Chen had been afraid of another Prosik tragedy and was glad this time was different. “Over the edge, soldier,” she called up. “This is no time for sightseeing.”
Non chuckled, saluted, and shoved hard with his back and legs, swinging his arms up and forward at the same time. His back left the wall just as his hands caught the opposing lip, and he levered himself over the edge and out of the chute altogether. A moment later his face reappeared, and he dropped a rope to the others waiting below. Chen handed it to Cavez, who was fast and light, and the trooper walked up it quickly until Non was able to reach down and help him the rest of the way.
Then the two of them began hauling everyone else up out of the tunnels.
When it was finally her turn Chen tried her best to help them, bracing herself against the chute wall with her back and his feet, but she was exhausted and still a bit numb and finally she gave up and let them pull her up, doing little to aid their efforts. At last one of the troopers, Ling, reached down and clasped her hand, and Chen used the added leverage to pull herself over the chute’s lip and back onto solid ground. She collapsed, ignoring the ash that rose about her and turned her chalk-white from its debris, and simply lay there for a moment, staring up at the sky. Then the day’s events caught up with her and, without intending it, she closed her eyes.
19
This time the dream was different, if dream it was.
Lorelei Chen was standing in a thick, rough-walled tunnel, able to see the stone walls and floor clearly despite the lack of light. She could feel the rock beneath her bare feet, taste the hint of sulphur in the air, scent a tantalising trace of blood and flesh in the still, stale air. Her senses were alive, her body tingling with energy. She felt amazing.
The Combine were all around her, as they had been in so many of her dreams, but they weren’t frightening anymore. They had shrunk, for one thing, or she had grown – either way, the creatures no longer towered above her but were at eye level or lower. They were not crowding her, either, merely standing nearby. And the air of unfamiliarity, of strangeness, of distance, had faded, only a hint remaining around the edges. Before these had been monsters, horrifying creatures whose very forms she could not comprehend, let alone their minds and motives. Now she understood them all too easily, and that lack of mystery stripped away her fear.
How could she be afraid of these creatures when she knew their names and could speak to them as an equal or even a superior?
In fact, she was speaking to them now, she realised. But the words pouring from her mouth were not in fact hers. They were Kimberley’s. She was addressing an enormous golem overlord. “Overlord,” she told him, “you watched over me during my ‘incubation,’ and I am grateful to you.”
It fluttered slightly, and Chen was surprised to realise it was pleased and proud. It had never occurred to her that golems might possess such emotions; she had always assumed they were automatons, and a part of her mind wondered if she was simply assigning human traits in an effort to understand them better. That felt right, and she suddenly realised she was not the only one having this thought. Kimberley had thought much the same thing and reached the same conclusion. The mind sought to apply familiar patterns when facing unfamiliar events or beings, and despite her recent transformation a large portion of Kimberley’s mind was still human.
“It is my wish that you continue your vigil,” she was saying now, “so that I might strengthen my powers to better aid the Swarm.”
No! Chen wanted to shout. Don’t play along with them! You’re not one of them! Don’t help them, they’re the enemy! She struggled to beat her hands against her head, to tug at her hair, to do something, anything, to derail those thoughts of duty and involvement. But unlike in the other dreams, she was not in control here, not even of her own body. She was merely an observer, with no power to affect Kimberley’s actions or the events that flowed from them.
She had missed the last thing said while she was mentally flailing, and now a second overlord, the one that had stayed near Kim’s Chrysalis during her emergence, was speaking. It horrified Chen that she could tell the creatures apart so easily.
“Though you are the favoured servant of the Overmind,” this golem overlord snapped, and Chen could hear the anger in its voice, “you would do well to remember that you are just a servant. You know of our grand mission, Dyàus. Would you put your personal whims before the will of the Overmind?”
The other Combine backed away, feeling the tension stretched between their two commanders and anticipating a fight. Chen expected it as well, and so she was surprised when Kim did not attack the overlord, which appeared to have no physical defences. Instead she simply straightened and gave him a single hard, haughty glance. Her bone-wings stirred, however, and flexed toward the overlord, eager to carve the golem to shreds.
Chen could sense Kimberley’s response to that as well: part horror that a part of her new body could be so disobedient and willful, and part delight that her new form possessed such protective instincts of its own.
“Do not cross me, Tsathoggua,” she warned him, chin high, eyes narrowed. “I will do as I see fit.” Then deliberately, insultingly, she turned her back on him. “And not you or any other golem shall stand in my way.”
Tsathoggua bristled at her tone and her clear snub. The organic stone-like body tensed and its inner light began pulsing more rapidly until the entire body was aglow with quick flashes of light. Several of the surrounding Combine edged closer, chittering their leader’s rage, claws and spines and scythes raised to strike on the overlord’s behalf.
The fool was going to attack! Chen could feel it, and a surge of excitement shot through her, a surge she knew immediately was not her own. Kimberley had known what she was doing when she spoke. She had deliberately pushed the overlord beyond his breaking point. She wanted Tsathoggua to order an attack so she could destroy him and claim his brood as her own. And she would destroy him, Chen knew.
But before the overlord could attack a voice cut across them all, paralysing them with its deep timbre and rolling pronunciation, a wave of sound that washed over them and left them stunned and speechless. It was a voice Lorelei Chen had heard before, though she had fervently hoped not to hear it again.
“Let her go, Tsathoggua,” the voice intoned. “The greatness of her spirit has been left to her that the Swarm might benefit from her fierce example. Fear not her designs, for she is bound to me as intimately as any golem.”
The voice chuckled, the sound leaving Chen feeling dirty somehow, as if it demonstrated a humour beyond her ability to understand and one that found amusement with concepts and actions she would find repugnant.
“Truly,” it explained, “no child of mine can stray from my will, for all that you are lies wholly within me. The Dyàus is free to do as she desires.” The voice faded, leaving Chen weak in the knees and short of breath, and she knew she was not the only one reacting so strongly. Kim had been overwhelmed by the voice as well, and so had Tsathoggua and the others.
The overlord quickly untensed. Its brood members backed away as well, lowering their limbs to show they meant no more harm. “By your will, Overmind,” he acknowledged.
Chen knew the creature had hoped for a different decision, but she also knew that they would not have to worry about this golem overlord, unless and until the situation changed. No Combine, golem or otherwise, would dare stand against the Overmind’s orders, she realised. Until that voice spoke, Tsathoggua had been determined to convince Kimberley to do things his way, by force if necessary. Now the Overmind had instructed otherwise, and the overlord would carry out those directives to the best of its ability.
“Overlord,” Tsathoggua said, apparently to the second overlord. “You must see that she comes to no harm. My brood will remain behind to protect the incubation chamber from further desecration.”
“My brood will die to protect her,” the other overlord replied.
“As it should,” Kimberley stated simply.
&
nbsp; Chen felt her turn and walk away, taking it for granted that the second overlord’s brood would follow.
Another overlord sat in one corner of the chamber. Chen had not noticed it there before; it had somehow masked its presence before this. Now she saw it plainly, however, and somehow knew that this overlord was older and more powerful even than Tsathoggua. Indeed, this third overlord, Nyarlathotep, was the Overmind’s right hand. Nyarlathotep’s brood was clustered about it, and now several Cephlacks detached themselves from this cluster and approached Kimberley. “Dyàus, take these, the deadliest of my minions,” said Nyarlathotep. “They shall aid you in your crusade.”
“They shall be put to good use,” Kimberley assured him, and the creatures fell in with the others behind her.
Nyarlathotep retreated mentally, intent upon his own tasks, and Tsathoggua had gone silent, leaving only Kimberley and her new followers.
“We must attack at once,” she told the second overlord. It occurred to Chen that this one had no name, and as soon as she thought it she knew why. Among the Combine, names were a matter of recognition, only given to those who had served the Overmind long and faithfully.
Both Tsathoggua and Nyarlathotep had won that honour. This overlord was young and had not yet distinguished itself. Kimberley, of course, was a special case, which might explain Tsathoggua’s resentment – she had gained a name immediately upon her rebirth. But she was still speaking to the overlord, and Chen struggled to focus on her words. “Once I have personally destroyed Earth…”
“Ma’am?”
It took Chen a moment to separate herself from the last vestiges of the dream, to realise that she was not stalking through an underground chamber with a Combine brood anymore but lying upon the planet’s surface.
Cavez was leaning over her. “Ma’am, everyone is clear,” the trooper reported.
Chen nodded and accepted the young man’s hand up, shaking her head both to disperse the ash that clung to her hair and rebreather and to clear the dream-traces from her mind. What had Kimberley been saying? she wondered. She was going to attack Earth?
Much as she hated the dreams, hated this last one particularly because it showed her how comfortable Kimberley was in her new role, she wished Cavez had waited an instant longer to wake her. That lost information might prove immensely important in the hours and days to come.
Too late to do anything about it now.
Brushing the more stubborn bits of ash from her goggle lenses, she glanced around and took stock of their situation. Twenty-three soldiers. That was all she had left of the three hundred or so who had followed her down. And many of the survivors were wounded, some badly. They had weapons and plenty of ammo – several of the more experienced troopers had been alert enough to scavenge clips and plasma cells from the bodies of their fallen friends. No food to speak of, of course; they hadn’t planned to be down here that long. Everyone carried a canteen of water and a few emergency food sticks, but most of that had been consumed on the trek down, or given to the injured to give them strength for the return march.
“Back to the Rynex,” she announced finally, patting one female soldier’s shoulder where she sat, head between her raised knees, arms limp at her sides. “Let’s go, trooper,” she told her as gently as she could. “Plenty of time to rest when we’re off this forsaken world.” She gave her a hand up.
That was it then, she admitted to himself as they gathered their equipment, helped the injured to their feet, and began walking toward the beacons indicated on their comm units. The mission was over. She had failed. She’d come here to find Kimberley Stefánsson , which she had, and to save her, which she couldn’t. She didn’t want to be saved, and even if Chen had the means to undo whatever the Combine had done to her, she didn’t have the manpower to take her from them.
The only thing she could do now was get the hell out of Erebos, mourn Kimberley, and move on.
And hope to hell she could figure out where to go from here.
Her name had once been Kimberley Stefánsson, back when she’d been something else… back when she’d been human.
Back when she’d been weak.
She sat back within the pulsing organic walls of the burgeoning Combine Hive. Monstrous creatures moved about in the shadows, guided by her every thought, functioning for a greater purpose. With her mental powers and her control over these awful and destructive creatures, a transformed Kimberley had established the new Hive on the ashen ruins of the planet Erebos. It was a grey world, blasted and still smouldering from potent cosmic radiation. This planet had long been a battlefield. Only the strongest could survive here.
The vicious Combine Swarm knew how to adapt, how to survive, and Kimberley had done the same to become one of them. She had been captured by the Combine Overmind and transformed; she was now a living conduit of the Power of the Eidolon, just like her father before her. Her skin, toughened with armour-polymer cells, glowed an oily, silvery green. Her yellow lambent eyes were surrounded by dark patches of skin that could have been bruises or shadows. Her hair had become Medusa spines – jointed segments like the sharp legs of a venomous spider. Each spike writhed as plans continuously burned through her brain. Her face still had a delicate beauty that just might lull a human victim into a moment of hesitation – giving her enough time to strike.
When she caught a reflection of herself, Kimberley occasionally recalled what it had been like to be human, to be emotional – in a human sort of way – and that she had once hated a woman named Lorelei Chen, who had murdered her father, put a bullet in her as a child, and also destroyed her entire world. Anger. Hatred.
Human emotions and weaknesses.
Lorelei Chen.
She tried not to remember her. She would have no scruples now against killing the aged, obsessive woman, if such was required of her. She did not regret what had happened to her, since she had a more important mission now.
Kimberley Stefánsson was much more than just another Combine.
The various Combine minions had been adapted and mutated from other species that they had infested during their history of conquest. Drawing from a sweeping catalogue of DNA and physical attributes, the Combine could live anywhere, in any universe, in any Realm. The swarms were as much at home on bleak Erebos as they had been on the lush Xel’Naga world of Mar Sara.
A truly magnificent species, and now, with the Power of the Eidolon, with the Power of the All… the Combine Swarm would sweep across the worlds of the multiverse, consuming and infesting every place they touched. Because of their nature, the Combine could suffer overwhelming catastrophic losses and still keep coming, keep devouring.
But first, they would strike at Earth.
At Lorelei Chen’s Earth.
Through the Power of the All, she could feel Lord Damarus praising her, encouraging her. Now the control of the vicious, swarming Combine race lay in her clawed hands, Kimberley would take revenge, and transform Lora’s Earth into a new nexus for the Combine race.
From there, they would infest every universe, every galaxy. The entire multiverse would fall to the Eidolon. Even the Combine Overmind would be forced to bow at her feet, in the end.
Kimberley sat surrounded by light. Her mind was filled with details reported to her by dozens of golem overlords, huge minds that carried separate swarms on missions dictated by their Dyàus Pítah. She did not relax, she never slept. There was too much work to do, too many plans to lay…
Too much revenge to achieve. For her, and for Damarus.
For the Eidolon.
Kimberley flexed her long-fingered hands, extended the rapier-like claws that could disembowel any opponent. She looked down at one claw, thinking of how she could draw it across the throat of Queen Esme Mazzic and watch her fresh hot blood spill out. Along with her remaining human ambition and the emotional sting of Lora’s actions, she also felt the relentless conquering urge that came from her new Combine genetics.
In aeons long past, the mysterious and ancient race
of the Xel’Naga had created the Combine race, their perfect design relentless and pure. Kimberley smiled at the delicious irony of it. The Combine had been so perfect they had eventually turned on their creators and infested the Xel’Naga themselves. Now, Kimberley promised herself that she would lead the Combine to the pinnacle of their destiny.
But when she sat back in her Hive and watched the swarming creatures going about their business, gathering resources and preparing for war, the Dyàus Pítah felt the tiniest remnant of human sympathy stirring in her heart.
She felt sorry for anyone who got in her way.
ACT NINE: THE ETERNAL RETURN
20
AD 2488 (192 ND)
Einek.
The name evoked the same image in the mind of nearly every civilised being in the Terran Alliance. Einek, City of the Seventh Faction: the epitome of culture and learning on Earth, synthesis of a hundred different civilisations.
Einek.
Seeing the city from orbit was the only way to fully appreciate the enormity of the construction. It was a multitiered metropolis composed of towers, monads, ziggurats, palazzi, domes, and minarets. By day the many crosshatched levels of air traffic and the thousands of bioships that entered and left its airspace almost blotted out views of the endless cityscape, but at night Einek revealed its full splendour, outshining at close range even the stars themselves. The city radiated so much heat energy that, were it not for thousands of strategically placed CO2 reactive dampers in the upper atmosphere, it would long ago have transformed the entire Earth into a lifeless rock by a rampant atmospheric degeneration.
The city evolved out of a growing urban conurbation stretching from Shenyang, China, to Bac Lieu, Cambodia, which took form in the 23rd century after a series of crises following the Apo’calupsis. The city was built over the top of the old cities and the polluted Chinese coastline; titanic skyscrapers, some of them tall enough to pierce the upper fringes of atmosphere, dominated the skyline. It was those rarefied upper levels, spacious and clean, and the giant pyramid-like Queen’s Palace, that constituted most peoples’ conception of the Seventh Faction.
The Complete New Dominion Trilogy Page 72