by Bob Mayer
Cascadia is a subduction zone, but a very special one given the sediment that fills what would normally be a deep trench. This makes the zone one of most likely to have an earthquake.
The entire circle is called the Ring of Fire because of the volcanoes that accompany the gaps between tectonic plates. Magma boils up between the plates. The Ring is home to 75% of the world’s volcanoes and 90% of its earthquakes. Concurrent with underwater earthquakes are devastating tsunamis.
Basically, the Ring of Fire contains a tremendous amount of potential energy. That is the reason the Swarm was investigating it.
The scout dove into the depths. The hull handled the increasing pressure. The water temperature dropped until it was just above freezing. The scout reached the thick layer of sediment and bored into it. The temperature began to rise. The scout bored through for over a mile until it could go no further. Nor could it escape as the weight of the thickly packed sediment and depth of the water above precluded that.
But the Core had the data it needed.
ON THE SIXTH DAY: MOPPING UP
SWARM BATTLE CORE
Turcotte thought he could hear a sucking noise as the membrane slid around the hull of the Fynbar. Or it could have been an overactive imagination. What he saw on the inside after he popped through overwhelmed his imagination. As far as he could see was an open area. Thousands of warships were docked along the outer wall. Hundreds were moving about, not just from this portal but to others. The far distance faded from view, dozens of miles away at least, if not hundreds.
Turcotte had no idea if this was the entire interior of the Core or just one portion. Most of it was empty space, so he assumed there was more to the Core. Perhaps this was a hangar ‘deck’ for the Core, much like the deck underneath the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Given the number of warships that were currently attacking Earth, the Swarm had plenty to spare. He could see hundreds along the black wall of this large open space.
There were thousands of scout ships parked in rows, attached to long black loops of the same material as the hull. Each loop was over four miles in length. The scouts looked like tiny seeds on a long vine.
“Now what, smart guy?” Turcotte was aware that talking to himself wasn’t an indicator of mental stability, but between the constant pounding in his head and the overwhelming sight in front of him, he needed something to hold on to.
Then he noticed something. The fuel indicator light was flashing. The solid yellow had given way to a flashing green.
“I’m getting power?” Turcotte wondered aloud.
SURVIVAL SILO, KANSAS
Tremble shut down the elevator and locked the stairwell from the command and control room. He was trying to think, trying to figure out where those things could go now that they were inside the airlock. They were small and couldn’t open the doors. Could they? He looked up at the vent, then ran around, frantically trying to find something to cover it with.
The Swarm uses various tactics in the reaping. While the outright seizure of Scale via the parasites is the most effective, there are times other methods are needed. Turning thralled Scale against their own species not yet subjugated takes a while longer, but is a way of digging out the most entrenched Scale. On the surface, most of the thralls had already turned away and started lurching away toward the closest warship, no longer needed at this location now that it was breached.
One floor above Tremble, Jack, but not Jack, reached out with a shaking hand and hit the button that opened the garage.
Several Cthulhu stomped toward the silo along with a single Medusa. It looked into the garage. This location had been noted in the data gathered from the human’s worldwide data web as being of particular interest as it was designed for ‘survival’.
Hundreds of spiders entered the garage. On the other side of the stairwell door, thrall Jack had made his way up, falling several times, sustaining a fractured clavicle and wrist, but the parasite didn’t care as long as the body could move.
Jack threw the door open and the spiders flowed in, joining the parasites already inside.
Tremble was trying to tape over the duct, recognized the stupidity and futility of that action and finally knew he had to do what he’d planned but hoped to never use.
He hit a button and a section of wall slide up, revealing a narrow tunnel. Tremble dove into it. The wall shut behind him. He slid along the tunnel, which sloped downward at a fifty degree angle. As he slid, Tremble remembered to roll so that when he hit the bottom, it was with his upper back. The abrupt halt knocked the wind out of him and he was gasping for air as the survival capsule’s top swung shut.
Tremble was in a pod eight feet long and four in diameter. It was completely self-contained, with eight days worth of air, along with food and water to last that long. There was enough room to sit up on the thin padding. A small chemical toilet.
A few months ago he’d been approached by a salesman representing the company that made these and Tremble had wrangled a single one for ‘testing’. The price had been prohibitive to purchase enough and, more expensively, emplace them for every client in the Silo. Additionally, he felt having them would reduce the confidence of the clients in the Silo. Putting an escape pod inside the survival silo made it seem a bit redundant.
As Tremble checked the seal of the pod by the dim light of the single low wattage bulb, he could hear the screams echo through the tube.
The survival silo had not lived up to its billing.
THE FACILITY
“You have explained why,” Sofia said, “but not what you actually did. How are we different? What did you do to us? And,” she added, indicating the boy in the semi-coma on the infirmary bed, “how did it change him?”
“The brain is a physical organ,” Asha said. “We assume it is home to the mind, but we’re not absolutely certain. Certainly it is the seat of our mind, but the mind goes much further than just the brain. It is also our experiences via our senses. Our imagination. This goes to the essence of who we are as an intelligent species. We understand so little of it.” Asha sounded frustrated. “But I know one thing for certain. We don’t meet our potential.” She gave a weak smile at Sofia. “When I say ‘we’ I mean us. Regular people. You are different. Even this conversation shows how different we are. You’re a young girl but are asking questions many adults never think of.”
Asha tapped her own head. “Our brains are evolving. There is a theory that the physical changes in the bicameral mind have actually changed the way we think. It makes sense to me. We have two hemispheres in our brain. They are almost redundant. There is a speech center in each hemisphere. But for most humans, ninety-seven percent, only the one in the left hemisphere is functional.”
“I am part of the other three percent,” Sofia said.
“Yes. And you are more than just that three percent because I helped activate both areas to work in concert.”
“How?” Sofia asked.
“We started with a chemical routine when you were very young,” Asha said. “A solution designed to enhance the dormant speech center. And then—“ she stopped because Sofia had turned away, looking toward the roof of the Facility.
“What is it?” Joseph asked.
“There’s someone up there,” Sofia said.
“The Swarm—“ Asha began, but Sofia shook her head.
“No. Not Swarm. A dog.” She looked back at Asha and Joseph. “A dog with someone. One of us, but not of us.”
VICINITY FORT DAVIS, TEXAS
Darlene watched the monsters ranging about. They had slim pickings here in West Texas. An hour earlier, she’d been witness to a pickup truck getting corralled by a huge, six-headed snake. Not something you see every day. It had not ended well for the humans on board. They’d been taken by the parasites and thralled.
Darlene sat in the entrance to a small cave, high on a ledge in the Davis Mountains, not far from the Observatory. Safe. So far.
She looked at Rex. “Canary in a coal mine, my frie
nd. That’s what I’ve been.”
Rex was nervous and she couldn’t blame him. Not every day you saw monsters. Dragons had flown by and she’d scooted back into the cave with Rex. The way the things were quartering the terrain meant they would eventually find her. Sooner rather than later. The line of small spiders was keeping quite excellent formation, spreading out.
Darlene cocked her head. She smiled. Well, hello, Sofia. Is your grandmother, Maria, around?
*****
Sofia had her eyes closed. Her mouth moved but no sound was emitted. Then she opened her eyes and looked at Asha. “Who is Darlene?”
*****
My grandmother is on the mothership.
Darlene had her hand on Rex’s head, scratching. She was watching a Cthulhu heading this way, flanked by a Naga on either side, an escort of spiders leading the movement. She reached out.
I do not have much time. I will need help. I will need strength.
*****
“’Darlene’?” Asha was shaken. “How do you know that name? What are you doing?”
“I’m talking to her,” Sofia said, her eyes still closed.
Asha and Joseph looked around as they heard movement. The other children, the Metabols, were gathering outside the infirmary.
“Darlene?” Sofia repeated, pressing Asha.
“She was the first,” Asha said. “The first Metabol. When we started experimenting.”
“She’s up there,” Sofia said.
“That can’t be,” Asha whispered. “She disappeared years ago.”
“She’s asking for my nana,” Sofia said. “She wants our help.”
“Help with what?” Joseph asked.
“I don’t know yet,” Sofia said. She held up a hand, silencing the adults, listening to the voice in her head.
I will be taken by the Swarm soon. I hope, with your help, I can remain me long enough to gain some knowledge of them. I have watched them take others. They keep them alive. Take them into their ship. There must be a reason for that. We have to know. Keep me in your heads. Keep me in your hearts.
Sofia walked over to the door, facing the other 1,523 Metabols. She closed her eyes.
*****
Darlene felt a surge of power. More than that, a sense of completeness, of fullness.
You are with me.
We are.
You are so pure! There is something else. People are sick up here. Be careful. Darlene smiled grimly as she watched the approaching monsters. Of course, there won’t be any people left soon. Tell Asha and Joseph I have kept all of you safe. Leahy and I knew that Mister and Mrs. Parrish suspected something years ago. They were always paranoid. We needed someone on the outside to keep the cave safe.
Darlene reached inside her shirt and pulled out a thumb drive on a silver chain. She unhooked it and attached the thumb drive to Rex’s collar. She put a hand on either side of Rex’s head. “Leave. Run. Please.”
Rex whined.
“Please,” Darlene said. The Cthulhu was coming up the ridge, heading directly for her.
The ridge of fur on Rex’s back was straight up.
“Go!”
Rex ran.
Darlene stood up and began walking down the side of the ridge toward the monsters.
And when you can. Please save my dog, Rex. He has something of value on his collar. And he is a good dog.
SWARM BATTLE CORE
Shear held onto sanity with the barest of threads. The overwhelming smell, the darkness the crush of humanity all around, combined with the moaning, coughing, vomiting, uncontrolled defecating and urinating had already caused many in the warship’s hold to separate psychologically.
There were dead all about, their bodies held in place by the crush of bodies surrounding them. Shear was dimly aware that the warship was moving, mainly because of the sway of the bodies. He’d lost track of time. He was aware of the parasite through the lack of control of his body but couldn’t feel the foreign physical presence inside him. He would never be able to explain what he was going through to anyone who hadn’t been in the same situation; he doubted he would have the opportunity.
He, along with everyone in the hold, was thrown hard in one direction. He heard bones snapping and a strange whooshing sound, which he belatedly realized was the air being pushed out of the lungs of those on the wrong side of the movement as they were crushed.
When the side of the hold finally slid open there was no sense of relief because there was no sense of control. Those closest fell out, staggered to their feet and began moving down a wide tunnel as directed by the parasites.
As the pressure on that side was relieved, Shear was among the shuffling humans. He could see people too badly broken to walk trying to crawl, hands clawing at the rough floor, the parasite forcing them to move. Some died in the process. Those closest to the bodies, reached down and pull the dead with them. Shear could only vaguely see anything beyond directly ahead as he had no control over his eyes. As he approached the body, a teenage girl, the parasite had him reach down with his good hand. His fingers interwined in her hair and he dragged her with him.
What he could see after a few minutes of movement was a rippling in front of him. He didn’t understand what it was until he realized it was the front rows falling off into a massive open space. The walls and ceiling arced outward until they were beyond his peripheral vision. The disappearing ripple was getting closer.
Would falling bring death and relief from this horror?
There was a sound, something out of Dante’s Inferno. Voices screaming in an array of languages but mostly inarticulate, guttural screams.
So strange after everyone had been silent for so long.
Shear fought, tried to regain control of his body. To no avail. The people directly in front of him tumbled forward, staggering over the edge. He reached it, pushed the girl over, then shuffled off into space. He had a brief vision of a wide sea of reddish-gray, thousands of bodies on the surface, arms, legs, heads, bodies, then he landed in it. Very thick goo. He distantly felt his left leg snap, somewhere in the thigh. The pain was there, but not as sharp as he would have thought. He was among the bodies, in the goo, his body rolling over. He was righted by the parasite so his head was above the strange soup.
The parasite let go of control.
Shear felt it in an instant. He joined the screaming, scrambling with his hands and one good leg to try to get his footing to stay above the viscous material. His foot touched something solid, a floor below, and he was able to stay above the mixture. He saw others go under. Children, those unable to stand. They slipped and didn’t reappear.
He was free of the parasite.
He was trapped in the alien soup.
THE FACILITY
“Darlene was, is, special,” Asha said to Sofia.
All the Metabols were gathered around the infirmary. They were absolutely silent, staring toward the room where Asha sat with Joseph and Sofia and the unconscious Fade.
“She is going toward the Swarm,” Sofia said. “She is going to sacrifice herself. Why? She says that will help us.”
“You can talk to her?” Joseph asked. “You can speak the whisper?”
Sofia nodded. “I hear her voice. More, I feel her voice. The words. She is scared. But she is brave.”
“She was a Marine,” Joseph said. “Very young. Only seventeen and she went off to war. Then she came back and became a scientist.”
Asha picked up the story. “She worked with Professor Leahy a year before I came on board. While Leahy focused on physics, Darlene was a biologist. She’s the one who first had the idea of changing humans, making us better. After what she’d seen in the war, she knew we had to stop killing each other. When she came up with a mixture she felt could supplement Wernicke’s area in those who had the area on both sides of their brains active. She realized that there was only one way to test it. Because there is only one species that speaks. Humans.”
“She experimented on herself,” Sofia sa
id.
“Yes,” Asha replied.
“And then?” Sofia asked.
“She began exhibiting some strange symptoms,” Asha said.
“And then she disappeared,” Joseph added.
Sofia cocked her head. “She is not exactly one of us. Metabol. She is different. We have to save her dog.”
“Her dog?” Asha was confused.
“She says something of value is on the collar. And—“ Sofia held up her hand. There was a low moan from the assembled Metabols. “She has been taken by the Swarm. There is a—“ she paused—“parasite in her. She is very scared. The parasite is trying to control her. She isn’t fighting. She is allowing it.”
“Stay with her,” Asha said. “Give her strength.”
“We are.”
SWARM BATTLE CORE
As the sixth day came to an end, the majority of the warships had returned to the Core, carrying their Scale cargo. Billions of people were in the same situation as Shear, dumped in massive holds, unwillingly marched into wide spaces then falling into shallow seas full of the same viscous soup. Thousands of these holds were spread all about the Core, just inside the thick outer shell.
On Earth, Cthulthu and kraken and Nagas and spiders, all directed by Medusas, were tracking down the last enclaves of humans. A handful would manage to remain hidden. Some had never been found; remote tribes in New Guinea and the deep Amazon only knew that the sky was grey and strange things had passed overhead. They prayed harder to their Gods for succor from danger.
A few submarines lying silent and deep, and also blind and deaf, had not been discovered. Small groups of people and individuals, hiding underground or in remote locations.