Just as quickly as the darkness descended, light filled my eyes. I was blinded for a moment as my pupils tried to adjust to the rapidly changing spectrum. I winced and tried to shield my eyes as best as I could manage, but the pain remained. Tears blurred my vision as my body sought to protect itself. After many minutes, I was finally able to make out my surroundings.
I found myself standing on the lake's edge, my toes inches from the liquid methane. The haze overhead prevented me from seeing the massive gas giant, but I knew that somewhere above sat Saturn. I could feel the gravitational pull, which was really weird. I’d never felt it before. I inhaled sharply but the gas had no effect on me. I blinked, surprised.
“I’m not dead?” It was supposed to be a statement. My mouth decided otherwise. Traitor.
I knelt down and touched the ground. My hands were bare and the strange sand clung to my skin. I felt it squish between my toes. I could feel the liquid methane on my feet as a tiny wave lapped against them. It was cool but not overly so. I wasn't wearing any shoes. A breeze cut across the lake and sent chills up and down my body. There was no protective gear on my person. In fact, I wasn't wearing anything at all. I was standing nude in a poisonous environment which would kill anybody.
“What the hell?”
“I'm sorry about that,” a sincere voice said from behind me. I turned.
Standing nearby was a normal looking man dressed in digicamo and wearing a strange-looking beret. It took me a moment to recognize the UN logo, though as I stared at it more and remembered how they looked when I had last seen them, the image began to sharpen, as did the details of the uniform.
I was in my mind. Or rather, someone was in my mind with me.
Probably.
“I can only dredge up images from your subconscious with a lot of effort,” the man explained, his voice annoyingly calm. “The more you think about things, the better that image I can use.”
“What?”
“You are confused,” the man said. “That is entirely understandable. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”
Great. Now even my subconscious was stealing my best lines that I had stolen from movies.
I was suddenly bombarded with alien images and feelings, emotions and thoughts that were unlike anything humanity could even dream of. I could see it all. The seemingly endless war between the kraken and the invaders. The carnage it has wrought upon their home. The sliding of the scales as the great kraken began to slowly die off while the invading species continued to be born anew. It shattered my soul to watch such a beautiful and elegant alien race be wiped out as an invasive creature outbred and outfought them. I'd seen it before throughout human history and knew precisely what the being meant.
The figure before me nodded. “We've fought them for so very long, but we're dying. We cannot control the magma any longer. They will feast on our home and, when they are done, they will move out into the stars for more planets to devour.”
“You thought we were with them,” I began to understand. My mind was still reeling from the images. “That's why you attacked the station.”
“You placed your 'station' right in the middle of our dinner table,” the being replied in a brusque manner. “But yes, we only attacked when it became clear that some of you had become influenced by the magma.”
“Influenced by…what?” I was confused again.
“The magma.”
“How did it influence us?” I was confused. Lava? No, that couldn’t be it. I was missing something vital. My mind wasn’t translating something correctly. Magma meant something entirely different between our species, it seemed.
“Not you.” The figure smiled. It was disconcerting. “If it had been you, we would have eliminated you already.”
“Huh?”
“I am unfamiliar with that term.”
“Can you tell me how they influenced the…others?” I said, trying to wrap my head around everything. It was still very confusing, but the longer the being was in my head—and I'm pretty sure that's where we were—the easier it became to understand some of it. It was as though the kraken was influencing my thoughts and opening venues I could never have dreamed of finding on my own.
“The magma pollutes our younglings,” the being said as it began to pace around. The scenery changed as the lake began to ripple and lights appeared. The clouds of Saturn began to swirl madly, racing across at a maddening speed. I could see the entire length of eternity and the deepest pits of nothing. Metaphorically, I guess you could say that it was a journey through the soul. I would have said it was more akin to the universe’s worst acid trip. If everything hadn’t been in my head, I probably would have puked. The man continued to talk, ignoring my plight. “We have existed for eons as peaceful denizens of this part of the galaxy, and we believed we could handle everything the magma could possibly do to us—until it began to infect our children. This immediately heightened the state of war between our kinds. The one who traveled with you? He called the magma plankton.”
“Holy shit,” I breathed. “The plankton is the magma?”
“A byproduct of their habitation of our home. You would call it…their bio waste.”
Oh, wow. The scientists on the station had been pumping psychotic lunatics with shit of an invasive alien species on a planet inhabited by one of the oldest sentient species in this part of the Milky Way. Talk about strange days.
“How do I know all this?”
“You share your thoughts with me, and I share in return.” The being shrugged. “Once we too walked the stars, sailing the pathways of the elders upon great ships. Many eons before we explored every known pathway between worlds, charted the many stars, and delved deep in to the sciences.”
“What happened?” I asked. Images flashed before my eyes. Darkness. Light. Conflict. I saw stars exploding and black holes forming. I saw peril, danger, and war. There was no peace, only…death? I couldn’t tell, precisely. It was a dizzying and confusing vision.
“The End happened.”
There was such a finality in his tone that I didn’t want to press any further. Whatever had happened had been powerful enough to cause him a tremendous amount of pain. It must have been hell, though. I’ve only seen reactions like that from Marines who had seen some bad shit in their day.
Considering the mental fortitude it takes to become a Marine, bad shit would break a regular person.
“Is Isaac okay?” I asked, changing the subject.
“The young scientist is doing well for the time being,” the man answered. “We are probing his mind to see what he has done and what harm he has led in his pursuit of knowledge, but so far it appears that he was not using his knowledge to harm life. We approve of his curiosity.”
I sighed with relief. The little guy was my responsibility, since it had been my idea to go out of the safety of the station to meet the kraken. If anything had happened to him, assuming I made it out of this alive, I’d feel pretty horrible about losing him as well. He might not be some innocent kid, but he was a decent-enough guy.
“How do we stop the magma from spreading?” I asked. “How can we stop it from reaching Earth?”
“If not for your discover of space flight, the magma would have easily remained contained on this moon for time immemorial,” the man replied. “Since you have begun exploring the pathways of the elders, however, the magma can…‘hitch a ride,’ I believe the expression is. They will find your planet eventually, and devour it over time. It is their nature.”
So much for human progress.
“How can we stop it?” I wondered. “The magma…how do we stop it?”
“You must destroy it all,” the man said.
“Okay, so how do we do that?”
“You must destroy us.”
I hadn’t expected that.
“I’m sorry,” I blurted out before I could stop myself. “What did you just say?”
The man heaved a great and weary sigh. I could see the exhaustion o
n his face and in his body language. He had been around for a very long time, though he didn’t look a day over thirty. I realized that whatever I was seeing was a mental projection of something greater, something far older than I. The man before me was what the kraken wanted me to see, a way so that I could perceive his kind better than I would if I had been looking at his true form. Or hers. One could never be absolutely certain when dealing with aliens.
“Your species is so very war-like, so aggressive,” he began, his eyes staring off into the distance. “You have proven time and time again to be something that we do not strive to become. You frighten us, and make us believe that there is no room for a species like us in the coming millennia. And yet…your species may be the only chance for the continued survival the galaxy. Humans are the ones who are needed to protect the galaxy against what is to come.”
“We’ve created art, music, and made breakthroughs in science to better mankind!” I retorted hotly.
“Yet for all the times we have reached out to humanity, shared our voice with them, the only ones to ever hear our song and reply have been the warriors,” the man answered back, as calm as I was agitated. He saw how frustrated I was becoming and began shaking his head. “It’s not a judgement of you, more of the state of mind your warriors must attain. It is something we cannot fathom, but your minds are by far more flexible than any other human we have managed to reach. It is strange that warriors would be the easiest to communicate with.”
“How long?” I asked. “How long have you been trying to talk to us?”
“Hundreds of years.”
That didn’t surprise me much. We could barely talk to one another, and as a species we tended to be pretty insular looking.
“But to prevent the magma from becoming a symbiotic parasite with your species, you must destroy it here, now,” the man continued, waving away my protests as he continued on, directing the conversation back on course. “This threat must be contained.”
“But…to destroy you…” My thoughts drifted back to all the kraken that I had seen swimming around the station. I recalled something that Baptiste had said during his rantings. My stomach dropped as realization hit me hard. “That means I’d be killing kids!”
The man nodded. “Our youth, yes. It is necessary.”
“No,” I said forcefully.
“Why do you resist to acknowledge what you must do?” the man asked. He motioned around at the beach, the waves of the lake, and frowned. “I know what you are feeling, what you are thinking. This is inside your head. I already see that you have analyzed everything and agree with what I have said. So why do you continue to deny what must be done?”
“Because…” my voice trailed off. He was right. Damn it all to Hell, he was absolutely correct. I had accepted the fact that it needed to be done. I was lying to myself about everything else. I hung my head. Jou hadn’t beaten me, and Gentry had been unable to make me quit. Even Baptiste, may he rot in Hell for eternity, hadn’t managed to force me to throw in the towel.
Now, though? With an alien intellect in my mind, begging for me to kill it and all of its children in order to save humans?
I dropped down to my knees and hung my head. I closed my eyes and listened to the gentle sounds of waves crashing on the shore. I could feel the man staring at me. I chuckled darkly at the idea. I should feel everything he was doing. After all, this was my mind and not his we were having the discussion in.
I sighed and gave my answer.
ঠ
As it turned out, Isaac was able to do far more than just fetch the coffee.
The shuttle ride was mostly a blur, with Isaac handling the controls of the craft as we managed to break orbit and exit the volatile atmosphere. The approach to the waiting warships was long and dull after the excitement of navigating through the atmosphere. This gave me some free time, alone to my thoughts. I had much to think about.
I couldn’t even begin to explain why I had agreed to do it. Who the hell was I to think that I could dictate the death of two species? I mean, I’m not squeamish about killing people. Not usually at least. But there’s killing a man, and then there’s eradication, which is what the kraken were asking.
It’s what I agreed to do. God help me, why did I agree?
I never thought I would be a person who destroyed something beautiful and pure in order to save the universe. War is war, and fighting an enemy to save a population from collapsing is one thing. But systematic eradication of an entire species in order to save the universe? That would be cruel, heartless, and beyond the scope of what I thought I could bring myself to do. It would be inhumane even if they willingly sacrificed themselves for it. It was aliens doing alien things. I hated them for this, and yet I understood their reasoning as well.
It didn't matter what I had reluctantly agreed to do while I was on Titan. The kraken had been in my head, messing with my mind. How did I even know that the emotions and feelings which had compelled me to accept their offer in the first place were my own? There was a fine line between compelling someone and convincing them.
I exited the shuttle and found two very confused Marines waiting to escort me to the captain. They guided Isaac and myself through the maze of the ship. I was so lost in my thoughts I barely noticed any of it. It was still recycled air, still an artificial environment. Nothing had changed, not really.
I found myself on the command bridge of the dreadnaught, the captain asking me for orders. Strange, considering that I was just a lowly guard. Then I remembered the Emergency Protocols, which meant that the order to destroy the station had to come from the senior supervising security officer on the station. That would normally have meant Gerry, but he was dead. As were all the others. It would be my call, my decision. It had to be done.
No, I thought to myself. I'm not going to kill an entire species. I couldn't do it. I couldn't give the order. It didn't matter how evil the magma were, I could not destroy the kraken in such a ruthless manner. That was something no man or woman should ever be asked to do. It was not right.
We understand, a voice whispered from far away.
I stood there, frozen, unable to move. My mind no longer had control over my body. I felt a presence within me once more. The grand kraken had returned. An image of the most beautiful woman in my world appeared before me, blocking my view of Titan. Concy looked back at me with warm brown eyes. I tried to shake my head but I was still unable to move. Her lips quirked into a small smile. She forgave me for my weakness, even as I cursed the kraken.
“Drop everything on the planet,” the command which came from my lips were not words I ever wanted to say, but they came anyway. I screamed silently, trapped within my own mind as the words poured forth. I could do nothing to stop them. I had no control. “Destroy the station and irradiate the moon thoroughly. We have to destroy all evidence of everything there. Tell the entire task force to drop everything they have. Drop every rod we have on it. Destroy it all.”
A great sense of melancholy came over me after the last words passed through my lips. I wasn't sure if it was the kraken's emotions or my own. I don’t think it mattered anymore. The command had been given, and followed. I was still unable to speak and my feet remained rooted in place. The image of Concy faded and the massive hole in my heart began its slow journey to healing itself at long last. Like a salve to an infected wound, the pain which had been constricting my soul began to ease for the first time in memory.
If you are what humanity represents, we hold great hope for it. We thank you for helping us save the galaxy.
I stared at Titan with tears in my eyes as I eradicated two species to save my own.
“Sir,” one of the men on duty called out. “Launch detected.”
“Scan and report,” the captain snapped.
“It’s gone now, sir,” he said, turning towards me. The operator’s face changed slightly. No one else seemed to notice, but after dealing with the mind wipes, and my own experiences, I was acutely aware of the differen
ce in expression. Had he been… what the fuck? “Ghosted. Must’ve been a glitch.”
He turned back to the screen, face resuming its normal appearance, as though all were right in the world.
End
Read on for a free sample of FURNACE
PRELIMINARIES
I screwed up. That’s the only reasonable explanation I arrive at each time I consider the Furnace incident.
No one else seems to see it that way though, no matter how deeply they wade in the muck and mire of data logs and survivor testimonies. The Crown performed an inquest when we returned to Earth. The chief investigator assigned to the case claimed there wasn’t a man or woman alive—excluding, maybe, the friends and relatives of the deceased—who would blame me for what happened to our ship in deep space. Beyond it, really. That’s the worst part. We had no idea where the hell we were, and it was my job to know. Space is an infinite cesspool of misery with fresh horrors on every goddamned rock you land on, but the Furnace incident was different than any so-called ‘normal’ complication on a hostile planet. A lot different. It’s not a mission you’d boast about to other soldiers when you drop by Pluto or Mars Station. You wouldn’t bother telling your next C.O. how you survived a combat zone unlike anything the fleet has ever seen, or how you climbed a little higher in the pecking order because of it. It’s not worth it. You’d never do it justice.
Furnace was hell. No other word sufficiently describes it. Surviving that horror-show is nothing to brag about. It just means you’re a little weaker between the ears than the rest of your fleet brethren, and that maybe one day you’ll descend into utter lunacy while they’re enjoying fat pension checks on a luxury planet somewhere far away from the war front.
For all his maddening nonchalance, the chief investigator meant well. He pointed out the same tired arguments I hear all the time from people desperately trying to vindicate me. He must have thought it would stick better the more he beat it into my head.
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