“Right.”
“This one, the smartsuit is the whole suit. You put it on and it augments your natural body automatically. It hardens into plate all by itself. This is the kind of uniform soldiers wear into battle in my time.”
“You’re for real, aren’t you? You really are from the future.”
“Yes. I am.”
“Then you know how all of this turns out, don’t you?”
“I know the overall outcome of what happens, yes. But the past is a strange thing. In most cases, the past doesn’t want to be changed. It’s resistant to it. But time travel is even stranger than you would think. Sometimes when we’re sent back to make sure something doesn’t happen, the time agent is instrumental in making sure things happen as they have already have. In effect, the outcome you’re trying to change was already influenced by your direct involvement.”
“Wait, what? You’re going to have to dumb it down for me buddy. That just flew straight over my fucking head.”
“All right, well imagine for a moment that there’s someone that you love with all of your heart. Someone that you wouldn’t gladly give your own life so that they could continue on living.”
Jaxon smiled and looked at Ava in a strange way.
“Got it,” Ava said, but she really didn’t. She had never felt that deep a connection with anyone, except maybe for Draco. But that wasn’t a romantic kind of love. Plus, Draco would never let any of his crew sacrifice themselves so that he could live. He’d go down with his golden wings aflame before he let anyone take the fall for him.
“Do you have anyone like that?” Jaxon asked.
“I have some people I’d be willing to die to save.”
“Good. Now imagine living through their death. Then, imagine surviving it. That’s the worst thing of all. You start questioning your own actions. ‘What else could I have done to stop it? What if I could go back in time and save them?’ You know that if you actually had the ability to go back in time to try and intervene, you would. Hell, I know you would. You may not know me all that well yet, but I know you better than you think. Your fiery passion. Your unbridled tenacity. Your strength. I know that if you thought there was any chance you could save someone you loved, you’d take it. I know that for a fact. Tell me I’m wrong, and I’ll call you a liar.”
“No,” she said, “you’re not wrong.”
“Imagine for a moment that a person that you love above all else is killed in a fire fight, seemingly at random. A random lucky shot. Let’s just say the Captain Goldwing is facing off against a ship full of pirates, and a random shot hits him right in the weak spot of his suit, just below the chin, and just above the neck plating. The shot pierces his jugular and he bleeds out before anyone has a chance to even think about trying to help him. You live through his death, and you try to find a way to get back to that moment in time to intervene. You go back to the exact same place and time, and you put yourself right there in the situation. You join the gunfight, and you’re knocked down while trying to kill off the pirates that took your Captain’s life. Your finger is squeezing the trigger, and you flail wildly as you get knocked backwards. One of your bullets fires towards Captain Goldwing and hits him right in that weak spot, and he dies before you have a chance to do anything.”
It felt as though there was a huge leaden weight on Ava’s chest.
“So, by the act of trying to intervene, it would actually be my fault that Captain Goldwing died in the first place,” Ava said.
“Yes. There is no way to know what events are caused by time agents, and what events are prevented by time agents. All I know is that I am not supposed to be here on this ship. Something happened to me today that, as far as I know, has never happened before. I crossed over into my own timeline.”
“Your own timeline? What do you mean?”
“One of the fundamental principles of being a time agent is that you cannot cross over into your own timeline. There are theories about what would happen if it ever occurred. Some theorize that the universe would begin to implode in on itself. Some theorize that the Sentinels would hunt down the anomaly before a paradox could be created. Others think that nothing would happen at all. But all I know is that my younger self is on this ship. In that life, I am twenty-two years old, and this is my very first job since landing on New Earth. I don’t remember meeting an older version of myself when I was twenty-two years old, so either it never happened, or something prevented us from meeting. Or maybe I did meet myself and I completely repressed the memory. There’s no way for me to know whether my involvement with the events here on the Metropolis Seven will alter the outcome, or whether they are the cause of the outcome that I have already lived through. All I know is that this piece of tech that I am carrying needs to get back to New Earth, otherwise the existence of our entire race is in danger.”
Ava’s mind swam with questions. She wanted to ask what the point of trying to change anything was if it was already destined to happen. She wanted to know what the fuck a Sentinel was. She wanted to know how the hell two versions of the same man were on the Metropolis Seven at the same time.
“I think I need to have a sit down,” Ava said. Her head had started to pound, and her right forearm was aching. It was still uncomfortably warm, and it had started to itch.
“You sit down, and I’ll inspect Vynce, all right?” Jaxon asked.
“You bet,” Ava said and sat down on the couch in the waiting area.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Rhken walked towards the bridge and Veck Simms followed close behind. They rounded the last curve before the door to the bridge and Rhken couldn’t help smiling to herself when she saw that Arak Nara had locked the bridge down. Her blood ran when she heard Veck start to laugh to himself.
“How amusing,” Veck said and approached the security console next to the blast doors. “Would you like to see a little trick?” The smile on his face terrified Rhken. Without giving her a chance to respond, he held up his fingers in front of her eyes. “Watch very, very closely.”
Before Rhken’s eyes, she saw Veck’s fingerprints begin to dance and change. He pressed them against the fingerprint scanner. Evie’s voice then said, “Hello, Captain Goldwing. Please speak your voice activation prompt.”
“On wings of gold,” Veck said, but it was Captain Goldwing’s voice that came out of his mouth. The blast doors raised, then the normal doors slid open. Veck walked into the bridge.
Rhken turned and ran. She didn’t want Veck to hurt her any more, but she also couldn’t just let him take the ship. She wanted to run back to her Dad and her sister. They’d know what to do. They always knew what to do.
A sudden pain erupted from the back of her head as Veck grabbed her hair by the roots and pulled her backwards. Her feet flew out from beneath her, but Veck didn’t slow down. He marched back into the bridge, dragging her along behind him. Rhken tried to scream for help, but Veck had knocked the wind out of her. All she could do was gasp for breath.
“Now, now little mouse, I can’t have you scurrying away before I show you my greatest trick. It’s guaranteed to blow you away,” Veck said with a chuckle.
“Please don’t hurt me,” whimpered Rhken.
“I would not have to squash a mouse if it did what it was told and didn’t try to run away.”
“I can walk. Please let me get up. I’ll come with you, I swear.”
“You haven’t done anything to earn my trust so far, so you can stay on the ground at my feet until you do. And if you don’t, I’ll crush your skull with my bare hands. Have you ever seen what happens when a skull is crushed? If you apply pressure in just the right places the eyes pop out of the sockets like a jack-in-the-box.”
Veck let go of her hair and let her fall to the ground. She watched him walk over to the control center of the ship. He turned around and shot her a triumphant look.
“Little mouse, come here and sit by my feet while I take this ship,” he said and patted his leg as though he was calling
a dog to heel.
Rhken looked at his hand and the sheer humiliation of the situation made the tears flow harder.
“Come here, or I’ll hurt you again. I know you probably think I like hurting you, but I don’t. I’d like it much better if you would just listen to me and do what I ask. Now, come,” he said and patted his leg again.
Rhken attempted to get back to her feet to go to him.
Veck raised a finger and said, “No, no. You haven’t earned your walking privileges back yet. Crawl to me, little mouse.”
Rhken thought about resisting. She thought hard about just sitting where she was, or getting to her feet anyway. She wanted to show this bully that he had no power over her. She was her own person, and he couldn’t control her. But then she remembered the pain. She remembered the humiliation she felt after being forced to do something by this monster.
Against every fiber in her being, she began to crawl over to Veck on her hands and knees.
“Good girl,” he said, “Now come sit by my feet.”
She crawled over to Veck’s feet and sat.
He reached a hand down and caressed her head. He pushed it against the outer edge of his thigh and said, “There now. Isn’t that better, hmm? Submission suits you, my little mouse.”
Rhken closed her eyes and tried to fight back the tears.
Veck opened the ship wide communications system and spoke.
In the cargo hold, Nook quietly monitored the energy tethers that held the Icarus to the Metropolis Seven. All of the ranges were good. The push/pull system was working perfectly. Since the ion drives of the Metropolis Seven started doing most of the work, the Icarus had hardly used any power all.
There hadn’t been any contact from Captain Goldwing or the rest of the crew, and that normally meant that everything was going well. Captain Goldwing always told Nook that no news was good news. But still, there was a feeling of unease down in the pit of his stomach that he just couldn’t shake.
Rhken had gone to check on Arak while they waited to hear back from Captain Goldwing, but Nook had just noticed that she had been gone a long time. Reban was reclined in a chair reading one of her Old Earth novels.
A voice then came over the loudspeaker that filled Nook with dread.
‘Attention all crew members of The Icarus, this is your new Captain speaking. If you are just now realizing that Veck Simms is now in charge of this vessel you may feel some unnatural compulsions race through your mind. You may feel the need to act impulsively. You may even think that you need to try to kill me, but I can assure you that is not a good idea. One of your junior engineers is here in the bridge with me. She’s such a quick learner, and very amiable, aren’t you my dear?’
Nook heard Rhken whisper the word yes. It chilled him to the bone.
‘It would be a terrible shame if anything were to happen to her. I don’t want to kill her, you see. You may have trouble believing it, but I assure you it is true. I don’t want to kill anyone on this ship. All I want from you is to allow me to commandeer this vessel and fly away. I’ll drop all of you somewhere safe. Anywhere the nearest Gateway can take us. But all I need is your cooperation, and you can all make it out of here alive.’
Reban looked across at Nook with wide, red-rimmed eyes. “Dad, what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know sweetie, but we’ll think of something. We’re not going to let anything bad happen to your sister, all right?”
Reban nodded.
‘Now that I’ve given you some time to think about it, someone can come on up to the bridge here and let me know your decision. If you decide to try anything funny, the girl dies, and that’ll be on your conscience. Not mine.’
“Dad? What do we do?” Reban asked again, this time with an urgent note of terror tempering her words.
“We’re going to save your sister, honey. We can’t let Veck take the ship. We can’t betray Captain Goldwing.”
“I know we can’t, but how are we going to rescue her?”
“That’s the bit we’ve got to work out.”
In the heart of the ship, Arak Nara heard Veck’s threats. The comms were broadcast down here into the heart of the Icarus too. Arak needed to make a choice immediately, otherwise Veck might make good on his threat and murder Rhken.
The first option was to set a self-destruct sequence off, but that wasn’t really an option at all. It would serve no purpose except stranding Draco and the rest of the crew over on the Metropolis Seven and kill the rest of them. The force of the blast may even knock the giant ship off course. Given how close they still were in the gravitational field of the Gemon binary star system, that would not be a good idea at all.
The second option was the electro-magnetic pulse. It would destroy the energy tethers that held the Icarus to the Metropolis Seven, but it would also completely disable the Icarus until the system had time to reboot itself. With so many cybernetic augments and attachments Veck had put into his body, there was no chance that he could survive an EMP blast. Veck had a mechanical heart, and without a heart to pump the blood around his system, Veck would surely perish.
It was a shot, but a dangerous one. It solved one problem but created many more. Once the EMP was triggered, an emergency response beacon would be activated. Every hostile ship in the star system would know where they were, and they would be without a means to defend themselves. There was also no knowing what effect the EMP would have on the Metropolis Seven.
The third option was to engage the gravity drive, which would open a temporary gateway in the fabric of space and allow the Icarus to pass from one end of space to another. As a pilot, Arak knew the coordinates for most of the human-friendly sectors of space. If they could pass through a gateway and arrive somewhere within Alliance space, they could easily send a comm wave out notifying the entire sector of who was on board.
But if they did that, Draco, Raze, Vynce, Ava and Aloysius would all be stuck at the ass-end of space without the courtesy of a goodbye. After Captain Goldwing had saved Arak’s life on Torusk, he could not forsake his Captain.
Arak knew what must be done.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Did you kill the monster?” Pim asked when Draco and Raze walked back out into the station terminal.
Draco walked over to Pim and kneeled down beside him.
“The monster can’t get to you anymore,” he said.
The boy laughed. “Mister, there are more monsters on the ship. They’re the worst in the city. That’s where most of the people went when they started getting sick.”
“That’s where we need to go,” Draco said. “We need to get into the heart of the city. To Metro Tower. We think that if we get there, we might be able to save everyone on the ship.”
“No! You can’t take me back there! You can leave me here if you want, but I’m not going back to the city!” The boy pulled away from Draco violently.
“We can protect you, Pim. But you need to help us too. We don’t know this ship as well as you do, and we need your help to know where to go. We’ll protect you. I promise. None of the monsters will even be able to get close to you.”
“Do you pinkie promise?” The boy held out an outstretched pinkie towards Draco.
“I pinkie promise.” Draco curled his finger around the boy’s finger.
The kid smiled. “Okay. I’ll go with you.”
Draco gently patted Pim on the shoulder. The boy was frightened out of his mind. Draco couldn’t imagine what horrors waited for them in the center of the city, but once they were there, they could take control of the ship and put it into safe space to wait for the Alliance military.
‘Congratulations on surviving so long!’ Their unknown director’s voice came through the MagLev station’s speakers loud and clear.
“You tried to kill us. I’m going to remember that,” Draco said.
‘I have to admit that it did take me a while to find you. I wasn’t sure exactly where you’d pop up again. There were six of you before, weren’
t there? Now you’re down to three. I’m terribly sorry for your loss.’
“They’re not dead.”
‘Oh, but how can you know for sure? You’re not the one who has eyes and ears all over this ship, Captain Goldwing. I do.’
“Something’s jamming our comms. Is it you?” Draco asked.
The voice over the loudspeaker tittered and said, ‘It’s a nice little trick, isn’t it? The Metropolis Corporation thinks of all contingencies when it builds these ships. Including a contingency plan to deal with an invading force like yourselves.’
“We’re on the same side! You needed our help saving the ship. We pulled it out of the orbit of that burning planet.”
‘Yes you did! And with aplomb! If you recall our last conversation, there’s only one thing I really want from you Captain Goldwing. I just want you to listen to me. I want you to follow my orders, and I’ll guarantee you a safe route through the ship. I’m in control of all the ship’s functions. Even if the rest of your crew is alive, I can make it very hard for them to stay that way unless you do exactly what I say.’
“What do you need us to do?” Draco growled.
‘It’s very easy. Just get on the MagLev carriage that I’m sending to you. Once you’ve reached your destination, I’ll give you further direction.’
“And where exactly is our destination?”
‘Come now Captain Goldwing, you wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise, would you?’
“Send the damn MagLev carriage.”
‘It will arrive shortly.’
Raze turned toward Draco. “I don’t like this at all.”
Aloysius echoed his concerns. “Nor do I, but I think we are rather lacking in options for the moment. We could either try our luck outside the terminal, or we can take the MagLev carriage and perhaps get Pim to some relative safety.”
“If we don’t listen to this guy, then there’s no telling what he could do to Ava, Vynce and Jaxon,” Draco said. “If they’re still alive he could make it very hard for them to stay that way. They’re fine, I know it, so for now we do what he says.”
Fallen Metropolis (Omnibus Edition) Page 14