by TJ Ryan
With one last powerful blast of force, the wall shredded, tearing open, rending apart as if it was paper, smoke and flame billowing in on the cusp of a controlled explosion.
“Run,” was the last thing that Ravnak said. It was the last word he would ever say as either man or machine.
Through the hole in the wall, a dark wave of soil came pouring in. It roared through the back end of the room and began filling the space from the bottom up. Shredded pieces of metal flew like shrapnel in all directions. Several of them spiked through Ravnak’s consoles.
A hideous shriek that was almost human filled the air from the electronic monitors.
The power failed. The lights began to fade.
Into that gloom, the fiery black mass came. Soil slid over the walls and towards them in rivulets. Tara froze, watching the oncoming wall of toxic gas and flame.
“Run,” Tyrese whispered hoarsely.
“Run!”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Blindly, they raced through the open door. Behind them the avalanche of soil, debris, fire, and gas screamed as Ravnak faded. The man who had saved the human race from extinction was finally dead, and it was Atria’s fault. It was partially our fault, too. He had been alive as a computer, as the first AI, for generations. Now he wasn’t even that.
In her hand, she felt the hard shape of the seed. It reminded her that nothing was what it was supposed to be. Nothing in her life was right. It was hard to imagine the potential here, given what she saw coming to kill them. She tried to remember the color and feel of her own seed, and found it difficult to envision a planet of fresh air and living greenery. It all seemed an impossible dream.
“Run,” Tyrese kept repeating. “Faster, run. It’s coming.”
Our people were killing homeworld, and in turn homeworld was trying to kill us. Did the Academy know we’re here? Is that why they launched the attack early? That didn’t make sense, unless they didn’t want us to bring information back to Overwatch. Could the system really be that corrupt?
Looking back at the oncoming devastation that chased them down the halls, Tara found it hard to believe that the Academy could be behind something like this. Although, if their intention was to save humanity from military intervention, their hearts may have been in the right place. If they knew the devastation they were truly causing, though…
“Come,” Dar called to them frantically. “We must honor Ravnak’s wish. We must go to the safe place. Keep running.”
Around them, more of Dar’s people joined. Everyone ran together, down the halls and around the corners, up stairs and down stairs, through doors and passageways. The path seemed never-ending.
Tara looked around at the growing crowd, each person helping the next to safety. One people, trying to save each other. Trying to save them.
The group of them dodged down hallways and through curtains of falling golden sand. The lights were out, but the sand gave them enough light to find their way. Tara wondered where Atria was in all of this. If she was in the immediate path of destruction, there’s no way she could still be alive. She had blown our way in here, and now the Academy blew their way in, too. It’s sort of ironic, really, given that she had betrayed the Academy’s trust in confiding information to Danvers in the first place. Okay, Tara thought to herself, now is really not the time to place blame.
“Here!” Dar said, putting his hand against a wall plate that activated a door at the end of one of the long corridors. Tara hadn’t even seen it until he opened it. “In here!”
He pushed them in, and the others followed, and Dar came in last of all, shutting the door behind them. “We are safe,” he declared. “The purge cannot get us in here. We have a different air supply here, and a backup system to keep us safe.”
“We’re safe here?” Tyrese asked.
“Ravnak created this place as a backup shelter. We are safe.”
“Yeah, well, that’s according to Ravnak,” Tara reminded him. “I don’t think I’m going to believe there’s anyplace safe on this planet anymore. What the hell!”
Dar lowered his head for a moment. His lips moved silently. Was he praying? Tara couldn’t believe her eyes. Dar was praying, and he was doing it for a dead AI.
“Why are there lights on in here?” Tyrese asked abruptly. “How is there power?”
Dar’s head lifted again. “Our backup system is in place now. There will be power in this room. When we activate the backup, he will advise us on how we shall proceed forward.”
Tara was lost all over again. “You have a backup? A backup computer? Did Ravnak create a copy of himself?”
Dar shook his head. “No, not Ravnak. We created this ourselves. As I said, Engineer Royce. We are resourceful here.”
When he walked to the far end of the room, Tara noticed the computer consoles that had been set up there, obviously pieced together from parts of technology that had been scrounged from other systems. There was a mix of black and gray panels, blank screens that came to life as Dar pushed buttons and turned dials. Tara stepped toward the system. She recognized the parts – Overwatch used similar tech. The screen illuminated with a green glow, and then Dar stepped back, waiting for the program to begin running.
A hum filled the room as the computer console came to life. An electronic voice stuttered and grew in volume until it filled Tara’s ear.
“We must wait for systems to come online,” Dar explained, as he settled against a far wall and slid to the ground. The rest of his people joined him, and they all bowed their heads together.
Tyrese approached Tara and took her hand, also bowing his head.
“What’s going on?” Tara asked. The lights of the system flickered and the hum grew louder. Dar and his people began to chant, contributing to the eerie echo in the room.
“They’re mourning their people,” Tyrese whispered. He shut his eyes and bowed his head deeper.
Tara looked around and counted maybe thirty people. Does that mean the rest of them didn’t make it? Were they all killed by the purge attack? Her heart sank at the thought. How could her people be responsible for this? It was genocide, all over again.
Tara bowed her head and listened to the chanting, allowing a serene sense of calm fill her mind. She thought of Crestin and Enverly. While both had proved to be severe liabilities, they had been on her team and now they were gone. Tara mourned them in her way.
Her calm demeanor didn’t last long, though, as the gravity of their situation came crashing down on her all at once.
“Tyrese,” she whispered. Tyrese opened his eyes and looked to her. “If they’re all dead, and we’re alive in here. Does this mean we’re trapped?”
Dar must have heard her speak, as he pushed himself up and walked over to them as his people continued to chant for their fallen family. “Yes, Engineer Royce, we will be trapped in here until the air has cleared enough for us to work out way back out to the surface.”
Tara felt her throat tighten and her skin go cold. “How long?” she whispered.
“Six month, at the minimum, I would say,” Dar said calmly. “To be sure we do not succumb to the same fate as the rest of our people.”
Oh no, that wasn’t happening. Tara began to panic, and she could feel the air tightening around her body.
“What? We’re trapped here for six months?” She nearly shouted, and Tyrese raised his finger to his lips to quiet her. She glanced to the people praying on the floor, and while she felt bad for their loss, she had more important things to worry about at the moment. Their own lives, for example.
“I’m sorry, Tara,” Dar placed his hand on her shoulder. “We have provisions to last us. We will survive, do not worry. We will survive this together, and you can return to the surface to try and make your way home when it is safe.” At the look on her face, Dar added, “We will help you in your mission, this I promise. We will get you home, Engineer Royce.”
Tara collapsed on the ground, the pressure of the surrounding air felt like a million p
ounds on her skin. She could barely breath, and her chest felt as if it were crushing. She bend forward and lay her forehead on the cool, metal floor.
Tyrese kneeled next to her and rubbed her back. “It’s okay, Tara. We’ll survive this.”
“I can’t breathe,” she said.
Tyrese continued to rub circles on her back, and Dar rejoined his people in their mourning in the far corner. Tara felt alone, scared. “Breathe in and out, calm your breathe. You’ll be okay, Tara. I’m here with you. Just breathe.”
“No, I mean I really can’t breathe, Tyrese,” she barely made out the whisper. “My chest, it’s crushing. It feels like there are arms crushing me. I can feel… I can feel…”
The computer system flashed and came to life. Dar jumped up and ran over to the far wall and began pressing buttons frantically, his hands moving this way and that over the control board.
“Are you online?” he asked the air around him.
“Gree—gree—greetings. Greetings.”
Tara knew that voice. She never thought she would hear it again.
It couldn’t be.
Tara felt the pressure on her body move, and she pushed herself up onto her feet. Her face paled and she stared towards the computer system with wide-eyes. “No.”
It was supposed to be dead. They had sent her pod crashing towards Earth. It would have been blasted to smithereens. “We’re resourceful,” Dar had said.
“No,” Tara repeated. “No.”
Behind them, the door locked with a loud clank of metal bolting into metal. The air hissed as the secondary door systems closed, containing them all within the one room. The ambient light in the room dimmed, and the lights on the computer flashed excitedly.
“Not possible,” Tara muttered.
“What is it?” Tyrese was looking around for danger, but couldn’t see any. Dar also looked about, confused by her reaction. Everyone seemed calm, though, except Tara.
Dar walked slowly up to the far door, which has previously been open and was now closed. It led to the edible resources and medical bay. The door was locked.
They were trapped.
Again.
Only this time, the AI program that had trapped them didn’t want to save the human race. It had a different purpose in mind.
Dar and his people had reconstructed the the program from scraps, probably from the pieces of her wrecked Defense Pod that had crashed to Earth. He was back.
“No.”
The air around her whirled, and her hair brushed across the front of her face. Her skin grew goosebumps, and Tyrese looked her up and down, his eyebrow raised, not understanding what was going on.
Tara shut her eyes tight, and tried to envision a healthy, green planet. Anything to allow her mind to escape this prison. She imagined clear blue streams and tall green trees swaying in the wind. Birds flying overhead, and animals passing by in the grass. These were all scenes she had seen on Lieutenant Danvers’ walls back at Overwatch, and it was the closest she was ever going to get to seeing the Earth in its rejuvenated state.
She thought about the seed she had found, and the green she had seen through the atmosphere through the window of the defense pod during her short days as a Defense Engineer. Such a waste, she thought. All of it meaningless. No one would know, and the secret would be lost forever. The dream of a healthy, green Earth was going to be lost with them in this underground prison.
Tara tried to resist the pressure pulling her arms back, and locked her fingers together in front of her body. She clenched her teeth, and braced herself for what came next.
Surviving underground for six months was one thing. Surviving this was something else entirely.
The lights went out and the computer came to life.
“Greetings, Engineer Tara Royce. It’s good to see you again.”
“Hello, Aiden.”
Now, she wanted to die.
- End –
Note from the author:
Thank you so much for taking the time to read The Contested Planet. If you liked what you read, please consider leaving a review.
If you’re interested in learning more about Professor Viktor Ravnak and the story behind the Earth’s initial demise, then please consider signing up for my mailing list to receive a free copy of prequel short story Destroy The Planet. You can get it HERE.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TJ Ryan is a Canadian author, born on the rainy West Coast (or is that Wet Coast?) of British Columbia. He spent his early years traveling the world, obsessing over new cultures and culinary experiences. Preferring spaceships to airplanes, he has now settled into his little slice of rainforest paradise, escaping reality through Science Fiction.
He’s still getting over the strange transition from Canadian to US spelling, but he’ll get there soon!
If you’re interested in getting advanced review copies of his books for free, you can join his MAILING LIST. You will also be the first to know when he publishes new works, and will have the opportunity read his books before they’re released to the public.
You can also visit his BLOG to keep up-to-date on his writing, and read sneak-peaks of his works in progress. He loves connecting with his readers, so don’t be shy to send him a message on FACEBOOK or TWITTER.
BOOKS BY TJ RYAN
The Broken Earth Saga
DESTROY THE PLANET
THE DEAD PLANET
THE CONTESTED PLANET