Tesla Evolution Box Set

by Mark Lingane

  “When you do get the chance, promise me you’ll go. Speak the truth. Speak from your heart.”

  Isabelle’s eyes fluttered and her body twisted. She lay curled up for minutes in the hushed silence of the room. Then she opened her eyes and looked into his face, and with great effort straightened out her body, pushing against the pain.

  “This is it, Sebastian. Think of me fondly.” She closed her eyes and relaxed. Her hand slipped out of his and fell to the side of the bed.

  “Oh, Mom, please no. Not now. Please don’t leave me.”

  Her chest stopped moving and her limbs became heavy. And time left her body behind.

  “No!” Tears rolled down Sebastian’s face, and he howled into the early night.

  Outside, the Academy rolled past, with daily activities closing up and night duties being prepared. The world spun on in its unrelenting dance into the infinite, leaving a sobbing and inconsolable Sebastian in its trail.

  Nikola closed the door. He wiped some dust from his eye with the back of his hand. His quarters were stark evidence of a life lived in denial: a single military bed, a wardrobe, and only one shelf. Boots and weaponry lay in one corner. He looked grimly at the weapons. He picked up his sword, hefted it in his hand, and stared at the blade. He sat on the bed, pointed the sword at the floor and rested his hands and chin on the pommel.

  He looked up and stared at an item on the shelf, a small wooden box. He laid down the sword and reached for the box. He held it carefully in his hands, and paused before he opened it.

  Inside was an old photograph. The edges were frayed and one corner was dog-eared. He smoothed it out with his thumb. It was a picture of him and Isabelle embracing, with their smiles almost falling off the edge of the picture. Grief gripped him as tears rolled down his face, falling to the floor. He held his hand to his face and sobbed.

  The funeral was respectfully bleak. It rained. Unseasonably, it rained all day. People cried. Sebastian stood between a stony-faced and unmoving Nikola and an emotional Melanie. Melanie cried. Sebastian did not. She cried because he didn’t.

  Sebastian held onto Melanie as his mother was lowered into the clay. He felt there was nothing more that could be taken away. Desolation and emptiness burned within him.

  Days wound on. Sebastian sat in his room and failed to open the door to anyone. Nikola stared at the wall in his quarters, stark and lonely. Both felt like the act of breathing drained their bodies of all energy. Both were locked away in their rooms with no interest in what happened outside.

  23

  “ARE YOU ALL right, Commander?” Colonel Parker called out, knocking on Nikola’s door. Several weeks had passed since Isabelle’s death, and he had decided enough was enough. And someone had to authorize the payroll. He knocked, banged, and pounded until Nikola finally opened the door.

  “No,” Nikola replied. “I’m not.” He was unshaven. His eyes were darkened by nights of broken sleep. He sighed and beckoned for Parker to enter.

  “I look at this photograph you took of us back after graduation,” Nikola said, “and I feel like my insides are being ripped out. I wish the ground would open up and swallow me.”

  “It can be tough.” Parker placed his hand on his commander’s shoulder. “I’m here for you, if you need to talk. Or drink a lot.”

  “Everywhere I look, I see her. In the shadows. In the reflections in the puddles. When I close my eyes, I feel like my insides are being chewed up.”

  “Look, staying here in your room is about the worst thing you can do. Come on the mission to the capital. It’ll get you out of town. Maybe we’ll meet some bad guys and you can release your grief the old-fashioned way.”

  Nikola stared at the photograph for a long time. Eventually, he looked at Parker and said, “All right. I know you’ve got Peter. Is Albert still going?”

  Parker nodded.

  “At least that’ll make it interesting. You never know what’s going to blow up with Albert around. Speaking of which, will there be any medical expertise?”

  “Michael wants to come.”

  “Why? He’s a veterinarian. We don’t have any animals, other than the ones we’re going to eat. His knowledge will be handy, but I’d prefer someone with experience in dealing with people.”

  “He was in jail for a few years. Maybe he wants the open road.”

  “Fair enough.” His eyes started to sparkle once again. “Organize someone with medical knowledge. You’re right, the open road may cure us all.”

  Parker marched into the hospital. The nurses and doctors nodded to him as he made his way through the maze of corridors. He found the administration room and knocked.

  Florence looked up and smiled. “Colonel Parker, you’re in one piece. You’re not of much interest to me if I can’t look after you.”

  He gave her a smile in return. “We’re shipping out on a peace mission out east. Have you got someone you can spare to come with us?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Doesn’t have to be one of your best. Anyone who can wrap bandages and give injections without smiling will do.”

  Florence sighed. She looked over her folders. She shuffled through various green ones. Her face lit up and she handed over a file.

  “Angel Snow?” Parker said. He flicked through the details and shrugged.

  “She’s as new as they come. I’m not sure she’s even a qualified nurse. But she shows promise, and she’s pretty. You like the pretty ones, I seem to recall.”

  “That’s why I like you.”

  Florence was too tired and world-weary to be embarrassed, so she just gave him another smile. “Come back alive, and we’ll see what we can do.”

  Sebastian stomped around Melanie’s room. Since his mom’s death, his moods had swung wildly.

  “Look, I know you’re angry,” she said. “That’s part of the process. Just don’t be stupid.”

  “What do I do now? Everything I’ve been doing was about getting her back. Now she’s gone forever. There was always hope. Now there’s none. I’m really coming to hate this place. The Academy’s been nothing but pain and heartache.”

  “You can’t just run away from the city. Where will you go? It’s not as if you have a lot of family to visit.”

  He gave her a dark look.

  “Sorry,” she said sheepishly. “That was insensitive of me. You want to peel out? You and me on the highway, looking for adventure?”

  He gave her another look and flopped down on the chaise. “What’s the point? You’re right, where can I go?”

  “Do you have any unfinished business with friends?” She raised her eyebrow at him. “Anyone you’d like to search for?”

  A spark of resolve appeared on his face. “Yeah, Mom told me to go after @summer. That’s what I should do. It’ll be like carrying out her last wish. If I happen to save the world and rescue everyone on the way, then so be it.” He rubbed his hands together and gave her a mischievous look. “Are you coming?”

  “Of course I am. If you’re going, so am I.”

  “Sure it’s not because Peter’s going?”

  She gave him a look of disdain. “A fact that is mere coincidence.”

  24

  EIGHT O’CLOCK RANG out from the clock in the piazza inside the Academy gates, where the six people involved in the peace mission were to gather. There were no grand parades, no bunting hung out. No ceremonial mugs.

  Nikola rode over to where Parker, recently usurped as head of mission, was double-checking his equipment, tugging at the ropes, and tightening where necessary.

  Parker gave Nikola a nod. “How are you feeling, Commander?”

  “Fine.” Nikola let out a long sigh. “I went over to the grave and said goodbye. I still feel terrible, but not as terrible as yesterday. Is this everyone?”

  “We’ve got a few more coming,” Parker said. “Medical assistance and so on.”

  “Fine. As soon as they’re here, we head out. The sooner I see the back of this place the better.” H
e took a deep breath and looked around at the Academy walls. “You and me, Parker, just like the old days.”

  There was a roar of an abused engine and Melanie appeared, revving her machine until it sounded like it was about to burst.

  Nikola rolled his eyes. “I can guess who that is,” he muttered without turning around. He drove off toward the gates. “I’ll see you all outside,” he shouted to Parker over his shoulder.

  Melanie rode up to Peter.

  “Melanie,” he said, surprised to see her. “Are you coming?”

  “You bet.”

  “Are you sure you want to?”

  “There may be things I can shoot. Anyway, what am I going to do around here with you gone? A man left me once before, and it didn’t turn out well. I’ll make sure this one comes back.”

  “What’s he doing here?” Peter said when he saw Sebastian quietly rolling his bike from behind Melanie.

  “Where he goes, I go.”

  “Maybe. But that doesn’t work in reverse.”

  “I took an oath. Michael, tell the young man about oaths,” she said to Michael, who had made his way over to them.

  “I’m a veterinarian. We don’t take the Hippocratic,” Michael said. He nodded to Peter.

  “Anyway, look at him. He needs a day out to get over his grief,” Melanie said.

  “We’ll be more than a day,” Peter said.

  “Whatever. He’s my friend and he’s coming.”

  Parker strolled over to them. “Have you two finished arguing?”

  “We’re not arguing. Peter’s simply demonstrating his care for me, his concern that I might get injured. If he disagrees with my understanding of the situation, then he might be facing the same threat, er, concern about being injured.”

  Parker rolled his eyes. He told Michael to join Albert in the second steam utility vehicle and walked back to the leading SUV.

  A young lady approached wearing a very white walking dress and struggling with several large suitcases.

  “Hello, Angel,” Peter said. “Are you coming with us?”

  “I certainly am.” She gave him a warm smile. Her eyes sparkled in the sunlight. “Has anyone got a seat for me?”

  Parker called out, “Hey, medic, you’ll be sitting up with me. You can give an old man something pretty to look at.”

  Melanie couldn’t help but notice the look of despondency on the young lady’s face at Parker’s comment. As they began to move off, she rode close to Peter. “Do you know her?” she hissed.

  “We’ve met,” he replied.

  “As long as that’s all you’ve done.” She gave him a look of suspicion, fixed her goggles, and sped off to the head of the column.

  As they crawled out through the front gates of the Academy, Nikola, who was waiting outside, shouted to Parker, “There are more people than I was expecting.”

  “You know the old saying, Commander: ‘The more the merrier.’” Parker had tipped his goggles onto his forehead and his leather greatcoat was open.

  The convoy halted for the guard on the gate to take a weapons inventory.

  Nikola counted the party members as they rumbled past. “Wait!” he shouted. Everyone slowly pulled over. “What the hell is Sebastian doing here?” He waved in his direction, where he was trying to hide behind the SUVs.

  “He’s with me,” Melanie shouted over the noise of her machine.

  “There’s no way Sebastian’s coming. He’s only a boy.”

  “He’s also motherless and my friend,” Melanie said, riding her bike up to Nikola. She folded her arms and stared at him. “I think you can allow him some space on your little summer holiday.”

  “We don’t know what’s ahead.”

  “Really? I was under the impression this was a peaceful mission.”

  “I have noticed, Melanie, that with you around things can become violent and quite unpeaceful.”

  “Oh, shush, you’re embarrassing me.” She gave him a coy smile.

  “I don’t know if I’ve ever really liked you,” Nikola said. He narrowed his eyes at her. “If Sebastian comes, you’re charged with keeping him safe.” He signed off the exit paperwork and handed it back to the guard. “Group of eight leaving for the capital.”

  Sebastian rode up alongside Melanie and Nikola. “You know, I can speak for myself,” he said. “I am fourteen now.”

  “You’re actually fifteen,” hissed Melanie.

  “See?” Nikola said to Melanie as he started up his bike. He lowered his goggles and sped to the head of the convoy.

  “Which way are we going to the capital?” Melanie shouted to Nikola when she caught up with him. “Just thought I’d ask.”

  “Stowaways don’t get the privilege of knowing that,” Nikola shouted back. “But if you must know, our first destination is New Toowoomba. It’ll take over a week to get there. Then on to the capital.”

  They rode on until Melanie stopped swearing.

  “May I remind you that you were not invited.”

  “But my family, you don’t know what they’re like.”

  “I’m sure they’re like all family. You might hate them, but everyone else thinks they’re fine.”

  She rode along beside Nikola without another word, but with a grumpy expression on her face.

  25

  THEY MADE GOOD progress through the day, and toward evening went in the direction of a sign pointing to a nearby town. An hour after leaving the main track, they pulled up in the main street of the small settlement, which was little more than an old post office, the prerequisite pub, and a handful of dusty buildings.

  Nikola wrapped his hands around his mouth and shouted. “Hello?”

  There was no response. The wind blew through the street, stirring up small dust clouds. The town was deathly quiet.

  “This place is a tomb,” Peter said.

  “There’s something odd about that building on the right,” Melanie said. She gasped. “I saw something move in the window.”

  “I saw the shadow too,” Nikola said. “We need to be careful here. Peter, take the left flank. I’ll go around the back with Parker. Michael, keep watching for any other movement. Whistle if you see anything.”

  “Boring,” Melanie said.

  She leapt off her bike and ran toward the building. She kicked the door and it crashed open. Several shouts echoed out of the small house, followed by the smashing of furniture. A chair crashed through the window and shattered outside. Melanie emerged from the building dragging an ancient man behind her. He stumbled in the dirt, and she threw him to the ground.

  “We’re all in deadly peril,” she said as she let out a loud yawn. “How will we ever survive?”

  Nikola sighed. “Old man, where is everyone?”

  “Heh?”

  “I said, where is everyone?”

  “They’ve gone.”

  “We can see that. Do you know what happened?”

  “The kids went, sudden like, and the parents went sort of weird. Then they disappeared too. I blame those cyborgs.”

  “It won’t be the cyborgs. They’re on our side now.”

  “Heh?”

  “The cyborgs are no longer the enemy. They’re our allies.”

  “The cyborgs are our friends?”

  “Yes.”

  The old man sat up. “So that’s what happened. I wondered. The cyborgs were all stompy and threatening, and then one morning I woke up down by the power generator—you get good heat from boiling water—and they were standing around looking kind of lost. Then a couple of weeks later, they started to die. This was after we had already killed some of them. They just sort of sat there, looking like they didn’t know what to do. Some old dears even felt sorry for them and started to hand out cups of tea. What happened to them?”

  “They died because of a chemical imbalance,” Nikola told him. “Their Hive was destroyed and all the chemical processes that kept them alive became unbalanced. The cyborgs are slowly being poisoned. The ones in the Academy, the cit
y we’re from, offered to help us with the rebuilding. They asked for forgiveness and redemption. They endure the pain and sickness so they can undo all the evil that was done.”

  “That was dramatic. And possibly told from a victor’s perspective.”

  “It’s been an intense time, one of reflection on both sides. Peace has come, but at the price of a generation of people.”

  “You can’t fix them? The cyborgs could be handy in a tight spot.”

  “Not yet. We’ve been trying, but the technology difference is extreme in many areas, including medical.”

  “Shame.”

  Nikola looked around the abandoned town. “You said the children have gone.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Where to?”

  “Don’t know. Just disappeared.” The old man dragged his broken fingernails through his dirty gray beard. “Parents went all crazy like they do, searching around the place. Then, one day, they were all gone too.”

  “Why are you still here?”

  “I already lost my children. Decades ago.”

  “War?”

  “Booze. My boozing.” He hid his embarrassment beneath the layers of dirt and self-abuse.

  “I’m not sure which is worse,” Nikola said. “You don’t mind if we stay here tonight?”

  “I’m not staying here. He smells,” Melanie said. She pulled a face of disgust.

  “You won’t be in the same place as him,” Nikola said, tired of Melanie’s pouting. “There are many other buildings.”

  “And you’re welcome to them all,” said the old man as he peered around at the buildings. “Although, you might want to ask yourself why I won’t be sleeping in any of them.”

  Ignoring the old man, Nikola said, “Parker, get camp organized. Here’s as good a place as any.”

  “Are you sure?” Parker said. “Most people don’t like staying in haunted villages.”

  “It’s all a myth; there’s no such things as ghosts.”