In Perpetuity

by Jake Bible

  The thing that came out of the water was not a fish. It looked absolutely nothing like a fish, whether the fish was Earth based or from one of the many planets in the colonized systems. No, what came out of the lake had arms and legs, six of each, and a mouth so wide that it looked like its head was made of two saucers.

  A hundred black eyes blinked in unison as the saucer mouth opened and a loud roar came up from the thick throat of the monster. The beast stood almost ten meters tall and was close to three meters wide across its massively-muscled chest.

  “North!” Linklater screamed. “Bartram!”

  Then he was gone as the monster scooped him up with four three-clawed hands and jammed him inside the multi-toothed saucer mouth. Blood flew everywhere, spraying out of the beast’s maw and splattering the shallows. A long geyser arched out into the air and painted North’s face.

  “Oh, Makers, oh, man, oh, shit, of fucking god shit,” Metzger whimpered. Even the pharma was no match for the terrible sight before him. “What the fuck, North? What is it? Oh, fuck, oh, god, oh, shit.”

  North didn’t answer. He didn’t even take the time to wipe his friend’s blood from his face as he shoved up from the beach, knocking Metzger off balance. North lunged to his feet, his fist already swinging around before he was fully upright. He caught Metzger in the gut then sent an uppercut at Metzger’s chin.

  But despite the terror and pharma coursing through his veins, the sergeant-at-arms was always ready for a fight. He couldn’t comprehend what had happened to Linklater, but he could comprehend what was right in front of him. He blocked the uppercut to his chin and lashed out with his own fist, nailing North in the wound on his cheek.

  North spun about from the blow, droplets of blood flying out away from his cheek, and saw that the monster had quickly realized that its meal was not over. Six powerful legs broke into a run and came up from the water at a blinding speed. North let the momentum of his body take him back down to the beach just as the creature reached him and Metzger.

  “No!” Metzger yelled as he opened fire with his scorcher. “You ain’t real! This is a simulation!”

  The monster cried out and stumbled back then regrouped and came at Metzger even faster.

  “NO!” Metzger screamed just before two hands grabbed him, lifted him up in the air, and tore him apart, right down the middle.

  The scorcher clattered onto the rocky beach and North scrambled for it. He grabbed up the weapon, rolled onto his back and took aim at the monster’s belly. North fired until the weapon clicked empty.

  Not surprising to North, since it wasn’t his first encounter with a creature of that type, whether simulated or real, the monster stayed on its feet as it stumbled about the beach, its entrails dropping from its belly in horrid, smelly clumps.

  North scrambled away on his hands and knees to avoid being trampled as the monster continued its death throws, black blood gurgling up out of its throat like a burbling fountain. With a final choked bellow, the creature collapsed onto six knees then fell over on its side. North ticked off the seconds, counting down from sixty, then the simulated monster faded out, leaving only Linklater’s masticated corpse behind.

  “I have never seen anything like that before,” a voice said from the edge of the forest. “But I guess it stands to reason that with no simulated digestive system to hold the remains, the real body would be left behind. Fascinating.”

  North looked back and sighed.

  “Ngyuen,” North said.

  “Yes,” Ngyuen said, a pistol in her hand. “Me.”

  Ngyuen motioned with the pistol towards Metzger’s halved corpse.

  “You mind checking his pockets?” Ngyuen said. “Pretty sure he has what we are both looking for on him. I’d rather not get all bloody, if I don’t have to.”

  North glanced over at the Metzger’s body and shook his head. “I don’t think so. Go find it yourself.”

  “North,” Ngyuen said, her voice even and calm. “I know you just lost the closest thing you have to a friend on this station, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have more to lose.” She cupped her free hand by her ear and listened. “Hear that? That is the sound of death. While there may not be any survivors left in this simulation bay, that doesn’t mean there aren’t people still alive on Perpetuity. So, unless you want the entire station to sound like death, you will crawl over there and retrieve Terlinger’s medal for me.”

  “How the hell are you going to stop everyone from going crazy?” North asked. “The pharma is spiked, Ngyuen.”

  “Yes, I am fully aware of that, North,” Ngyuen said. “Who do you think spiked it? Now, hurry along, please. I don’t have all day. Taking down the CSC is full time work.”

  North gaped at Ngyuen for a second then crawled over to the right half of Metzger’s body and began to go through the bloody and torn uniform.

  Fifty-Four

  Having finished stacking the corpses in the corridor, Garcia stepped back through the hatch and onto the bridge. There were so many thoughts swirling about in her head she didn’t know where to start.

  Her eyes drifted from one console to the next. She could get the thrusters back online and then get through the debris field. But that would mean she’d need to make sure the interspatial drive was working first if she intended to punch through the solar system. She had no idea how long all of that would take and she needed to make sure the Perpetuity knew the truth

  She needed to make sure Earth knew the truth.

  Garcia’s eyes landed on the communications console. The transmitter was offline, but she had enough know how to get it going as long as the controls weren’t locked. She had no reason to believe they would be since the crew was nothing but corpses. Don’t really have to lock out corpses.

  She took a seat and began to go through the diagnostics system to make sure she didn’t miss anything. It took her longer than she wanted, but everything checked out. Garcia keyed in the commands to bring the transmitter array online and leaned back as the system did its work. Several minutes later, the system finished and all lights on the console turned green.

  Garcia pressed her wrist against the interface and started to speak.

  The console lights turned red.

  “What the hell?” she snapped.

  She pulled her wrist back and the console lights turned green again.

  “Shit,” she said. “Fucking feedback.”

  Garcia knew there were only a few things that could cause feedback like that and none of them had to do with the system itself.

  She glanced at the view window and sighed.

  “Guess I’m going for a walk outside.”

  She stood up and turned to leave when the whole ship shuddered. The shuddering was joined by a loud wrenching sound as Garcia braced herself against the console. Half the consoles around her started to light up red.

  “Ah, shit,” she said as she rushed over to security and brought up external vids of the ship. “Oh, super shit.”

  A massive chunk of one of the destroyers was scraping along the hull of the cruiser, tearing off metal as it went. Garcia watched in horror as an airlock burst open and atmosphere vented into the vacuum before the ship’s failsafes kicked in and sealed off that deck.

  “Okay,” Garcia said as she moved from the security console and over to the helm. “I guess I call home later. Time to get the fuck out of this shit.”

  She brought up helm controls and began to power up the thrusters. Unfortunately, only one thruster was still intact and it refused to obey.

  “Come on! Come on!” Garcia shouted as she slammed her fist against the console. “I just need enough juice to get away from this space junk!”

  She attempted to reroute power from the damaged thrusters and into the intact one, but every command she gave ended in frustration as the helm controls slowly started to blink out red. No matter how fast she moved, she wasn’t fast enough and within minutes the entire console was frozen, a dead hunk of metal and plastic that refuse
d to respond.

  Garcia stood up then was sent flying to the floor as the cruiser shuddered again. Claxons blared for a brief moment, indicating the hull had been breached, but then quieted down once the ship’s failsafes kicked in yet again. Garcia was very aware that the failsafes had their limits. The ship could only lose so much atmosphere before life support completely gave out. That would be fine for the corpse crew, but wouldn’t be so great for her.

  “Think, think,” she muttered. “What can I do? How do I move this stupid ship with the helm locked?”

  She rubbed at a spot between her eyes that throbbed with pain. A pressure headache was quickly being added to her list of what a crappy day it had been.

  “How do I fly this thing without flight controls?” she muttered again. “How, how, how…”

  She looked at the navigation console and the bright green lights.

  “Hold on,” she said. “This thing was headed somewhere. The battle put it into defensive shutdown. All I have to do is point it back in the right direction.”

  She hurried over to the console and began checking the navigation systems. Everything was in order, including the destination coordinates. All she had to do was tell the navigational processor that the ship was no longer at battle stations and it should continue on its journey.

  Garcia looked out the view window and gulped. She’d never attempted to punch before with so much traffic. Ships usually needed some space from other entities to allow for quantum deviations. Otherwise the interspatial pull could meld two entities together.

  Another loud wrenching noise, followed by warning claxons, told her that two entities were about to merge anyway.

  “Ah, fuck it,” Garcia said as she strapped herself into the seat. “I always wanted to know what it would be like to die during a punch. I wonder if I’ll get an express pass to the afterlife?”

  She activated the interspatial drive and clutched at the armrest of her chair as the whole ship began to buzz and then shake.

  “Well, that’s not good,” she said, just before the Norland blinked out of existence.

  Fifty-Five

  North looked at the blood slick medal in the middle of his palm. It felt so much heavier than the last time he held it. The weight of so many lives taken had been added to it.

  “What’s so special about this medal?” North asked. “What does it do?”

  “It unlocks the CSC’s secrets,” Ngyuen said. “It tells the galaxy how all of you have been fooled for centuries.”

  “You spiked the pharma on the station, sending thousands of people into homicidal killing sprees for what? So you can work some Estelian espionage?” North asked, his eyes still on the medal. “How long have you been a traitor?”

  “You don’t know what you are talking about,” Ngyuen laughed. “None of you Estelians do.”

  “Estelian?” North barked, finally looking up at Ngyuen. “How the hell can you think I’m an Estelian? Metzger thought I was an Estelian spy too, so why the hell did you kill him?”

  “Oh, you’re not a spy,” Ngyuen said. “You’re a full-blooded Estelian. As for Metzger, he was too. But I had him under my control for a while. All I needed was the pharma to kick in and he became my willing puppet. A lot of this would have been avoided if you’d played along as well, but that blow to the head you took in Terlinger’s office ruined things.”

  “Blow to the head?” North asked then he reached up to touch his forehead. And the spot where the small bit of metal had been removed. “Wait? You put that there?”

  “I did,” Ngyuen said, waving her pistol at North. “Get up, Major. I’m tired of looking down at you.”

  North stood up and gripped the medal tight. “How did you get that thing under my skin?”

  “During the explosion in the recruit bay,” Ngyuen replied. “That actually wasn’t planned. Just an overzealous patriot willing to die for humanity’s cause.”

  The words the suicide bomber had spoken echoed through North’s head- “Death to the Estelian impostors! Long live the Earth colonies!”

  “Humanity’s cause?” North asked, his hand gripping the medal even tighter.

  “Careful there, Major,” Ngyuen said. “How about you toss that medal to me so I can finish my job?”

  “Never,” North said. “You’ll have to kill me and pry it out of my hand, you fucking doubleganger.”

  Ngyuen sighed. “You still don’t get it. Aren’t you listening, North? I’m not Estelian, you are. All of you. The whole damned CSC is Estelian. I’m human. I was born human out in the colonies and I have been fighting alongside my brothers and sisters since I could walk. The CSC was corrupted over a millennia ago, you fool. The Estelians won and made it to Earth. That chip you have in your head? Yes, that thing. It’s what convinces you that you’re human. Apparently, doublegangers fight better when they truly believe they are human.”

  “You lie,” North said. “I know I’m human. There is no way I’m going to believe you. I’ve fought Estelians! I’ve fought real doublegangers with my bare hands! I’ve watched friends and comrades cut down! Butchered by the scum you work for!”

  “You fought humans,” Ngyuen said. “They weren’t the false race, you were! Same with all of those friends and comrades!”

  “NO!” North roared. “I know what I saw! I know what I did! I know who I am!”

  “Bring me the medal, North,” Ngyuen said. “I’d rather not shoot you. I actually have always liked you. You’re a fair DG and I’d rather hand you over to my superiors than kill you on this simulated beach.”

  “No,” North replied. “You’re going to have to shoot me. I won’t be a party to your lies.”

  Ngyuen watched North for a couple seconds then raised her pistol up. “Very well. I should have expected this. It’s too bad you won’t be able to see the secrets that medal will unlock. You’d know the truth then.”

  North stared at the barrel of the pistol. He was about to close his eyes when he caught sight of a shimmer by Ngyuen’s shoulder. Then the corporal’s head turned violently to the left. North flinched at the sound of her neck snapping. He realized what had just happened and looked about for a weapon before the shimmer could attack him.

  Then it was no longer a shimmer, but a person standing over Ngyuen’s corpse dressed in a sheer black material. The person pulled off a helmet and tossed it aside then yanked down his face mask.

  “Dornan?” North gasped. “What the hell?”

  “Hey, Major,” Corporal Dornan nodded as he raised his hands up. “I’m not here to hurt you. I am here for the medal, but you can hang onto it while we get to the server tower. I’ll even let you send out the transmission.”

  North just stared at the man.

  “Right, yeah this is going to be hard to hear,” Dornan said. “But Ngyuen was correct when she said that medal unlocks all the CSC’s secrets.”

  “Wha…? She…wha…?” North stammered.

  “Yeah, she was right,” Dornan said. “She just had no idea what those secrets really are.”

  “Then…then why did you kill her?” North asked.

  “Because she was nuts,” Dornan said. “She spiked the pharma and ended up killing most of the station. The bitch deserved to die.”

  Dornan turned and started to walk into the simulated forest then stopped.

  “You coming? I really do need that medal,” Dornan said.

  “We’re going to the server tower?” North asked.

  “Yep,” Dornan nodded.

  “Linklater wanted to go to the server tower,” North said, glancing at the mangled remains of his friend. “He said the medal was a key to unlocking something Terlinger had set up.”

  “Link was right,” Dornan said. “I would have liked for him to be with us when we destroy everything the galaxy has ever known about this war.”

  “Then why the hell did you attack us in the corridor?” North asked.

  “I didn’t know who you two were working for,” Dornan said. “It wasn’t u
ntil I heard Ngyuen talking that I knew you were clean.”

  “Clean? Clean how?” North asked then reached back and felt the back of his head. “My chip? Do you mean my chip? Ngyuen said that the chips are used to—”

  “No, Ngyuen was a brainwashed moron,” Dornan interrupted. “The chips don’t make you think you’re human. You are human.”

  “So Ngyuen was a doubleganger. She was an Estelian,” North sighed.

  “Nope,” Dornan said. “She was human too. Everyone is human, Major. There are no such thing as Estelians. There haven’t been for a long time.”

  North felt his legs go weak and they almost collapsed under him.

  “Pull it together, Major,” Dornan said as he continued walking into the forest. “I’m not going to carry you. It’s been way too exhausting of a day for that. Keep up and I’ll explain everything on the way.”

  Dornan disappeared into the shadows of the forest and North watched him go. He looked down at the medal in his hand, looked over at Ngyuen’s corpse then at the remains of Metzger and Linklater.

  “Hold up,” North called as he started to jog after Dornan. “Corporal! Wait up! That’s a goddamned order! Slow the fuck down or I’m gonna kick your ass out into the vacuum the first chance I get!”

  “There’s the Major North I know,” Dornan called back. “Come on! We don’t have time for me to wait!”

  Fifty-Six

  Valencio’s heart nearly broke every time she watched a cadet pilot lose control of his or her fighter skiff and went flying into an Estelian warship. Not that she had much time to watch the battle rage around her or time to watch her cadet pilots sacrifice their lives. She certainly didn’t have time to worry about a broken heart. She was too busy trying to avoid a broken skiff as she dodged and flew around the Estelian quads.

  Unable to match the quads’ firepower or all out speed, Valencio had to rely on her skiff’s agility. It was smaller and quicker, able to duck bolts and swerve away from missiles with the flick of her flight stick. But the advantage was slight and Valencio knew that using that slight advantage was all that would keep her alive.