by Jacob Holo
“Ohhh…” Jack moaned. Consciousness and coherent thought slowly returned. He blinked and looked around.
How did I get here?
Jack thought he recognized the airlock at the entrance to the Gate complex.
His eyes watered. Needles of pain shot through his abdomen and danced across his whole nervous system. He clutched his side and found something thicker and more rubbery than a pressure suit.
My intestines seem to be on the inside. That’s an improvement.
Jack became aware of new data in his neural link. This suit, something called an interface-suit, provided details on his current medical condition. He tabbed through the data and frowned. Bones had been set, blood loss stopped, organs returned to their proper locations, but he remained in poor shape.
Oddly, all the damage came with repair time estimates.
Jack focused on breathing. Each lungful burned him inside and out. He sat up and leaned against the wall.
Seth Elexen crouched against the opposite wall and stared back at him with a neutral expression.
Oh crap…
Jack shifted his posture, back to the wall, and rested there.
“Hey, Seth.”
“Hey.”
Jack tapped the i-suit. “Is this yours?”
“Yeah.” Seth wore a white form-fitting pressure suit with a black fishbowl helmet at his side.
“Thanks. I guess I—damn!” Jack grunted and clutched his side.
“Jack, why didn’t you tell me?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” His words were heavy with labored breathing. “What would I have said? ‘Hey, Seth! I just figured out today that I’m turning into another Bane!’ How would you have reacted? How would anyone have?”
“You should have told me what you planned, especially after you found that thing.”
“I wish I could have, Seth. Really. But the Bane can… heh, she could listen to hypercast.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Yeah, well, so is stopping time. I suppose the two might be related. Plus she was very observant. It sometimes caught me off guard how sharp she was. Gnnnngh! Is it supposed to feel like a thousand needles digging through my side?”
“Yeah. Pain means it’s working.”
“Some painkillers would be real nice.”
Seth linked with the i-suit and released the painkiller inhibiters. Wonderful, blissful happiness spread out from his abdomen.
“Oohh… that’s more like it.” Jack breathed easier.
“It’s normally held back. Painkillers dull our connections to the seraphs.”
Jack took a deep breath and sighed. “So, what now?”
Seth glanced down the passage leading to the Gate. “Something’s wrong. I talked to the Choir, and they think the Gate is going to bust loose. Our fight with the Bane damaged some sort of anchor that holds the Gate in place.”
“Are we in danger?”
“Not right now. We’ve got some time before it rips free. The Choir said it will most likely shoot straight up, exiting the planet’s gravity well. We should be in our seraphs ready to move when it does.”
“Well, that solves the problem of getting out of this pit,” Jack said. “As soon as the Gate leaves, our seraphs should be back at full power. Can your crew get out when that happens?”
“The seraphs are prioritizing their repairs accordingly. We’ll be ready to leave.”
“That’s good.”
“And since we have some time before the Gate leaves,” Seth said, “why don’t you explain to me how you concocted this crazy plan of yours?”
Jack sighed. “Well, you remember when I left, right?”
“How could any of us forget? It was so sudden.”
“I was actually running away.”
“Running from what?”
“Everyone. I figured out what I was becoming, Seth. I knew that I was going to become a bane, though I still have no idea how long the process will take. Do you have any idea what it’s like suddenly realizing you’re going to turn into some monster everyone hates?”
“Can’t say that I do.”
“Well, I did. Hell, your entire society is centered around killing the Bane. And I’ll admit it. I was scared. Hell, I was terrified. And so I ran away.”
“You went looking for the Bane.”
“Well, my goals evolved over the years as I searched. By the time I did find her, I figured if I could defeat the Bane, it wouldn’t matter if I was turning into the same creature. I’d done a lot of research on the Bane, the Gate, and the Exile before leaving, and that bastard Veketon let slip more than he thought. So I was able to come up with a plan to lure the Bane here. I thought if I could kill the Bane, it’d be proof to everyone that I wasn’t like that creature.”
“But it didn’t turn out like that,” Seth said.
“Seth, I know I screwed up. The plan seemed simple enough from the start. Find the Bane. Get it to the Gate. Spring the trap. But it all got mucked up when I actually found her. The Bane was smart and suspicious. And there was no way I could send a transmission of any kind to anyone about my intentions, because she would know. I was alone and in over my head.”
“So you used the Grendeni?”
“Well, I knew I needed to get the Gate’s location. Seth, the Choir would never have just given me the location. Me turning into a bane is bad enough, but I had the original in tow. You think asking nicely can make up for that magnitude of crap?”
Seth shook his head. “No, I suppose not.”
“I thought about going in alone or with the Bane. Alone was suicide, plain and simple. I’m good, but I’m not that good. Going in with the Bane might have worked, but too many seraphs would have swarmed us, and the Bane would have fought back hard. She could have done to Aktenzek what she did to Imayirot. Seth, you might not believe me, but I used the Grendeni because I wanted to minimize casualties.”
“No, I believe your intentions,” Seth said.
“And even that blew up in my face. The Bane killed one of their schisms. Just wiped it out without a second thought, like the millions of people living there were nothing but vermin.”
“You helped us kill it. That counts for something.”
“Seth, I’m sorry about your son and Quennin. I know words can’t right what I did, but please believe me, they’re sincere.”
Seth’s face twisted up at the mention of his dead son. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“I won’t ever forget what you did.” He steeled himself with another slow breath. “But I will forgive you for the death of my son.”
“And Quennin? Is she…” The words caught in Jack’s throat.
“The Bane almost killed her, but she survived.”
“That’s good to hear.” Jack sighed heavily. “I’m glad. You know, it’s a small miracle we didn’t kill each other. Despite all my planning, I still needed your help in the end.”
“What are friends for?”
Jack gave him a tired smile. “Yeah.”
The ground trembled.
“Should we be getting out of here?” Jack asked.
“Yeah. Seems like the Gate is getting ready to break free.”
Jack tried to stand up, but his legs wobbled even in the low gravity. Seth stepped over and helped him up. They walked out side by side with Seth supporting him.
At the airlock, both pilots checked their seals. Seth put on the black fishbowl helmet.
“It’s amazing these things still work,” Seth linked over. “The Eleven built to last when they hid the Gate.”
“Why not use my pressure suit?” Jack asked.
“It has a big hole in the side, remember?”
“Oh, right.”
The airlock opened and the two pilots walked out into the darkness. Seth guided Jack every step of the way
“Where are we going?” Jack asked.
“Straight ahead. The exit isn’t too far.”
“Can you see anything?”
“Yeah. This helmet has quite a few imaging options.”
“I’m glad one of us can see.”
“Your i-suit has a light.”
“Okay.” Jack linked to the suit and switched on the light. It illuminated a small patch of the gloom. “Well, that’s a little better.”
They walked down the narrow tunnel to the tiered cities. Seth guided Jack through the dark until they reached a pale structure. It took him a moment to realize he was staring at his seraph’s leg. He was so used to feeling the seraph’s presence that its absence caused him to shudder.
He closed his eyes and tried to command the seraph to move.
Nothing.
“I can’t get to the cockpit like this,” Jack said.
“Right. Stay here. I’ll be back.”
Seth propped Jack against the seraph and disappeared into darkness. A minute went by, then two. Five minutes later, the ground shook violently and Jack slipped onto the ground. He again tried to will the seraph into motion, but nothing happened.
Ten minutes ticked by.
“Seth?”
“Hold on. My seraph doesn’t want to move.”
Three more minutes passed. Jack was alone and in darkness except for the i-suit’s meager helmet light.
Finally, a black shape approached so suddenly Jack flinched away. He looked up and saw the arm of Seth’s seraph reach down through a curtain of black, its hand settling directly in front of him.
“Hurry up and step on,” Seth said.
Jack stood up and limped onto the giant hand.
“Hold on.”
Jack wrapped his arms around the thumb. The hand moved up and across, stopping by his seraph’s cockpit. He let go, crawled on his hands and knees, and dropped inside.
Jack collapsed into the pilot alcove, his thoughts once again melting and merging with the seraph’s.
“Ahh. There you are, buddy.”
The seraph did not respond.
Images and sensations opened in his mind. Thoughts of his own body shrank away. He became the seraph once more. Around the edges of awareness, an uncomfortable fuzziness existed, perhaps a side effect of the painkillers. He found that tasks required more concentration than normal.
Power trickled through his body. Repairs were incomplete, but all critical damage had been patched up or bypassed.
A tremor shook the ground, the most violent yet.
“That didn’t feel good.” Jack rose from the ground and flexed his wings.
“That Gate is becoming more unstable,” Seth said. “Hey, Jack?”
“Yeah?”
“I’ve discussed what has happened with the Choir. We know pilots are just attempts to recreate the Bane. The Choir… they want you to return to Aktenzek, and… and I agree with them.”
“Thanks, but no thanks. Those corpses have already messed with me enough.”
“Jack, the Original Eleven are gone. They’ve fled the Choir.”
“What?”
“They fooled all of us. You, me, all the pilots. Even the Choir. Jack, we were all used. You don’t have to face this alone. Despite what has happened, you belong with us, and you know it.”
Jack sensed the sincerity in Seth’s words. The offer truly was tempting. He missed Seth and Quennin, and he wanted to repay them for all the wrongs he had committed. However, seventeen years on his own, free of the Choir’s machinations? That was something he did not regret.
“Sorry, Seth. I’m tempted, but I’m not going back.”
The tier cities shook with tremendous force. Power surged through his body. Shunts ignited with brilliant light.
“Jack, you don’t—”
He closed the channel.
The edges of his wings blurred with radiant energy. He lifted off the ground and floated into the middle of the tiered cities.
Nearby, other seraphs powered up.
Jack flew out of the cylinder and headed towards the surface. He wove through the planet’s interior chasms.
Massive seismic motion spread throughout the planet. The Gate had broken free and now ascended in a wild spiral. It also grew in size and intensity, tearing Imayirot apart from the inside.
Jack reached the surface and accelerated into low orbit. He turned around and watched for the Gate to emerge.
Already, vast cracks gaped all across Imayirot’s surface. Cities and domes crumbled as the ground convulsed underneath them. The entire planet, long dead and cold, now quaked on every continent. The planet’s crust opened and heaved. Nine badly injured seraphs flew out of the planet, moments before the passage collapsed behind them.
Jack zoomed in on the point where the Gate should exit. The crust collapsed inward in an expanding ring, like a funnel of rock and ash.
The funnel deepened and widened, rock flowing inward like water. It appeared as if the entire planet was being sucked into itself. Then the bottom of the funnel rose upward, first as a bulge, then as a tight spiral of debris. A point of light burst out the end.
Imayirot disintegrated. A full half of the planet exploded outward with violent force. Jack dodged a boulder the size of Europe. He pulled into a much higher orbit, watching Imayirot’s planetary remains expand. Some of the debris followed the fast-moving Gate in a strange, ragged comet tail.
The Gate accelerated, faster and faster until finally it vanished from sight.
Jack checked his scanners. Somehow, the Gate now traveled faster the speed of light.
“So much for everyone’s prize.”
Jack set his fold coordinates and vanished from the system.
***
Only two weeks had passed since the battle at Imayirot, and yet everything had completely changed.
“I still can’t believe you killed the Bane.” Quennin rode in Seth’s seraph-hand, a bubble of chaos energy shielding her from the wind.
“You do know that I had significant help from Jack.”
“So? It was your shot that killed the monster.” Quennin winked and blew a kiss towards the cockpit.
“Are you trying to distract me? It’s going to look really bad if I crash into the Sovereign’s Palace.”
“For you, Seth, I think they’d build a new Palace every day for the rest of your life, just so you can crash into it.”
“Not funny.”
Seth descended through Aktenzek, passed the final security checkpoint, and headed to the Core and the Sovereign’s Palace. The massive mirror-plated pyramid rose up from the white planetoid, and a thin landing platform extended out from the side. He zoomed in on the crowd of thousands on the landing platform.
“Uhh… people,” Seth muttered.
“It’ll be over quickly.”
“That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
A bulbous circle tipped the landing platform. All manner of craft docked along its circumference. Seth counted thirty-one seraphs: one full squadron from both the Earth Nation and Aktenzek, along with all six Renseki and the Sovereign.
Seth touched down on the outer lip of the landing platform. He folded his wings and let clamps secure him in place.
With a moment of concentration, he separated his mind from the seraph. Quennin joined him outside the cockpit.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Yeah. Let’s get this over with.”
Seth and Quennin walked across a plateau that separated them from the dignitaries below. Only a select few joined them up top.
The Renseki stood to his right, resplendent in perfectly tailored storm-gray coats splashed with silver. Next to them waited Sovereign Vorin Daelus, his own gold-adorned coat looking even more immaculate than usual.
Behind the Renseki and their Sovereign were two rows of seraph pilots, the elites of both the Earth Nation and Aktenzek. Jared stood rigidly at the far left of the EN row, appearing even more uncomfortable than Seth with this formality. Behind Jared, Seth thought he could just make out Yonu over the first row’s shoulders.
But Seth found his attention drawn to the three men on his left. T
he trio wore dark green jackets and black trousers, gold sigils on their right breast announcing their rank. They were Executives of the Grendeni, and they had arrived one week ago, offering a temporary cease fire with hopes of negotiating a more permanent peace.
As one, the Aktenai on the plateau all dropped to a single knee, bowing their heads towards Seth. The Grendeni Executives also bowed their heads, but with less enthusiasm than their hosts. The Earth Nation pilots clapped and cheered, as their bizarre culture dictated for such events.
“At least smile,” Quennin whispered into his ear.
Seth tried.
“And try not to look like you’re in pain when you do it.”
He also tried this.
Finally, the Aktenai on the plateau rose, and Vorin stepped forward.
“Venerable master.” Vorin bowed his head, addressing Seth with the deepest respect any Aktenai could address another. “If you would, please follow me.”
“Sovereign, you don’t have to call me that.”
“How else shall I address the Slayer of the Bane? Please, come this way.”
Seth followed him to the front edge of the plateau and looked down at the sea of people. The crowd noise evaporated into nothing.
Vorin’s amplified voice boomed across the landing platform. “Citizens of Aktenzek! Citizens of Earth! I present to you the Slayer of the Bane: Pilot Seth Elexen!”
Thousands of people bowed in his presence, and many of them fell to one knee in a show of even deeper respect. Seth bit into the inside of his lip, the magnitude of their silent praise almost overwhelming him to the point of tears. The few hundred Earth dignitaries clapping boisterously failed to ruin the effect.
Seth inclined his neck to the crowd.
With a hand on his shoulder, Vorin guided him to his seat. Seth, the other pilots, and the Grendeni Executives sat down. Vorin cleared his throat and began his speech.
For such a momentous occasion, his speech remained short and to the point. He touched on the Great Mission, the Bane’s defeat, and what this meant for Aktenzek. He also mentioned the treachery of the Original Eleven, their exposed lies, and the danger Zu’Rashik now posed to everyone.
But most importantly, Vorin spoke of the peace accords between the Aktenai and the Grendeni. The reasons behind the endless feud had evaporated: the Bane was dead, the Original Eleven were now hated equally by both sides, and the Gate they both coveted had slipped through their grasps.