by Mark Walden
‘Actually, I think I do,’ Suran replied. ‘Though it is dangerous and there is something that I must teach you first. Give me your hand.’
Sam offered his human hand to Suran.
‘No, the other one,’ Suran replied.
Sam held out his golden metallic hand and Suran took it in his own. Suran closed his eyes and a moment later the golden surface turned into perfectly normal human skin.
‘There is much you need to know about your heritage and your abilities,’ Suran said, ‘and I fear I do not have the time to teach you properly. It would be far easier, if you would allow it, if I simply gave you the knowledge.’
Sam looked at Suran for a moment and then nodded. Suran reached up and placed his hand on the side of Sam’s head and closed his eyes.
A few minutes later Sam walked out of the forward compartment with Suran following just behind him.
‘OK, listen up, everyone,’ Sam said as all the heads in the room turned in his direction, ‘here’s what we’re going to do.’
The drop-ship swooped low over the Tokyo skyline, banking towards the unmistakeable shape of the Voidborn Mothership that hovered over the centre of the city. Suran looked at the image of the city hanging in the air in the forward compartment of the drop-ship, studying the giant vessel and the swarm of other Voidborn-controlled aircraft.
‘They are greater in number than I had anticipated,’ he said with a frown.
‘Shouldn’t make any difference,’ Sam said, trying to sound as confident as he had when he had outlined their plan to the others. ‘In fact, it may even help.’
‘How close can we get before they detect us?’ Stirling asked.
‘If we do nothing to draw undue attention to ourselves, then we should be able to get close enough for our purposes,’ Suran replied. ‘Superficially, we will appear to them to be just another assault vessel. If they conduct a thorough scan of the vessel, however, its origin will quickly become obvious.’
‘Maybe they’ll just think that their London cousins are popping over for a visit,’ Jay said.
‘If they do detect us, we will be vaporised within seconds,’ Suran replied, not taking his eyes off the display.
‘OK, not a fan of lightening the mood,’ Jay mumbled, rolling his eyes.
‘We are five minutes from our target destination,’ Suran said. ‘I suggest you make final preparations.’
‘Come on,’ Sam said, leading Jay back into the rear compartment where Rachel and Mag were looking down at the weapons spread on the floor.
‘Two rifles, magazines half empty,’ Rachel said, gesturing at the guns at her feet, ‘and one pistol, also with only half a clip. Not exactly a kick-ass arsenal.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Sam said, shaking his head. ‘If everything goes according to plan, we won’t need them.’
‘If everything doesn’t go to plan, it’s not as if we’re going to be shooting our way out anyway, let’s face it,’ Jay said, running his hand nervously through his dreadlocks.
‘Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that,’ Sam said.
In the forward compartment something on the view screen caught Stirling’s attention.
‘What on earth is that?’ he said, pointing at the display.
‘That, unless I am very much mistaken, is the primary node for the Voidborn control signal,’ Suran replied. The image on the screen showed the building that had once been the Tokyo Skytree. The six-hundred-metre-tall spire still dominated the skyline of the city, but now its surface was covered in strange black cuboid outcroppings that twinkled with coronas of green light. Pulsing energy cables ran between the huge black blocks, entwined within the tower’s white tubular steel framework, making the massive structure look almost alive. From its peak a bright red crackling stream of energy shot into the sky, vanishing into the clouds above.
‘So that will be Talon’s primary target,’ Stirling said.
‘Presumably, yes,’ Suran replied with a nod.
‘How long before he arrives?’ Stirling asked.
‘It’s hard to say,’ Suran replied. ‘The colony ships are not well suited to atmospheric flight . . . It could be several hours.’
‘More than enough time,’ Stirling said with a nod. ‘You’re certain that we can’t use that thing to wake the Sleepers?’
‘My research would suggest otherwise, Iain, as I suspect yours did too,’ Suran replied.
‘Indeed,’ Stirling said, ‘but it is frustrating to be so close to the root cause of our domination and not be able to do something about it. We just have to protect the node from Talon’s assault. It almost feels like we’re helping the Voidborn.’
‘We are protecting humanity, so that perhaps we can wake them in the future. You know as well as I do that we should not wake all the enslaved simultaneously anyway,’ Suran said. ‘Seven billion frightened people awakening at the same time into a world where the infrastructure barely supported that many people before it was left to decay by the Voidborn? It would mean bloodshed on a scale unprecedented in the history of humanity.’
‘So how do we wake them, Daniel?’ Stirling said. ‘Or would you prefer Andrew or maybe Suran?’
‘Daniel is the name you have always known me by,’ Suran replied. ‘I see no need to change that now.’
‘Except it isn’t your name, not really,’ Stirling replied. ‘I would have helped you, you know. If you’d told me the truth. I always wondered how you managed to be one step ahead of my thinking when we worked together. I understand now. I must have seemed like a child to you.’
‘Not at all,’ Suran replied. ‘Your intuitive understanding of Voidborn technology was impressive. You forget that I had slept for aeons before I met you. I was not familiar with much of the technology they were sharing with their human allies in the Foundation. Without you we would never have perfected the implant technology that protects those children from Voidborn slavery.’
‘To think I operated on you to remove your implant,’ Stirling said, shaking his head. ‘You never even needed it, did you? Not to mention the fact that you could have just reached into your head and handed it to me, given your true nature.’
‘That would perhaps have rather startled you,’ Suran replied. ‘There were many things I was forced to do to keep my true identity a secret. The only person who knew the truth was Talon. If we had been discovered, we would have been forced back into hiding at best, hunted down and destroyed at worst. You know that. I didn’t keep things from you because I didn’t trust you; I didn’t tell you because it was the only way to keep you safe. If the Foundation and the Voidborn had learned of our existence, there would have been nowhere safe to hide for anyone we had ever known or cared about. That may have mattered little to Talon, but for me it was not an option. I had allowed myself to become too fond of humanity and the new life they had afforded me.’
‘So, how do we save them?’ Stirling asked. ‘How do you wake up seven billion people?’
‘Slowly and carefully, my friend,’ Suran replied, ‘slowly and carefully.’
Back in the rear compartment Sam handed the weapons to Rachel, Jay and Mag.
‘Don’t take any unnecessary risks. For us to have any chance of this working, I need you all in one piece,’ Sam said, ‘and try to keep Stirling alive as well. I know he can be a bit of a pain in the backside sometimes, but he does have his uses.’
‘Message received loud and clear, boss,’ Jay said with a grin.
‘I’m not your boss,’ Sam said.
‘Yeah you are,’ Rachel said, smiling at him, ‘even if you don’t want to admit it.’
‘I still think you’re crazy,’ Mag said, shaking her head. ‘You do realise that there are about ten thousand things that could go wrong with this brilliant plan, don’t you?’
‘That’s better than usual,’ Jay said, ‘much better, actually.’
‘We’re approaching the Mothership,’ Stirling said as he walked into the compartment. ‘You three had better come with
me.’
‘The Mothership has brought us into its landing pattern,’ Suran said. ‘It is time.’
Jay, Rachel and Mag followed Stirling into the forward compartment. Suran turned towards Sam as he approached.
‘Time to get this show on the road,’ Sam said.
‘Before we do, I want you to know that I love you as much as I would have loved any biological child,’ Suran said, ‘and I am truly proud of the young man that you have become.’
‘I know,’ Sam replied, looking into the alien creature’s eyes and finally seeing his father looking back at him. ‘Though, if I were you, it’s not me I’d be worried about, it’s Mum. She’ll kill you when she finds out who you really are.’
Suran let out a booming laugh. ‘Indeed,’ he said, smiling at Sam. ‘As you humans say, I believe that we should cross that particular bridge when we come to it.’
Suran closed his eyes and dematerialised into a cloud of dust that spread out until it was barely visible, hanging in the air. A moment later Sam felt a soft thud through the soles of his boots as the drop-ship touched down, and the hatch in the side of the vessel hissed open, light streaming inside from the hangar beyond. Within seconds a pair of floating Voidborn Hunters entered the drop-ship, the green light that flickered across their silvery shells a sudden unpleasant reminder of his life in London after the invasion. Once these creatures had been a source of nightmares and now, as Sam stepped towards them confidently, he hoped that his voice wouldn’t betray any of the fear that he felt in the pit of his stomach.
‘My name is Sam Riley, I was responsible for the capture of your ship above London and I want to speak to the intelligence controlling this vessel.’
Talon stood on the central control platform, feeling the flow of information from the vessel around him. It had taken time for him to adjust to the overwhelming stream of data, but he had adapted. The Grendels massed in the hangars far below him were simple hulking creatures that needed only the most uncomplicated of instructions. He would release them as a tide of blind destruction when the time came, allowing the rudimentary artificial intelligences that controlled them to make the simple decisions that would be all that his battle plan required. The smaller Voidborn Drones would keep the vessel functioning for as long as possible. The assault craft waiting in their hangars would provide air cover for the primary weapon at his disposal, the Mothership itself.
The escape of the prisoners had been a minor inconvenience. He was now within reach of victory and final retribution against his most hated enemy. As a commander of the Illuminate fleet he had seen the horrors that the Voidborn had wrought across the stars and he did not understand why they had spared the Earth from such wanton destruction. He told himself that, really, it did not matter. When he was finished, all would be ashes and the war would finally be over. The Voidborn would perish and the last remnant of his people would be safe for ever.
He looked through the screens providing a view out over the superstructure of the Mothership, beyond which lay the inky blackness of space. Hanging there in the void, filling half his field of vision, was the bright blue surface of the Earth. He had risked drawing the Voidborn’s attention by leaving the atmosphere, but it had dramatically reduced the journey time to his target. He issued a mental command to the Mothership’s engines and the massive vessel began to drop out of orbit, gathering speed as it succumbed to the gentle but irresistible force of the Earth’s gravity. A minute later the first flares of bright red plasma formed along the curved leading edge of the giant ship when it struck the first wispy layers of the atmosphere at phenomenal speed. The Mothership’s systems reported that the angle of re-entry was too steep, that the energy shields would struggle to keep the vessel safe from the ferocious temperatures that were building outside. None of that mattered to Talon. All that did matter was that in a matter of minutes he would catch his enemy unaware and finally his vengeance would be complete.
Sam walked into the control room of the Voidborn Mothership, a Hunter on either side of him restraining his arms. Standing in the centre of the room was a pedestal identical to the one he knew from the London Mothership. On it stood a matt black, featureless cylinder, three metres tall with glowing cables leading away from it and down into the bottomless pit. As the Hunters held him in place ten metres away, the surface of the cylinder began to ripple gently and then it suddenly exploded into a swirling cloud of black dust.
Sam had seen this transformation once before and he fought to keep his expression calm as the cloud quickly coalesced into a tall male figure. Other than the fact that its skin looked as if it were made from highly polished black obsidian, he suddenly realised it bore an uncanny resemblance to one of the Illuminate. The Voidborn looked down at Sam, its eyes glowing with green light, leaving twisting motes of black dust trailing behind it in the air as it moved towards him.
‘You are known to us, human,’ it said. Its deep sonorous voice had a strange, vaguely digital sounding edge to it. ‘You are the one that severed our connection to the sixth. I will not allow you to do the same to the first. You will not corrupt this vessel. I will not allow the contamination of the Illuminate to spread any further. You will be cast into the singularity that powers this vessel, nothing less than total obliteration will suffice.’
‘I’m not part of the Illuminate,’ Sam said, ‘but they are coming and they mean to destroy you. That’s what I came here to warn you about.’
‘The Illuminate are long dead,’ the Voidborn said, stepping closer to Sam. ‘You are the one remnant of their existence. We have purged the universe of their corruption. They are no longer any threat to us.’
‘You’re wrong,’ Sam said, ‘and do you know how I know that? Because my dad told me.’
The two Hunters holding Sam released their hold on his arms and their gleaming silver shells seemed to shimmer for a second before exploding into a seething cloud of silver dust, which coalesced into a humanoid shape. Suran materialised next to Sam. The flowing robes he had worn before were gone, replaced with gleaming white armour. The Voidborn’s glowing eyes widened in surprise and it took a single step backwards. Suran strode forward, reaching out and grabbing the creature’s throat with his hand. The Voidborn let out a strangled digital screech, and small sections of its skin exploded in puffs of black smoke as it tried desperately to shift its shape, but the tiny streams of dust were sucked back into its body as Suran held his grip.
‘Now, Sam,’ Suran yelled, ‘quickly, while it’s form-locked.’
Sam ran towards Suran and grabbed his outstretched hand. The process was instantaneous and overwhelming. Sam felt himself become one with the enormous vessel around him, feeling every pulse of energy through its colossal superstructure as if it were a signal racing through his own nervous system. He could feel every drop-ship soaring over the city below, every Hunter silently working to maintain the Mothership, every Grendel patrolling the streets. There was no way his human mind could cope with the sudden crushing wave of sensation that washed over him.
In the control room, Suran’s fist closed on empty air as the Voidborn disintegrated, slipping between his fingers like grains of sand and falling to the floor in a pile of black and silver dust. He turned and caught Sam as his son’s legs gave way beneath him, gently lowering him to the floor. Sam lay convulsing, his nervous system now just ablaze with a million different contradictory sensations.
‘Come on, Sam,’ Suran said, looking at the agonised expression on his son’s face and gently placing his hand on the side of the boy’s head, ‘let me in.’
Sam was drowning in a swirling tempest of sensory data. Suddenly, the volume of the mental static that surrounded him decreased and he sensed a presence nearby. A figure materialised from the swirl of colours and noise around him.
‘Dad?’ Sam said.
‘No, child of Earth,’ the figure said. Sam couldn’t make out who it was. He could make out just a blurred outline. ‘You will know me soon enough.’ The figure seemed to gr
ow before him, darkening, its outline traced by crimson flames. ‘You will watch as I render your world unto ash. You and all of your kind will die screaming my name.’
The figure reached out and Sam felt a moment of blind animal panic as it seemed to grow impossibly large, swallowing him whole. Sam screamed in terror when he felt an instant of the pure, cold malevolence that surrounded him. The world rushed back in a flash of light. Sam blinked rapidly a few times and Suran’s concerned face came into focus above him.
‘Welcome back,’ Suran said. ‘I have control.’
Sam slowly climbed to his feet with Suran’s help and looked around the control room. The lights running through the walls now pulsed with a soft yellow glow. The Mothership was theirs.
‘I saw something,’ Sam said, his voice shaky. ‘There’s something else out there.’
‘More Voidborn?’ Suran asked.
‘No,’ Sam said, feeling a chill run down his spine at the memory, ‘not Voidborn, worse. Much worse.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I felt it for a moment,’ Sam said. ‘Whatever it is, it hates us more than you could possibly imagine.’
‘Are you sure you’re OK?’ Suran said. ‘The Illuminate interface to these vessels was not designed for human neural physiology. You may just have suffered sensory overload, which can induce extremely intense visions. I remember my first experience of the interface with the Illuminate – it was similarly powerful.’
‘I suppose,’ Sam said, rubbing his temples. ‘We need to get ready. Talon will be here soon.’
‘Indeed,’ Suran said. ‘You and your friends should prepare yourselves also. We may not have much –’
Suran stopped as the cables around the control panel snaked their way up his legs and under the plates of his armour.
‘By the Illuminate,’ Suran said, his eyes suddenly wide with shock, ‘he’s here.’
11
Talon smiled as his Mothership sliced through the layer of cloud above the city, its leading edge still glowing bright orange from its near suicidal re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere. Damage reports streamed into his mind from the systems that had been compromised by the superheated plasma when the Mothership’s energy shields had finally given way, but the vessel had survived and now the element of surprise was his. The Voidborn would never have expected a Mothership to attack from such an angle or at such speed and, as any true warrior knew, catching one’s enemy unaware was to have already won half the battle.