Alien Game (The Thousand Worlds)

by Rod Walker

  The thousands of Darksiders flying towards us were using their mouthparts in unison to simulate Gregor’s voice.

  “You cannot stop me any longer,” said the hellish chorus. “I found the secret to controlling the Dark. I shall inaugurate a new age of global unity, and I shall forge the new world order. There will be no more classes, no more religions, no more nations. All shall be one, and anything that opposes the new order will be destroyed.” I heard the smirk in his voice. “Beginning, I think, with Black Division and Castle Base.”

  “Sir, we’ve got to get out of here,” said a soldier I didn’t recognize. “I can see Darksiders approaching. There must be thousands of them.”

  “Tens of thousands,” said Gregor and his chorus.

  “We leave now, we’re dead,” snapped Vance. “He’ll control the Dark, and he’ll coordinate them against us. We’ve only been beating them because they don’t understand us and they don’t understand how to fight us. Gregor does. Get ready to blow the APCs. Every single explosive we have. Maybe that will overload this force field of his.”

  Gregor’s scornful laughter answered him.

  I had to help them. I had to stand up. I tried to stand, but a wave of dizziness overwhelmed me. I slumped back against the APC, blinking. The glow from the dome dazzled my eyes, but I saw Gregor’s dark shape within it. I saw the soldiers hurrying to their APCs, preparing to explode them, even though they knew they wouldn’t be able to get back to the gate on foot in time. I turned my head, saw Rigger and Jack hurrying behind Vance as the captain barked orders.

  Maggie crouched next to me, gazing at me with a quizzical expression.

  “Maggie?” I croaked.

  She blinked. “This word-symbol is not known to me.”

  “My sister,” I said.

  “Ah,” said Maggie.

  “But you’re not my sister,” I said. “She’s back at Castle Base. You’re…you’re the major crystal, aren’t you? Talking to me inside my head.”

  “I am not,” said Maggie. “What your senses currently experience is an interface constructed from your memories and capable of communicating via the primitive word-symbols that underlie your cognitive processes. This only utilizes the millionth part of my capacity, but it is the only channel of communication available.”

  I blinked, trying to think through the pain in the back of my head. Interface. Maggie, the real Maggie, had talked about interfaces on her computers. So I knew that an interface was a program that communicated between the user and the computer. Which meant…

  I blinked again, my eyes gummy.

  Harlot. Gregor had called the crystal a harlot. But that was such an oddly specific insult.

  A memory flickered through my sluggish brain. He had called his mother a harlot when I had first met him, when he had decided to amuse himself by telling me his life story.

  Did that mean he saw his mother the way that I now saw Maggie? Was he telling the phantasm of his mother what to do?

  Had he constructed an interface for controlling the major crystal out of the memories of his mother?

  “Interface,” I said. “Gregor can see his mother, can’t he? That’s how he’s controlling the crystal. He’s telling his mother what to do.”

  “There is a concurrent user session,” said Maggie. “The human you identify as Mikhail Gregor has initiated a command session. His interface is constructed of the memories of his female progenitor.”

  “But you’re the interface too,” I said. “I can tell you what to do. I can issue you commands, right?”

  “Why do you wish to issue commands?” said Maggie, turning her flat, unblinking gaze toward me.

  “Because,” I said, groping for words. “Because…because Gregor’s going to use you to take over the world. He’ll kill a lot of people with you. He’ll keep the war going.” The memory of our previous conversation flashed through my mind. “Because he wants to keep the war going. I want to end the war. You told me the war is over. This has to stop. I want it to stop.”

  Maggie considered me for a moment. “This is an acceptable user parameter. You may attempt to issue commands.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Shut it off. Whatever Gregor is doing to control the Dark. Shut it off.”

  “I can’t do that,” said Maggie.

  “Why not?” I said.

  “The human called Gregor has physical access to the crystal, which authorizes a higher level of access,” said Maggie. “Priority will be given to his commands due to physical proximity.”

  That meant I had to get the crystal away from him. Or someone had to get the crystal away from him. But that meant getting through the force dome he had somehow created around himself.

  “The force field,” I said. “Can you take it down?”

  “The defensive countermeasures have been activated,” said Maggie. “They are designed to block anyone outside the hive mind from entering its area of influence. The defensive countermeasures can only be countermanded by the issuer of the command.”

  I grimaced. That meant only Gregor could take down the force field. “Can anything penetrate it?”

  “No technology available on your planet can overwhelm the defensive countermeasure,” said Maggie.

  “Get ready to move!” shouted Vance. “Rigger, Walter, get Kane if he’s still alive.”

  No, we couldn’t leave now. I was so close. I just had to think of something…

  “Wait,” I said. “You said only members of the hive mind can pass the force field.”

  “This is accurate,” said Maggie.

  “I’m part of the hive mind, sort of,” I said, heaving myself to my feet. The hilltop spun around me. I had to get to the dome. Fortunately, it was only a few yards away. I started forward, weaving a bit as I did.

  “Come on, Roland, it’s time to go,” said Jack, Rigger jogging behind him.

  “No,” I said. “The dome. I can get through the dome.”

  Jack walked through Maggie like she wasn’t there. I suppose she wasn’t. “We’ve got to go. We…”

  I couldn’t find the words to argue. I shouted and threw myself forward, and slammed into the curve of the dome. That hurt. It felt like running into a concrete wall. For an instant, nothing happened, and then the dome became…soft, like pushing at plastic wrap.

  Then I heard a popping sound, and I was through.

  I stumbled towards Gregor. He stood still holding the crystal, gazing at it with a frown. Maggie stood next to him, and I hadn’t seen her move. Or maybe the interface appeared when I happened to think about the crystal.

  I charged at Gregor. At least, I tried to charge at Gregor. Except I had a concussion, and my brain and reflexes weren’t working at all well. My charge turned into sort of a drunken, staggering wobble, and I almost spun around and fell over. Gregor looked at me in astonishment, his black eyes widening, and belatedly I remembered that I had gun. Except I had dropped my carbine, but I still had a pistol holstered at my belt.

  In the time it took me to remember that, Gregor sprang forward with alarming quickness, the major crystal drawn back. I thought he would shoot energy from it, or a laser, or something like that.

  Instead, he whacked me upside the head with it.

  In addition to opening portals through space-time, the crystal made one heck of a blunt object.

  Another explosion of pain went through my head, and I spun and fell and landed on my back. Gregor drew back the crystal to hit me again, then his eyes strayed to my belt and he snatched the pistol from my holster. I thought he would say something gloating or threatening, but then I remembered that he had started his career as a KGB officer and he wouldn’t screw around when his life was in danger.

  He raised the pistol to point at my face, and I saw my death in his hand.

  Then his eyes widened again, and he changed his angle and started shooting. I heard Rigger bellow in rage, and then Mikhail Gregor’s face and chest exploded from the impact of multiple high-caliber rounds. He staggered and collap
sed dead to the ground, the major crystal rolling away from his hand.

  I heard Rigger start cursing.

  The force dome winked out of existence, and my sense of the Dark changed somehow, losing the texture of Gregor’s mind.

  “You’re hit,” said Jack. “It’s not bad, though. Clean through the arm. Didn’t hit the bone or the blood vessel.”

  Rigger bellowed another curse. “Two years! Two and a half years I’ve been fighting the Dark, and I never got wounded once! Then I get shot by a withered old chipmunk!”

  There was a gunshot, and Gregor’s corpse jerked again.

  “Don’t waste the ammo,” snapped Jack. “He’s dead.”

  “Right,” grumbled Rigger.

  I looked up and saw Jack and Rigger standing over me. Rigger was grabbing his left arm. For a man who had just been shot, he looked more angry than in pain. Like someone had just insulted his mother or something.

  “Roland,” said Jack. “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” I managed to say. I looked over and saw Maggie standing near the crystal. “No.”

  “Killing the previous user,” said Maggie, “activated the defensive protocols. All available drones of all classes are coming here at maximum possible speed.”

  “What happened?” said Vance, stepping next to Jack and Rigger.

  I forced myself to sit up, and I grabbed the crystal that Gregor had dropped.

  “We’ve got to go,” I said. “Captain Vance. I can talk to the crystal. That’s what Gregor was doing. But we’ve got to take the lesser crystal and go.”

  “Can’t,” said Vance, pointing.

  I saw that the lesser crystal had generated its own force dome, shielding itself from any attack.

  “This defensive protocol is hardwired and cannot be countermanded,” said Maggie. “Nor will it permit any members of the hive mind to contravene it.”

  “Ah,” I said. “Sir, the crystal says we can’t shut down the force dome.”

  “But you can talk to the crystal?” said Vance.

  “Yes, sir,” I said. “Like Gregor could. Well, not like Gregor. I can’t take over the Dark the way he did. The crystal says they’re all coming to kill us.”

  Vance rubbed his face. “I’m taking orders from talking crystals, and we can’t close that scout gate. Okay, we’ve got to get Corporal Kane back to Earth and Castle Base. If he can talk to the crystal, the scientists can figure out what to do with him. He’s got to get away, regardless of the cost.”

  Regardless of the cost? That meant Vance and the others would try to hold the gate against thousands of Darksiders so I could get away. They couldn’t, and they would get killed.

  I started to protest, but Jack and Rigger hauled me toward one of the APCs. Rigger’s arm was wounded, but it didn’t seem to slow him down. I all but collapsed into the seat, my head spinning, my stomach churning, the major crystal clutched in my lap. Head injuries aren’t fun, but I had to think of something. Bull and Captain Howard and Sergeant Mendez and all their company had died at Spokane, and I had survived. It was about to happen again.

  “Maggie,” I said.

  “Who?” Rigger said.

  “His sister. He’s delirious,” said Jack.

  “No, I’m not,” I said, staring at where Maggie leaned against the wall of the APC. “The gate. Can I command you to close the gate?”

  “The gate may not be closed from this side,” said Maggie.

  “But what about the other side?” I said.

  “Roland? Who are you talking to?” said Jack.

  “Go!” I heard Vance say.

  “What about the other side?” I said.

  “An override may be issued from there,” said Maggie.

  “Captain!” I said. “Captain Vance.” My voice sounded slurred. “We’ve got to get through the gate. We’ve got to get through the gate as soon as possible.”

  “I know,” said Vance, and I heard the APC’s motor kill to full power. “Go!”

  It was a jouncing, bouncing ride through the hills back to the gate at full speed, and I sensed the Dark closing in around us. The roar of machine gun fire filled my ears, followed by Vance barking orders over the radio and the explosion of multiple Javelin rounds. The presence of the gate grew sharper and harder, and then we were through, the light changing to normal sunlight.

  The presence of the furious Dark followed us.

  “All right,” said Jack. “We’ve got to get Kane and the crystal back to base. Let’s…”

  “Now!” I screamed at Maggie. “Close it, close it, close it.”

  “Override issued,” said Maggie.

  For the next minute, it was only chaos, with the roar of machine guns and the buzz of the attacking Darksiders, Vance shouting orders over the radio and Sergeant Hobb responding.

  Then silence fell.

  “Sir,” said Sergeant Hobb. “The gate…the gate’s just gone. It just disappeared. You didn’t bring back the transductor, did you?”

  “No,” said Vance, twisting in his seat to look at me.

  So did Rigger, Jack, and everyone else in the APC, and Rigger was busy putting a field dressing on his wound.

  I tried to smile. “I asked the crystal to close the gate, and it did.”

  “How…how did you get the crystal do that?” said Vance, as astonished as I had ever seen him.

  “We both want the same thing, sir,” I said. “We both want the war to be over.”

  Chapter 12: Diaspora

  I had thought my first three years in Black Division were busy.

  The five years after the death of Mikhail Gregor were just insane.

  Once we got back to Castle Base and I got out of the infirmary (again), I spent even more quality time with the Division’s scientists and intelligence officers. Apparently, my ability to talk to the crystal was a big deal, and rewrote a bunch of scientific theories. I suspect they would have kept me down there for the rest of my life, but General Culver had another use for me.

  I could tell the major transductor crystal to close gates, and we had a lot of gates to close.

  I couldn’t do it by remote control, and I had to be within visual range to close the gate, but it was a lot easier than venturing to the other side to shut down the gate. Six months after Gregor died during his failed bid for tyrannical godhood, we retook Seattle, and we claimed another major crystal from the Seattle gate. By then, the scientists had figured out just how the Listeners could communicate with the crystals, so Major Randolph got to be the second Listener equipped with a crystal. Evidently for him the crystal’s interface took the form of his wife, which alarmed his actual wife a little.

  By the end of the first year, we had five Listeners equipped with crystals, and the liberation of the former United States proceeded apace. We soon had cleared the former US of gates, and Randolph, Jack, Rigger, and I spent a lot of time flying overseas to visit allies of Black Division and help them close their gates. In a single year, I visited every single continent except Antarctica.

  Two and a half years after that, the war was basically over. There were still occasional Darksider incursions, but we dealt with them quickly.

  We had won.

  There were a lot of political changes, but to be honest I didn’t pay much attention to them. General Culver resigned to serve as the first president of the new nation of Pacifica, though the various parts of the eastern US that had come through intact preferred to rule themselves. Black Division sent some time hunting down the surviving members of the Global Defense Committee, putting them on trial for crimes against humanity, and then executing them. Sergeant Hobb was especially pleased when the man who had invented his ex-wife’s favorite smartphone game was executed for his role in the GDC, though he probably wasn’t pleased for the right reasons.

  Jack was really excited about the constitution of Pacifica. Apparently only men who had honorably completed a term of military service and married women who had borne one or more children were allowed to vote (I guess the
General had included that to keep the Mormons happy). Jack thought that would solve a lot of the social and political problems the old US had endured.

  I dunno. I’m not an optimist. I’m too much my father’s son for that, and after Jack got elected to the Assembly, he explained it all to me. But I seemed to hear my father’s voice pointing out all the things that could go wrong.

  At least the interface had appeared to me as Maggie instead of my father. That would have been too weird.

  I did see less of Maggie once she got married, I’m afraid to say, but that’s only natural. A couple of weeks after her eighteenth birthday, an infantryman named Kyle Holmberg nervously approached me and asked for permission to marry Maggie, since I was the closest thing to her father. I looked up Holmberg’s service record and said it was fine by me, and I joked that if he treated her badly, I would feed him to the Dark.

  That was a joke, of course. If he treated her badly, I would just shoot him and have Rigger help me bury the body in the desert.

  I think he believed me. Certainly Maggie was happy with him. They got married and the first baby came a year later, named after Dad. I don’t know how Daniel Kane would have thought of little Daniel Holmberg, but I think he would have approved. Maybe a grandbaby would even have made him crack a smile.

  Jack got married, too, to some blond woman who smiled a lot and liked being an Assemblyman’s wife, and even Rigger had a steady girlfriend. Me, though…no. I had seen too much. I had seen other worlds, and I wanted to see more of them.

  The crystal showed me how.

  After the war more or less ended, I remained with Black Division, though I basically worked with the scientists as a translator, putting questions to the major transductor crystal and seeing how it answered. We couldn’t use it to open new gates, and the only thing we ever figured out how to make it do was to close gates. But the crystal would respond to any questions I posed to it, kind of like an alien version of a search engine, though the answers were always cryptic.