Fallen Metropolis (Omnibus Edition)

  Young Jaxon jogged up to join them. “Can I help?”

  “Sure kid, come with me,” Vynce said and gave a knowing look to Old Jaxon. Vynce could tell that Jaxon’s existence in the same space in both of his timelines still made him feel uncomfortable, so Vynce took the opportunity to split them up. Old Jaxon nodded to Vynce in appreciation.

  “So, I’ve got an idea,” Young Jaxon said.

  “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

  “Well, all of these ships used to be hooked up to a central network that monitored any issues with them, right? Y’know, it’s a requirement of any large ship that the evacuation shuttles are kept in working order. If we can access the monitoring system, we can find out which ones are still functional,” Young Jaxon said.

  “Right, well that sounds like a start,” Vynce said.

  “A start? It’s genius! Do you know how long it would take to check all two hundred and fifty of these ships by hand?”

  “We’d never be able to check them all properly.”

  “Damn right. And two hundred and fifty isn’t even enough for a quarter of the passengers on this ship at full capacity. I always thought that if something big went down there wouldn’t be enough shuttles for everyone, but I never thought that there would only be a couple hundred of us left alive,” Young Jaxon said.

  “Well we’ve got pretty good odds, right? There has to be a pretty big chance of having at least three working ships left

  “I hope so. I really don’t want to die on this ship,” Young Jaxon said.

  “Me neither, buddy.”

  Old Jaxon and Ava went in the opposite direction from Vynce and Young Jaxon. Old Jaxon was much less anxious while he was out of close proximity to his younger self. It was enough that he had come back to the Metropolis Seven in the first place, but to have locked Draco Goldwing and his crew to these events as well was almost more than he could bear.

  He was responsible for it. Which meant that he was responsible for everything that came after. A shiver crawled over Jaxon’s skin, which prickled with gooseflesh.

  But his mission, which was now the younger Jaxon’s mission, was to return the small black case back to New Earth. Before old Jaxon could make things right, he had to make sure that the survivors escaped, otherwise it was all for nothing.

  “Are you okay?” Ava asked as they walked in silence.

  “I guess.”

  “You’ve been really quiet since we left the medstation. Is there anything you want to talk about?” she asked.

  “That I want to talk about? Not really. We just need to focus on finding a working shuttle, so we can get out of here,” he said.

  She grabbed his hand with hers and forced him to stop walking.

  “Cut the shit,” she said, “Tell me what the fuck is going on.”

  “I...” he began.

  “If you love me, you will not fuck me around. You got that?”

  “Yes, but...”

  “No fucking buts. If I really think that you and I have something real here, and I think we do, you can’t treat me like a child. I can handle whatever you can throw at me.”

  He couldn’t help but smile, even as tears started to well up in his eyes. He took her into his arms and held her.

  “I’m not going to make it off of this ship alive,” he said.

  She shook her head, slightly at first, then growing in intensity.

  “No,” she said.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “No, you fucking can’t. Not after all this.”

  “Yes. I have to. It’s the only way that I can make sure that you and the rest of these people survive this. I have to, to make sure that no one ever sets foot on this ship again.”

  “No, I just found you, I can’t lose you already,” she said.

  “You won’t. You’ll find this out soon enough but being in love with a time-traveler is not like being in love with a normal person. Our relationship isn’t – wasn’t – won’t be normal. Things don’t happen on a linear sequential progression of events. This might seem like the end to you, but I have years of happy memories of you, and us, and all the moments we’ve shared, or will share. It’s just bad luck that we meet at the end, and it ends where we meet.”

  Ava pulled away from Jaxon’s embrace and stormed over to the nearest shuttle. It was almost completely destroyed. The ion thrusters were burnt out, as though they had exploded. The outside of the ship was crumpled where part of the roof of the hangar had collapsed. Ava used her remaining hand to manually open the entry hatch and climbed inside.

  Jaxon climbed in after her. He had no idea what she was doing, but he wouldn’t let her do it alone. There was no light inside the shuttle, but Jaxon could hear Ava calling to him from deeper inside. His low-light vision kicked in and he followed the curved hallway around to the main holding area of the shuttle.

  He could just barely make out Ava’s shape in the darkness. She took off her helmet and put it down on the ground next to a wide couch. She ran her hand through her hair and gave the command for her suit to disengage. The linkages down the side of her suit uncoupled, and the armor on her left arm disengage from the shoulder guard. She allowed the armor to slide off onto the ground.

  “I don’t hear you undressing,” she said back into the darkness. She was not looking at Jaxon, but Jaxon has looking at her. His suit had begun to feel a little too snug at the sight of Ava’s bare back. Her muscular soldiers. Those butt dimples that he would – no, had – gotten in so much trouble for pointing out.

  He took off his helmet and breathed the air deep. He could not see a thing, but he could smell the sweet scent of her. He joined her, planting kisses on her shoulder, and up the side of her neck. Ava turned around and kissed him hungrily. They undressed each other with a desperate ferocity and made love there in the darkness.

  They spoke no words; there was no time for words.

  They made love for the first time. They made love for the last time.

  As the lovers held each other in the blackness of the shuttle, Vynce and Young Jaxon had located the monitoring station. On it, they had located a cluster of seven shuttles which still appeared to be functional. They were on their way back to the rest of the survivors when Captain Goldwing’s voice blasted through their comm channels.

  ‘Crew of the Icarus, are any of you there? Please respond! Emergency! Veck Simms has escaped and taken control of the Icarus. He’s used the gateway drive and is about to escape!’

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  “What?” Vynce bellowed, furious. “How the fuck did he manage to get out of the containment cell? I thought it was supposed to fry that sonofabitch!”

  ‘So did I, but he contacted me from the Icarus’s main comm channel. He’s in charge of the ship, and he’s opened the gateway. We need to stop him!’ Draco said desperately.

  “We’ve just found a few working evacuation shuttles. We’re on our way back there now. We’ll get out of here as fast as we can, Captain.”

  ‘Double time it!’

  Vynce didn’t know what was more terrifying – the fact that Veck Simms was free, or that Draco Goldwing sounded scared.

  In the darkness of the shuttle, Ava and Jaxon didn’t have time to talk about what had just happened. They both buzzed from a strange combination of terror and lingering ecstasy. No matter how things turned out, they had each other, and nothing could take that away from them. They dressed in silence.

  Jaxon’s armor was tuned to his body and could configure itself in moments, but Ava’s suit was forty years more ancient and required some manual assistance. In minutes they were dressed again, outside the shuttle, running back toward the survivors.

  As they ran, Jaxon had to tell Ava one final thing.

  “I love you,” he said simply.

  “I know,” she said.

  He grinned.

  “One last thing,” he said, “I need you to promise to go along with whatever I say when we get back, all right?”

  “I know that thi
s is the end of us right now. That why I can’t say... well, you know. I just can’t say it right now, even though you know what I want to say. And you know that I mean it.”

  “I know.”

  “The end is coming, isn’t it?”

  “It is. With my life, I can save yours. And that’s enough. You...”

  “Shut up and keep running,” Ava said.

  “You’re going to do so many great things, Ava. This isn’t the last time you’ll see me. Just remember that there will come a time when I haven’t met you. In my timeline, after my younger self escapes the ship, you won’t be able to find him for three years. So, don’t go looking. But I will find you, and it’ll be sooner than that. I guarantee it.”

  “Is this ever going to get easier?” she asked.

  “No. But you get used to it. Kind of.”

  By the time they re-joined the main group of survivors, Vynce and Young Jaxon had moved the group of survivors down to the functioning evacuation shuttles. Doctors Fewster, Harris and Cooper had divided the medical, food and water supplies up into two groups. They were in the process of loading them onto the two shuttles that the non-infected passengers had begun to board.

  Just as Doctor Harris promised, she did not allow any of the passengers on board any of the ships until they had been scanned again and passed as clean again. This took precious time, and some of the infected passengers had begun to ask questions about why they weren’t getting any supplies loaded onto their shuttle.

  Old Jaxon overheard them, and he stepped between the group of infected, and the uninfected passengers. He had managed to speak to some of them while they were still in the medstation. Doctor Harris knew his plan, as did some of the others, but the majority did not.

  “I’m sorry to have gotten your hopes up this far,” Old Jaxon said to the infected passengers, “but we’re not going to make it off of this ship alive.”

  An outraged cry rose from the infected passengers, and even from some of the uninfected passengers. Jaxon heard words thrown about like inhumane, betrayal, and murderer. One older gentleman stepped forward. “What do you mean? Why are we even here then? Why didn’t you just leave us to die?”

  “Because I need your help. Before we found you all in the medstation, we re-routed this ship from a crash course with a binary star system. We thought we were going to be able to save everyone, but that’s just not the case. Those of you who are infected can make sure those who are not infected can survive this. You can lay down your lives for them, and we can destroy the infection before it has a chance to infect another ship. Or another world.”

  The anger that coursed through the crowd went from a boil to a simmer.

  “I’ll be coming with you all,” Old Jaxon said. The anger in the crowd evaporated. Vynce started to say something in protest, but Ava put her hand on his chest and shook her head. Vynce looked at her with confusion. She held him with her remaining arm, and he returned her embrace as he realized what was going to happen.

  It was then that the infected passengers outside the hangar bay started to beat on the metal security door at the top of the walkway. The sound boomed through the hangar bay and everyone burst into action.

  Old Jaxon approached Young Jaxon and grabbed him by the shoulder.

  “Do you remember your mission?” he asked.

  “Yeah. Bring the chip to Erik Johanssen at The End Times. Arthur Kronenberc Parade, Champion’s Square, on New Earth.”

  “Good lad. You must deliver that chip. Our future depends on it.”

  “I will. I promise,” Young Jaxon said.

  “Good, now go join Doctor Fewster. He needs you to help load the medical supplies on board his shuttle.”

  “Okay,” Young Jaxon said. It was clear that there was more that he wanted to ask, but he left without argument.

  Doctor Harris stood in front of the entryway of the first shuttle and scanned the uninfected passengers before they boarded. One by one they passed the test, showing them what their wristbands already indicated. That was until one of the patients who had previously passed the test as uninfected then scanned as infected. She was a young woman with short brown. She shook her head in disbelief.

  “What? No! That can’t be right! I’m clean! I’m clean!” she pleaded.

  “I’m sorry, but you’re going to need to join the infected shuttle. We can’t let you on board either of these shuttles,” Doctor Harris said.

  “No, you can’t make me! You can’t sentence me here to die!”

  “Honey, we’re all born with a life sentence. You can accept it, or you can stay in denial and wait for the others to come and claim you.”

  “Scan me again! Scan me again! Please!”

  Doctor Harris put her hand on the woman’s chest and scanned her again. The display showed the existence of foreign bodies in her system. She was infected. There was no question. She held her head in her hands and fell to her knees as she wept.

  Old Jaxon helped the woman to her feet and guided her over to the infected passengers. They took her in their arms and held her as she cried.

  Vynce approached old Jaxon and said, “Before you go, I just wanted to say that it’s been an honor to have met you.”

  Vynce offered his hand to Jaxon, who took it. Instead of shaking his hand, he pulled Vynce close and hugged him.

  “You too Vynce. But this isn’t the last time for you. It might be for me, but you and I will meet again. I guarantee it.”

  Vynce left Jaxon to help his passengers into the shuttle.

  Doctor Harris stopped scanning people in front of one shuttle and said, “This shuttle’s only got room for two more! Fewster and Clarke, get over here!”

  Doctor Fewster joined Doctor Harris, as did Clarke, a middle-aged man with short grey hair. They both climbed up the entryway and sealed the shuttle door behind them. They would be ready for take-off in moments.

  It was then that the fleshlings outside the hangar bay managed to penetrate the metal security door. They began to shamble slowly down the walkway, but they sprinted towards the survivors as soon as they came into their field of vision.

  “Definitely not being friendly anymore,” Vynce said, then rushed over to his shuttle.

  “Doctor Harris, we have to get this wrapped up! Scan people and get them on board! Now!” Vynce yelled.

  “I’m going as fast as I can!” she yelled back. There were only a handful of people left to scan, and they all tested clean in moments. Vynce helped Ava up into the entryway of the shuttle. Doctor Harris climbed into the shuttle of infected passengers. She pulled the shuttle door closed just as the aggressive infected reached them.

  Vynce looked back up at the walkway and saw hundreds of infected shamblers shuffling into the hangar bay. The huge centipede-creature that had been birthed in the apartment complex rushed into the hangar bay and bellowed at the shuttles who were preparing for take-off. Doctor Fewster’s shuttle was the first to ignite its engines. The infected that stood around the ion thrusters were turned to ash.

  The shuttle maneuvered itself into the center of the hangar bay, in between both rows of shuttles, and then engaged full thrusters. The moment that the evacuation shuttles activated, the hull of the Metropolis Seven opened. A grav-field across the end of the hangar bay preserved the gravity and atmosphere but allowed easy escape. The shuttle rocketed through the hangar bay, through grav-field and out into the dark void of space.

  Vynce climbed into the pilot’s chair of his shuttle, engaged the engines, ran the take-off subroutines, and followed Doctor Fewster’s shuttle out of the ship and into space. Old Jaxon’s shuttle took off moments after Vynce’s shuttle and followed them.

  After Vynce was free of the Metropolis Seven, he looked back on the vidstreams in front of the pilot’s chair and couldn’t believe that he had actually made it out alive. Ava sat next to him and smiled sadly. She watched the shuttle behind them. The one carrying the man she had fallen in love with.

  Vynce wheeled the shuttle around in a
wide circle towards the front of the Metropolis Seven and he saw the open gateway, crackling in the black of space. He set an intercept course and tuned into the comm systems of the other shuttles.

  “Clarke, follow my intercept trajectory. We need to stop the Icarus before it goes through that gateway!” Vynce said.

  ‘How in the hell do you expect us to stop it? It’s too far away, and these are evacuation shuttles! We don’t have the ability to dock with them! We don’t even have any weapons!’ Clarke protested.

  “Just follow me, and do exactly what I say, you got that?”

  Clarke cursed. ‘All right. But the moment you put me or anyone else on this shuttle in danger, you’re on your own. We didn’t get out of this just to risk our lives again.’

  “Before we came to rescue you all, we were transporting Veck Simms from the Arcturus Sector back to Alliance space. You know who Veck Simms is, right?”

  Clarke’s face had gone white on the vidstream. ‘The betrayer of humanity...’

  “He’s in charge of our ship and he’s about to get a free ride to wherever he wants to go unless we stop him.”

  ‘Matching your trajectory now,’ Clarke said.

  Vynce tried to hail Jaxon’s shuttle, but he couldn’t get through. Jaxon had disabled comms. Ava watched Jaxon’s shuttle through the vidstream as it flew further down the hull of the Icarus and into the loading dock that they had used to get onto the ship in the first place. She reached over for Vynce’s hand. He took her hand in his and squeezed gently. She squeezed back.

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Captain Draco Goldwing climbed up the cable ladder and into the air duct. It was a tight fit for Draco and Raze. He didn’t want to imagine what one of the bulky Vartalen had looked like when they had squeezed through.

  At the end of the air duct Draco saw the point where the Vartalen had cut through the hull of the Metropolis Seven. A thick section of hull sat in the bottom of the air duct, and beyond it, the red-lit interior of the Vartalen cruiser. There was no telling whether there was still anyone on board, and if there was, whether they had been monitoring their crewmates’ vidstreams or vitals. They could be walking into a trap, but it was the only place left to go. They would never make it through the streets of the ship alive after burning Captain Hane. The Vartalen cruiser was their only hope of escape.