Parallax (William Hawk)

by William Hawk

  A short distance away, Little Horn woke up and began to slowly crawl toward him.

  “You’re mine!” the creature said.

  “Can’t you say anything else?” replied William

  “Die!”

  That voice sounded more like Hunter’s. The figure leapt into the air with almost unnatural strength. William glanced to his left. He was less than a meter from the edge of the deck. Below that, and spread out to the horizon, was the blue carpet of the ocean.

  As Little Horn was about to fall upon him, William rolled toward the edge.

  Six. Five.

  He scrambled to his feet, the back of his black sailor’s boots at the edge of the ship.

  “Come and get me,” said William.

  Little Horn looked at him, the slitted eyes looking reptilian.

  Three.

  It sprang at William, who ripped the neckerchief from his neck and wrapped it around Little Horn’s. The creature screamed and then sank its blackened teeth into William’s forearm.

  The pain was so intense that William teetered in his shoes, began to fall backward, grabbed the neckerchief, and pulled Little Horn over the edge of the ship with him.

  Two.

  Together, the two hurtled eighty feet down, along the hull, through the air. As the ocean rushed up to meet them, William held his breath in anticipation.

  His last breath.

  One.

  They hit the water, plunging deep before their momentum slowed.

  His lungs full of air, William waited for his body to rise back to the surface. He didn’t dare breathe out yet, even though it would’ve ended the snap, because he didn’t want this host to find himself fifteen feet underwater. He needed to at least get the man’s body to the surface. His full lungs would also help him rise to the surface more quickly.

  He saw Little Horn floating next to him, in a fetal position, eyes closed, the picture of helplessness. “He’s weaker in water,” Proof had said. William knew he could put faith in Proof’s words.

  He paused. This was William’s chance to kill this horrific entity, this bizarre evil blip in the world, once and for all. This was the opportunity to do the universe a favor.

  He had to do it.

  Looking around, William saw a piece of twisted metal drop into the water and begin sinking. It had evidently just fallen off the carrier. He kicked his way over to the metal and caught it just before it passed into the dark abyss beneath his feet. William looked at the debris in his hand. It was a piece of aluminum steel panel, twisted and ripped and still hot to the touch.

  Holding onto it tightly, and still holding onto his final breath, William swam back to Little Horn. Without wasting a second, he pulled his arm back to run the twisted metal into the entity. But before he could strike, the creature spun around and caught his arm. Little Horn was undoubtedly slower in water, but it was still powerful.

  “You’re mine,” Little Horn hissed.

  “Saying it won’t make it true,” said William.

  They grappled over the metal, the two of them suspended a few meters below the surface. William pushed; Little Horn blocked. It was strange fighting underwater. It felt like performing jujitsu in a tank of syrup.

  Without oxygen, though, William felt his strength starting to leave him. Before he knew it, Little Horn was slowly forcing the pointed end of the twisted metal toward his body. Then Little Horn’s hand found William’s throat and squeezed. William felt his limbs go soft. This was going horribly wrong. He couldn’t die here. Snapping into a host who died would be grounds for him to lose his CA3 status.

  “You can’t kill me,” said Little Horn. “Nobody has ever killed me.”

  “Watch me,” William gasped.

  “I’ll come back. I always do.”

  “The Ancient Engineer said you’re nothing but a mistake in the universe,” replied William. “Your entire existence is a strange aberration. We humans are the flower of creation. That’s why you have spent your entire existence trying to destroy us.”

  “There’s something he isn’t telling you,” said Little Horn.

  “What is it?”

  “I was a Change Agent Level Three.”

  “Liar!”

  “There’s a lot the Ancient Engineer doesn’t want to tell you,” he hissed.

  There was no way to tell if the creature was lying or telling the truth, but it didn’t matter. This was intolerable news. But William knew in his heart what was true. The Ancient Engineer loved them and wanted them to succeed. That thought sent a bolt of courage through William’s mind and body. Howling out in anguish, he grabbed a hold of the piece of metal, turned it back on Little Horn, and ran it through the ancient entity’s abdomen. Instantly, the creature’s grip on his throat loosened. An unearthly howl emitted from its mouth. Large bubbles rose slowly to the surface, while dark blood pumped into the water, forming a poisonous cloud that looked like squid ink.

  A single tendril of the cloud brushed William’s skin. It burned like acid, and he jerked backward. Quickly, he kicked away from the bleeding entity, his lungs nearly bursting. Without wasting a second, he pushed himself up to the surface with three powerful kicks.

  “Goodbye, Little Horn. Goodbye, Hunter.”

  A moment later, William breached the surface and gasped as he released his final breath. He started to suck in another enormous lungful of air.

  Snapback.

  CHAPTER 34

  ILLIAM AWOKE IN HIS POD. HE STILL had the sensation of being trapped underwater, unable to breathe, and so he spent a minute just lying still, breathing.

  Then he opened his eyes. There was no movement outside the pod. “Shana?” he called.

  There was no response, so he pounded on the cover of the pod with the heels of his palms. “Shana? Proof?”

  Still nothing. The only sound was the occasional beep of the monitor that Shana kept in the corner of the room. William screamed her name as loudly and for as long as he could. He kicked the pod cover with his feet. He threw a temper tantrum like a child.

  At last he ran out of breath and lay there, gasping. The sad truth was starting to occur to him: Nobody was coming for him. Shana had abandoned the team, and apparently Proof had too. Maybe they figured that he’d be killed by Little Horn. Maybe they’d been reassigned to a different task. Maybe the Change Agent program had been discontinued by the Ancient Engineer.

  Or maybe something else had happened, something he hadn’t foreseen.

  No matter what, it was up to him to get himself out.

  William recalled that the polymer lids of the pods were pretty much unbreakable, at least without power tools. However, the corner joints of the pod casket could be gamed. They were riveted, as he remembered.

  So kicked at the right corner of the pod, over and over. He could feel it giving way, just a little. His right leg tired, so he flipped over onto his belly and continued bashing the corner with his left leg.

  At last, the bottom piece of the pod loosened from the base. Two more good kicks, and it swung free completely. William undid the armband and scooted himself down the pod and slipped out the narrow aperture at the end, falling onto the floor of the pod tank.

  He lay there for a moment, breathing heavily, before pulling himself to his feet. He looked around. Everything appeared normal, as though Proof and Shana had just stepped out to go to lunch.

  Then he heard the pounding on the pod next to him. Crap, the others would need rescuing too.

  First he opened Grace’s pod and then moved to Trina’s. He helped both of them out, and they brushed each other off.

  “What happened?” asked Trina. “I was in the scullery, crouching behind a stack of pans for the entire snap. It was both boring and horrifying.”

  “Me too,” said Grace. “I was in the command tower, watching the Japanese fighters buzz the tower. It was cool, but I didn’t learn anything, really. And I didn’t see you.”

  “I got Little Horn, I think,” said William, then he quickly t
old them the story.

  “That’s awesome,” said Trina.

  “But what about Jeremy?” asked Grace.

  William looked at Jeremy’s pod, which was full of spiderwebbed cracks, and thought about it. Their teammate’s prostrate body was clearly visible inside. “I mean, he should be back to normal. That was the point, after all. Who wants to open it?”

  Nobody dared to speak. Finally Grace said, “I’ll do it.”

  Grace went over to the pod and looked down and then looked back at them. “You volunteered,” said Trina.

  Trina edged her way toward the exit as Grace slowly extended her index finger toward the open button.

  “Come on,” said William, “don’t chicken out. What’s the worst that could happen?”

  Grace looked at him with sad eyes. “I could release a dangerous ancient entity into our only sanctuary.”

  “But besides that?”

  She didn’t answer. Instead, Grace merely pressed the button. The pod cover slid back, revealing Jeremy. He appeared to be back to normal.

  “Jeremy? How are you feeling?”

  Their teammate sat up, blinked twice, and looked around. “What happened to me? The last I remember, Little Horn was on me in some concentration camp. Then I wake up on a battleship.”

  “Little Horn happened.”

  As they undid his cuff and pulled him out, Grace explained the events. When she finished, the four team members looked at each other.

  “I guess this is graduation,” said Trina, “even though there’s nobody here to celebrate it with us.”

  “Are you sure they’re gone?” asked Jeremy.

  “They could be in the galley.”

  “Or in Proof’s room.”

  “Let’s have a look,” said Grace.

  They fanned out through the station, checking the rooms. William had a queasy feeling in his stomach, as though he were looking through a place that he had once lived but had since moved on from.

  A scream filled the corridor. It was from Trina, and it came from the direction of Hunter’s room.

  William and Jeremy and Grace ran down the corridor and crowded in the doorway. Lying on the ground were Shana and Proof, blood staining their shirts and pooling on the ground beneath them. Both had suffered what seemed to be multiple shallow knife wounds. William also saw that they both had defensive injuries too, cuts to the hands.

  “Oh my God!” shouted Trina, “are you okay?”

  “We’re alive,” said Proof.

  “Who did this?” asked Jeremy.

  “It was Hunter,” said Shana, as they propped her up against the wall. Trina pulled bedsheets off the mattress to stop Shana’s bleeding. Grace did the same for Proof.

  “I think it was Little Horn,” said Proof, breathing heavily as Grace tended to him. “It was hard to tell the difference. I think they’ve . . . blended together.” He took a breath. “He was trying to kill everyone on the team, but we protected you. We put a temporary lock on the pod tank door that prevented him from getting inside.”

  “Then you saved our lives,” said William.

  Proof managed a weak grin. “I need you to do something for me.”

  “Anything.”

  “Call the Ancient Engineer.”

  “How?”

  “There’s a globe on Shana’s desk, a very small one. Just touch it.”

  William ran down the hall toward Shana’s desk. On a corner of it was a small opaque white globe, about the size of an orange. It sat inconspicuously on top of some papers. He hadn’t noticed it before. He reached out and touched it, holding his fingers against the surface. The globe glowed bright white. The word coming spelled itself on the opaque surface.

  “All this time, it was that easy,” William said to himself.

  By the time he ran back to Hunter’s room, the Ancient Engineer had already appeared and was kneeling before Proof and Shana. He wore the same gray wool suit as before. The other three team members were standing flat against the wall, aghast.

  “He just materialized in the middle of the room,” whispered Jeremy, his face white.

  “Right next to me,” whispered Trina. “I almost crapped my pants.”

  Nodding sympathetically, William whispered back, “Yeah, he said he tends to forget that it weirds people out.”

  The Ancient Engineer was passing his palms over Proof and Shana, who were weak and pale from the blood loss. William glimpsed the same flash of light in the Ancient Engineer’s palms that he’d seen while he was in the medical bay. The Ancient Engineer looked up. “Well, their bodies are stabilized, so at least we won’t lose these shells. Where should we put them?”

  William felt oddly confident around the Ancient Engineer. Their first meeting had done a lot to dispel the nerves. “In the sick bay. There’s exactly two beds.”

  “Then let’s carry them there.”

  They formed two human chairs with their arms. William took the Ancient Engineer’s hands, which felt soft but strong, and transported Proof down the hall, still wrapped in a bedsheet. Trina and Grace followed with Shana.

  When they’d deposited the two patients in the sick bay and made them comfortable, the Ancient Engineer walked back into the corridor, mopping his brow. The four team members watched him, amazed by his tiniest movements.

  He noticed them watching him. “It’s true. I sweat just like you.”

  “In this form, you do,” said William.

  The Ancient Engineer turned to them. “I request that all of you meet me in the galley. I have to make an announcement.”

  He disappeared into thin air. Jeremy spun around. “Where did he go?”

  “I hate it when he does that,” said William.

  “What do you think he’s going to tell us?” asked Grace.

  “Let’s find out,” said William.

  They moved down the hallway toward the galley. Instinctively, each team member reached out for the others’ hands. William felt his heart palpitating. He looked at Grace and saw the nervousness in her eyes.

  “I’d really prefer not to spend the next millennium cycling in and out of Menoram,” she said. “I want to make a difference.”

  “Me too. But it’s not up to us anymore,” said William.

  They entered the galley. The Ancient Engineer was already there, seated at the table in the same place he was when William met him a few nights earlier. This time, however, he was looking at a screen, which was propped on the table at an angle that should’ve been impossible without any visible means of support. His brow was furrowed, and he appeared lost in thought.

  The four team members stood in the doorway, uncomfortable, waiting for him to notice them. Finally he looked up.

  “So I just ran the numbers, and you made it,” he said.

  “What did we make?”

  “You’re all CA3s. Sufficient empathy achieved.”

  The team members felt their hearts leaping out of their chests. They looked at one another, eyes dancing with happiness. The Ancient Engineer continued: “It was dicey, but the algorithms really liked some of your late moves, particularly yours, William. You didn’t need to ask for another tag-along to go back and get Jeremy and fight Little Horn.”

  “It was the right thing to do,” William said.

  The Ancient Engineer stood up and came around the table and offered handshake to each of them in turn.

  “I’m really shocked,” said Grace. “Proof told us that we either made it as a team or we didn’t make it at all.”

  “We lost a member,” added Jeremy.

  The Ancient Engineer’s eyes widened in frustration. “Yes, I’m very aware of that situation.” He shook his head. “Hunter is something new. I’ve never seen a CA2 with so much potential go crashing down so quickly and so deliberately.”

  “Did he have help getting back into the station after he was taken away?” asked Grace.

  The Ancient Engineer acknowledged. “I activated the Blaugrad Mechanism, for the first time ever.”
r />   “The blue mist?”

  He nodded. “Proof hadn’t ever seen it either. That’s why he was unsure. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure it was going to work, but it did. It took him directly to a holding pen. I call it suspended animation, but eventually he had help escaping.” He paused for a moment. “To be honest, it was still in beta. I really should’ve put him somewhere more secure.”

  “What do you think he’s going to do?” asked William.

  The Ancient Engineer shrugged. “There’ve been other rogue agents like him before, but none quite as talented. I’m very concerned that he has already turned against us.”

  “Ancient Engineer,” said Trina, “can I ask, did you make an exception for our team because of him?”

  “Yes,” he said, taking his seat again behind the screen. “There was absolutely no dealing with Hunter, that much was clear. No negotiating with terrorists, even emotional terrorists. And now that it appears he has joined with Little Horn, well, that is really quite a force to be reckoned with.” He looked up, intensity in his eyes. “Your job, your future mission, all of you, is to contend with this new entity they’ve formed.”

  William cleared his throat. “Can you tell us about that mission?”

  The Ancient Engineer casually tapped his screen. “I was just setting it up. Would you like to see your next lives as full-fledged humans?”

  “This is not a tag-along?” asked Jeremy.

  The Ancient Engineer shook his head. “Nope. You have full lives.”

  “More than five hundred breaths?” asked William.

  “You get all of the breaths,” replied the Ancient Engineer, grinning. “Millions of them.”

  “And are we going together?” asked Trina.

  “You’ll all be on earth at the same time, and that’s as much as I can say.” He held up a warning finger. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it. This mission is going to be tough, and your deep understanding of eternal matters is going to be tested. But if you learn to surrender yourself to something higher, you have the opportunity to change the world, for the better.”

  The team let out a spontaneous whoop, eager to learn more about what lay in store for them.