by Jacob Holo
* * *
Nicole opened her eyes, and strangely, felt no surprise at when she saw the huge three-story mansion standing before her with its pale yellow walls and hundreds of windows.
The vision was crisper and less surreal than last time. She stood in the midst of an elaborate garden in front of the mansion. Huge patterns of neatly arranged flowers and immaculately trimmed shrubs stretched out around her. Some patches of flowers curled about in baroque curlicues of red, orange, and lavender. A central concrete path ran up to a large pond and fountain, looped around it, and led to the mansion’s front.
“Not again,” Nicole whispered.
The central spray from the pond’s fountain reached several stories into the air, unmoving. Smaller stone fountains broke up the large multi-colored patches of flowers. A few dozen people stood in the garden or sat on one of the many benches, all completely still. The midday sun burned down on her, but she didn’t feel its warmth.
In the distance, Nicole heard the tinkle of metal on metal, accompanied by a low grinding sound like gravel crunching under a car’s wheels. She looked around but couldn’t find the source.
“Reavers,” she whispered.
Her eye caught a familiar black shape against a group of round shrubs. It looked like an open oval of dark crystal floating in midair. She glanced around and spotted several other tunnel entrances, some suitable for a small dog and nothing more, others large enough for two lanes of highway traffic.
The metal tinkling and stone grinding sounds grew louder, coupled with distant roars not unlike jet engines. Nicole felt the bass rumble in her stomach and looked up at the sky. She slapped a hand over her mouth, stifling a scream.
In place of a clear noon sky, a tau tunnel opening floated high above her, large enough to envelop the mansion and its grounds. Dark light from its crystalline walls illuminated endless legions of reavers, most of them like centipedes, roaches, or fat beetles. Some of them disappeared or reappeared from holes in the walls.
Search and identify!
The thought rang through her mind with vivid anger.
“Oh, no.”
Drone reavers poured out of the closest tunnel. Nicole sprinted towards the iron fence surrounding the gardens. Stone pillars topped with cherubic or martial statues supported the ornate ironwork at regular intervals. Even though it was twice as tall as her, she could easily climb something with that many handholds. It was a fence built to look pretty, not to keep people in or out.
Two sentinel reavers raised their heads over the fence, towering high above it. Nicole skidded to a stop, turned left, and ran. Behind her the drones spread out across the gardens. The two sentinels burst through the iron fence.
Another sentinel slid over the fence directly in front of her. Nicole stopped. Sentinels and drones closed in from all sides. She saw a tunnel close by and dashed into it. The tunnel was too small for the sentinels to follow, but drones poured in after her. Nicole kept a fast pace through the rough-walled tunnel. She tripped on an outcrop, spread her arms for balance, righted herself, and kept going.
The tunnel curved like a descending corkscrew. She sped through it, the sound of reavers close behind her. Light appeared ahead, and she rushed through the open.
Nicole was back in the gardens but closer to the mansion despite having run downhill the whole way. Three sentinels climbed over the mansion’s roof and crashed onto the pavement in front. Three more approached from the gardens. Nicole ran parallel to the mansion towards an open gate in the iron fence that led to the surrounding city.
Drone swarms broke through the mansion windows and spewed out onto the pavement. Nicole bolted through them. Sentinels closed in from all directions.
Eliminate the corpse-eater!
The sentinels roared and charged after her with renewed vigor. One climbed across the roof, racing her to the gate. It leapt down, hundreds of tons of enraged reaver crashing into the pavement ahead of her.
Nicole felt panic squeeze her chest. She heard the reavers behind her, drones and sentinels closing in. Ahead the sentinel presented a thicket of bladed legs. It didn’t charge straight at her. Instead it used its long body to loop around in a half-circle, cutting off her escape.
Nicole turned one way then the other. Reavers came in from all directions. She felt sick with terror. There was no escape! The closest sentinel opened its maw and lunged towards her. Nicole threw her arms over her face. An icy sensation ran down her spine, dropping her to her knees. The back of her head tightened with pain, and she gasped.
Nicole panted and looked up. The reaver had stopped with her head in its gaping maw.
Shaking, Nicole ducked out of the reaver’s mouth, careful not to brush against its teeth. She looked around. All the other reavers had stopped. It was like a tau freeze, but what sense did that make? A freeze within a freeze?
“This isn’t real,” Nicole breathed. “This can’t be real. I’m on a plane right now. I’m safe. They said I was safe!”
You are not safe here.
The outside emotions flowing into her mind formed not only words, but a sense of direction also. Something was hidden here, and Nicole found herself inexplicably drawn to it.
She faced a side door in the mansion, turned the unresisting lock, and pushed it open.
What Nicole saw inside was not made by any human.
Naked people hung from meat hooks on the ceiling three stories up, their bodies drained and torsos gutted. More bodies lay on slabs with clear tubes driven into their flesh. Blood gurgled through the tubes. A row of severed heads sat on plinths, the tops of their skulls removed, wires stuck into the soft pinkish flesh of their brains.
Shiny machinery hung from the ceiling, asymmetrical and chaotic. Bladed implements and strange probes dangled freely. Pipes and cables cluttered the floor, turning it into a metallic nest of vipers.
More bodies were pinned to the walls, splayed like dissected frogs. But despite all the inhuman cruelty Nicole saw, she sensed something strange in the alien thoughts. It was clinical, scientific. Hate and malice did not drive this grotesque display. Curiosity did.
With a start, Nicole saw the worst sight of them all. On the wall near the back, she saw herself pinned in place, naked, her chest cut open and her organs displayed for all to see. She put a hand over her mouth and gagged.
Get out of my mind.
A piece of machinery hanging from the ceiling unfolded and dropped to the ground. The Mantis struck the ground with a dull thud and rose to its full height, glaring down at her. Nicole backed away from it and slammed the door shut. The Mantis smashed the door aside and stepped out.
I will not tolerate your presence.
Nicole reached behind her. Her kinetic sense found something rough, rocky, and wet. She clenched her fist and threw her arm towards the Mantis.
The stone saucer from a fountain flew over her head, but the Mantis ducked under the projectile. The saucer struck the mansion exterior, bursting apart in a shower of stone and wood. Fragments from both mansion and saucer slowed and reformed.
Your persistence is pointless.
Nicole reached out, trying to grab hold of another projectile.
No.
The Mantis dashed forward and swung up with a scythe-tipped arm. The arm stabbed through her stomach and lifted her into the air. She screamed, blood pouring from the wound. Intestines spilled from her abdomen. She tried grabbing hold of the blade with her hands, but her fingers slipped on her own blood.
The Mantis reached up with a slender limb. Four flexible digits wrapped around her head like metal snakes.
I will do this as many times as necessary.
The Mantis twisted until her neck cracked, then ripped her head off.
* * *
Nicole awoke screaming. She caught herself, remembering where she was and what she was doing. She put her face in her hands and let out a long string of deep, muffled sobs.
Amy sat up in her seat.
“Hey, are you all righ
t?” she asked.
Nicole shook her head and cried. She rubbed a hand around her neck, feeling somewhat reassured that it remained firmly attached to her shoulders.
People shouted from the seats behind her. She turned and looked over her shoulder to see Daniel arguing with a flight attendant. To her horror, Daniel held his trench coat with the sword wrapped in it. He looked ready to pull it out of its sheath.
Nicole caught Daniel’s eye. She shook her head. He nodded and, with an angry huff, let the flight attendant guide him back to his seat.
People were beginning to stare. Nicole could feel them looking at her.
“I’ll be back,” Nicole unbuckled and forced her way past Amy’s knees and then Rüdiger’s. She rushed down the aisle, found the restroom, entered it, and locked the door.
“Oh, God,” Nicole breathed. She ran the faucet and splashed water in her face. The coolness helped refresh her a little. She took a long look at herself in the mirror.
A blemish on her throat caught her attention. She pulled down her turtleneck. A line of angry pink flesh was drawn across her neck. Carefully, nervously, she rubbed it. The skin felt raw, like someone had scraped it with sandpaper. The muscles underneath were in knots. She tried to work them out by massaging them and stretching her neck.
“What happened here?” Nicole whispered. She traced the line across her neck. It went all the way around.
A horrible thought crossed her mind. Was it from the dream?
Nicole stared at the strange mark. She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry.
No, that’s silly. It happened during the fight with the hive lords. I just didn’t notice. It might even be whiplash from Rüdiger’s explosion. Maybe. Let’s face it, getting my head ripped off is going to leave a bigger mark than this, right?
Right?
I’m probably making a big deal out of nothing. I got banged up during the fight and I just didn’t notice this one. That’s all it is. That’s all.
Nicole fixed her turtleneck collar, unlocked the restroom door, and peeked out.
No one was staring at her. No one cared. She wasn’t interesting enough to hold their attention for long.
Nicole slipped out of the restroom and walked softly back to her row.
“You look pretty shook up,” Rüdiger said. “Is there something you want to talk about?”
“I… I don’t know. Maybe, but not here.”
* * *
Time stopped. People froze. The engine noise vanished.
“How’s this for privacy?” Rüdiger asked.
Nicole let out a sad laugh. “A little extreme, don’t you think?”
“You can do this whenever you want?” Amy asked.
“Of course.”
“Hey, what the!” Daniel shouted. He sprang out of his seat and drew his sword.
“It’s me, Daniel,” Rüdiger said.
“What? Why’d you start a freeze?”
“Never mind that. Why don’t you make yourself useful and get Nicole a glass of water?”
“What do I look like, a flight attendant?” Daniel muttered, but he walked towards the front of the cabin anyway.
“Now, tell me what’s troubling you?” Rüdiger asked. “Was it the fight with the hive lords?”
“No, it’s this nightmare. I had something like it just before all the reavers attacked.”
“You don’t have to worry about that here. There are no reavers and no tunnels on the plane.”
“Maybe it was just a bad dream. A lot of weird stuff has been going on. It’s just my overactive imagination trying to sort all this crap out.”
“Why not tell us about it?” Rüdiger said. “It can’t hurt. Maybe it’ll make you feel better.”
“Probably not.”
“It’s worth a try, don’t you think?”
“I suppose,” Nicole said. She started telling Rüdiger and the others everything she’d dreamed, both from the first and second nightmares. She didn’t leave out any details, explaining every bizarre vision from the giant tunnel to the weird yellow mansion and the ghastly room of horrors.
Halfway through Daniel came back with a glass of water. He stood in the aisle and leaned against the flight attendant’s back. The three tau guards and Amy hardly said a word, listening intently to each part of her tale.
When finished, she said, “So, yeah. That was my dream. Pretty weird, huh?”
Melanie tapped Rüdiger on the shoulder. “I tink she saw Ludwigsburg Castle.”
“That’s a castle?” Nicole asked.
“Not all German castles have turrets and a portcullis,” Rüdiger said.
“Hell, even I recognize it as Ludwigsburg Castle,” Daniel said.
“Most tau guards would, I think,” Rüdiger said.
“Why’s that?” Amy asked. “Does something make it special?”
“It’s the biggest concentration of tau tunnels in the world,” Daniel said. “Second only to Chronopolis.”
“And that’s only because Chronopolis was built on top of the borehole,” Rüdiger said. “Otherwise Ludwigsburg would be the biggest.”
“What’s the borehole?” Nicole asked.
“The biggest, deepest tau tunnel in existence,” Daniel said.
“And vat about dat Mantis?” Melanie asked. “No von has encountered a Mantis in years.”
“You think it might be the commander behind these attacks?” Rüdiger asked.
“Maybe. Can you tink of a better answer?”
“It’s a possibility,” Rüdiger said.
“So you think these dreams are… what exactly?” Nicole asked.
“You’re not the first tau guard to have weird dreams involving reavers,” Rüdiger said. “It’s not a common talent, but not nearly as rare as being a kinetic. In case you’re wondering, tau guards at the Pandemonium College can teach you how to block these dreams, though I’ve never heard of anyone actually speaking to a reaver.”
“Whatever is going on,” Daniel said, “there’s nothing the five of us can do about it. Reaching Chronopolis is still our best course of action right now.”
“But someone should check out Ludwigsburg as soon as possible,” Rüdiger said.
“Agreed, just not us,” Daniel said. “Let me get back to my seat before you drop the freeze.”
“Sure, Daniel,” Rüdiger said, flashing a sarcastic grin. “Anything for a friend.”
Daniel muttered something under his breath and walked back to his seat.
“So, do you feel better now?” Rüdiger asked her.
“Yeah, a little,” Nicole said. She stepped over Amy and sat down. “It’s nice to know you people don’t think I’m going crazy.”
“Trust me,” Rüdiger said. “We all know exactly how you feel.”
“It is good to have friends in a world gone mad,” Amy said.
Nicole chuckled despite her mood. “Yeah, that about sums it up.”
Chapter 10
Train versus Juggernaut
The passenger train sped from Frankfurt to Stuttgart. Nicole watched the German countryside pass by out the window. She’d been a little surprised by how empty the train was, but didn’t mind. It was nice having almost an entire train car to themselves after the sardine cram of airline travel.
Amy collapsed into the seat next to Nicole. She sighed and shook her head.
“Did you get through to them?” Nicole asked.
Amy nodded.
“And?”
“It went about as well as expected. We’re grounded for life.”
“No surprise there,” Nicole said. “Frankly, I don’t care what they do to us. We have bigger problems.”
“Tell me about it,” Amy said. “But between all the yelling, I did get to shock them.”
“With what?”
“They seemed really surprised with your sudden interest in boys.”
“They… wait a second. What exactly did you tell them?”
“I said you went gallivanting around Europe with your ne
w boyfriend and that I went along to keep an eye on you.”
Nicole felt her cheeks catch fire. “And they believed that?” she shouted.
“Not completely.”
“Well, good! Because it’s a stupid story!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll smooth it over when we get home.”
“I should hope so!”
“They actually seemed a little relieved.”
“They did? What for?”
Amy waggled her eyebrows. “They’ve been worried you weren’t interested in men.”
“What?”
“They’ve actually asked me a few times if I thought you were a lesbian.”
“Wha-wha-wha-wha,” Nicole sputtered. “How could they even ask you something like that? Besides, that’s offensive and none of their business!”
“Oh, they’re just eager to have grandchildren. Don’t read too much into it.”
“That’s still offensive! And why should they care one bit if I have kids someday?”
Amy rolled her eyes. “You really are dense sometimes, you know that?”
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
“You know, I can understand why Mom and Dad would get confused,” Amy said. “Every time you play Mass Effect, you date the blue alien chick.”
“That’s because Kaidan is such a tool!”
“And what about the later games? Isn’t there someone else you can pick?”
“I’m not going to cheat on my girlfriend! I’m a paragon, damn it!”
“Wow, did you hear yourself?”
“I mean… Oh, shut up! You know what I mean. And stop giggling!”
“Shhh,” Amy whispered. “Here he comes.”
Daniel walked down the aisle, steadying himself against the seatbacks. He took his trench coat off, tossed it into the seat opposite the two teens, and sat down next to it.
“You okay, Nicole?” Daniel asked.
“I’m fine. Why do you ask?”
“You look a little flushed. Are you sure you’re not running a fever?” Daniel rummaged in his coat. “I think I have a few Dayquil capsules left in here.”
“I feel fine!” Nicole said, a little too loud.
“Well, let me know if you change your mind,” Daniel said. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.