Summer's Mermaid (Mermaid series Book 3)

by Dan Glover

  If he had to die in order to save the others, then he'd gladly give his life. He had never accomplished anything anyway. The others were seers and artists, healers and inventors. He was an itinerant wanderer who shunned his own wife and family.

  There was a time when he thought about writing books. It never came to fruition. When he tried to put down the words they were all wrong and no matter how he struggled he couldn’t seem to find the righteousness within them.

  Having children with Ena was the happiest era of his life yet he rarely spent time with any of them. He preferred solitude. His boys and girls grew up without ever really knowing their father.

  He knew it bothered Ena... the way he conducted himself. But the knowing didn’t mitigate the doing. There were so many moments when the whole family would be celebrating some special event with laughter and what would he do? He would sneak out the back door, roll his motorcycle down the path far enough that no one could hear it start, and scoot off into the forest to hide out at his cabin situated in the mountains.

  Now the children were adults with children of their own and when they came to visit at the Isle of Skye he did the same thing. He ran away and hid. He didn’t want to know his grandchildren. The loneliness of the mountains was preferable to birthday parties. The still of the night was better than a room full of laughter.

  More than anything he wanted to be normal.

  Hearing Amanda's voice again after all the years apart from her brought back an avalanche of memories tumbling through his mind... in a very real sense she was his first love more so than Ena. It took him a long time to learn to love Ena as a woman and not a sister. Amanda was his first real woman.

  He still didn’t understand why he drove her away.

  He suspected there was something deeply wrong with him although everyone was too polite to point it out. Sometimes he wished they weren't. He would enjoy knowing how others viewed him even if the portrait was an unflattering one.

  The right engine burst into flames, screeched, and then smoked out. Struggling to regain control of the jet as it careened across the sky Alpin searched the ground for a place to put down. He couldn’t be sure but he imagined the specks of sand hitting his windshield had lodged inside the turbines causing the delicate bearings to give way.

  Far ahead and looming on the horizon a gash in the earth stood out like a festering sore, an angry red eye staring unblinking into the abyss.

  He realized instinctively it was the nanobots' nest that Grandmother Lily asked him to seek out and destroy. As he moved closer as if in slow motion an image of an old Kamikaze pilot crashing into a battleship came to his mind.

  He knew what he had to do.

  Chapter 4 7—Exposed

  Kirk woke up in the dark.

  He had no idea where he was or how he got there. He remembered being with Nate and landing the anti-gravity craft near an outbuilding by Cornell University. They planned on entering there to find out if there might be a tunnel running to the main building. Something went wrong but he couldn't seem to recall what happened.

  When he attempted to sit up his body reacted oddly as if his joints were fused together. His elbows and his knees would not bend; his back was stiff and straight. In order to stand he sensed he might have to roll over to push himself upright. Even then, he wasn’t sure he could manage.

  "Oh... you're awake."

  The voice wasn’t familiar. When he attempted to talk his voice was barely a whisper in his own brain. Fear began to pervade his mind as Kirk realized he was blind.

  "Don't try to speak. You've had an accident but you're safe for now. You were exposed for a brief while, however. You're probably feeling the effects now."

  Exposed to what?

  The words wouldn’t come though they rang through his head like a bell.

  Mr. Nate's voice resonated to the other side of him but it didn’t sound right... there was a metallic ringing to it that jangled Kirk's nerves until they were on edge. It all dawned on him in a flash. They were hurrying to get inside—they had nearly reached the doorway—when he saw something swooping down... it looked like a dragon. A rush of gray ensued. Pushing his friend into the safety of the building Kirk had absorbed the full brunt of the attack.

  Prior to that he had felt something creeping up his legs like the fleas used to do when he was a kid growing up in a dog-infested home back in Kurgan. Only he knew these things weren’t fleas. He assured himself that that it would take millions of such particles to overcome his senses and as long as he kept his footing he would be unaffected.

  The force of the dragon strike knocked the breath from him like the fall into the catacomb tunnel had done in Kurgan. As he was falling he had caught a glimpse of someone standing ahead of them, another man though slightly built enough that he could have been a boy. He didn’t have time to wonder who it was before darkness overtook him.

  "My name is Micah. Perhaps you remember me. I came to help you but I inadvertently caused more harm than good. You were already becoming infested by the time I reached you. Don’t worry, though... once we get you back to Lady Lily your symptoms will abate."

  Kirk had the sense of being lifted off the ground though he couldn't feel the hands upon his body. Though he tried to blink his eyes they seemed welded shut. He was intensely cold though unable to shiver.

  "Please keep still, Kirk. We'll have you back in the main building soon."

  Mr. Nate's voice—while attempting to sooth his anxieties—was instead dripping with worry. Kirk was no longer able to breathe except in short gasps. It was as if iron fingers were inexorably constricting his ribcage and though he desperately desired to cough up the dust settling into his lungs he couldn't inhale enough air to do so.

  He felt like a balloon slowly inflating to the point of bursting.

  There was no pain, only a mild sort of discomfort that he couldn’t seem to shake. He wanted to let go, to succumb to the lure of the sand, to leave the pollution of the flesh behind forever. A face hovered in front of his mind's eye. At first it was hard and uncaring. As he watched, however, the face morphed into someone he knew and loved: Luciana.

  She was waiting for him. He made her a promise to return if at all possible. He steeled his will against the incessant metal worms weaving their promises into his brain to hold onto that one thought: seeing his beautiful Luciana and their precious child one more time.

  He was floating the same way he did all those years ago when he escaped the clutches of the mother tiger and her hungry cubs only this time the sensation continued. The distended thing he'd become was tethered to the earth by a single thread, a spider web perhaps, or a silken thread spun by a monstrous caterpillar.

  Sleep beckoned yet he knew if he yielded to its temptation the part of him that was Kirk would be lost forever. He would become an automaton, devoid of dreams, a slave to metal. He recited an old nursery rhyme:

  Sleep, baby, sleep

  There's a morning to come

  The wind in the trees

  Is speaking in tongues.

  He couldn't remember who used to sing the lullaby but gradually an image of Luciana formed in his mind. She was holding Candice, their precious daughter, and singing her to sleep as she rocked the baby back and forth in the chair Kirk made for them.

  "I don't want to die."

  It was a thought that became solid issuing forth from deep inside of him. If he had eyes he was sure he could see the statement floating free and alive in the air above him. As it was, he couldn’t be sure anyone else heard him until Mr. Nate answered.

  "Don't you worry, Kirk, my friend. You're not going to die. We'll have you back at Cornell in a few minutes. Hang in there. We're going to lay you down here for just a minute."

  Hearing Mr. Nate refer to him as a friend lent strength to his fast-ebbing confidence. He was a human being, not a machine. When they reached Lady Lily's side, everything would be right and proper again. Though he waited to experience the touch of the ground on his backside it s
till felt as if he was floating.

  "Oh no... someone or something has locked the door."

  Micah sounded panicked, or perhaps the man was lying. Doubtlessly he had orchestrated this whole fiasco... only he had wanted Nate, not him. If he hadn’t pushed his friend away at the last instant, Nate would be the one encased in steel.

  The sound of thumping merged with the dying beats of his heart as he heard something inside his chest crack. He was surrounded by a ball of finely spun yarn... rather than feeling cold a warmth began to blossom inside his belly.

  Kirk's mind started to drift back to his childhood... a body was standing before him... he recognized it as his father. But the head was missing. Tendrils of fetid smoke issued forth from the neck cavity while a couple feet above the shoulders a sickly green visage—more of a scowl—hovered menacingly and above that image hung another, and above that, another, on and on until the foul messenger reached to the heavens above that the old man always preached about.

  He was waiting for him—not in the security of heaven but in the fires of hell—just as he swore he would do if Kirk ever crossed him. Instead of feeling frightened of the old man, however, Kirk was filled with a sense of purpose. He knew he had evolved beyond the stuttering scared little boy who shrank in fear at a mere look from his brutal hoax of a father.

  His strength was such that should he desire he could crush the old man's windpipe with one hand and watch while he suffocated. The thing he was becoming was a melding of flesh and metal, strong and smart. No longer the idiot, Kirk sensed flashes of brilliance racing through his brain like lightening flashes in a thundercloud deep and dark.

  Micah was a child next to him. Though he loved Nate, he too paled in comparison to the path opening before Kirk. The darkness was dissolving and in its place a shimmering brilliance opened up enticing him onward.

  Chapter 4 8—The Plan

  He felt indestructible but he knew that was an illusion.

  Though they were moving fast he sensed their presence as the tiny machines flowed over each other to worm their way into his very bones. Still, by purposely expanding his sphere of influence to protect Daughter, Kāne hoped they'd have time to reach their destination before he was completely overcome.

  "If we could destroy the central nest of the nanobots it would render them all inert."

  Micah explained his plan to Lady Lily while he and Ena had listened from the next room. When Daughter took his arm to lead him into the kitchen he had hesitated. He felt if they entered, Micah might not be as forthcoming as he was while alone with Lily.

  Kāne held back, using his eyes to dissuade Daughter from going any farther. Though he shot a thought her way by the look of confusion on her face he didn’t think she received it.

  Upon arriving here, Daughter had started acting strangely. She seemed lost. During their time together Kāne had come to depend upon Ena's insight into the future moment. Now, she had gone silent.

  One of them wasn't going to make it to their destination.

  He had known it all along... that's why he came along with her. He assumed Daughter knew that a sacrifice would be required—that one of them wouldn’t be returning home—and that she was fully prepared to give up her life that the rest of the group might live.

  Now he wasn’t so sure of the plan the four of them devised.

  According to Micah, the nanobots operated by way of a central nexus. Each miniscule invisible particle was tied together with all the others through that nexus, or nest as Micah called it.

  "My nanobots developed self awareness some years ago. I didn’t realize it until they began forming complex patterns on their own. Up until that time, they fed off my imagination. Whatever I thought of or dreamed about would give rise to myriad shapes and forms, like the dragons that brought you to me, Lady Lily.

  "I didn’t intend to kidnap you. I had a dream of that time when you all visited me here and apparently they interpreted my dream as a request to recreate that visit. Somehow the nanobots knew if one of the Ladies were brought here, the rest of your group would follow.

  "I was living in a dream. When you arrived, I woke up again. I finally understood what a terrible thing I had wrought by creating those tiny monsters. I never should have let them loose. I could blame it on their influence over me but it's my fault.

  "All the professors at Cornell warned me of allowing my miniature inventions free rein in the world. They were right and I was wrong. I was young, though, and I thought I was a genius. I dreamed of proving myself not only to the parents that had forsaken me but to the entire world.

  "I was always scared of dying. I was just a kid and all of a sudden I was told I only had a few years to live. I thought I had so much to offer to the world. Now, all I want is to live a normal life. I'd love to go home with both of you and your people and find a little house where I could be part of your community. I've been living a nightmare, Lady Lily. When Kāne and Ena arrived, I knew I had to help you destroy my monsters.

  "They know what I think, however. I'm a spy. Whatever I say to you, I'm also telling my monsters. I know how to defeat them but if I tell you, they'll erect defenses to quell the plan.

  "I can tell you this: like any monster, if you kill the head, the body will die. The nanobots are entangled with the nexus; destroy it, and every particle will become inert instantaneously. They will become the sand that they are."

  "But how can we destroy the nest, Micah?"

  "Temperature variations are something the nanobots guard against, Lady Lily. They once tried to erect a shell around the nexus but it held in the heat that was generated by the core. Now they leave it open to the sky.

  "If they suspect an attack, they'll mount a response. It will be overwhelming, like a swarm of hornets when their home is threatened. The nanobots have access to resources that only they know about. They don’t decide or make choices like we do, however. They aim to evolve, to become better.

  "The thing is... evolution is never complete. It keeps on going. That's why I based my nanobots upon the theory of evolution. That's all they do: they evolve towards what is better. Not excellence, because once something is perfect, stagnation sets in.

  "That is what you're up against. It may seem as if my nanobots are simply reacting to their surroundings, but they are capable of changing the environment which they inhabit. In fact, even though they achieved self awareness the nanobots do not reckon any separation between what they are and the rest of the world.

  "I'd like to say they are the perfect machine but they will never become perfect. They are full of flaws. That's how they learn. If you're able to take advantage of some of those flaws, you can defeat them."

  Their eavesdropping completed, Kāne took Daughter by the hand to lead her into one of the lower levels of Cornell University. He wanted to leave her there while he journeyed to the nexus carrying a backpack laden with jet fuel and flares.

  Since they arrived in old America Kāne discovered his presence was lethal to the nanobots. On the other hand, Daughter seemed to be affected in ways she didn’t recognize. He saw how she changed. Though he wanted to go by himself, she refused to leave his side.

  "We're in this together, my darling Father. We're a team."

  "I worry for your safety, my sweet Daughter. If I perish, it's nothing. I live alone. I have no friends or family other than you. Your husband loves you deeply as do your children. Stay alive for them."

  "Please don’t talk like that, my precious Father. You're more than that. You've opened my eyes to so much. And even though we're apart for decades, I feel your presence every single second. I can't lose you."

  "Let's go on this journey together then, my lovely Daughter, but keep in mind if danger arises, you have so much more to live for than I do. Allow me to protect you."

  "Please allow me to protect you too, my sweet Father. Together we are stronger than apart."

  "Agreed, my darling Daughter... but please walk behind me."

  The landscape outside C
ornell University had become an iron maze of shifting corridors and quagmires threatening to swallow them with each step they took. The way seemed to open up as they walked which led Kāne to believe his presence was as powerful as Lily's... more than likely more so.

  The air was a steel curtain. As his lungs filled with sand the urge to cough was ever-present yet he knew if he drew a deep breath he'd only inject more particles into his chest.

  The exertion of extending his aura around Ena was becoming more difficult with each step yet he knew Daughter hadn’t the strength to defend herself from the nanobots. They fell in inert mounds before him until he was wading through drifts of dead sand flowing over the tops of his feet, and then piled up to his ankles, and finally he was knee-deep.

  "We're not going to make it."

  "Don’t give up now, sweet Father. We're nearly there."

  He knew Daughter did not understand the strain he was under by projecting the protective shield his body naturally exuded. At the same time, he realized he couldn't leave her here for without his presence she would succumb to the nanobots within seconds. She hadn’t his propensity to repel them. Perhaps it was because she was partly human or else she was simply not as strong as he... either way, they stayed together or died alone.

  Talking was a waste of energy so rather than trying to explain their predicament to Daughter, he pushed on. They had come to a valley at the foot of a ridge some twenty meters high. A reddish glow emanated from the top.

  Step by step—now up to his hips in gray sand clinging and pulling him down—he trudged up the ridge feeling Daughter at his back. If they could manage to reach the summit, the explosive jet fuel he carried on his back may render the nest uninhabitable if it wasn’t too large.

  The top of the ridge was glassy hard and so smooth he nearly lost his footing. Ena helped to steady him, lending him the energy he needed to pull himself up. Looking down, he sensed their efforts had been in vain; the nexus was easily a hundred meters long and thirty wide. Any hope of creating a conflagration large enough to destroy the nest was dashed.