by Mark Walden
‘You can’t,’ Suran said, ‘but we can. Goodbye, my son. I love you.’
Suran reached up and placed his hand gently on the side of Sam’s head. Sam felt a moment of searing pain and was suddenly blinded by a flash of white light. He staggered backwards, and Suran’s body began to disintegrate into a pile of white dust. Sam’s hands went to his head as he felt pressure building inside his skull. He dropped to his knees, feeling as if his head would burst. Slowly the pain subsided as he knelt panting in the street, his vision gradually returning to normal. He looked up just in time to see Mag charging at Talon, her fangs bared and claws outstretched.
‘Mag, no!’ Sam yelled.
Talon closed his eyes for an instant and the Grendel standing next to him stepped forward, a black tentacle shooting from its wrist and wrapping round one of Mag’s ankles, sending her tumbling to the floor. The tentacle retracted, dragging Mag towards the Grendel as she thrashed wildly, slashing at the slimy tendril with her claws. The Grendel took three quick steps towards her and scooped her up off the ground, its massive claws closing round her neck as she struggled uselessly against its overwhelming strength. She dangled from the Grendel’s outstretched hand, pulling at the black claws that tightened round her neck.
‘Let her go!’ Sam screamed, fighting the rising tide of despair he felt in his chest.
‘On one condition,’ Talon said calmly. ‘Reverse the form-lock. Free me from the confines of this shape and I will spare her. Otherwise . . .’
Mag gave a strangled gasp of pain when the Grendel’s claws tightened by just a tiny amount.
Sam looked at Mag and saw the mix of defiance and fear in her eyes. He had no choice. He walked towards Talon and placed his hand on the side of his head. A broad smile spread across Talon’s face as he felt the restraints on his shape-shifting abilities fall away. The scratches and dents in his armour disappeared and the long claw-shaped gashes in his neck faded away, the hardened layer of medical gel falling to the ground.
‘Thank you,’ Talon said. ‘That’s so much better.’
Sam looked at the fallen defenders of the tower that lay scattered on the street around them and then up at the dozens of Talon’s drop-ships circling above before letting his head drop, knowing in that moment that they had lost. Nothing could stop Talon now.
‘I was going to grant you a swift death,’ Talon said, ‘but now I think I might actually let you live. So much worse to be one of the final witnesses to the death of your world.’
‘Just get on with it,’ Sam said, his voice filled with resignation. ‘Destroy the tower.’
‘Oh, I’m not going to destroy it,’ Talon said with a smile. ‘If I’d wanted to do that, I would simply have flown the Mothership into it. No, I have something quite different in mind.’
He grabbed Sam by the scruff of his neck and dragged him towards the entrance to the tower. The Grendel carrying Mag followed. A massive black sphere was nestled at the base of the tower within a spider’s web of cables, all throbbing with red light. At the bottom of the sphere was a glowing red portal, its crimson light spilling out across the square. Talon dragged Sam towards the sphere and threw him to the ground just a couple of metres from the glowing hole in its base.
‘Do you know what this is?’ Talon asked, pointing at the bright opening. Sam shook his head as he slowly climbed to his feet. ‘This is a pattern interface,’ Talon continued. ‘The Voidborn use it to assimilate new technology, copying it and duplicating it across the entire fleet. During our war, they used them to copy any new weapons we used against them, before turning the very same weapons against us. It was part of the reason we could never defeat them, no matter what new technologies we devised. Suran saw a different use for it, though, a means by which we could wake the sleeping people of Earth and have them rise up against the Voidborn.
‘His plan was simple: we would upload a modified design for their Drones, Hunters as you call them, that would unwittingly distribute Illuminate nanites to the sleeping humans in their charge, nanites that would wake them without actually severing their connection to the control network, leaving them unharmed, but still restoring their free will. The plan was elegant, the execution more problematic. When we first introduced the nanites to the enslaved humans we inadvertently created the Vore.’
‘My father was horrified by what you had done,’ Sam said. ‘It wasn’t him that released those things in Edinburgh – it was you.’
‘Indeed it was,’ Talon said. ‘Your father wanted to go back to the drawing board, try and find a way to wake the humans without turning them into monsters. He always was a naive fool. I saw the unmodified nanites’ potential immediately. We could turn the humans against the Voidborn now. It was the only way to protect the Heart, to make sure that the Voidborn would never be able to erase the last remnant of the Illuminate. To me, the choice was clear. I form-locked Suran, placed him in confinement and then released the Vore in Edinburgh. They were more effective than I could ever have dreamt. All I needed then was a way to spread the Vore to every corner of the planet. Thankfully, your father had already created that.’
Talon reached into the pouch at his waist and pulled out a glowing blue disc. ‘The nanites in this suspension field will implant a design for the Vore in the Voidborn creation matrix along with instructions for their Drones to distribute it amongst the entire population of enslaved humans. Every sleeping human on Earth will be transformed in a matter of days. The Voidborn will be destroyed by their own slaves. A rather fitting end, I think.’
‘You’re insane,’ Sam said, ‘but that’s no excuse for the thing you’ve become. You’re worse than the Voidborn.’
‘You wouldn’t say that if you had seen the things I have seen,’ Talon said, something cold and empty in his voice. ‘Enough talk. It is time.’ He walked towards the pattern interface, the blue disc sitting in the palm of his outstretched hand.
The wall of the glass walkway that ran alongside the plaza exploded as a Grendel smashed through it, landing with a crunch next to Talon and swatting him aside like a fly. Talon slammed into the wall on the other side of the plaza, momentarily stunned. The Grendel, lit with yellow light, turned towards Sam.
‘Miss me?’ Jay said, before striding across the plaza towards the other towering creature that was still holding Mag. Talon’s Grendel tossed the girl aside and Mag landed hard on the concrete twenty metres away. Jay’s Grendel slammed into it, delivering a massive blow to the other creature’s chest and sending it staggering backwards. Jay pressed home his advantage, slashing at the other Grendel’s face, his claws raking across its eyes. The other Grendel roared with rage, blinded and flailing as Jay side-stepped its wild uncontrolled swings.
Sam caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and saw Talon climbing to his feet before transforming in the blink of an eye into a swirling cloud of dust that raced towards Jay.
‘Jay! Look out!’ Sam yelled as he saw Talon materialise behind Jay, sword raised.
Something snapped inside Sam and he suddenly felt as if he were falling forward, but then he realised with a sudden jolt of disorientation that he wasn’t falling – he was flying across the plaza towards Talon. He re-materialised between Talon and Jay’s Grendel and the startled Illuminate warrior backed away from him.
‘That’s not possible,’ Talon hissed, shock in his eyes. ‘You are not Illuminate.’
‘No, but my father was,’ Sam said, finally understanding what Suran had given him at the moment of his death. He shifted again into a swirling cloud of glowing yellow dust as the nanites that now composed his body raced towards Talon.
Talon too became incorporeal and the two of them merged together into a single swirling cloud. Jay slammed the blinded Grendel into the floor, reaching down and ripping the creature’s head off with a sickening crunch. The decapitated creature thrashed for a moment and then lay still, green-black blood pooling on the floor beneath it.
Jay’s Grendel walked towards Mag as she opened her eyes w
ith a groan. She saw the advancing Grendel and scrambled backwards, trying to get away from the monstrous creature.
‘It’s OK,’ Jay said. ‘It’s me.’
There was a fleeting look of confusion on Mag’s face and then she let out a relieved sigh. She looked past the Grendel and at the swirling cloud, lit up by blue and yellow light, that hovered in the centre of the square.
‘What the hell is that?’ Mag asked, her eyes wide.
‘I have absolutely no idea,’ Jay said. He had only caught a glimpse of Talon and Sam before they had transformed into their current state. He watched helplessly, having no idea how he could possibly help his friend.
Sam felt a wild sense of disorientation as he fought with Talon. It was not a physical fight as much as a mental one, each probing the other for a gap in their defences, their nanites attempting to assimilate each other and absorb one body within the other. He had no experience of this new form and Talon’s centuries of practice were paying off. He could feel himself weakening, losing himself within the swirling mass. He gave a mental wrench and felt himself become solid again, falling out of the air and landing on the ground, flat on his back, all the wind knocked out of him. He rolled over, gasping for breath, as Talon re-materialised behind him, looking angry.
‘You pathetic half-breed,’ Talon spat. ‘Do you seriously believe that you could ever defeat me? Suran was a fool to pass his gift on to you. How could an unenlightened ape like you ever hope to defeat a warrior of the Illuminate?’
‘Oi! Big mouth,’ Mag yelled from behind him, ‘you dropped something.’
Talon whirled round in time to see Mag throw something to Sam. The blue disc spun through the air and Sam caught it in his outstretched hand. He concentrated for an instant and his hand and the disc disintegrated into a swirling gold and blue sphere that shot across the space between him and Talon too quickly for the Illuminate warrior to dodge. The glowing ball struck his chest and Talon gasped as he once more exploded into a boiling cloud; but this time something was different. The cloud moved chaotically, horrific half-formed limbs and organs forming within it and then vanishing again in the blink of an eye. The cloud sank to the floor, where it writhed and thrashed as it slowly became solid. The pitiful thing that lay squirming on the floor in front of Sam turned his stomach. Part Illuminate, part Vore, even part human, it was a thing of nightmares.
‘What . . . have . . . you . . . done . . . to . . . me?’ Talon said, the twisted voice coming from the lipless, ragged hole of his mouth barely comprehensible.
‘No more than you deserve,’ Sam said as he looked down at the revolting heap of twisted flesh in front of him.
‘You . . . will . . . die . . . screaming . . . human,’ Talon said, his voice weakening. ‘You . . . will . . . all . . .’
Jay brought the foot of his Grendel down on Talon with a crunch.
‘You talk too much,’ Jay said. A moment later the Grendel’s chest popped open and Jay half slid and half fell from inside. He climbed to his feet, retching and coughing, clearing the gel from his lungs.
Sam stepped forward and hugged his friend. ‘Thought you were dead,’ he said.
‘So did I,’ Jay said with a smile, looking up at the immobile Grendel behind him. ‘These things are tougher than they look.’
Doctor Stirling’s voice suddenly crackled from somewhere inside the Grendel.
‘I don’t know if anyone can hear this, but there are three Voidborn Motherships less than seventy kilometres away from the city and closing. If we’re going to leave, we need to leave now.’
Sam reached out and touched the Grendel’s armoured skin.
‘We read you, Doctor Stirling,’ he said, interfacing effortlessly with the creature’s systems. ‘We’ll be with you in five minutes.’
The three of them headed out of the plaza beneath the Skytree and hurried down to the drop-ship sitting on the road outside.
‘Hey,’ Jay said as they approached the boarding ramp, ‘where’s Rachel?’
‘Get on board,’ Sam said, a sudden empty feeling in the pit of his stomach. ‘There’s something I need to tell you.’
Nat and Liz walked out into the compound and over to where Jack was standing with his arm in a sling watching Will and Anne digging Adam’s grave. It had been nearly forty-eight hours since the Mothership had left and there was still no sign of its return. The fallen Grendel lay in the middle of the compound, a constant reminder of their recent loss.
‘Let me help,’ Nat said, taking the shovel from Anne and helping her up out of the hole.
‘Thanks,’ Anne said, her face red with the exertion of digging up the frozen ground. ‘I’m going to go get a drink. Anyone want anything?’
‘Yeah, some water would be good,’ Will said, stopping for a moment to rest.
‘No problem,’ Anne said, ‘back in a minute.’
‘Here,’ Liz said, offering Will her hand, ‘my turn.’
‘No, it’s OK,’ Will said. ‘I’m all right for a few m—’
He stopped and cocked his head to one side as he heard a strange, barely audible throbbing noise. He looked over Nat’s shoulder and his mouth dropped open in surprise. The others turned and looked in the same direction, and saw the distant outline of not one but two Motherships dropping down through the clouds and heading for the city. As the Motherships drew closer over the following minutes, they could all see the clear signs of battle damage on both of the giant vessels. They looked as if they’d been to hell and back.
‘Do you think they’re friendly?’ Will asked as they drifted ever closer.
‘Maybe we’d better take cover until we know one way or the other,’ Liz said.
Liz helped Will up out of the hole and they all hurried towards the dormitory block, crawling under the raised structure and hiding in the shadowy space beneath. They lay in silence for what seemed like an hour, but which was probably actually no more than a few minutes, before they heard the familiar sound of a drop-ship’s engines approaching. A minute later the black triangular aircraft touched down in the compound next to the fallen Grendel, and the hatch in its side hissed open. Doctor Stirling was the first to exit the drop-ship, closely followed by a girl with strange marks on her face. They crawled out from under the dormitory and walked towards Stirling and the girl.
‘Are we glad to see you guys!’ Nat said happily as they approached.
Doctor Stirling didn’t say anything. He just looked back at the hatch in the side of the drop-ship as Jay and Sam walked out carrying between them what was unmistakeably a body wrapped in a plain, white sheet.
13
Sam looked down at the grave. The simple wooden cross at its head bore the single word ‘Rachel’. Next to it was another cross that marked Adam’s resting place. Sam took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He had lost so much over the past two years. He had hoped that at some point he might get used to the grief, but now he was beginning to wonder if he ever would.
‘Liz said you were out here,’ Jay said as he walked up and stood beside his friend.
‘I miss her so much,’ Sam said. ‘I keep asking myself, why couldn’t it have been me?’
‘I know what you mean.’ Jay looked at the ground. ‘I keep wondering if I’d made it to the top of the tower and if I’d been there when you confronted Talon, maybe . . . I dunno . . . maybe things would have turned out differently.’
‘We were stupid,’ Sam said, shaking his head, ‘thinking we could take Talon on like that. He was a trained soldier, a veteran of God knows how many battles. We never stood a chance. I should never have tried something so risky.’
‘Hey,’ Jay said, looking Sam straight in the eye, ‘it’s human nature, man. You want to kid yourself that there might have been something you could have done, some way you could have fixed the roll of the dice, but that’s all crap.’ He turned back to Rachel’s grave. ‘And you know she would have told you exactly the same thing.’
‘You’re right,’ Sam said. ‘Still can’t hel
p but feel that I led her to her death, though.’
‘So you led us,’ Jay said with a shrug, ‘that’s what you do. We all had a say in the matter. Any one of us could have said no at any point, but we didn’t. You know why? Because we trust you and nothing that’s happened is going to change that. I get it, man. Being the leader in a situation like this sucks, but someone’s got to do it. And right now that someone’s you. If it hadn’t been for you, Rachel and your dad, the body count could have been ten figures, Sam. Don’t ever forget that.’
Sam looked down at Rachel’s grave. ‘Price was still too high,’ he said, his head suddenly full of all the things that he had wanted to say to her, but now never could.
‘Yeah, I know. Come on inside,’ Jay said. ‘It’s too cold to be mooching around out here.’
‘Yeah, OK, just give me a minute,’ Sam said. Jay looked at him for a moment and then nodded before walking off towards the dormitory block.
Sam looked down at the two graves again and thought of everyone they’d lost: Tim, Toby, Jackson, Kate, Adam, his father and Rachel. Too many good people.
‘I’m sorry,’ Sam said quietly as he knelt down and placed his hand on the loose soil on top of Rachel’s grave. He stayed like that for a moment and then got to his feet, turned and walked away.
‘So you have no idea what triggered your transformation,’ Stirling said as he shone the ophthalmoscope into each of Sam’s eyes in turn.
‘No idea,’ Sam replied. ‘I wasn’t even consciously doing it. It just seemed completely natural, like I’d always been able to do it.’
‘Fascinating,’ Stirling said, placing the instrument down on the bench. ‘And you’ve not been able to do it since?’
‘No,’ Sam said, shaking his head. ‘The only thing I can think is that Talon must have form-locked me in that final confrontation. If my father was still alive, maybe he could tell us more, but I haven’t the faintest idea what Dad did to me.’
‘You have my sympathies,’ Stirling said. ‘Your father was a genius, but, more than that, he was a good man.’