Trinity's Fall

by P A Vasey

  I kneeled down in front of Stillman and took hold of both her hands. They looked small and frail in mine, and I felt a pang of regret. I’d messed up. I couldn’t un-kill the Vu-Hak. I couldn’t put the genie back in the bottle.

  “Kate …?” she slurred.

  “I’m here,” I said, feeling like shit.

  “You’re one of those machines, aren’t you?” she said, her voice just audible above the racket coming from outside. She then surprised me be giving a slight smile. “I knew they couldn’t kill you.”

  “I’m sorry, Colleen. I truly am … I … I tried.”

  I stifled a sob and felt her arms around me, pulling me closer. I hugged her, feeling her warmth, her life force, sensing her heartbeat, her breathing. My melancholia covered me like a cloak I simply couldn’t let drop to the floor. Stillman was soon going to die, as were we all. Dreams, goals, plans – all slashed and burned. Soon nothing we’d said or done in the past would have mattered, or would ever matter.

  “It’s alright, Kate,” I heard her saying. “We’ll figure it out.”

  At that moment a huge pressure wave impacted my back. A fist of orange flame punched through the door and the walls buckled and smoke and fire burst in. I flung my arms around Stillman; water spurted from the ceilings as the sprinklers activated and in a few seconds we were drenched. Hubert and Hamilton were thrown from their chairs and crashed against the far wall, covered in bits of plasterboard and concrete chips. I ran over to them, and incredibly found that they were still alive, unconscious and relatively unscathed. They had assorted scratches and abrasions, but I detected no broken bones; nor was there any indication of internal bleeding or significant blunt trauma to organs.

  I turned to Stillman, who was looking dazed but otherwise none the worse for wear. “Stay here, let me go and check things out.”

  She nodded, and I went to have a look outside. Smoke obscured everything so I flicked my eyes to infrared. The corridor appeared like a carcass stripped of flesh. The pillars of concrete that remained were burned and pockmarked, and crumbling stone lay on the ground as settling dust lay ash-like over cracked and ruined tiles.

  The Vu-Hak’s skull had been blown further up the corridor from where I’d kicked it but the torso was no longer there. In its place was a circular-shaped hole five yards in diameter where rock, pipes and metal girders had been carved away, leaving a smooth surface looking like it’d been scooped out by a giant spoon. Water was dripping from an open pipe, and sparks flickered from severed power lines.

  Running my hand over the edge of the cavity, I sensed heat and radiation. Gamma rays, quantum fluctuations and gravitational waves.

  Nothing normal.

  A wormhole footprint.

  Then I heard a voice in my head.

  Get to the surface. Now.

  Cain.

  THIRTY-FIVE

  Back in what remained of the room, Stillman was kneeling over Hamilton, talking to him and trying to bring him round. Hubert lay a few yards away, unmoving but his chest rising and falling steadily.

  “I can’t wake Matt up,” Stillman said, a worried look on her face.

  My sensors automatically scanned him. Information flooded in, raw and unstructured. My medical mind sifted through the data, analyzing it and inserting it into a diagnostic algorithm.

  “There is disrupted connectivity, reduced synaptic efficiency, and a constrained repertoire of dynamic states which have created inhospitable conditions for information transmission and integration.”

  Stillman gave me a look. “The fuck?”

  “Sorry. He’s drugged, just like you were. Here, let me.”

  I put a hand on Hamilton’s brow and made a gesture like a starfish. His pupils enlarged and his eyes nystagmatically jerked sideways. I brushed the side of his face and he awoke with a jolt.

  “Dr Morgan? Where …?”

  “Easy, Matt,” I said. “Let’s get you on your feet. We need to get out of here.”

  He grimaced but held out his hands. With a few groans and winces we managed to get him upright and leaning against the wall. He looked decidedly grey, but we were against the clock and needed to keep moving. Cain’s message was still burning in my ears.

  “Good to go,” he said, seemingly reading my mind and giving a thumbs up.

  Stillman was looking at me, uncertain, clearly trying to come to terms with what I was. What I’d become. I gave her a half smile as if to say ‘you and me both, sister’ and then went over to Hubert.

  I ran a thorough diagnostic sweep. His heart was racing, but wasn’t irregular, and while his blood pressure was elevated I took this as a good sign and a physiological response to stress. I switched to an X-ray wavelength and scanned him from top to toe. There were a few rib fractures, but that was all. My mind drifted into his, trying to ascertain what level of consciousness he was at, but I couldn’t get a handle on it. I could visualize his brainwaves, but there was a dullness that I hoped was just the drugs the Vu-Hak had administered.

  “I’ll carry him,” I said, crouching down.

  “Wait, can’t you just wake him up like you did Matt?” Stillman said with a frown.

  I shook my head. “I’m concerned there’s something not right with him. Neurologically, that is. Let’s not risk it here.”

  She pursed her lips. “Alright, but how’re we going to get out? This is the Pentagon. And there could be more Vu-Hak anywhere.”

  Matt pushed himself off the wall and looked furtively over Colleen’s shoulder and out the corridor where there was a thin layer of dust now floating above the ground like mist over a Scottish loch. He waved a hand in the direction of the hole in the wall where the door had previously been. “She’s right. This won’t have gone unnoticed.”

  I cradled Hubert in my arms and smoothly stood up. Hamilton gazed at me with a kind of open-mouthed awe, seemingly noticing for the first time that I was towering over him and Stillman.

  “What the hell, Kate?” he began.

  “Explanations can wait,” I said. “If we can just get to the surface, I think we’ve got a chance.”

  Another elevator was twenty yards up the corridor and thankfully out of the demolition zone. We squeezed in and it climbed for five seconds before jerking to a stop. The doors opened and we stepped out into chaos. People were running as fast as they could, panic on their faces. Alarms were blaring and the tannoy was booming ‘… evacuate, radiation detected …” Soldiers and armed security officers were herding everyone toward the corridor leading back to the C-Ring and toward the main exits.

  I pulled up the schematic of the Pentagon in my HUD and identified a secondary corridor leading to the A-Ring and directly out to the central courtyard. We set off at a jog, running against the crowd, Matt hobbling but supported by Stillman. People gave us strange looks but no one tried to stop us as we jinked left and right until we came to another corridor which sloped upward to the A-Ring. There was sunlight coming through windows that opened directly to the courtyard.

  “This way,” I said and started up the slope. Just then two soldiers rounded the corner and beckoned us to a halt. One of them pointed back down the corridor we’d come.

  “Turn around. There’s an evac in progress,” one of them barked. He looked me in the eye, clocked my uniform and said, “You should know the drill, soldier.”

  “Can’t you see I’ve got injured civilians here?” I said.

  “Then you’re going the wrong way,” he countered with a firm shake of his head. “There’s no exit up there. You’re just heading back in.”

  Hamilton stepped forward and raised his hands while fumbling in his pocket. “Look, private, we’re with the FBI, I’m just getting my ID. As you can see, one of my colleagues needs urgent medical attention …”

  The soldier was having none of it. “I’m giving you a direct order, G-Man. Turn around and follow the evac route.”

  Stillman and I looked at each other, and I saw the tightness in her mouth as she considered our option
s.

  I decided for us. “We don’t have time for this,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  I pulled the same neurological switches as I’d done before, and they dropped to the ground like puppets with their strings cut.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  Hamilton picked up the soldiers’ rifles and threw one to Stillman, who checked the safety and slung it over her shoulder. At the top of the slope was a large sliding doorway leading to the courtyard. It swished opened as we arrived, and we ran through into daylight and a concrete pathway lined by big trees and shrubbery.

  The courtyard was about five acres in size, manicured lawns giving it a park-like ambience. Potted plants were dotted along the pathway and cedar laminated benches completed the look. In the dead center was a cafeteria, quaintly named Ground Zero. It was a magnolia pentagon-shaped building consisting of two stories, the upper level topped off with a pointed chimney.

  “What now?” said Stillman anxiously.

  I glanced up at the sky, which was still grey and gloomy. Raindrops spit onto my hands and Hubert’s forehead while the remainder filled the scattered puddles decorating the pathway. In one of these I saw movement as a shadow passed overhead. A massive black shape span into view, the sky blurring around its edges. There was a subwoofer-like rumbling and the atmosphere felt pressurized, as if it was being squeezed in a vacuum chamber.

  “What the hell is that?” shouted Stillman.

  “It’s Cain,” I replied. “He’s come for us.”

  THIRTY-SIX

  In a gravity-defying move, the huge ship did a majestic spiral and lowered itself stern first into the courtyard. I expected to feel the down draft of its engines, but there was nothing at all. It hovered above the cafeteria building twenty yards or more off the ground like a monstrous graphite shard poking up through the clouds. A spot of white light appeared about a third of the way along the stern as an aperture wound open, revealing an external hatch. What looked like liquid mercury poured out and oozed to the ground in front of us. It glistened and bubbled organically before transforming and solidifying into a ladder-like structure of rungs and steps.

  Hamilton looked at me, his face tight with indecision.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “Go!”

  He nodded and was about to jump on when he froze, looking over my shoulder. I turned to see what he was looking at and saw two Adam Benedict-shaped Electromechs in the doorway we’d come through.

  “Kate …” he said.

  “Get on that fucking ship, Matt,” I hissed.

  I could perceive their thoughts. Alien. Dark and unfathomable but with hints of malevolence and excitement, like predators cornering their prey.

  Stillman and Hamilton hadn’t moved. I moved to block their view of the Vu-Hak and glared at them. “Take Bill and get in the ship. I’ll hold them off.”

  Stillman looked horrified. “You can’t be serious.”

  I roughly passed Hubert over to them. “This isn’t a discussion, Colleen. Get the fuck up those steps.”

  She read my mood and nodded sharply.

  We laid Hubert on the stair, which immediately started to move like an escalator, taking him up to the ship. Hamilton took this as a hint and jumped on too.

  Stillman hesitated again. “You better be right behind me.”

  “Count on it.” I smiled, and eased her backward onto the staircase, which grabbed her and whisked her up to the open hatchway.

  I turned to face the aliens. They’d split up and were circling me. One of them was on all fours, bounding like a gazelle, while the other was taking human-like strides across the grass. Like the Vu-Hak in the corridor there was awkwardness to its gait, as if it was just learning how to walk, like a newborn.

  I stepped forward, closing the gap. I was now ten feet away from them in a narrow triangle and they eased up and stopped. The one that had been on all fours rose up and stood still, swaying slightly, arms by its side. The other one stood and stared at me, before folding its arms in a curiously human gesture. I took another step. Now I was seven feet away and we were in a nice little cluster. The importance of which was that I was between them and the staircase, which was taking my friends to safety.

  I stepped in and kicked the left-hand alien square in the groin. The kinetic energy and weight behind the kick was savage and the Vu-Hak crumpled in half and flew backward, tumbling over and over to crash into one of the trees lining the pathway. Before the right-hand alien had time to react I scythed a backhand elbow against its cheekbone, shattering Adam’s handsome face, knocking the Vu-Hak sideways and onto the grass.

  I stepped back and checked on the first alien, which was already peeling itself from the tree and shaking its head. Its eyes glowed green and it let out a snarl and launched itself forward in that four-limbed run. I went to move but the other one had already recovered and launched itself at me from the side. I pivoted and thrust off my right foot as it swept past, arms grasping at me. I chopped savagely at its neck causing it to again tumble into the grass and slide along the concrete path. I whirled again but was a fraction too slow as the other one body-slammed me side-on. My HUD flashed red symbols as I sensed the impact and heard a crash like a car being T-boned. There was no pain, but I knew I was in trouble.

  We fell to the floor in a violent embrace, the Vu-Hak on top of me, hands around my neck and straddling my chest. I swung with all my might at its skull, but my fists bounced off its shoulders and arms as it tucked its head protectively into its neck. I grabbed its hands by the wrists and pulled, trying to break the grip, but I couldn’t move them. More red symbols flickered down the side of my optic overlay, and there was a wave of static as my vision blurred. There was a huge impact on the side of my head as the other Vu-Hak arrived and swung a kick at me. More red numbers. More blurring and static.

  I started to panic. More blows rained in and I wondered if my machine’s integral field would hold and what would happen if it didn’t. I caught a glimpse of the ship and saw the staircase had been fully withdrawn and that the aperture was slowly closing. The ship was lazily angling around and preparing to leave.

  I felt my mind relax.

  I’d done my job.

  My friends were going to get away.

  The Vu-Hak continued to pummel my head and body, and as my vision spiraled darker I thought of my daughter. I closed my eyes and pictured her standing in a field of daffodils, every one a bright stunning yellow. She looked perfect, just as I wanted to remember her. She was soaking in the sunshine and laughing but I couldn’t hear her voice, no matter how hard I tried.

  I knew I would never see her again.

  Mist descended on my eyes, and through the veil I could barely make out the world around me. The voices of the aliens slithered and wormed around my mind as they began to break through my defenses. As oblivion beckoned, my own demons appeared as well to haunt and strangle me. I craved the amnesia again, so all this suffering would fade away, fade and allow what memories I had left of Kelly to soothe me and perhaps to restore peace to my life, here at the end.

  The world became bleached, like a sheet had been stretched over my face and covered with snow. The clock ticked: my time was nearly up. I was a ghost in my own machine. A ghost floating in an acid lake dissolving slowly and fading away into nothingness.

  But I was wrong.

  I was proving hard to kill.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  Wake up, Kate.

  This time it was effortless. I just opened my eyes.

  There was no Grim Reaper and no pearly gates. No River Styx. Just Cain, in his bald-headed female persona, sitting opposite me with a benign smile on his face. Next to him were Hamilton and Stillman dressed in some sort of Lycra-looking body suits. We were in a small oval space with low green-tinged lighting. Seats and couches were randomly scattered, organically grown out of the walls. There was a low glass table in front of me, holding a jug of water and two tumblers. I reached down and shakily took one, filled it and brought to my lips for
a sniff before taking a sip.

  Tasteless.

  Hamilton leaned forward, hands on his knees, watching me carefully. “How you doing, Kate?”

  I looked at him blankly. The filing system in my cortex had empty spaces, as if someone had purged chunks of my mind. I put the glass down on the table with a chink and sat back. “We’re moving, so I guess we’re on the ship. Gravity feels Earth-normal. How is it that I’m still alive?”

  Stillman indicated to Cain. “He saved you. He saved us all. Remember the black hole about to blow in the Pentagon? Cain activated a wormhole and transported it away.”

  Cain shrugged, like no big deal. “Yes, however, the range of the wormhole generator is still limited, in cosmic terms. I transported it as far into the solar system as I could, but only got it to the orbit of Mars.”

  “So it’s not a problem anymore?” I asked.

  Cain gave a sigh. “I suppose that is a relative thing. It has already unsettled the orbit of that planet, and its gravitational pull will disrupt the path of any asteroids and objects traveling through the system. The Earth is now at much higher risk of impacts from extraterrestrial debris.”

  As if that mattered.

  I studied the artificial being sitting opposite me. “How did you get me away from those two Vu-Hak?”

  “Have a look,” he said, and closed his eyes momentarily.

  A hologram materialized above the table, showing a birds-eye view of the ship as it hovered vertically above the Pentagon. I was again astonished by the size of it. I’d known how big it was, but seeing it next to such a well-known building was incredible. Each side of the Pentagon was over three hundred yards long and the ship towered over it, stretching up into the sky for miles, twinkling with crystalline lights and pulsing with energy.

  Cain opened his eyes and gave a little wave toward the screen. The picture zoomed on the ship’s stern and there I was, lying on the ground, the two Vu-Hak on me, punching and kicking. The surface underneath my body was indented, the pathway cracking and crumbling with each blow. Then, from just out of picture, Cain appeared. He walked straight over to us and raised a hand. The Vu-Hak standing over me was lifted into the air and crushed, crumpling like a car in a compactor. The air blurred around him as if the very molecules were being distorted. The Vu-Hak which had been on top of me ran toward Cain and raised its arms in a kind of pushback movement. A dark fuzziness appeared in the air between it and Cain, who took a step backward before making an expansive gesture with both hands. Both Vu-Hak were blown into the sky, spinning out of sight way over the Pentagon walls. The hologram oscillated once and vanished, and I was left looking across the table at Cain.