Fallen Metropolis (Omnibus Edition)

by Matthew J. Barbeler

  “The third option is something that you should never use, except when all other options are exhausted. The Icarus has a gravity drive on board-”

  Arak had to stop his jaw from dropping. “A gravity drive? There’s no way!”

  “Close your mouth before you start catching flies. Yes, there is a gravity drive on board.”

  A gravity drive was tech used in the gateways that were used to travel across the vast spaces of the void. The gateways were controlled by the Galactic Council, and the use of personal gravity drives were outlawed. If someone opened a gateway with one side within the atmosphere of a planet and the other end in the vacuum of space, they could space an entire planet.

  “The Icarus could destroy worlds! How in the galaxy did you find someone who could make one, let alone agree to install it in a mercenary vessel?”

  The avatar of Samuel Goldwing smiled at Arak and said, “This isn’t really a mercenary vessel. But I’m sure you already worked that out.”

  “I’m not sure I follow,” Arak said.

  “This vessel was originally given to me by the Alliance military, for a price. If they ever had a job that they couldn’t be seen to be attached to, I’d take care of it. That contract no doubt would have passed to Draco after my death.”

  “You’re saying that this is a military ship? This makes a whole lot more sense now.”

  “Not entirely military. It was engineered and built by the military, but it was given to the Goldwing family. We’ve made our own modifications over the years.”

  “Still, to hear that there is a gravity drive on this ship fills me with dread.”

  “We’ve never had cause to use it, and maybe it’ll stay that way. But you’re the pilot now, which makes you the ranking officer on this ship while the Captain isn’t here. So now the decision on how to proceed is completely up to you. You’ve activated me, which in turn has activated the higher functions of the ship. All you need to do now is place your hand on the access pillar again and speak one of three phrases.

  “The first is, ‘and now we burn’ which activates the self-destruct mechanism. If you activate this option, you will have five minutes until the ship self-destructs. If you say ‘the power of the sun’ you will activate the EMP. If you say ‘we will fly again’ you will activate the gateway gravity drive, and it will ask you for a set of coordinates. Once you input coordinates, the drive will rip a whole through the fabric of space and time to deliver you to your destination.

  “I will leave it up to you to decide,” the avatar said and then faded away.

  Arak was left alone in the dull green glow to make his decision.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Draco, Raze and Aloysius reached the MagLev network. This was just one part of a giant tubular network that continued around the entire perimeter of the ship.

  “Which way do we go?” Draco asked. Both directions led into darkness

  Aloysius opened a map of the MagLev network and displayed it as a hologram in front of him.

  The MagLev network was one giant tubular network, much like the mega subways on New Earth. It ran in an ellipse around the outside of the Metropolis Seven. It started in the production and maintenance areas that they had already passed through, and then ran around the outside of the recreational, residential and Metropolitan Districts of the city.

  The MagLev tunnel looked nothing like a traditional railway. The tunnel was cylindrical and of a similar height as a three-level apartment building. Coming up from the bottom and down from the top of the cylindrical tunnel were smooth metallic supports in an X pattern that ended in wide, flat magnetic surfaces.

  The magnetic surfaces made it so that the MagLev carriage could move at phenomenal speeds without any kind of resistance. A trip that normally would have taken upwards of an hour on a traditional track-based train network could happen as quickly as ten minutes using a similar MagLev mode of transit. Draco hoped that using the MagLev network they could reach the center of the city quickly.

  “We go right,” Aloysius said. “Towards the Water Treatment station. It’ll be quicker than going left, even though going left will take us closer to the city. However, my power levels are low. My core is regenerating, but I’ll need to wait until I can use any of my advanced defensive systems again.”

  “It’s fine, Al. We’ll be careful,” Draco said. He looked at Raze, and the big man looked spooked. “How are you doing, Raze?”

  “I preferred it when monsters were just words on a page in a book,” he said.

  “I hear that,” Draco said.

  A sudden blast of static came through their comms. Draco flinched and hunkered down as though they were under attack. The message was an incomprehensible jumble.

  “We read you, but the message was scrambled, please repeat,” Draco said.

  He motioned for Raze to try and track the signal back to its source. There was still something on board the Metropolis Seven that was blocking their communications, and Draco wanted to know exactly what it was.

  Another blast of static came back through their comms, but one phrase came through the static loud and clear.

  ‘Help us!’ a terrified voice pleaded before it became white noise again. It sounded like a kid.

  “Raze, can you get a lock on where that comm is coming from?” Draco asked.

  “Working on it,” he said as he worked furiously on his comm unit.

  “Hold tight. Keep transmitting on this channel and we’ll do what we can for you,” Draco said.

  Another distorted blast of digitized static blasted across the comm channel.

  “I’ve got it,” Raze said. “Whoever is trying to contact us is broadcasting wide. It’s coming from the next MagLev station. The one we’re already heading towards! Side note, I know who’s jamming us. Whoever’s in Metro Tower is responsible for that too.”

  “Let’s go!” Draco said.

  Draco stood and sprinted down the MagLev tunnel. Raze followed, and Aloysius lagged behind. The tunnel swept to the right, revealing a wide platform about a floor above them. A ladder led up there, and Draco ascended it quickly. He pulled himself onto the platform and the scene before him almost made his stomach turn.

  There was one walkway for arrivals and a separate walkway for departures with a glass barrier separating the two. Some of it had been cracked and covered in red. Bits and pieces of bodies, some hardly even human in appearance were scattered across the walkway. Somehow the glass was still intact.

  Raze and Aloysius joined Draco on the platform.

  “Are you sure the signal was coming from this platform?” Draco asked.

  “The location matches perfectly.”

  “Can you get that door open?” Draco asked and pointed towards the departures door.

  “Not from out here. If we can cross to the other side the doors should just open for us,” Raze said.

  Draco pulled his pistol from its holster and fired two shots at the glass between the walkways. The sound of the shots and shattering glass echoed off the walls of the tunnel. Draco kicked a section of glass, which shattered under the force of his assault, then jumped the barrier between the walkways.

  The arrivals walkway was relatively clear of bio-hazardous debris. Draco walked towards the arrivals door, and it slid open to reveal a small fire burning in the center of the room. Draco walked across the threshold and felt something to his right.

  A young boy stood on top of a chair right next to him with a pistol levelled at Draco’s head.

  “Who are you!? Answer me, or I’ll shoot you! I’ll shoot you right in the head, and then you’ll just be meat!” the boy screamed.

  He couldn’t have been any older than ten. His hand shook so fiercely that Draco thought there was a chance the boy might shoot him by accident. The kid wasn’t practicing trigger discipline.

  Draco put his hands up in front of him. He still held his pistol in his right hand, but let it dangle freely from his thumb. Draco said, “My name is Captain Draco Goldw
ing, of the Icarus. My crew and I are here on the Metropolis Seven responding to a distress call. We’re here to rescue you. How about I put my gun away and you put yours away too?”

  The boy visibly relaxed. His hands still shook, but he lowered the gun.

  “I thought you were one of those things,” the boy said.

  “What’s your name?” Draco asked.

  “Pim,” the boy said.

  “You’re a very brave young man. Was it you that we heard on the comm channel before?”

  Pim nodded.

  “You said help us - is there anyone else here with you?”

  Pim’s bottom lip started to quiver as he spoke, “My sister. She’s in the luggage room. I locked her in there when she started to act funny.”

  “What do you mean she started to act funny?” Aloysius asked.

  “She stopped talking. Normally she never stops talking. And then she tried to eat me. She kept saying that I was a piece of meat and that she was so hungry. I got scared, so I locked her in the baggage room and didn’t let her out.”

  “Son, do you know anything about what’s happening here on the ship?”

  “There are monsters in the dark. Is my sister a monster?” Pim asked.

  “No, she’s not a monster. But I need you to stay here with my friend Al for a moment, all right Pim?”

  Pim looked over to Al, then back to Draco. Aloysius leaned down and took the boy’s hand in his.

  “Hello, you brave little man. Would you like me to tell you a story while Draco checks on your sister?”

  “Mhm,” Pim nodded.

  “What kind of heroes do you like?” Aloysius asked.

  “Strong ones who save the day,” Pim said. “Ones that save little kids and kill monsters.”

  Aloysius began to tell him a story while Draco and Raze walked further into the terminal. The tiny fire had been made in a waste paper basket. The dancing flames threw moving shadows onto the walls. There was a door on one side of the room that led to a baggage room.

  Draco motioned for Raze to open the door. The big man in the red and blue armor shouldered the door open and stumbled into the darkness. Draco followed and let the door swing shut behind him. The beams of their flashlights pierced the darkness.

  Draco heard a low gurgling sound a moment before something slammed into his chest with an inhuman screech. The thing was small and was still wearing the shredded remnants of a pink dress. Pim’s sister was barely recognizable as human. The young girl’s head lolled back wordlessly. A new mouth full of needle-sharp teeth grew from the top of her chest cavity. It gnashed and snarled as Draco fell backwards. He tried to fend the creature off, but it was too strong. The small frame belied a monstrous strength. The gnashing maw pushed closer to Draco’s face. Just as he thought the creature would overpower him completely, Raze unleashed a burst of assault rifle fire. The thing’s tiny limp body flew across the room and landed in a heap of misshapen skin, bones and pink fabric.

  “Shit,” Raze said.

  “Yeah,” Draco agreed.

  “How are we going to tell the kid?”

  “He’s probably seen more than his fair share of horrors already. I’m just glad he had the sense to lock her in here.”

  “Smart kid.”

  Draco walked over to the carcass of the creature that used to be Pim’s sister. He flipped it over with his right foot and it struggled weakly. The volley of bullets hadn’t killed the creature, only grievously injured it. Red blood and black liquid oozed out of the bullet wounds in its chest. The tooth-filled maw opened and closed slowly. Each time it moved its top jaw, the little girl’s head flopped backwards and forwards. It closed its mouth for the final time and the little girl’s eyes fluttered as life left its body.

  “I’ve been thinking about what Al said earlier, and I’m sure he was right. These things in the ship, they all come from people. I think what we’re looking at here is some kind of parasite, but unlike anything the galaxy has ever seen before. It’s like the parasite doesn’t just coexist with the host. It actually takes the host over completely. What kind of thing could do that? Have you ever heard of anything like this before?”

  “No, I can’t say I have,” Draco said, “But if these things can somehow take you over from the inside out, then I think we need to be a lot more careful.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Ava’s arm had started to ache. She hoped that the bone spike that had pierced her forearm hadn’t caused too much internal damage. It could have grazed an artery, chipped a piece of bone or even shredded one of her muscles.

  Sensing spikes in her pain receptors, a message flashed up on her HUD.

  Administer pain suppression?

  “Yes,” Ava said.

  She felt a small pinch on the back of her right shoulder blade as a tiny needle pierced her skin. The relief was instantaneous. She exhaled as a wave of light-headedness passed over her. Even though she couldn’t feel the pain, she could feel the unpleasant warmness of the new wound.

  “Yes what?” Jaxon asked?

  “Nothing, don’t worry about it,” Ava said.

  “Are you okay back there?” Jaxon asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” Ava replied.

  “You’re talking to yourself. You’re not fine.”

  She grunted. “I am fine. How’s Vynce?”

  “He’s still out cold. If my memory is correct, there should be a medical station somewhere in these tunnels. If we keep going, we should be able to find it. It’ll be a safe place where we can wait until he wakes up.”

  “How well do you know these tunnels?”

  “Well enough. These are the tunnels where I did most of my work on the Metropolis Seven before everything went to hell. I never got to know every little nook and cranny of the place, but I know the main tunnels well enough. See that pipe up there? The one with the blue stripes running down the middle?”

  Ava looked up and saw the pipe he was referring to.

  “Yeah, I see it,” she said.

  “That brings water up from the treatment plant to the medical station. If you’re ever in trouble, you just find a blue striped pipe and follow it back to one of the medical stations. They’re even on their own comms and power grid. Once we get there, we should be able to find someone to communicate with while we wait for Vynce to come back around.”

  “Finally, some good news.”

  They followed the blue striped pipe along the darkened corridors. Ava lead with the butt of her assault rifle pressed against her shoulder. The light coming from her flashlight was the only light shining in the darkness. Jaxon followed behind her, carrying Vynce in his arms.

  There was a sudden noise from the vents above. Ava raised her assault rifle and aimed it at the metal grated roof. Her right finger almost pulled the trigger, but she stopped herself. That kind of noise could attract all manner of unwanted attention. She glimpsed something small and fleshy up in the vent, but it clambered away from them at speed. She exhaled. The creature wasn’t an immediate threat.

  They continued until they reached a four-way junction.

  “Which way?” Ava turned to Jaxon and asked.

  He raised an arm at the ceiling.

  The blue striped pipe ran off to the right. Ava followed it. As she turned down the next corridor, she thought she could hear a faint, far-off scratching sound. It sounded like someone scratching nails on metal.

  “Do you hear that?” Ava asked.

  “Yeah,” Jaxon replied.

  “Walk faster?”

  “Walk faster.”

  Ava and Jaxon picked up the pace. Ava started to jog as she followed the blue-striped pipe. Every corridor they went down looked exactly the same as the last. At one point, Ava thought that they were running in circles. The scratching, chittering sound grew louder. Ava started to feel the darkness pressing in against her. Her heart raced as she pushed herself to run faster. She felt it in her injured arm. It throbbed with the exertion.

  “There, on the rig
ht! There’s the medstation!” Jaxon said.

  Just ahead of them there was a white sign with a red heart in the middle. There was a small green light next to the door frame. As Ava approached, the opaque glass door to the medical station slid open without a sound. Ava stepped through and checked the room for danger. There was one main room with two beds against the far wall. On the other wall was a row of chairs. Near the beds was another door that led to the supply room. As Ava scanned the room, she saw no immediate threats.

  As Jaxon crossed the threshold he said, “Initiate lockdown protocol, code 7826.”

  The door to the medical station immediately slid closed, and the green light next to the door turned red.

  A feminine voice spoke over the loudspeaker. Medical station Delta locked down. Quarantine protocols in place.

  “Quarantine protocols?” Ava asked.

  “This room has been locked down and quarantined. We’re locked in here until I use a quarantine override code to get us out again. Vynce has been attacked by one of these things, and I need to know whether he’s been infected. Can you get check the beds and make sure they’re safe?”

  “Sure,” Ava said and walked over to the beds. One of the beds had red and brown liquid muck on top, but the other bed. Ava checked underneath just to make sure. She found nothing.

  “This one’s fine. Bring him over.”

  Jaxon brought Vynce over to the bed and set him down gently.

  “Is there any way we can get him out of the suit without cutting it off him?” Jaxon asked.

  “It doesn’t matter if we have to cut it off him. He’ll be able to put it back on once we’re done. You’ve seen a smartsuit before, right?”

  Jaxon laughed. “Seen one? I’m wearing one. But it’s about 40 years more advanced than the first or second generation smartsuits your crew is wearing. They’re the smartsuits where the armor bonds to the outer layer of the suit, right?”