by P. T. Hylton
“It was merit-based. They selected those with the skills necessary to maintain and fly the ship, and those with expertise to keep fighting the vampires. They also brought the families of those people.” He paused, remembering. “Keep in mind, this was the end of the war. It’s not like there were millions of people roaming around. Nearly everyone was dead. Still, decisions had to be made. There wasn’t room for everyone.”
Ed’s eyes narrowed. “How’d you make the cut?”
Alex shot him a look.
“What? The guy said he was a janitor. Why’d they take you along?”
Frank’s eyes were fixed on some distant point in the sky. His voice was so dry when he spoke that he could only be hiding a deeply buried emotion, one he didn’t dare risking letting loose. “My wife. She was a nuclear engineer, and a damn good one. She secured our place on the ship. Only, it didn’t turn out that way. The infestation reached us two days before we were scheduled to leave for the launch site. The vampires poured over our small city like a living wave of destruction. By some miracle, I made it out. She did not. Retreating and leaving her body behind was the toughest thing I’ve ever done.”
“That’s why you volunteered,” Owl said softly. “That’s why you let them inject you with vampire blood.”
Frank nodded. “They let me keep my place on New Haven, even though I didn’t really deserve it. So, I made the only contribution I could think to make. My wife died in the service of humanity. I was honored to do the same.” He glared toward the area where New Haven had fallen. “But now, the woman who caused all if it is there. I can wrap my fingers around her neck and make her pay. I didn’t let myself believe it would be possible until now. Maryana is on the ground. We can kill her.”
A gentle breeze blew from the west, caressing Alex’s face and drying the tears that had gathered in her eyes. “Then that’s what we do.”
“Hell, yeah,” Ed said. “Enough running. Let’s get surgical, and remove that tumor once and for all.”
So far, their desperate plan was working perfectly. George had led Maryana away from New Haven long enough for them to get the warhead. He’d retrieved the warhead and flown high into the atmosphere to detonate the nuclear weapon. The resulting EMP had brought New Haven down. Agartha had been built to withstand nuclear war, and was therefore shielded. While all the electronics aboard the transport were fried, the vehicle itself was running perfectly.
There was only one thing that they hadn’t foreseen—the Twisted pursuing and attacking them.
Felix leaned forward out of the shadows in the back of the transport where he’d been resting, and a groan escaped his lips. Owl had attempted to bandage his injuries, but the blood was already seeping through.
Alex leaned toward Owl. “How bad is it?”
“He needs medical attention,” she replied. “I don’t think he’ll die, but I might be wrong. He definitely needs a proper doctor.”
Felix grunted again as he tried to sit up. “I’m good. I can play hurt.”
Ed put a hand on Felix’s shoulder “I knew you were true GMT material.”
Alex bit her lip. It was an impossible choice. Continue with the admittedly shaky plan to charge into New Haven and attempt to take out Maryana, or head back to Agartha and get help for Felix. She turned to Jaden. “What do you think?”
Jaden started off toward the north. “She’s going to be expecting an attack right now. I believe rushing in would be a mistake. The only way we’re going to take her out is to be methodical. We have to keep her guessing.” He nodded toward the transport. “I say we get him home and regroup.”
Alex frowned. It wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but Jaden was right. To attack now would be a suicide run. New Haven was on the ground, and that wasn’t going to change. They would likely only get one shot at attacking New Haven, so they needed to plan it carefully and execute it with precision. This was too important to rush. She had the skeleton of a plan in her mind, but there was no flesh on it, yet.
“Okay, we’re going with Jaden’s approach on this,” she said to her team. “Let’s load up and get back to Agartha. But don’t get comfortable, because we’ll be back soon. I intend to keep my promise.”
16
Maryana looked up and cursed the clouds overhead. She much preferred standing over them in her flying city; now it felt like they were looking down at her. The clouds strolled across the sky leaving her behind, stuck on the Earth.
An army of Twisted surrounded Maryana at the base of the Hub. If Jaden and his friends tried anything, she’d be ready. She knew that time was essential when a city went into panic mode. She felt strange, trying to control the chaos, instead of causing it.
She pointed to the Twisted to her left. “All of you, go around the city and tell everyone to return to their quarters. Let them know the power will be back on soon. Do not let them gather in numbers. We wouldn’t want to have to battle an army of humans and lose our food supply. I’m sure these scared little rats will not try to leave the ship, but make sure they know the penalty for stepping outside the city is death”
The Twisted stood and waited for her next command. “Don’t just stand there like a bunch of idiots. Go get the citizens into their homes.”
Half of the Twisted army scattered throughout the city to obey her orders. Maryana cocked a thumb toward the City Council building. “The rest of you need to guard this building. I want five of you standing guard on every floor. Everyone else can set up a perimeter defense outside. Let me know as soon as you see enemy forces. Horace, you come with me, and bring me the head engineer.”
Councilman Horace walked into the building by her side. They went up the stairs to the old Council room. Maryana turned to Horace. “Something looks different about you. Did you get a haircut?”
He turned his head, revealing the dried blood flaked on the side of his jaw and neck. “You ripped my ear off.”
Maryana laughed. “I sure did. You’re a good kid and I really want to keep you around, but proper discipline is important.”
Horace looked at her with cold eyes. “The GMT did this. They are coming for you, and they will kill you.”
She threw an arm around his shoulder. “You’re just saying that because you’re mad about the ear thing. I promise that death will come, but it will not be mine. The GMT might try to kill me, but they will just go on top of the mountain of bodies that have tried before. For now, I would like to get my city back up in the air. I’m not done playing with this toy yet. How do I get this thing flying again?”
“I don’t know that it is possible. The EMP wiped out all of our computer systems. Rebuilding them will require parts that we don’t have. I don’t know if we have the knowledge to fix the systems without the information on them.”
“The ship flew down to the ground safely. There must be a way to keep it flying.”
“The emergency landing system is a series of old mechanical switches. The system is incredibly basic. It drew off the power reserves from the batteries and turned the motors enough to get us to the ground in one piece. Flying the ship requires power regulation computers, navigation computers, the nuclear power plant, and a hundred other systems running in tandem. I don’t think we have the materials or knowledge to fix it.”
“I’m losing faith in you, Horace. What about that girl you mentioned, Jessica? Can she fix this?”
“She is the best we have. If anyone can fix the system, it’s her.” Horace looked down as he spoke.
Two Twisted entered the room, each hauling a human behind them. One of the humans was an older woman with silver streaks through her hair. The other was a balding man in his forties. The man flinched and turned away from Maryana when he spotted her.
Maryana turned to them. “Who are these two?”
One of the Twisted answered. “They run the mechanical and electrical divisions.”
“Great. We are going to start small. I want you to get the basic systems working again. Let’s start with some communic
ations. I want to be able to tell all of these people what to do. I need you to work really hard on this, so those fragile human bodies are going to have to go.”
Maryana charged forward and grabbed the man before he could react. She gripped one arm and pushed his head to the side with her other hand. He tried to scream but with his head pulled back and the pressure on his neck, only a whimper escaped his throat. The woman tried to break free from the Twisted that held her, but she was no match for the strength of her captor. Maryana drank deeply from them both.
Jessica raced back toward Tankards. She ran through the mechanical level, hoping that she wouldn’t bump into a Twisted. She heard the chaos in the city above and figured that they were busy with other problems. When she reached the area under Tankards, she climbed back into the ductwork.
She opened the vent and entered the office. Billy watched her climb up and he locked the door to the room. He held a small flashlight that cast shadows across the room. “What the hell is going on? Did you do this?”
Jessica brushed old dust from the ducts off her arms and legs. “No. I think the GMT did something that killed our power. I just shut down our defensive systems. That shouldn't have caused any of this. Where’s Wesley”
“He went to check on his family.” Billy pointed the light in Jessica's direction. He tried to hide the tremble in his gruff voice as he spoke. “What is happening to the ship? Something feels very strange.”
Jessica realized how foreign the concept of being still was new to everyone on New Haven. “We’re on the ground. New Haven made an emergency landing.”
Billy sat down slowly in his chair. “Holy shit.” The words came out in a whisper. “What do we do now?”
“I’m sure that the GMT will be coming for Maryana. We need to get as many people as we can out of the city. I have a feeling that this place is about to become a war zone.”
Billy still had the bottle of liquor open on his desk. He slowly filled a glass. Then he emptied it in one long gulp. “You know if we get caught leaving the city, we will all be killed. Or worse.”
“Yeah. But if we can get enough people to leave, it will spread her forces thin and make it harder to defend the city. I think we need to work quickly, before any systems are restored.”
“Okay, the bar is still full. We can start to organize everyone here.”
Jessica walked toward the door to the bar area, and Billy followed.
“Wait a sec,” Billy said. Jessica paused with her hand on the door knob as Billy went back to his desk and took one more quick drink, this time straight from the bottle. “Okay, let’s do this.”
The two entered the crowded bar. When the people saw Jessica, an explosion of questions came from the group.
Jessica raised her hand and everyone went silent. “I know this is scary, but the GMT is on their way. We all need to pull together and help them.”
Maryana stared out the window of the Council chambers. The Twisted were doing a good job of shepherding the people back to their quarters. She wondered how the human race had ever lasted this long. She was unorganized and off balance from the unexpected loss of all systems on the ship. If the forty thousand people aboard New Haven attacked right now, they would probably kill her and her Twisted. Instead, they cowered and did as they were told.
Not all the humans were so soft. She really wanted to get her hands on the group that had taken down her ship. She doubted that they would put up much of a fight, but Jaden was with them. He was the real danger. After he was gone, humanity would fall in line. She wanted to check with her team in the field, but there were no working radios. She hoped that they had already killed the GMT and were bringing Jaden’s head to her.
Then she saw her field team marching through the streets of the city toward her building, their hands empty of even a single head. Their numbers were considerably less than when they’d left. The leader of the team entered the council room a few moments later.
Maryana smiled. “You can put Jaden’s head on the table now, please.”
“I don’t have his head. We followed him to a nuclear silo and he was able to get a warhead. We were still engaging him when we saw New Haven descending. I brought the team back to defend you.”
Maryana lost control of the rage inside. She moved across the room and put her hands around the leader’s neck, squeezing hard enough to hear the bones in his neck grind together. “I won’t need you to defend me if you kill Jaden. Are they coming here now?”
He tried to answer, but nothing came through his windpipe. She released her grip enough to allow him to answer. “No. I believe that they’re going back to Agartha.”
“How fast are they moving? Can we catch up to them?”
The Twisted didn’t want to answer the question, but his mouth moved and the words came. “If we hurry, we should be able to catch them.”
“Excellent.” She released her hold. “Gather your men. I intend to finish this.”
17
Brian stood up from the chair where he’d been sitting for the past four hours and stretched. His back let out a loud crack, and he nearly groaned with pleasure. He really needed to set an alarm to remind himself to move once in a while.
While Agartha itself was protected from EMPs, the outside equipment was another matter. Since they’d known the EMP was coming, they’d had time to blanket a good portion of the turrets with Faraday netting, protecting it from the pulse. It hadn’t been feasible to cover everything though. They’d lost most of their exterior cameras and a few turrets. There was plenty of work to be done, and Cynthia wanted everything back on line as quickly as possible.
Still, four hours was probably long enough to spend sitting at a desk. He walked over to a nearby station where a lab tech was furiously typing. Brian bent down and squinted at the screen.
“Working on the defense turrets?” Brian asked.
“Uh-huh,” the tech replied. “We have to recalibrate the sensors for a shorter proximity. That way we can keep them activated until Jaden and the GMT get close. Their radios won’t be working because of the EMP, but we should be able to spot them on the cameras as they approach on the road. Then we can deactivate the turrets.”
Brian nodded. “The turrets really are a brilliant design. The automation is impressive. Even if it did shoot my away ship out of the sky a couple of years back.”
“Thanks,” Stephanie said, popping up over the cubicle wall. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and a single curl had fallen loose. It hung over her right cheek, bouncing as she moved.
Brian raised an eyebrow. “You created the automation?”
“Uh-huh,” she answered. “Well, I designed it. George’s team built it. So, I guess I owe you an away ship.”
Brian thought of the experimental ship George had flown out of Agartha to lure Maryana away. Both George and his ship would be destroyed by now. “Actually, I think you’ve paid us back for that one.”
“Right. The experimental ship.” She paused a moment. “It seemed like you were thinking about something, just now. Are you bummed that you didn’t get to go on the mission with your friends?”
He let out a laugh and walked over to her cubicle, leaving the other lab tech to his work. “No. I have a long history of waiting for the GMT. It’s kind of in my job description. At first, I used to get anxious, wondering if they were okay. Hoping all my equipment worked properly. Stuff like that. But I got used to it over the years. I guess by now, I’ve accepted that my worrying isn’t going to help anyone, so why do it?”
“Wow, that’s a mature attitude.”
“Like I said, it didn’t come naturally,” he replied, with a shrug. “Besides, I’ve seen enough missions to last a lifetime. Trust me when I tell you, staying back in the safety of the city beats the pressure of a GMT mission any day.”
Stephanie tilted her head in surprise. “You went on missions?”
“A few,” he said. “Well, one really, but it was a doozy.”
“Yeah? Tell
me about it.” She leaned back against her desk and crossed her arms, a slight smile on her face.
Brian hesitated. Normally, he’d say it wasn’t that big of a deal and try to move on from the conversation as quickly as possible, but he liked this woman. She was smart, cute, and seemed to like him back. If she was interested in a story, he was going to tell it. “I was part of the GMT mission to the island of Puerto Rico. The one that recovered the virus. It was intense. There were so many Ferals, not to mention Jaden and his team of scouts. We slept on oil rigs off the coast, terrified that we’d get overrun by Ferals at any moment. When we finally found the records and raw materials, I was able to produce the virus while the GMT held off Jaden and his vamps…”
He trailed off when he noticed her face. Somewhere during the course of his story, her smile had faded. Of course it had. He’d just confessed to creating the virus that killed the heroic vampires of Agartha.
“Huh,” she said. “I guess I should have figured it was you. I just never put two and two together.”
He swallowed hard. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have… I mean, we had good reasons, so I’m not sorry I did it, but… talking about it like it was some big, heroic deed...” He silently cursed himself for sounding like such an idiot. He was back to the same old stammering nerd he’d been for most of his life.
“No, I understand that you had reasons. You killed the Ferals. But the vampires here were different, and it sucks that they had to die. Especially like that.”
“It does suck,” Brian agreed. “I hope you don’t think less of me. If you want to talk about it—”
“No,” she quickly answered. “I want to talk to you. Just not about that. Not now. I’m the kind of person who needs time to process before I’m sure exactly how I feel about things.”