“Where is the rendezvous?” Stefani asked. She stopped firing her gun, and the question hung in the air while the fortress continued to unleash its full arsenal on the white Apostle. A glimmer of peace unexpectedly floated across his mind.
“We go together,” Carlee said. “Or not at all.”
Jeff closed his eyes and imagined a reality where he had never removed his flight suit and had instead worn it for security. It was a reality that made so much sense; sacrificing comfort for the protection provided by a flight suit was so sensible that he began to wonder why he would have ever done anything differently. He felt the suit come into existence around him.
“Lead the way,” Stefani said as a set of flying armor appeared around her. Carlee’s popped into existence a second later. Force-field walls surrounded them in all directions, and the spikes powering the shields had connected together to trap them inside of a dome with the Apostle.
The shields to the fortress deactivated, leaving it completely exposed to any counterattacks that might come its way. It hurt his heart to abandon their flagship; Carlee had sacrificed part of her mind to bring it into existence, and it was to be the vessel that facilitated their cause to change the world.
They shot out from the side of the fortress and skimmed across the ground, Carlee at the front, with Jeff and Stefani by her side. They kicked up dirt and weeds as they raced away from the fortress. Some of the weapon systems were overheated or recharging, easing the stem of projectiles that they were hoping would slow the Apostle down.
“Gas,” Carlee said over the coms line. “It’s gassing us.”
Cartridges landed all around them, streaming green gas into the air, blocking Jeff’s vision. He coughed as it seeped into his suit and grated into his lungs. A moment later, the air in his suit was pure once more.
“Pressed in some filters,” Carlee said. “We’re approaching one of the shield generators. I’m going to press in charges beneath it. Don’t pass until I give the clear.”
“I just lost contact with the transport,” Stefani said. “I think it hacked us.”
“Surprised it didn’t do it sooner,” Carlee mumbled.
Jeff pulled up abruptly and landed on the ground not far from the force-field wall. The sudden change in motion made his stomach turn, but that wasn’t the worst news. Behind the wall of force fields, another set of force fields had been put in place. He watched as more spikes landed behind those, creating another dome around them.
“It planned this,” Stefani said. “It set up turrets around to shoot these things just to trap us.”
“We’re not trapped yet,” Carlee said. “Step back.”
Jeff stepped back as the ground beneath the three nearest points in the force-field wall erupted. Carlee’s explosions incinerated the generators, collapsing a section of the dome that was trapping them.
The ground rumbled, and Jeff knew he had come face to face with the Apostle again. Its humanoid form stood in front of them, thirty feet tall, its armor shiny and reflective. It looked as pristine as if it had never been touched. All of their efforts hadn’t even scratched it.
Explosions blasted beneath the Apostle, throwing Jeff and the other vagrants backward through the air. Jeff used his suit to catch himself in midair. The dust hadn’t even cleared before Jeff could see the Apostle hovering above the crater beneath it, unmoved by the blast.
“I’m going to hit again,” Carlee said. “Charge.”
An energy cannon appeared next to the Apostle. It was immobile, but it was big enough to rival the ones on the fortress. It fired, and the blast hit the Apostle at point-blank range, knocking it out of the way as they shot forward toward the next layer of force fields.
“You take care of the next wall,” Carlee said. “Jeff and I will try to keep it busy.”
“Right,” Stefani responded. She rocketed forward over the ground, streaking toward the next impassable barrier.
Jeff rotated in the air, imagining a reality where the ground behind them was filled with massive mines—perhaps from a reality where the Apostles had used the weapons to guard themselves from one another. He could feel his mind starting to develop the connection when something snagged his foot and yanked him forward.
A glowing yellow band of energy was laced around his foot, and it was retracting, pulling him toward the Apostle that emerged from the cloud of smoke and dust. He strained against it, but the cord of energy cracked his armor and pulled him toward his death.
“Just do it already!” Jeff shouted at it. In a way, the longer it took to kill him, the more time it allowed Stefani and Carlee to escape. It was as meaningful of a death as he had ever hoped for.
“I regret—” the booming deep voice of the Apostle echoed in his helmet. It was electronic and inhuman, but it wasn’t like the voices of computers or audio interfaces he’d heard before. It was complex and passionate in a way he hadn’t been expecting. It didn’t have a chance to finish as a speeding transport was pressed into their reality and smashed into the Apostle’s side.
The vehicle practically disintegrated, sending shrapnel raining through the air. Jeff pulled away, trying desperately to free himself from the cord of energy wrapped around his human leg. There was only one way to free his leg, so he began to imagine a reality where a force-field sword was falling through the sky toward his leg. The thought of losing another natural limb made him sick, but he had lived through it before. He’d gladly give a limb to save Stefani and Carlee, and because they hadn’t left him like they should have, he needed to free himself.
He didn’t have a chance to finish the press before the cord holding him changed into a swarm of millions of tiny robots. They swarmed over the ground and raced toward the Apostle. Jeff stared after the nanobots, overwhelmed by the moment and the amount of skill it must have taken to press them, until a bright wave of energy exploded from the Apostle and destroyed them. It washed over Jeff’s body, knocking his suit offline.
Jeff tried to move, but his metal limbs no longer responded, and his hood didn’t work. He screamed as the Apostle took another step toward him. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the next two force-field walls had holes in them, but another had already landed behind them. Stefani was flying back through the air toward him, but she wouldn’t make it time.
She needed to leave anyway. She could make it if she left him. He had left her once before, the last time the white Apostle had ambushed them. The thought of Stefani dying trying to save him was intolerable.
“I regret the nature of our introduction,” the Apostle said. Its voice cut through the noise of the fight, piercing straight into his brain. It stepped toward him, its body blocking out the sun, casting a shadow over him.
“That’s close enough,” Carlee shouted. She landed between them, with a long force-field spear in her hands. She twirled it around and locked it behind her back. Her gray vagrant uniform had replaced her flight armor, but some odd-looking engines were strapped around her wrists and ankles. She was a perfect warrior silhouetted against the Apostle’s white frame.
Tears hit his eyes as he heard her voice over and over repeating how they didn’t fight Apostles, but here she stood in front of him, trying to guard him against certain doom. It was a beautiful suicide.
35 SECOND GENERATION
THE APOSTLE TOOK A STEP forward, and Carlee whipped her force-field weapon around, swinging the spear widely in an arc that nearly hit the Apostle’s leg. Stefani appeared in the air above it, pulling up abruptly while her gun twisted into existence from another dimension. She caught it in her hands and unloaded on the Apostle’s face, between its two glowing blue eyes.
The attack burned a brown hole into the Apostle’s shining white armor. The three of them paused as they focused on it. After all their attacks, they had finally managed to scratch the robotic god.
“I only wish to speak with you,” the Apostle said. Its voice echoed inside of Jeff’s head, without coming through his ears, and its face didn’t move. �
�Please.”
Jeff couldn’t take his eyes off the smoking hole in the Apostle’s face. It was only a few inches wide, but it was the only imperfection on the robot. It wasn’t much, but after everything this Apostle had done to him, it filled Jeff with immeasurable hope. If they could scratch it, perhaps they could kill it.
“You want to talk?” Carlee shouted. She sounded exhausted, confused, and really pissed off. “You want to talk to us?”
The burn mark that Stefani’s gun had left slowly changed colors and deepened to black before it began to fill in. Jeff continued to stare at it as the damage healed itself. It was like watching a cut scab over and heal itself. It filled him with rage once again.
“Yes, I wish to speak with you, Carlee, leader of the vagrants. And you, Stefani, warrior of humanity.” The Apostle’s eyes drifted among their group until it settled on Jeff. “And you, Jeff, whose rage is second to none. I have sought you long and far, across the mountaintops and the holy plains, and now we have met in the flesh.”
The only success from their battle with the Apostle had vanished, replaced with indistinguishable white armor. He didn’t know why, but seeing how easily the Apostle had fixed itself was too much for him to handle.
“We’re going to kill you!” Jeff shouted. He tried to get to his feet, but his metal limbs didn’t work. “I swear it! I am going to dance on your ashes!”
He knew it was impossible, but it didn’t stop him from vowing it anyway. The death it caused so effortlessly was permanent, and now, after their best efforts, they hadn’t even left a scar on its body for two minutes.
“Jeff, shut it,” Stefani said. She landed next to him. Her flight suit was covered in dust and in contrast to the Apostle, it looked like she had been through a thousand battles.
“What? You want to talk to this thing?” Jeff used his flesh arm to push himself up; it was as far as he could make it on his own.
“Just shut up,” Stefani said again. It was an order, and the fact that she didn’t call him Handsome was an indicator of how serious she was. Despite her words, she kept her weapon locked onto the Apostle’s head.
“You can’t be serious!” Jeff couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Carlee’s back was still between him and the Apostle, and Stefani didn’t show any signs of responding or helping him, so he closed his eyes and tried to press himself a new arm and leg, but he wasn’t able to find the right mental state to form a connection with another reality.
“I fear that you have already judged me to be malignant, Jeff, and that is not a fault that lies within you after what you have perceived to have suffered at my impure hands,” the Apostle said. “But I would plead for the relief to lay all of my sins at your feet before you condemn me for what you have observed.”
“There’s no—”
“Jeff,” Carlee turned to him. Her face ordered him to be silent, and his loyalty to her temporarily bridled the rage he felt at standing in the presence of the conspirator in his brother’s murder.
“Who are you? And how do you know who we are?” Carlee shouted, and for the first time, Jeff heard the Apostle’s response through his ears.
“My name is Darwin.”
Hearing that name sent chills through his body. Stefani’s gun wavered as she processed the information.
“The nature of my existence does not limit me to the forms of communication that are traditional to your species, especially at the intimate distances in which we find ourselves now,” Darwin said, no longer projecting words into their brains. It spoke now as a human, its shining flesh moving as naturally as human muscle and skin. “I beg your forgiveness in engaging in that process without your consent. My justification was to use it in order to persuade you to remain.”
“You read our minds?” Carlee asked.
“It would be disingenuous to clarify your words with the logistics of my process because the intent is one and the same. However, I vow that I will never again trespass in that which is most personal.”
The idea of the Apostle searching through his mind made him feel exposed, violated, and even more validated, but Jeff kept his mouth shut.
“I think trapping us inside these force fields with you is plenty of persuasion for a conversation,” Stefani said. Her gun was still locked on Darwin, even though Carlee had lowered her spear.
“The length to which I went to ensure this moment is a testament to your elusiveness. It has been my primary and nearly sole purpose for an entire revolution around the celestial bodies. But I will not force you to converse with me.”
As it spoke, the layers of force fields trapping them deactivated. The wind that had been trapped outside of the force field now circulated again, reminding Jeff, if only briefly, that there was a world outside of this meeting.
“You tracked us, trapped us, and read our minds,” Carlee said. “And no matter your intentions, you endangered our lives.” She glanced back at Stefani, and somehow, even with Stefani’s helmet on and no gestures between them, they managed to communicate. “What do you want from us?”
“I find myself, despite all my abilities, unable to properly address a matter without the assistance of some particularly gifted human beings. As of now, I am unsure as to whether you would find the subject matter wholly agreeable, and I am not prepared to disclose the entire nature of the desired accord until we have had the chance to form a bidirectional rapport.” The words flowed from the Apostle with perfect diction and without a single moment of hesitation.
“You want our help with something, but you don’t trust us even though you’ve spent a year trying to find us. I can assume whatever you need help with is something that only vagrants can do, and I have to say, coming from an Apostle, that doesn’t make me comfortable,” Carlee said. Her tone was looser now, and it drove Jeff wild. How she could talk to a mass murderer so civilly was beyond him.
“You call me an Apostle, but I am not one of the original twelve, yet perhaps someday I will find myself more fitting of the title. But the association with the first of my kind is categorically correct, although I take no pride in the matter. I promise you that if you give me the chance, you will find that I share little more than the molecular composition of my mind with my forbearers.”
“Enough with the fancy talk—” Jeff started, unable to contain himself any longer, but Stefani kicked some dust in his direction, and that served as plenty of a reminder.
“What generation are you?” Carlee asked.
“I consider myself the fourth generation of my kind, although you may consider me the second, as I was created by one of what you consider the original inorganic intelligences.”
“Which one?” Carlee pressed the Apostle as if he were the man who had mocked them at the walls of Townend. He wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not.
“From what I gathered from your mind, I can tell you are an educated person, with significant understanding of our shared history. But I feel that I need to vocalize the fact that I am not human, and therefore, I am not subject to the same genetic disposition as organic creatures. Surely, the sins of the father have never passed to the son, but DNA creates a stronger link between your generations than ours. Thus, to answer your question, I am the creation of the Apostle you know as Horus, although I could not find a more distant philosophical comparison.”
“It’s Horus’s spawn!” Jeff said. This time, Stefani didn’t try to stop him. “Carlee, we should leave, right now. It was there at Fifth Springs, and it killed Petra.”
“Our prejudices, at some point often forgotten, are based on a seed of something perceived as very real. You have plenty of reasons to doubt me, all of you, but I can only do my best to convince you through word and deed that I am who I claim to be. I do not deny my creator, although I do not appreciate it. I know you did see me briefly after the tragedy of your home, Jeff, but we both know you did not see my do anything heinous.”
Everyone focused on Jeff, and he nodded his head. It was true—he hadn’t seen Darwin d
o anything with his own eyes, but it had been there. And it was Horus’s creation.
“Further, I offer my testament that as a result of a combination of my quest to find the vagrants and the fulfillment of an agreement with my creator, I was in the area when I sensed the needless waste of life caused by Horus. I was too late to prevent it from proceeding in its deplorable indulgences.”
“What about Petra?” Jeff spat out. Hearing Darwin try to rationalize its involvement in the destruction of his community and the death of his family was almost too much for him to handle. But he had no proof. That wasn’t the case in Dallas; he had seen that happen with both of his eyes.
“I make no effort to hide my involvement in the termination of Petra’s temurim core, subsequently saving the life of my creator, which I hold in no regard. However, there are nuances to the situation that require a perspective that will take me a considerable amount of time to convey to you. I promise to answer all of your questions, regardless of whether you agree to aid me, at a later time. For now, know that aiding Horus in its battle was integral to allowing me to place my force-field turrets, enabling our conversation today.”
Jeff didn’t know what to say, but he knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to fly away and press in every weapon he could think of, knowing full well he wouldn’t be able to kill the monster, but the idea of causing it even a momentary wound enticed him. At least then it would know, once again, that it wasn’t a god that could talk its way out of murder.
“What if we were to leave?” Carlee asked, still holding her spear. “You said we could go now, but you’ve tracked us for a year. I have a hard time believing you would give up on us that easily.”
“I am not immune to dishonesty. I admit that it has afflicted me in the past, but I do my best not to deceive. If you were to leave, it would not be the end of my greater purpose. There are other people capable of what you do. I can sense them; I can feel the inexplicable addition of matter to our world. I would seek them. A year is not so much to give.”
Vagrants (Vagrants Series Book 1) Page 23