by Mark Walden
Sam felt a growing sense of relief as he saw the lights of the compound in St James’s Park glowing in the pre-dawn gloom. They were back on his territory now. He directed the pilot towards the clear area in the centre of the compound that was usually used as a landing site for the drop-ships. A minute or so later the helicopter hit the ground with a slight jolt and the ramp at the other end of the cabin whirred to the tarmac, the light from outside flooding into the dimly lit passenger compartment. The soldiers marched down the ramp, fanning out around the rear of the Chinook in a curved defensive line, weapons raised. Sam followed them outside and saw Jay and Rachel with their weapons raised, flanked by a pair of Grendels.
‘Oh my God,’ Rachel said, her eyes widening as she saw Sam walk down the ramp.
‘It can’t be . . . Sam?’ Jay said, his mouth dropping open with surprise.
‘Tell your friends to lower their weapons,’ Mason said.
‘As long as you tell your men to do the same,’ Sam replied.
Mason thought for a moment and then nodded.
‘Stand down,’ Mason said to his men. The reality was that even that much concentrated firepower would do little good against the Grendels anyway.
Sam walked past the soldiers and Rachel ran towards him, wrapping him in her arms and hugging him. When after a few seconds she pulled away from him, her eyes were wet with tears. She sniffed and wiped her face with the back of her hand, staring at him as if she couldn’t quite believe he was real.
‘We thought you were dead,’ Rachel said, shaking her head in disbelief.
‘If it’s any consolation,’ Sam said with a grin, ‘so did I.’
‘I don’t believe it,’ Jay said, grinning as he too hugged his friend. ‘How the hell did you survive? There were thousands of those things out there. There’s no way that –’
‘It’s a long story,’ Sam said. ‘I’ll tell you later.’
‘Who’s that?’ Rachel asked, nodding towards Mason, who was watching their reunion with interest.
‘That’s who we went up there to find in the first place,’ Sam said. ‘His name’s Mason and he and his men have been trying to keep the Vore from spreading outside the city.’
‘The what?’ Jay asked, looking confused.
‘Sorry, that’s what the creatures are called,’ Sam said, suddenly looking serious. ‘I have to speak to Stirling – he needs to know what those things really are.’
‘What do you mean?’ Rachel asked, suddenly worried by the expression on Sam’s face.
‘The Vore aren’t like the Hunters or the Grendels,’ Sam said with a frown. ‘That’s why I couldn’t sense them in Edinburgh before they attacked. They’re . . . or at least they once were . . . human. The Voidborn didn’t take the Sleepers with them – they turned them into the Vore.’
‘You mean . . .’ Rachel paused for a moment. ‘That’s obscene.’
‘We . . . we killed dozens of them,’ Jay said, feeling bewildered.
‘I know,’ Sam said, looking down at the ground, ‘but what choice did we have? It was kill or be killed. They were dead long before we got there.’
Sam noticed movement behind the Grendels and then Stirling appeared with William, Liz, Adam, Nat and Jack, all looking just as stunned to see him alive.
Mason watched for a couple of minutes as Sam reunited with his friends. Stirling glanced over in his direction and nodded. He walked over to Mason and extended his hand.
‘It’s good to see you again, Iain,’ Mason said, shaking Stirling’s hand. The pair of them had only met a handful of times in the decade leading up to the invasion.
‘You too,’ Stirling replied. ‘I hoped that the transmission we picked up might have had something to do with you. I take it that the Faslane facility survived the invasion.’
‘Yes, but we weren’t fully prepared,’ Mason replied. ‘I only have a fraction of the men we were supposed to be assigned. We’ve only recently been able to begin surface operations – we had to wait for Shaw to finish his work on these things.’ He tapped the implant on the side of his head.
‘Daniel’s with you?’ Stirling said, looking confused for a moment. ‘How’s that possible?’
‘What do you mean?’ Mason asked with a frown.
‘He was in London on the day of the invasion,’ Stirling said. ‘How on earth did he get to you?’
‘He walked,’ Mason said. ‘It took him weeks.’
Stirling looked as if he was going to say something else for a moment, but then he glanced over at the children who were huddled around Sam.
‘I take it you know that’s his son,’ Stirling said.
‘Yes, Daniel never really spoke about his family,’ Mason said. ‘I’d always assumed they’d been taken in the invasion. I had no idea his son was one of the implant recipients.’
‘He’s a lot more than just that,’ Stirling said, raising an eyebrow.
‘Yes, I’ve seen his arm,’ Mason said. ‘When he told me it happened while you were taking control of the London Mothership, I found it rather hard to believe. I don’t know how you did it, Iain, but this could be a pivotal moment in driving back the Voidborn. If you’ve worked out a way to take control of a Mothership and we combine your men with mine, we could start to turn the tide.’
‘It’s rather more complicated than that,’ Stirling said, looking slightly uncomfortable all of a sudden. ‘What exactly did Sam tell you?’
‘He told me you had an army,’ Mason said, frowning.
‘That was something of an exaggeration,’ Stirling replied.
‘What do you mean?’ Mason asked.
‘That’s our army,’ Stirling said, nodding towards the group of children who were gathered in the shadow of the hulking Voidborn machines.
‘You’re joking,’ Mason said, looking shocked. ‘Then how did you . . .’ He glanced up at the colossal vessel hanging in the air far above them.
‘Honestly,’ Stirling replied, ‘I have no idea. Besides which, it’s not entirely accurate to say that we control the Mothership. Sam’s the only one who it actually responds to. We didn’t assault the Mothership – we were captured and, during the ensuing confrontation with the Voidborn consciousness inside the ship, something happened that profoundly altered it. Now it obeys the boy’s instructions without question.’
‘How is that possible?’ Mason said, looking over at the grinning boy surrounded by his friends.
‘I think you should probably ask Daniel that,’ Stirling said. ‘He implanted the boy with some form of experimental nanites when his Voidborn implant started to expand uncontrollably. I’ve never seen anything like them before. He never told me how he developed them, but they saved the boy’s life. Ever since then the Mothership has been entirely under his command. The former Voidborn that controls it calls him Illuminate, whatever that means.’
Mason shook his head slightly, looking over at Sam. ‘I wish I could ask Shaw what he did to the boy that makes him so special,’ he said. ‘He left Faslane several weeks ago. I’ve not seen him since.’
‘Why would he do that?’ Stirling asked with a frown.
‘We had a disagreement on tactics,’ Mason said. ‘You need to know what’s happened in Edinburgh.’
‘Yes, I was hoping you could give me more information about these new creatures,’ Stirling said.
‘He calls them Vore,’ Mason said, glancing at Sam. ‘Which is as appropriate a name as any. They’re a plague, Iain, and I need your help to stop them.’
Sam collapsed into one of the armchairs in the common room, profoundly glad to be back in what he now considered his home. He’d spent the last few hours filling everyone in on the details of his escape from the Vore, meeting Mag and then being rescued by Mason’s men. Sam waved to Jay as he entered the room and his friend sat down in the seat opposite him, glancing at the soldiers who were sitting around checking their gear in silence at the other end of the room.
‘Not exactly chatty, are they?’ Jay said, jerking his head t
owards the new arrivals. ‘Don’t think I’ve seen one of them crack a smile yet.’
‘I know what you mean,’ Sam said. ‘They’re pretty good at the whole stone-faced warrior thing, aren’t they?’
‘You sure we can trust them?’
‘Yeah,’ Sam said with a nod, ‘suppose so. Though it wasn’t like I had a lot of say in the matter, actually. I might have just managed to survive our first encounter with the Vore, but I wouldn’t have made it through the second if it hadn’t been for them.’
‘Man, those things were grim,’ Jay said. ‘I don’t want to think about what would happen if they made it to London.’
‘Yeah,’ Sam replied, ‘we’ve got to find a way of making sure that doesn’t happen.’
‘Hey, guys,’ Rachel said as she sat down on the arm of Sam’s chair. ‘Why the serious faces? Thought we were supposed to be celebrating.’
‘We were just talking about what the Voidborn did in Edinburgh,’ Sam said.
‘And how we make sure they can’t do the same thing here,’ Jay added.
‘Yeah, I still can’t believe that they were the city’s Sleepers,’ Rachel said. ‘I thought my nightmares were bad enough already, but this . . .’ She trailed off, shaking her head.
‘Yep,’ Sam said, ‘the only advantage we really have is that they’re nocturnal. Maybe if we move the Mothership over Edinburgh temporarily we can use the forces on board to find the nests and destroy them.’
‘Whatever happens, hundred of thousands of people are dead,’ Rachel said.
‘Didn’t you say that you found a whole bunch of Voidborn that had been ripped to pieces just before you met your latest girlfriend?’ Jay said.
‘Mag isn’t my girlfriend,’ Sam said, rolling his eyes.
‘You want to be careful,’ Rachel said with a grin. ‘You’ll make Goldenboobs jealous.’
‘Please don’t call the Servant that,’ Sam said with a sigh. ‘If it hadn’t been for Mag, I would never have made it out of Edinburgh. Now you mention it, though, there’s something that’s been bothering me about what I found up at the castle.’
‘Yeah?’ Jay said. ‘What’s that?’
‘How did the Vore turn on the Voidborn?’ Sam said, frowning slightly. ‘Why create a weapon that’s as dangerous to you as it is to your enemies?’
‘Maybe they just lost control of them,’ Jay said. ‘You didn’t see any other dead Voidborn, did you? Could’ve just been an accident.’
‘Yeah,’ Rachel said, ‘never stopped us from developing biological weapons before the Voidborn arrived, did it? I doubt the Voidborn really care about losing a few Hunters and Grendels if it means they can wipe out an entire city.’
‘I suppose,’ Sam said with a sigh. ‘I just hope that they didn’t do it because of what happened here. If this was revenge for London . . .’
‘This isn’t on us,’ Jay said. ‘We just have to find a way to make sure they can never do it again.’
Sam glanced over at the door as Stirling and Mason walked into the room.
‘Sam,’ Stirling said, ‘Mason has asked if we would give him a tour of the compound. He’s keen to see the Voidborn drilling rig. He also asked if we would show him the Mothership. I said I thought that wouldn’t be a problem.’
‘I have to admit I’ve always been curious,’ Mason said. ‘I’ve spent most of my time avoiding the Voidborn – I wouldn’t mind the opportunity to see some of their technology up close without getting vaporised.’
‘You OK with this?’ Sam asked Stirling.
‘Yes, but it’s your choice, Sam,’ Stirling said. ‘It’s your ship, after all.’
Sam had never thought of the Mothership as belonging to him, but he supposed that it must seem a bit like that to the others.
‘OK, let’s give you the guided tour,’ Sam said, standing up. ‘You two coming?’
‘Nah, I’m good,’ Jay said. ‘I told Jack I’d go out on patrol with him. I’ll catch you later.’
‘I’ll come,’ Rachel said. ‘Been a while since I’ve been up there.’
They spent the next hour or so giving Mason a tour of their own hastily constructed facilities and the bizarre Voidborn structure that loomed over the compound, which contained the dormant Voidborn tunnelling machine. Then they walked back over to the Grendel that was keeping watch over Mason’s helicopter.
‘I need a drop-ship to transport us up to the Mothership,’ Sam said to the enormous creature. A moment later a golden cloud materialised in front of the Grendel, seeming to just appear from thin air. A second or two later the swarm of nanites coalesced into the familiar form of the Servant.
‘So that’s what the Voidborn look like,’ Mason said quietly to Stirling.
‘Yes and no,’ Stirling replied. ‘That’s the form the Voidborn chose to appear to us in when we first encountered it, when it was still hostile. The only difference was the colour.’
‘Fascinating,’ Mason said, staring at the Servant as she told Sam that the drop-ship he had requested was on its way and would be there shortly. ‘And you’re sure that the Voidborn couldn’t somehow take control back from the boy.’
‘Honestly, I have no idea,’ Stirling replied. ‘I strongly suspect that they would have done, if it was that easy to take it back.’
‘That . . . or the loss of one Mothership is inconsequential to them,’ Mason replied.
‘Yes, that possibility had occurred to me too,’ Stirling said.
Above them there was a deep throbbing roar as the drop-ship that Sam had requested landed next to the helicopter, its sleek alien lines making the human machine look awkward and ungainly. The hatch in the side of the drop-ship slid open and Sam followed Rachel up the boarding ramp.
‘After you,’ Stirling said.
‘Never thought I’d be climbing into one of these things voluntarily,’ Mason said with a grim smile as he walked inside.
Sam looked up at the giant crystalline structure at the heart of the Mothership, watching it pulse with the yellow waves of energy that powered the massive vessel. He had been here many times over the past few months, but even now his memory took him back to the first time he had seen it. Then it had pulsed with sickly green light and he had been on his way to his first true encounter with the Voidborn consciousness.
‘What’s the source of all this power?’ Mason asked.
‘The source of the ship’s power is the gravity differential of the event horizon of a singularity trapped inside an artificial pocket dimension that is linked to the power distribution system via a quantum tunnel,’ the Servant replied.
‘Sounds dangerous,’ Mason said, staring up at the crackling nimbus of energy that surrounded the massive black crystal at the very top of the power column.
‘On the contrary,’ Stirling said, ‘it’s actually remarkably safe, clean and efficient. I just wish I had the faintest idea how it works.’
‘Seeing as it’s the only thing keeping us airborne, I’m just glad that it does work,’ Sam said to Rachel as the Servant led them to the top of the spiralling ramp that ran round the crystal. Like much of the Voidborn technology, the intricacies of the Mothership’s design were still a mystery to them. The Servant seemed to understand the basics, but since she had lost her connection to the Voidborn she had lost access to any detailed explanation of why the Mothership worked the way it did or where the Voidborn may have originated. Sam was reasonably sure that it was all tied up somehow with his newfound status as Illuminate, whatever that meant.
The Servant raised a single hand as she approached the massive, intricately decorated black slab that barred the entrance to the Mothership’s central control room. The elliptical patterns on its surface lit up with yellow light as the slab split into triangular sections and slid into the walls and floor.
The control room was quiet and the pedestal upon which the Voidborn consciousness had once rested, while in its dormant state, stood empty. Mason strode over to the windows that looked out over the abandoned city and
shook his head.
‘I’m still not sure I believe it even now I’ve seen it with my own eyes,’ he said. ‘It’s exactly what we need.’
‘What do you mean?’ Stirling asked with a frown.
‘Illuminate, I am detecting another aircraft on approach,’ the Servant said. ‘It appears to be identical to the one in which you returned.’
‘You keep calling him that,’ Mason said, slowly turning towards the Servant. ‘He is not the Illuminate, but I am.’
A moment later Mason’s entire body seemed to flare with blue light and his appearance began to shift. His military uniform morphed into a suit of interlocking white armoured panels. Seconds later an eight-foot-tall pale-skinned humanoid creature with glowing blue veins of light running back over the bald skin of its crested skull stood looming over them, looking down at their shocked faces with a sneer.
‘This vessel does not belong to you, human,’ the creature said, pointing at Sam. ‘You will return control of it to me.’
‘Who . . . who are you?’ Sam asked, his eyes wide with astonishment.
‘I am Talon, last warrior of the Illuminate, and you will do as I command,’ the creature said, taking a single step towards Sam.
The Servant moved with impossible speed, dissolving into her cloud form and sweeping in front of Sam before re-forming in front of him, both of her hands morphing into vicious outstretched claws.
‘I will not allow you to harm the Illuminate,’ the Servant said as behind her Sam, Rachel and Stirling slowly backed away.
‘I have no intention of harming the human,’ Talon replied. ‘In fact, I need him, for now at least. Besides, I believe he will give me control of this vessel quite voluntarily.’
‘Now why would I do that?’ Sam asked. Behind him, several of the larger black-skinned Hunters guarding the control room rose from the pit below the Voidborn control pedestal. The energy weapons mounted in their gleaming carapaces were aimed squarely at the giant armoured creature.
‘Because if you don’t I will release the creatures you call Vore into the city below,’ Talon replied, his eyes narrowing.