by Paul Teague
‘It’s Simon, and Kate’s with me too,’ came a familiar voice. ‘What happened to the troopers? We’ve got thirty of them with us here – they seem confused and disturbed, I don’t think anything is controlling them now.’
‘With no Queen, they must be disconnected,’ Harold picked up. ‘Who knows what effect it will have on them, but you need to get them off this ship fast. Take them back to one of the bunkers, Simon.’
‘How long have we got?’
‘About ten minutes now.’
‘We’re on it!’ said Simon, and he left the broadcast stream.
‘What about Dan?’ came Mike’s voice. ‘Where is he?’
‘Be ready at the transporter for him. Xiang, you have their mother. Prepare your med lab for her arrival.’
‘He has only nine minutes left,’ said Xiang. ‘Doctor Pierce, you and your brother are the same. You are dying too, just like Dan and Nat. It must have been passed on through blood contact. You both have the nanovirus.’
She was trying to sound calm, but her sense of urgency was easy to detect. Harold Pierce was used to dealing with bad news, it just made his mind sharper. He was tired now, he needed to find the last reserves to end this. Only nine minutes for Xiang to get Davran hooked up to more machines and be ready to get working on Dan the minute he got back to the Quadrant.
‘Keep all comms open now,’ he said, knowing that as the final minutes played out they would need to remove all obstacles and delays.
He looked out of the windows of the Nexus and into space. The satellite matrix looked beautiful, he wished he’d taken more time to appreciate it. De-Unification was activated, the four Quadrants were undocking from the Nexus and their precious cargo would be spared the force of the destructive explosion when it came. The Helyion ship was connected now. He could see it straight ahead. They’d be boarding very soon, he had to rush.
He sealed off the ops area, leaving only the entrance to the transporter clear. He disabled the airlock to the Helyion ship, but knew it would only delay them for a short while – they’d blast their way through if they had to.
His brother had just arrived. Two security staff were bringing him on board, handcuffed and restrained in a wheelchair. He’d been sedated, but he was at least conscious now. Henry’s DNA must have given access via the transporter – at least he’d been useful for something.
‘Put him in the airlock for now,’ said Harold. ‘Let him see what it feels like.’
He had just four things to do and fewer than nine minutes to do it all.
Change the terraforming codes and reverse the sabotage process.
Shut down the self-destruct sequence on the Nexus.
Get Dan from one transporter to the next, the minute he materialized.
And blast his brother Henry out of the airlock.
* * *
Hunted
* * *
I was in danger of passing out, my leg hurt so much. I could hear the blood dripping on the floor. I was doing everything I could to keep moving forward.
Without warning, the lights went out. We were pitched into darkness. All I could see were the stars outside. And two green eyes which were closing in on me fast. Those eyes looked terrifying – I hadn’t particularly noticed them before, but in the dark they were horrible. It gave me an advantage, though. He might have looked scary, but he couldn’t track me as easily in this darkness.
I could see a flashing light up ahead – it was glowing intermittently, as if somebody had a fire lit. I walked into an open area. The flashing lights were coming from some electrical circuitry which was connected to a load of devices in this area. I recognized it immediately – it was where Davran was based when we saw her on Doctor Pierce’s screen. I must have come full circle. Mum had just fired up the transporter – she’d got out of here, she must have had Davran with her.
I had to get Zadra away from this place. If he realized Davran was gone, he’d know that the last one off the ISOCell would get stranded here. I’d have to lead him as deep into this ship as I could. Because I could see his eyes, I could locate him precisely in the darkness. To get him away I’d have to circle around him, and I’ll have to do it with a leg that was now bleeding badly. I needed to bear this pain. I wanted to cry out, but I daren’t make a sound – if he heard me, he’d throw his sword again.
I’d got my phone in my pocket from earlier, and it was still charged. I had an idea. I ducked into the side of the corridor so that Zadra wouldn’t see me. He’d been slowed by the darkness, but he seemed more confident of it than I was. I held the phone to my chest so that the screen didn’t show my location when it lit up. I swiftly navigated to the video Dad sent me. It was already there on the screen from where I was watching it before. I turned the volume up, pressed play and slid it across the floor, past Zadra’s feet and behind him.
Dad’s voice came out of the speaker and it immediately distracted Zadra. He turned, his green eyes disappeared for a moment and he threw the sword. I rushed by him, pushing him as I did so, and he stumbled. That sword was flying in the darkness somewhere. I didn’t want it to hit me again.
I was past Zadra now, running the long way round back to the transporter. I needed to get to it before he did, or before he realized I was intending to make him the last person left on this ISOCell. He’d be trapped.
Shoving him had worked. He was disorientated in the darkness and he missed the sword as it returned to him. I heard it drop on the floor – he cursed as he was forced to lose vital seconds retrieving it. He grabbed it and turned on me again, following me along the corridor. He was angry with me now, which didn’t improve my chances of survival. I kept looking back, I knew it was pointless, but I did it anyway.
I could see his green eyes closing in on me. I must have lost so much blood, I was feeling light-headed. The eyes got closer and closer. As I tried to move faster I could feel my cut flesh rubbing and pulling – the skin was actually tearing as I ran.
I could see the transporter up ahead now. The activation lights let me pick it out in the darkness. He was getting breathless – me too, and it felt all the more threatening having him just behind me. He knew where I was heading, he sensed it, and he must have known this was now a race to be first off this prison in space.
I reached the transporter. I slammed my hand on the button – it felt like I’d touched base. The transporter fired into life, the coloured lights began to activate, this was it, the final moments. Whatever happened here would determine if I survived this thing.
I could feel myself slowing down. I’d lost a lot of blood from my leg wound. I could see it now in the light thrown off by the transporter. I’d never seen so much blood before. There was some when Nat was hit by the car, but nothing like this. While I could still think and move, there was a way out this, there was a chance I could make it. I wasn’t scared any more. I accepted that this could end with my death – there was only a remote chance that I would make it out alive. The best I could do was to stop Zadra in his tracks. At least that would be one of the crazies out of the way.
He had caught up now and was standing on the transporter, ready to attack. The transporter lights surrounded us both. It couldn’t be long until transportation began. It must have been seconds. I could see that Zadra was as desperate as I was not to be the last on this ISOCell, and it occurred to me in that moment that there was another way. We couldn’t leave at the same time, we’d both be caught in the final explosion.
I was feeling drained, the life was running out of me. I couldn’t take another blow now, I’d sink to my knees if I did. Zadra raised his sword. He was going to take my head off. He was getting ready to make one massive, powerful swipe. I’d had a good run, at least. We’d saved Davran and Mum was safe, I hoped. And if not? Well, we were all dead anyway.
I saw that Zadra had begun to make his final movement. The lights were all around us now – either the sword would meet its target or we’d both be goners when the explosion went off.
&nb
sp; One person had to stay. We weren’t leaving this cell together.
I was okay with it now. I felt calm and ready to accept what was about to happen.
It would be over in an instant anyway.
* * *
Destroyed
* * *
Nobody knew where the ISOCell was located in space. It could have been in any one of the Off World Federation universes. It had only been located in the first place because of a tracking device secretly injected into Davran Saloor before her punishment of ostracism was carried out. These cells were littered throughout space, abandoned and forgotten, the final resting places of whoever had been condemned in them.
Billions of kilometres away in the Veluvian galaxy, there was a sudden explosion, smaller than a pin prick in this vast mass of stars. It went completely unnoticed and it took only seconds to burn up into nothing. Just a few bits of debris floated out into space. The last person had attempted to leave the ISOCell and it had completed its final task: to ensure the perpetual incarceration of the life form inside it, or to destroy them as they tried to leave.
Minutes later, in a different galaxy, there was another explosion, a much bigger one which rocked the planet far below and shook the matrix of satellites which had been formed around it. The Nexus was gone and all who were on it had perished. The Helyion ship which had been docked to it was nowhere to be seen.
Epilogue
Funeral
* * *
Amy always found goodbyes difficult. She choked up as the memories of Nat’s funeral came back to her. Even though it had all been a carefully orchestrated charade, with no body in the coffin, it had been very real to them at the time. Here she was again. Only Harriet and David provided some relief from it all. Young children are always a blessing at times like these, they create a distraction from the misery.
They were the survivors, a small group of regular people who’d been caught up in extraordinary events and managed to save the entire planet. Amy let the rush of emotion come. The tears flowed freely now, she felt that she’d earned it. They’d been through so much together, those who’d survived, and the world was having to piece itself back together again.
She knew she would never be able to tell the full tale, just like the time she’d been caught up in the army exercise which had nearly ended her life the first time. The truth about what had begun in the Secret Bunker would need to remain hidden, the world would have to believe that this carnage had been caused by a devastating solar flare, a natural phenomenon, rather than inhabitants from other planets.
She squeezed Mike’s hand hard as the final words were spoken by the minister and the coffin was lowered into the ground. Simon nodded at her, acknowledging all she’d done to fight this, to protect everybody involved. They’d succeeded – the fact that they’d come together for the funeral service was confirmation of that. None of them felt as if they’d won a victory though, with so much loss of life.
Kate stood by Simon, and it was good to see Magnus, Xiang and Viktor there. They were all bound by these terrible events and they would be for the rest of their lives. Many people had attended from the bunkers, it was as if they had to be there, as if it was one of the only ways they could cope with what had happened.
The coffin was lowered into the ground.
Amy waited a moment, clutched Mike tightly, and they walked away across the graveyard.
For somebody who had just helped to save humanity, she felt a bleak sense of emptiness.
* * *
Survivors
* * *
Mum and Dad went to James’s funeral. Nat and I were mad that we couldn’t be there, but if they detached us from Xiang’s device it would cause us big health problems. Apparently. They probably just said that to scare us, to make sure we stayed hooked up to it.
We’d have liked to have attended the service. We didn’t know James that well, but we all understood that we owed him our lives. If he hadn’t disabled that mobile phone mast it was hard to think how we might ever have won our battle.
My leg was still painful. It had been stitched and bandaged, but I hated the way I could feel where the two bits of flesh were trying to heal. I was reminded every time I made a sudden movement. I was still experiencing bursts of emotion, where I wanted to cry and scream, but I was trying to keep them to myself. Nat could feel it, our connection was so strong now, but she finally seemed to have learned some patience. She was waiting for me to tell it when I was ready.
I wasn’t even sure myself what had happened in those last seconds. I could remember the transporter lights flashing and seeing that sword heading at speed towards my neck. It was hazy now, but I recalled a surge of rage before I moved to push Zadra Nurmeen off the transporter. I guessed he thought he’d got me, so he wasn’t expecting it. I must have managed to push him off just as transportation took place. Or maybe he tried to follow me and was blown up as he tried to leave the ISOCell. Either way, Nurmeen was the last off the ship. He was the one who got caught in the explosion.
I made it back to the Nexus by the skin of my teeth. I didn’t recall much after that, just glimpses, like Dae-Ho rushing over to me on the transporter. That was my last thought actually, because I realized that if he was there, and not a trooper, they must have re-taken the Nexus while I’d been away. And Mum must have made it out alive too. Another flashback of Doctor Pierce. He didn’t have a tie on. I was so out of it I couldn’t work out which of the twins it was. Then a medical room, and Xiang’s face. After that, nothing. Not until I woke up stiff, sore and confused in a med lab. I wasn’t sure which Quadrant it was, but I was alive. And very pleased about it too. Nat was with me, and through the glass, in a separate room, the guy they called Jeff. Nat told me she had some big news to reveal about him, but she was sworn to secrecy until my strength was up, and I couldn’t sense it, even though I tried. I’d lost a lot of blood and I was lucky to be alive, according to Nat. Didn’t I know it?
We had a lot of catching up to do. I was looking forward to it. It felt like renewal, a chance to put everything behind us and move on. Most of us had made it out alive. I couldn’t pretend to be upset about Zadra Nurmeen or Henry Pierce. They got what they deserved, although Dad told me some things about the Pierces which make me wonder about Henry – it sounded like he had a pretty rough deal. Nat and I needed to be grateful we hadn’t met the same fate. It could have been one of us on that drugs trial. Even so, things hadn’t been easy for Nat. We’d all had some rough treatment from the Global Consortium.
I couldn’t wait to get out of this place now – I was fed up with living underground. But they couldn’t move us anywhere else. We needed Zatheon technology for the healing process to complete, and that couldn’t be revealed to the outside world. It was just another little secret that the public would never get to know.
I didn’t reckon I would ever hear myself say that I needed to get outside into the fresh air, but it was all I could think of now, cooped up in this hi-tech, artificial environment.
Oh, there was another great thing about finally leaving this place too. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a decent wi-fi signal again.
* * *
The Final Seconds
* * *
In the end, it took just seven minutes to determine the final destiny of the Earth. Seven minutes in which any other sequence of events would have forever changed the future for the billions of lives on the planet below.
At seven minutes, Mike opened up his comms tab and spoke to Harold Pierce. Something he’d said earlier had been troubling him. It was about the terraforming codes – could that possibly be anything to do with what was on the SD card? He’d found four codes, they seemed useless to him, but might they be what he was looking for?
At six minutes he sent the files over to Harold and at five minutes Harold confirmed they were the codes to give him access to the sabotaged terraforming process. The sabotage was reversed in an instant as the codes gave him back control of the shards on the plane
t surface.
At seven minutes Magnus and Viktor had watched as the twenty-nine Helyion ships had powered up and begun to leave the planet. All fifty nuclear weapons were less than three minutes away from blowing them all out of the atmosphere. Viktor held steady right up to ninety seconds before detonation. He wanted to be sure they were leaving. Then he activated the Global Defence Matrix and blew every single missile out of the skies. The sentinels in space found each target, fixed on it and rendered each one immediately useless. He hadn’t needed to use the nukes after all, but the gamble had paid off.
By three minutes, Simon and Kate had managed to send any remaining troopers back through the transporter to Quadrant 3, where medical teams were ready to care for them. They were confused, delirious even, but harmless now that the poisonous stream of orders had ceased transmitting. The troopers’ helmets gave free access to the transporter. The evacuation process was fast and efficient.
At seven minutes Xiang had attached the final tube to Davran, who she’d had to sedate due to the extreme disorientation that she was experiencing since being detached from the machines that controlled her. A series of tubes and wires connected Davran and Nat, but there was an empty bed for Dan. It needed Dan for the process to be complete.
At four minutes, the transporter in the ops area on board the Nexus sprang into life and the swirl of lights obscured the single form that had just materialized on the platform. Dae-Ho picked up a weapon discarded by one of the troopers and pointed it at the figure. It was Dan, bleeding badly and looking bruised and exhausted. Dae-Ho shot the controls of the transporter, to be sure that nobody followed after him, then threw down the weapon.