Shay took little notice of the new wounds leaking blood in its chest and once again advanced on the bounty hunter. Roland jabbed with the blade, intending to slice through its cybernetic face, but the Shay was too quick. With both of its hands, the alien lashed out and slapped the back of Roland’s elbow and the inside of his wrist. The pain that shot down his arm was enough to make him drop the nanocelium blade between them.
Quite impossibly, the Shay kicked the hilt of the blade mid-fall and sent it back up to its waiting hand. Roland immediately stepped back as the first slash came for his neck, then another step to avoid the blade plunging into his face. The alien overreached, however, and Roland dashed inside of its arm and planted a heavy knee in the Shay’s gut. With one hand splayed across its face, Roland pushed up and flipped the alien on to its back.
At this point, he should have been able to drop down on top of it and pummel the bastard with his fists. That didn’t happen. The Shay wrapped its legs around Roland’s and twisted until the bounty hunter joined it on the floor.
“Thirty seconds until launch, Roland.”
He barely registered it as the Shay rolled on top of him and brought the nanocelium knife to bear. It took both of his hands to keep the blade from touching his throat, but he could feel the strength of the infected alien overpowering him. In another moment, the blade would chop right through his neck and remove his head.
Roland carefully slid his hand across to the hilt and flicked the switch to deactivate the blade. The movement cost him his last ounce of strength, and the Shay finally pushed down the knife until the hilt hit the floor beside Roland’s head. It had thankfully reabsorbed the blade.
The Shay screamed and raised the hilt to bring it down into Roland’s face again.
“Sorry,” he said through gritted teeth. “It only works for me…”
The alien pressed down hard with the hilt in its hands, fighting against Roland’s resistance. The bounty hunter frowned when he saw strands of nanocelium snaking over the Shay’s knuckles and on to the hilt.
“Oh, shit…”
The nanocelium wormed its way into
the hilt and reactivated the blade. The tip extended to within a centimetre of Roland’s eye. The bounty hunter growled with the exertion it took to keep the weapon at bay.
“Rackham?” he shouted.
“Five seconds to launch, Roland.”
The bounty hunter lifted his leg and pressed it to the side of the Shay. “Open the hatch!”
The panel in the centre of the floor slid aside next to them revealing the Planet Killer sitting quietly inside its brackets. Roland shoved his leg hard and twisted his whole body towards the open hatch. The entangled Shay was thrown aside and down on to the missile.
Roland hung limply over the edge and watched the missile port open in front of the Planet Killer. Outside he could hear nanocelium rounds hammering the base of the fissure, drowning out the banshee-like screams of the Shay.
In a blur of sudden motion, the missile launched from the bay and the Shay along with it. Roland groaned in pain and rolled on to his back as the port closed back up and the hatch slid into place.
“Rackham… reverse thrust, maximum speed. Turn us around and get us back to Len. Quick as you like.”
Now he only had to outrun the violent death of an entire planet…
Chapter 34
“We don’t have long, Kalian.”
ALF’s warning was the last thing he heard before the headpiece slotted over his face. Nanocelium snaked out of the super subconducer and attached to his exosuit until it blended together. A series of pinches ran up his arms, spine, and ribs where tiny needles pricked his skin, ready to inject the concoction of chemicals and hormones designed by ALF to boost Kalian’s system.
“Get in and get out. Don’t stay a second longer than you…”
The AI’s voice dropped away as Kalian allowed the ocean of his mind to rise up and swallow his consciousness. He sank for an eternity through the currents of his life until the images and colours faded to black.
Kalian opened his eyes to a familiar room of polished white walls. On one side sat a circular door of solid steel, heavy and foreboding. On the other, he was presented by a long oval window devoid of glass. The lush trees and fields of the original Evalan rested on the other side, stretching as far as he could see with nothing but blue sky above. It was serene and perfect, with the sounds of birds and forest animals filtering through the window.
“Welcome back,” came a voice from behind.
Kalian turned around to see the familiar face of Alai, the first Terran immortal. He was considered to be one of the strongest Terrans to have ever lived and was responsible for teaching countless others to use their abilities. In this case, it was simply a guise worn by Kalian’s subconscious.
“Did I ever leave?” Kalian asked.
Alai smiled. “I suppose not.”
Kalian glanced at the green paradise before turning to face the impenetrable-looking door. All he had to do was see where he wanted to go, open that door, and step into it.
Alai folded his arms over his white robes. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
Kalian half turned his head and cocked his eyebrow.
Alai shrugged. “I’m just voicing the same questions you’re asking yourself. Once you go through with this, there’ll be no going back. You won’t have the power to undo everything if you change your mind.”
Kalian nodded along, aware that his plan, unknown to everyone else, carried great consequences. “It’s the only option,” he said. “It’s time for humanity to find its own way.”
“Can they do that without you?” Alai countered. “Until you came along, humanity had a track record for being wiped out. With you, they’ve survived longer than they should.”
Kalian considered who he was talking to. “That’s a little arrogant isn’t it?”
Again, Alai shrugged. “I’m just saying what you’ve been thinking.”
Kalian stepped towards the door before turning back. “There’s still a chance I’ll survive this, you know.”
Alai frowned. “You’ve done those calculations,” he said, placing a finger to his temple. “Your little alteration to the plan doesn’t sway the odds one way or the other really.”
“Are you trying…” Kalian shook his head. “Am I trying to talk myself out of this?”
“I’m the manifestation of your subconscious drive to survive, Kalian. All those fears you lock away to help you make decisions… they live in me.”
The vista flared and the view changed to that of San Francisco on a summer’s day. There were people everywhere going about their daily lives, just as they had when Kalian lived among them.
“What is this?” he asked.
“Something you’ve forgotten,” Alai replied softly.
The view changed again, focusing the lens until one building stood out against the rest. Kalian recognised his university, glistening under the sun. He had felt at home in there, in his lecture theatre.
“It’s like remembering another life,” he said absently. “Not my life…”
“You’ve come so far,” Alai said. “Perhaps too far. You’re forgetting what it is to be human. That’s what you’re fighting for; it’s what you’ve always been fighting for.”
“I’m not…” Kalian choked on the words.
“You’re not what? Like them?” Alai gestured to the people walking in front of the university. “You think you have some obligation to them because you’re the only one who can do what you do.”
“Someone has to stand up for them,” Kalian argued, struggling to maintain his steely resolve.
“Yes,” Alai agreed. “But you don’t have to give up your humanity to be a Terran, Kalian. You don’t even need Li’ara to tether you. You will always carry Earth with you. What you leave behind will be its legacy.”
A rogue tear streaked down Kalian’s cheek. Whether it was him or his subconscious, memories began to surface. He recalled the day he got his job at the university. He remembered the feeling of elation after teaching his first class.
“What I leave behind…” Kalian whispered.
He purposefully blinked, erasing the manifestation of Alai, leaving him alone in the room.
“I know what I have to do.”
Using both hands, Kalian pulled hard on the door and swung it open. On the other side of the threshold was the chamber he had seen inside the heart of the harvesting ship. It was the smallest room in the whole ship, and perfect for what he had in mind.
“It’s the only way…”
Kalian stepped through, transporting his physical self across space and into the very centre of the Kellekt’s ship.
But he didn’t go alone.
In the moment of teleportation, when his body should have vanished from ALF’s bridge, he gripped the armrests of the super subconducer.
He brought the Starforge with him. What happened next could only be described as violent.
Roland swore as the Rackham’s inertial dampeners struggled to compensate for the change in direction and speed. The end result was a floating bounty hunter with an acrid taste of sick in his mouth. It only lasted a couple of seconds before he slammed back into the cold floor again.
By the time he found himself falling back into his captain’s chair, the Rackham was approaching the bright opening at the top of the fissure. With one completely red eye, he looked over the holographic readouts sprouting up from his console. Most were informing him that a cataclysmic seismic event was taking place across the northern region of the planet. The chain reaction was rippling across the tectonic plates, but the brightest alarm warned Roland that something catastrophic was happening to Shandar’s core.
“I’ve always wanted to see what one of those missiles could do…” He cracked open a beer and sat back, more than aware that the planet was seconds away from imploding and then exploding.
The viewport flared with eruptions from deep inside the planet. Columns of glowing lava broke through the ground and shot kilometres into the air. Earthquakes saw entire mountain ranges disappear into chasms be
fore more lava burst forth. The Rackham was forced to take evasive action and weave between the deadly jets that exploded without warning. Slabs of rock the size of battlecruisers were flung high into the air and shattered into a thousand pieces, raining heavy chunks down on the hull.
Roland sighed and swallowed a mouthful of beer. It wasn’t the worst way to go, he thought. Saving the galaxy with a beer in his hand was definitely in his top three ways to die.
“Oh, shit!” The bounty hunter put down his beer and hit the comm button. “Len, are you there?
“What the shit is going on?” the Ch’kara shouted back. “Is this a Planet Killer?”
Roland chugged the last of his beer. “Cool, ain’t it?”
“It’s fucking terrifying, you moron!”
The bounty hunter pulled away from the console and turned the volume down in his earpiece. “It looks like you’ve got about two minutes before the shockwaves hit your area. I don’t suppose the Forge is operational, is it?”
“How can you be so casual? We’re both about to die!”
Roland sat back in his chair and felt the pain in his shoulder combine with the pain in his leg. “I’m kind of tired, Len. Death doesn’t sound like the worst thing ever right now.”
“It’s powering up,” Ch’len yelled over the rain on his end. “The Nalaxian crystal needed some extra love, but the wormhole is on a countdown to activation.”
Roland looked at the scans and numbers streaming across his console. Ch’len wasn’t wrong; they would both be dead very soon.
“How long until activation?” he asked.
There was a pause on the Ch’kara’s end. “One minute and forty-six seconds…”
The bounty hunter compared that number with the Rackham’s ETA. “It’s going to be damn close, Len. As soon as the wormhole opens, you need to—”
“Don’t you worry, I’ll be through that thing and on the Brightstar quicker than you can say the planet’s about to blow!”
Roland activated the straps in his chair, fastening him to the hard leather. “Rackham, divert all power to thrust. Disable all safety protocols. I don’t want life support, lights, inertial dampeners, nothing! Let’s see if we can’t shave off some of the time…”
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