by Mark Lingane
“Uh-oh.” Sebastian’s eyes widened, taking in the unexpected results of the grenade.
The ferocity of the shaking increased. The tower rocked, and pieces of the roof collapsed.
The camera spun wildly in circles. “What have you done?” Iris roared.
“I’m bringing balance,” Sebastian said. I hope, he thought. His eyes darted around nervously.
“You know nothing. There is no balance. You’ve doomed us all, you fool.”
“This is revenge for all the lives you’ve taken, including the lives of my mother and my friends.”
“How little you know. I’ve seen all futures in the probability trees. Your failing to join us condemns the world to destruction. Your current actions have now assured it.”
“Er …”
“Is that the human response? The Hive was vital to the survival equation and you have now destroyed it.”
“It was an accident.”
Sebastian thought that if cameras had expressions, this one would be steeling its gaze with a lens full of thunder.
“You have started a chain reaction that will deaden the planet. I leave you to reflect upon your injudicious actions in the last moments of your life. I will take Isaac, and together we shall reshape a new world from the ruins of the old.”
Before Sebastian could say another word, the camera retracted into the crumbling ceiling.
Opposite him, a small doorway opened. Out of the darkness staggered the recognizable form of @summer, clad in the black armor of a cyborg. Her staccato movements and pained face indicated her body wasn’t her own. She had been re-assimilated, but Sebastian could see that she was fighting it.
She looked up and saw Sebastian. Her whole body lifted and there was a moment of freedom as she reached out to him.
He called out to her. A fierce light shone down and drove her to her knees. She whimpered with the pain. Another, smaller camera descended from the ceiling and speared a long needle into the back of her neck.
She arched her back and cried out in pain. Then she went quiet. She looked at Sebastian but her eyes, which were now black, were no longer her own. Her long blond locks were coiled beneath her black helmet. Mechanically pirouetting, she glanced at him. She spoke, but it was no longer the voice Sebastian knew from before.
“Goodbye, Sebastian. Maybe next time you’ll think about the consequences of your actions.” She turned and walked back through the open door.
A large piece of the roof fell in and sheared off half of the landing. Sebastian turned and ran with tears streaming out of his eyes.
8
IN THE SHAKING foundations of the crumbling tower, two men circled a slender female figure suspended in light. Her body glowed with a fierce energy, nearly obliterating her features.
Oliver Stephenson’s newly appointed “research” room was falling to pieces around them. Large displays cracked, emitting flickering half-images. Fissures in the walls slowly opened and crawled up toward the ceiling.
Oliver and Gavin stood in the middle of the chaos, watching their promised future turning to dust around them. But they focused on a naked figure in the center of the room.
“Who is this?” Gavin said, indicating the figure. “Is she a tesla?” He clasped his hands behind his back. The high levels of energy flux were causing his palms to itch. His thumb rubbed fiercely over his right-hand palm. Blood began to seep from the raw spot.
“She’s our revenge,” Oliver said. “She’s a faraday, the symbiotic answer to a tesla. The wall to the sea. The hammer to the nail. A bit like your old girlfriend, don’t you think?” Oliver indicated the vision in front of them.
“No. She’s nothing like Melanie. This faraday is beautiful. Her curves are so seductive. She’s perfect.”
“You feel no remorse over shooting Melanie?”
“How can I, when this is the exchange? I’d do it again.” Gavin reached out toward the floating body.
Oliver slapped Gavin’s hand away and glared at him. “It’s hard to resist the allure of the siren.”
“She sure has the allure.”
Both stared at the faraday. The figure stood stock still, with head bowed. She bobbed gently in the flow of the current.
“Will she be recognized?” Gavin asked eventually. His dry, cracking voice snapped Oliver out of his trance.
“We have to find a way to make sure those who identify her are indisposed,” Oliver said, “leaving only those who will … appreciate her.”
They both laughed.
The faraday’s head snapped up and her eyelids fractured, revealing pitch-black eyeballs. Her mouth roared and light poured out toward Gavin. He threw up a protective shield, deflecting some of the force, but still it knocked him to the ground. The force roared over his prone body, setting his clothes on fire. He shrieked in pain.
Oliver raised his hand, and the creature closed her mouth. The hurricane stopped abruptly.
Gavin frantically patted out the flames on his clothes. He sat up and turned angrily to Oliver. “What do you think you’re—” He stopped when he saw the strange expression on Oliver’s face.
“Beautiful,” Oliver was whispering over and over again.
They watched the figure walk away, both hypnotized by the swaying of her hips and oblivious to the destruction erupting around them.
“Where did this … faraday come from?” Gavin asked.
“She was found by a roaming cyborg party in a small town,” Oliver replied. “They handed her over to save their cowardly skins.”
“But I thought faradays were impossible.”
“No, just undiscovered. In science and nature, everything has an opposite. Otherwise, the universe would collapse. A faraday is a beautiful creature, but totally untrustworthy. Such is the female way. Mortal females will often turn on someone with such vindictive poison after appearing to be an intimate and reliable friend that it feels like a dagger in the heart, but in the faradays’ case, it will actually be a dagger.”
A light laugh slipped from Oliver’s lips, half concealing a manic whimper. His eye twitched as the faraday disappeared.
Gavin was skeptical. “Will she look normal?”
“She has neurological implants to keep her focused on the mission. As long as she remains on track, no one will be able to tell the difference between her and a normal tesla. She’ll be perfect.”
Gavin closed his eyes and licked his lips, relishing the dimming memory of the faraday’s naked form.
Oliver gave him a push.
“How will she maintain her power?” Gavin asked.
“Symbiosis.” Oliver gave him a brittle smile. “We need to go, there’s work to do.”
9
MICHAEL HEARD RUNNING feet, and then the scream as Sebastian tore around the corner toward him. “Good grief, what happened?” he said, as he caught the charging boy.
“Er, nothing.”
“Then why’s the ground shaking?”
“Oh, that, yeah.” Sebastian examined his fingernails.
“Well?”
“There might’ve been some explosions. Something weird might’ve happened to the core.”
There was an ominous creak from the walls. The corridor twisted and buckled, forcing the ceiling down several feet.
“But there’s nothing to worry about,” Sebastian said.
A huge sheet of metal sheared through the wall, narrowly missing Michael. His eyes went wide.
“Much,” Sebastian added.
Michael gave him a deadpan look.
“Okay. I went to the core of the Hive. I thought if we destroyed that, we’d destroy the whole Hive. It’s what we came here to do. Then, it turned out I was the only one who could do it. Then there was a big spider, only it wasn’t, and the walls went weird. I had an argument with Iris, then I saw my friends, but they’ve been captured and they’re changed. Then lots of stuff happened. But it was totally Iris’s fault.”
There was another violent shake of the corridor. Everyone look
ed up. The ceiling held, and there was a collective sigh of relief.
“Danger!” Peter shouted.
A cyborg appeared at the end of the corridor. It gave them a puzzled glance before stomping away.
“Or not,” Peter added.
“That was weird,” Sebastian said.
“Maybe not,” Michael said. “If you’ve destroyed the Hive core, the cyborgs won’t be receiving instructions anymore.”
“So, I’ve liberated them.”
“Maybe, or condemned them all. You can’t suddenly release people from captivity if they have no way of looking after themselves.”
“Oh.”
“It’s the same with domesticated animals. You can’t just release them into the wild. They spring innocently into the great outdoors, looking for fun and excitement, only to find certain death.”
“You’re not helping.”
Peter coughed. They turned to look at him. He was still carrying Melanie.
“I’ve noticed something about these cave-ins,” Peter said, indicating the destruction around them. “Some of them are happening independently of the shaking. I think the place is changing shape. Deliberately.”
Sebastian and Michael looked at each other. They turned and ran down the corridor, and everyone followed them.
The group burst out of the building into a large outdoor quadrangle. Cyborgs were swarming through the grounds and leaving the military complex.
A small skynet of cyborgs walked through the group, knocking several men to the ground. Peter turned and stood firm against them, protecting Melanie. The cyborgs bounced off his unyielding frame. One cyborg toppled over and struggled on the ground for a moment before standing up and continuing his departure for sanctuary.
Sebastian looked at the cyborgs’ faces and realized that they looked just as scared as they did themselves. He tried to push his way through the cyborgs to the gates of the military zone, but the cyborgs were heading at right angles to them, making it impossible.
A series of screams and shouts spiked from the building behind them. Cyborgs streamed out of the entrance. There was a roar. A door burst off its hinges and flew into the crowd, knocking over several cyborgs and crushing them under the weight.
The fearsome apparition of a sullivan came lumbering out. Its arms swung wildly, knocking everyone out of its way. Sebastian looked up into its eyes, which rolled around, full of terror. Sebastian knew that if a sullivan was afraid, something bad was coming.
The sullivan charged forward. A small skynet opened fire, but they were impotent against the great creature. It swung around and crashed into the skynet, laying waste to the cyborgs.
Another sullivan appeared from the building, also agitated out of its mind. Its body momentarily recoiled against the barrage of weaponry, but the attack was ineffectual.
The second sullivan stopped abruptly. It turned slowly and stared at Sebastian. He shrank back against the group behind him.
The beast brought down both its fists, smashing them into the ground. It swung one great fist and Sebastian ducked, desperately somersaulting out of the way. The second fist came in low, grazing him and knocking him back. He rolled to the side as a fist came down again, narrowly missing him, and rolled straight into the palm of the waiting hand.
The sullivan lifted him up to its face. It sniffed at him before pulling away as if Sebastian were poisonous. It opened its mouth, revealing rows upon rows of sharp metallic teeth. The beast’s lips grazed against Sebastian, and he wriggled desperately in its clutches. It lifted him up above its head and opened its mouth wide. Then it dropped him and he fell toward its mouth.
10
SEBASTIAN FELT HIMSELF falling. And falling. He hit the ground and rolled. Relief swamped him as he realized he hadn’t been eaten. He staggered to his feet and looked up. Michael appeared beside him and pulled him away.
The sullivan screamed out in pain. Its head rolled skyward as its neck swayed from side to side. Its body twisted as one knee gave way to the unseen attack. The head toppled to the ground, and the body collapsed forward.
Standing on the creature’s back was a ferocious woodsman, his axe bathed in blood, his face masked in unstoppable determination.
“Merv!”
“Hi, sport, how’ve you been? Have you seen Bindi?” Merv said, jumping down off the sullivan’s back.
“Only briefly. She was in the lower levels,” Sebastian said, pointing to the door of the building, “but I’m not sure there’s anyone left down there now. Oliver had her.” He looked back at Merv in amazement. “Are you on your own?”
“No, I brought the cricket team with me.” Merv pointed to a similar group of men making their way through the throng. “Who’s Oliver?”
“He used to be my teacher, but he’s one of them now, one of the cyborgs. He was Bindi’s penpal. He was using her to get military info from you, and to lure me here.”
Merv’s piercing eyes scanned over the rampaging and terrified crowd.
“Something bad’s happening, Seb. You’ve got to get everyone out the front gates.”
“They have a gate?”
“Of course. How do you think they get in and out?”
“But it’s not like they need a letterbox.”
Merv did a double take at the sight of Peter carrying Melanie. He gave him a long stare. “What’s your name, son?”
When Peter told him, Merv looked away momentarily, lost in recollection, then he turned back to Peter. “I’m going down to get my daughter. You get Melanie and Seb out of here. I’ll be counting on you.” He leaned over to Peter and whispered, “And expecting it, Mr. Fleming.”
Sebastian saw a look of surprise flash across Peter’s face, followed by something else. Both men stood staring at each other. Peter gave a barely perceptible nod.
“Gates are to the south,” Merv shouted over his shoulder as he disappeared through the great doors. “Follow the stampede.”
“What a strange fellow,” Michael said. He was standing between Sebastian and Peter. “If not slightly mad.”
“He’s a family man,” Sebastian said. “His daughter Bindi means everything to him.”
“Let’s move before we’re trampled to death,” muttered Peter. He nodded in the direction and flow of the general panic.
They ran through the throng of cyborgs, catching startled looks. The crowd compressed and narrowed toward an unseen point, then dispersed into the bright daylight outside. Cyborgs were now running in random directions, seemingly unable to decide where to go.
A loud grinding noise cut through the air. The cyborgs bunched up and formed a protective ring. Dozens of silver domes rose out of the sand, generating a perimeter around the fleeing Hive occupants. The cyborgs came to an unsteady standstill, cautiously surveying the landscape. The domes clicked once before spinning open to reveal huge robotic spiders the size of humans. As one, the spiders rose and scurried forward at lightning speed, attacking anything that moved. The cyborgs fought back against them, but were easily overpowered by the deadly beasts.
Sebastian felt Peter knock against him. He was still clutching Melanie close, her unconscious form wrapped around his large chest. Peter’s face was set. He placed one foot behind the other, his boots kicking up the sand.
Andana rallied the rest of the men and they prepared to defend themselves as best they could against the spiders with little or no weaponry. Several men were taken down quickly as two spiders charged in and speared their razor-sharp legs into the defenseless men.
A spider charged toward Sebastian and the small group around him. He focused his mind. The creature struggled against the electromagnetic force, which slowed it in its tracks. It stopped, and began rerouting the internal circuitry to combat Sebastian’s attack. It raised its front legs. As it charged forward, it repeatedly wrenched open and slammed shut its mechanical jaws.
Peter’s jaw clenched. He kicked forward, hitting the underside of the spider’s head with such force that its whole body lifted up
off the ground. He swept his leg around, knocking the spider’s legs from underneath it. The creature collapsed onto its side and rolled onto its back. Its legs thrashed in the air as it tried to right itself.
Peter ran forward, ducked around the frantically waving legs, and stomped down on the thin tubing between the head and body. The legs twitched, then went still. The creature lay limply on the ground.
Peter looked down into Melanie’s face and blew errant strands of hair out of her face. She muttered incoherently and rolled into his body.
Sebastian stood with his mouth open. He fought for words—elegant prose worthy of Peter’s act of immense heroism and bravery, which he had underplayed with the coolness of an equal.
“That was the most totally awesome thing I’ve ever seen,” Sebastian said.
The spiders scuttled around the surface, spearing their sharp legs into anyone unfortunate enough to be near. The cyborgs fought back with their weapons. The laser firepower caused only minimal damage to the creatures, but it slowed their attack.
Commotion suddenly burst from the Hive gates. A sullivan crashed to the ground, crushing two spiders. Further spiders crumpled to the ground, letting out high-pitched squeals as they collapsed.
Covered in sand and streaks of blood, Merv hacked his way through the spiders, flanked by two of his teammates. A freshly rescued Bindi kept in close behind him, wielding a large knife with deadly precision.
Merv cut down another spider, just as Sebastian ducked for cover. Merv bounded over and lifted him out of the sand. Bindi ran up and enveloped him in a great hug. Despite her years of disconcertingly abundant infatuation with him, against the inadequate defense of his disinterest, he relented and gave her a hug back.
The ground took on an urgent shaking. They all spun around. The battlefield was littered with dead cyborg bodies and the remains of the giant spiders. Smoke billowed from the creatures and drifted across the sky, occasionally obscuring the sun.
Then all went still.