The mind and soul made all the difference. After she was alive and walking around the base, he noticed her. First with curiosity mixed with discomfort. He'd felt bad about putting a male Cue into a girl's body. But he had no difficulty in laughing at the crude and sometimes cruel jokes about her that floated around the men's barracks.
After Abigail's fight with Susie in the gym, however, he began to feel different. This wasn't just another Cue. And she wasn't a man trapped inside the body of a young girl. She really was a young girl, struggling to understand and come to grips with her new life and new identity. He stopped laughing at the jokes.
As she continued to grow over the first few months, he found that he was keeping a watchful, interested eye on her. She was making mistakes and learning from them. Very late one night, a couple weeks after her IHAD, Aaron and five of his buddies were taking showers. Exhausted from spending hours in the puterverse that she was already mastering, Abigail had strolled into the men's showers, only slightly more dressed than they, and completely unaware of where she was. They'd stared wide-eyed as she waved at them sleepily and then used one of the bathroom stalls. Finished, she stumbled back to her quarters, leaving them gawking after her. The next morning, she gave no indication she'd remembered anything.
He'd never mentioned it to her, but it was then that he'd begun falling in love with her. So different, so open, so alive, this young Cue became a beautiful young woman in his eyes that day. He began to understand that this was a person he was falling in love with, and the Creator had blessed him with this miraculous set of circumstances for him to be able to pursue that love. Her incredible combat skills soon put her in with him and Sarah, and the best triteam in the Resistance was born. Then came two years of working beside her, aching and wondering and hoping, but ever-patient, knowing the time hadn't arrived. He was crushed by her sharding episodes, and lifted by her returns. Months after her rescue, when she had begun feeling the natural urges of her body, she finally noticed him as more than a comrade. The little things he'd dreamed of for so long started happening. A shy smile, a small laugh, an extra squeeze of his hand. The time had come and she was falling in love with him.
And now they were married. Gone were his doubts, his fears, his loneliness. He was completely in love with her, knowing he would spend the rest of his life with her and praying it would be a long life.
Blood had begun seeping out of her right boot now, and there was a long scratch on her neck. He frowned. These were not the ordinary injuries associated with access. Something unusual and frightening was happening. Frightening because he could do absolutely nothing to help. She was in her world now.
The headset clicked on and Sarah's voice came through.
"Company, big guy. Looks like a power quad with ... damn! The fifth one's a psychosuit! Power up and give me a hand, double time!" His headset crackled from interference caused by a drawn holoknife, and he ran up the tight corridor to his wingman, his fear for both women being frozen out by the deadly coldness he relied on in battle.
***
The crescendo had arrived. Chris had fully committed now, and while the damage we'd taken was considerable, we were in a position to hurt him bad.
"READY?" I screamed. Both nodded their heads slightly. I could tell they were reaching the end of their endurance. I had passed the end of my endurance.
I turned out to the storm. My right foot was icy cold, and there was a bright black mark on my neck from a vicious cut Chris had given me in the nanosecond I had dropped my guard to send more support to Kiki. I was feeling weak in a way I hadn't since Posen had physically attacked me while I was accessing. That meant I was probably taking a beating in my physical body as well as here. No matter. Time for some payback. And payback is a bitch.
"Atarasikusuru!" I cried into the storm, using the Japanese word meaning renew.
The vortex behind us instantly turned into golden ice. The roar from the grinding, twisting maelstrom exploded into a thundering boom that swept away every shred of black on the pinnacle. Ramming the poisonous cloud back, the billions of shards that had been the vortex spread over and through the puterverse. At the same time, huge clouds of UTC crystals identical to the vortex erupted from the ground and countless structures where we had been laying the UTC mines for the last two years. Ripping the gilded, artificial surface into a fine mist of color, scents and sounds, they revealed the true face of this spoiled world. Black, rotting and putrid, every square meter of the puterverse lay open like a festering wound, an unhealthy puss seeping from every gash, a fetid mucus spurting from every encrusted pore. The horrible stench of oily gray and sickly green filled our lungs while the rumbling agonies of exposed hatred crashed against our senses, numbing them with needles of rancid code.
A soul-wrenching scream swallowed all sound. Torn out of shredded lungs, clawing with razor sharp hooks to remain entombed inside itself but being forced out, it laid open deep cuts on our arms and legs, and spilled hot bile onto our bodies. Chris Young was fighting every moment, every millimeter, every portion of his death. But he was dying.
Unable to hold the puterverse in his perverted grip any longer, he released his hold to save himself. Instantly, the venomous fluids and gaping wounds began boiling away. From the healing wounds, the true surface of the puterverse appeared.
Kiki pulled her hand away from me and stepped off the ledge. She floated for a moment while beautiful white wings spread out from her back. Raising her arms above her head she beckoned to the skies. They moaned with relief, as though a mighty burden had been lifted, and began shimmering. From far inside the blackness came a flash of deepest blue. It pulsed a second time, then spread through the skies. It seemed, at first, as though the obsidian darkness would relinquish its reign, but no, the blue was from the sky, but not of it. Racing and glimmering, it coated the black with a dark blue that grew lighter and lighter. Pinpoints of solid black began peeking through, then shafts, then areas. The blue condensed and shrank, lightening and intensifying in color, and then it was raining. A peal of electron thunder tore open the skies, and in the backwash of deafening noise came the long, thin wail of a lost soul who had passed from this reality and into the eternal one that awaited him.
Kiki, her glowing form dripping from the rain, turned and smiled at me, laughing. Ignoring my pain, and shouting with joy, I jumped off the ledge and joined her in the air, and we began playfully chasing each other, swooping and diving and acting quite insane. Like small children, we flitted about, losing our fear and pain in the downpour of healing energy that washed away forever the presence of Chris Young.
I vaulted over Kiki in mid-flight, laughing, and swung around toward the pinnacle where we'd fought our battle. Mike was still standing there, staring off over the plain. I flew down and landed beside him.
"Hey, party pooper!" I bumped up close to him, throwing my arms around him. "C'mon! It's over! Let's go for a tour of the place, huh?"
"No," he whispered.
"No?" I asked, feeling just a trifle less happy. "Why not? Look, if it's because of the damage, don't worry. We can fix--"
"No, Abby" He shook his head, voice intense with fear. "No! It's not over! Young's not dead yet!" I let go and backed up.
"What are you talking about, Mike? You heard him. You saw him. This rain is everywhere in the puterverse by now. Where could he ..."
"There!" He raised an arm and pointed. I looked, walking up to the edge in dazed and horrified realization.
The Quantum. It hadn't changed. All along the bank the rain was splashing and dancing on the ground, washing away the last vestiges of Chris' influence and presence. But there was no rain falling on the Quantum. It continued on, undisturbed by the otherwise complete transformation of the puterverse.
A stab of molten despair filled me. I sagged to my knees, sobbing. I had done everything I could do. There was nothing left. And Young was still alive. Alive and in a place we could not reach. Still, there must be some way. There had to be.
&
nbsp; "What is it guys?" Kiki landed beside me, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. "What's wrong, Abigail?" she asked softly.
"It's that bastard Young!" shouted Mike, his rage and frustration darkening his green aura. "He's still alive! See? The Quantum! It's unchanged! He's in the Quantum, that ..." Mike called him an unprintable name, then fought down his anger. "He's in the Quantum," he finished quietly, "and we can't touch him."
"Can't we mine the Quantum?" Kiki asked, a hint of hysteria in her voice as the nameless fear she had conquered only minutes before returned.
"We can't mine the Quantum, Kiki, and he knows it," Mike replied bitterly. "There's too many lives that depend on the data in that river. Life support patients. Phased vehicles. Traffic controls. Space stations. We destroy the Quantum and thousands, maybe millions, die."
"If we forced him out of the river, we could--"
"We could what?" Mike interrupted roughly. "We gave it our best shot and he's still breathing. It doesn't matter, though, because we can't force him out, and he ain't coming out, Kiki. And he knows damn well we can't get him."
"Yes we can."
Mike and Kiki turned to me. I stood up slowly, my entire body aching from the pounding, both here and in my own world.
"Yes, we can get him," I repeated, trying to convince myself I wasn't insane with grief and that what I was thinking would really work.
"What ... what do you mean, Abby?" Kiki's voice trembled in fear of my answer. "You can't go into the Quantum! Not even our UTC shielding would hold off the massive weight of that much binary."
"Kiki's right, Abby," Mike said softly. "It was one thing when he hit you coming across. It was just streams of data from the river. No real force. But you go into that river and you die."
"I know that. To be honest, if I could go into that river and know for certain that I could take Chris with me, I would. But I don't know that. I do know that I don't have to go into the Quantum to get him."
"Then how?" Kiki asked.
I told them.
***
Aaron could smell the nose-wrinkling stench of burned out servos even in his sealed helmet. He limped back to the side alley that they had left Abby in, Sarah leading the way. Her left arm was dangling, and her helmet had been cracked open. Blood ebbed from a scalp wound, slowly coating her armor. He was little better. His knee had been badly wrenched and his right wrist was broken, as were at least two ribs. They needed at least a minute to regroup.
It was a minute denied. A bright spot speared out of the darkness behind them, skewering them in its unforgiving light. They'd been spotted, and pursuit was inevitable. They had made a good account of themselves, taking out three of the quad team. But one more remained. One more and the psychosuit.
"I'm about all in, Aaron." Sarah gasped through her still functional headset. She wasn't complaining, she was apprising him. "That freak broke my arm in the last attack, and I'm bleeding bad into the suit."
"Weapons?"
"Ammo's out. Holoknives gone. I'm down to a blade, my muscle and some dirty words."
Despite the grim situation, Aaron smiled. There was no better combat buddy than Sarah. Sarah and Abby.
"Me, too. I've got five slugs, a sonic grenade and a magpuck. Okay, let's make it tight and nasty. No exit scenario."
Sarah nodded, understanding that the time had come for them to exchange their lives for the success of the mission. She ducked up the alley and moved quickly toward the small cavern where Abby was accessing.
Following, Aaron reached down with his left hand and detached the grenade. Arming it, he dropped it in the tight passageway and moved as quickly as his injured knee would let him, hoping to put at least ten meters of rock between him and the blast.
He entered the cavern and was grabbed by Sarah, who jerked him aside just as the grenade detonated. Tons of rock came crashing down into the small passageway, blocking their pursuers out and blocking them in. The reverberations continued for a half minute as the tunnel collapsed completely, entombing them. He put an arm around Sarah and sagged back against the rock face and sank to the floor, sighing. Sarah slid down next to him and grinned, nearly suppressing the grimace of pain.
"So, this is what it takes to be alone with you," she said.
"You watch yourself, woman." Aaron chuckled. "I'm a married man."
"Aaron?" came a distant and unsteady voice.
Aaron and Sarah jerked their heads up. It was Abigail, looking confused and dazed, but looking at them.
***
I could barely make them out. They seemed to be sitting down against the wall. Sarah's suit appeared damaged, but it was like looking into a sandstorm during a heavy fog while it rained on a moonless night.
Aaron stood up and walked slowly to me. Was he limping? I raised my hands sluggishly feeling like my bones were about a half-meter behind my arms.
"Don't come any closer." I hoped I sounded clearer to him than to me. "I'm still in the puterverse." I continued raising my hands and began undoing my armor. The upper chest gel packs fell free and I felt a little better.
"...gail ..... ... matter?" He sounded as though he was shouting from the opposite end of a long tunnel, and while I could hear him, the echoes tripped over themselves, making him difficult to understand.
"We destroyed Chris' hold on the puterverse, Aaron, but we couldn't destroy him." I removed the rest of the armor and dropped the holster. Removing the excess matter made me feel better, but the movement in both dimensions was very disorienting and nauseating. I began working slowly to remove my boots. The right one was sticky, and a tingle of cold went up my leg when I pulled it off.
"..at ... ..u ..ing? ... ... .ll .ight?"
I shook my head, not understanding. But I could guess.
"I have to go after him, Aaron. We beat him here, but if I don't finish the job in our reality, Chris will just come back. If not this century, then the next. Or the one after that." Having taken all my armor off, I began removing my uniform. The less mass I took with me, the less energy I'd have to use. Each kilo that I took off eased the pain.
"Abi....!" He seemed upset at what I was doing.
"Aaron, you have to clear the base! Get everyone out of here! I'm going to make absolutely certain Young is dead. To do that, I have to blow the generators."
"...oooo!"
"Please, Aaron! This has to be done. I'm partly responsible for what Chris has done to this world. To our world." I felt an icy hot tear trickle down my cheek. "To you. If it hadn't been for our NATech in the twenty-first century, there wouldn't have been a NATech in the twenty-seventh. For 600 years he has controlled the lives and deaths of billions of people. It ends here. Now." I was now wearing only my torso body sheath. I stooped down and through the thick fog found my boot. I drew the knife and stood up.
"I'm blowing the generators in twenty minutes. Get everyone out." I stared at him, his form even more obscured by my tears. "I love you, Aaron." I turned away.
"Abi.....!"
"Total."
***
I slipped back into the puterverse and sagged to the ground. I had not felt so exhausted since my IHAD, three years and a lifetime ago. I looked in my left hand. No knife. But then, I hadn't expected one. Not yet.
Kiki lifted my shoulders up and laid my head in her lap.
"Hey, Kiki. Is Mike back yet?"
"No, not yet," she said quietly. "He's constructed the shunts, but he has to rebuild the access structure before he can initiate the generator overload routine."
"S'okay," I said sleepily. "I'll just wait here, if you don't mind. You've really gown up, Kiki. You must be a dozen centimeters taller than me, now."
"Uh-huh," she said noncommittally.
"What's on your mind, lady?" She really was a lady, too.
"Abigail, are you sure this is going to work? Transferring your presence into the puterverse is one thing, but your physical body? Can it be done?"
"I'm sure it can be done. Whether it can be survivable, tha
t I'm not sure. But there's no choice. Mike's shunting programs will work for a while, trapping Chris in the real world, but Chris will figure a way around them. We might have the superior code, but he's had centuries of practice with his."
"I suppose."
"Hey. Would you rather I didn't try? What then? I won't live forever, Kiki. The day will come when it will be just you and Mike. Do you want to see this beautiful dimension ruined again? Now that you two have the chance to make it the way it should be?"
"But what about all your computers and programs? What about the link that's been binding our two realities together all these centuries?"
"It will continue, Kiki. In fact, I'm counting on you and Mike to oversee it. Just think, Kiki! As twisted, perverted and restricted as the puterverse was under Chris' hand, it can be that much the opposite under yours! The children who played at level one will be able to run and learn and enjoy at any level, because there won't be any levels. Not in the way there had been. A select few have been getting a taste of such a world for several months. Now, everyone can have that taste.
"Kiki, these are two worlds, tied together in a commerce of information. You and Mike are the first natural, living beings in this world. You can begin ..."
"You, too, Abby. After all, you made us."
"Yes, I did," I said slowly. "I can move freely here, without physical cost. And I can act like you and Mike. But I'm not of this world. I'm from the flesh world. It is there that my husband is. It is there that we'll raise our children, Lord willing. It's there that I was born and there I will die."
"Just not yet!" she insisted with a smile.
"Let's hope not," I smiled back at her. "Here comes Mike. Time to get ready."
***
Aaron looked helplessly as his wife went rigid again, becoming unaware of him. He had clearly heard every word she'd said, although she apparently hadn't heard him as well. His heart pounded against his fractured ribs as though trying to impale itself on them. He nearly wished it would.
Final Book Page 20