Interphase

by Kira Wilson

  Shalaron blinked his eyes and tried to focus. His body felt sluggish and unresponsive. Slowly, he gained control of his arms and pushed himself upwards. Dozens of humans clustered around him, asking him questions and giving him concerned looks. He waved them away and rose to his feet. The more he utilized it, the more the body came to feel natural. Shalaron tested the reach and mobility of his new shell, and found it to his liking. The human had taken care of his physical form with ardent devotion.

  An idea entered Shalaron's mind. He turned toward the closest robed human, and struck with his fist. The blow knocked its target to the ground. A sense of unbridled power filled Shalaron, and he released himself to the thrill of combat. It only took a moment for the humans to realize they were under attack, but their resistance was for naught. Inside the system, bolstered by Shalaron's own powers, his new form was unstoppable. Seconds flashed by, and the room was filled with humans, broken and beaten upon the floor.

  Now it was David's turn.

  Shalaron released his grasp on the system and felt himself falling into darkness. When he opened his eyes, he was in a new place, decorated in a manner similar to the room he had just left. He lifted himself from the strange black chair and ran his hand over the wall. There was no roughness to the stone here, no hint of any flaw in the construction. Was this the true world?

  Striding into the main chamber, Shalaron approached a black window. An unfamiliar sense of trepidation filled him. He no longer had the powers of a Sage. If something went wrong, he would have to obey the constraints of reality.

  "Activate locator," Shalaron commanded. Thal had said this was how the human's systems worked. The window lit up with bright colors and letters, but he didn't comprehend any of it. He relaxed his thoughts and let the human mind interpret what he saw without interference. Gradually, he understood what was being displayed. "Locate David Harris," he said. Thal had uncovered his foe's true identity during one of his forays. Now that information would be put to use.

  The window showed what appeared to be a map of the area, and indicated the path to reach his destination. Shalaron memorized the image and walked out the front door.

  The time for vengeance was at hand.

  Chapter 49

  Alarms rang out in VERA's chamber, and Clyde swore profusely as he dashed from one side of the console to the other. David desperately wanted to help, but he knew events had progressed far beyond his programming skill. Even Clyde hadn't been able to keep up with Shalaron's code attack.

  "Damn it all," Clyde shouted. "Whatever he hit us with tore right through all of our defenses. Analath's systems are centuries beyond our own. We pushed back the last assault, but I haven't been able to come up with anything that will prevent him from striking again."

  A cold thought chilled David. "What happens if he goes after VERA?"

  Clyde smirked. "I wish he'd make that mistake. She's got so many layers of redundant protection within the system that we could keep Analath's network core tied up for years. We have my parents to thank for that." He growled and typed in a new set of commands. "Shalaron can certainly wreak havoc on any number of other subsystems though."

  David paced across the floor in frustration. Thomas, Lucas and Analara waited nearby, also powerless against the current foe. David turned to Analara and opened his mouth to say something when he felt a strange sensation, like the world was sinking away from him. Without any warning, he was pulled from the system.

  A shock of pain was the first thing to meet David's senses. A warm throbbing spread from his cheek, and he blinked his eyes and looked into the face of a stranger. His assailant hurled him across the room, and he crashed painfully into his desk.

  "Who are you?" David gasped as he tried to mount a defense.

  "I am judgment," his attacker replied, as he pounded David mercilessly with kicks and punches.

  David collapsed in the corner, his senses reeling from the beating. He could only struggle weakly as his foe grabbed him by the arm and dragged him from the room.

  When David opened his eyes again, he was on the roof, looking out over the city of New Terra. Only a few skyscrapers reached higher than his building, and it was an awesome vista. But he pulled back in fear when he realized that he was hanging over the edge of the building.

  A powerful grip held his neck firm. "Behold your glorious civilization for one final moment," a deep voice whispered to him. "This very night it will return to the true children of this world."

  The grip pulled him away from the edge and flung him to the ground. David tried to scramble away, but stopped when he realized his opponent was not pursuing him. "Who are you?" he croaked again.

  "I am your constant foe, David Harris. I am the judicator of your crimes. I told you that you would pay for your sins against my people, and I have come to deliver your execution."

  David's mind staggered back from the impossibility before him. The words and the actions left little doubt as to who he faced. "Shalaron," he whispered. His nemesis had come to Phoenix.

  "You are perceptive. Enjoy what time you have left in your life, for your body will not continue through the Awakening. You will not serve as the host to one of my people, or for anything else. Your life ends here, tonight," Shalaron declared.

  There has to be something I can do…

  With a start, David realized that he was still wearing the wrist interface to his home terminal. He'd asked for a real one after the battle with Halathas, to make his mandatory bed-rest a little more bearable, and he'd been so exhausted lately that he'd forgotten to take it off.

  Shalaron turned away, and David activated the screen. He quickly patched an audio connection through to Clyde before closing the monitor down.

  "I don't know what you think you can do, but VERA will stop you," David taunted.

  Shalaron snorted at the comment and continued to gaze out over the city.

  David spat out a mouthful of blood and struggled to his feet. "The best you've managed to do is beat me up in an unfair fight. You didn't even have the decency to choose a form remotely like your own. You had to stack the deck against me to have any hope of success."

  Shalaron turned to him and raised an eyebrow, a dangerous look on his face. "I can give you another demonstration of my power if you wish. I have a better idea of the tolerances of your human bodies now. I'll ensure that you do not die before the proper time, but that the minutes you still have are not pleasant."

  A shiver ran down David's spine, but he forged ahead. "You're not all that impressive, Shalaron. Despite his insanity, Totarakh did far more damage to us than your worst designs. You're second best to a mad priest." He spat at Shalaron's feet. "We stopped his invasion. We will stop yours!"

  "Stopped Totarakh?" Shalaron stepped closer to David and laughed. "You merely tried to ambush me after I spent all of my power eliminating him once and for all. If not for me, his evil would have destroyed you and your world!"

  "So I'm supposed to thank you?" David shouted.

  Shalaron's eyes narrowed. "His cause was foolhardy and self-serving. He cared nothing for the people he was sworn to protect!"

  "Unlike you?" David retorted. Tears of anger clouded his vision, and he released the rage he'd been holding within. "You tried to kill a daughter of your own city! An innocent, whose only crime was showing kindness to a stranger. You are more vile than Totarakh at his worst."

  "My quarrel with Analara died in that chamber," Shalaron said dangerously.

  "Tell that to my murdered friend, you bastard!"

  David struck so quickly that even Shalaron was caught off guard. The blow snapped his head to the side. It was fleeting, but it was a victory.

  Shalaron rounded on him, eyes ablaze. His punch doubled David over, and a round kick drove him to the ground. "You are no innocent," he roared. "You cut Melarras down in your escape from Ilinar. You slew Halathas…" His breath caught thickly in his throat.

  "So you're going to punish my entire race in some mad pursuit of revenge?"
David struggled to his feet and advanced on Shalaron again. "Just kill me and be done with it."

  "Not before I take my world back," Shalaron screamed into the night. "You have no idea how close your doom is. My men have infiltrated each of your cities. They have taken control of the power that fuels your feeble race. And they will use that power to destroy your immortal leader."

  David halted in his tracks as his knees went watery. "You are going after VERA."

  "She can not control reality here any more than I can. She will be utterly erased." Shalaron grabbed David by the throat. "Analath has operated for thousands of years as a perfect mimicry of our lost home. It is superior to your network in every sense. When VERA is no more, Analath will merge with your system and overwrite it. Every human being will serve as a body for an Anrathian. My people will retake their rightful place as lords of this world!"

  And humanity will be erased from existence… no, no I won't let this happen!

  "You think you are worthy of this world?" David demanded. "My race was nothing more than refugees, fleeing the destruction of our home. We were no invaders. When we found this place, there was no trace of any of you. Nothing at all. I've seen Siath's archives, Shalaron. Your people brought about the destruction of your own planet. You destroyed it all. You don't deserve to have this world back!"

  Shalaron's fury exploded in a flurry of blows, and David collapsed under the fresh assault.

  Analara… my friends… stop him…

  ***

  Clyde listened to the unfolding beating and winced. David had helped reveal Shalaron's plans, but at what cost? He spared a glance at Analara, who clenched her fists while tears streamed from her closed eyes. Thomas and Lucas both looked on with grim demeanors.

  "This can not be allowed to happen," Mierva whispered in his mind. "I have not defended humanity for hundreds of years only to lose them to a vengeful lunatic now."

  "I'm still not sure what he meant by 'power'," Clyde whispered back. "What fuels humanity?"

  "I can only assume that he is referring to electricity. It powers nearly everything we've created in recent history."

  "Let me pull up the security feeds at the city power stations then." Clyde opened the monitoring program and accessed the secure feeds. The screens were all blank. "Um, that isn't good. Can you get any response from the security robots?"

  Mierva narrowed her eyes in concentration, before shaking her head. "No. I think we know now what Shalaron targeted with his code attack. The stations are completely undefended."

  An alert rang through the chamber, and several new screens opened above the command console. They displayed the power grids of the Nine Cities and indicated that electrical surges were being directed toward small buildings within the power complexes.

  The lights in the chamber dimmed momentarily, and Mierva's eyes widened. She gasped in pain. "They've overloaded my power regulators," she said aloud.

  Swearing profusely, Clyde started entering commands to reroute and divert an incoming energy surge. "What does that mean?" he asked.

  "The regulator stations spread the energy draw from my core mainframe across the Nine Cities to prevent me from sustaining damage from any power irregularities. Without those systems, any severe electrical burst will destroy my mainframe." Mierva looked at Clyde in horror. "It will kill me."

  "Like hell," Clyde snarled. "I didn't go through all the trouble of falling in love with you just to watch you get erased." He activated another control sequence and began typing furiously. "I can still utilize the grid control systems from here. I'll divert those power streams away from the mainframe. Those bastards won't get a chance to touch you."

  David's transmission had gone quiet. Clyde could only assume that Shalaron was watching and waiting for the power strikes to hit.

  Analara looked tearfully around at everyone. "David is still trapped on the roof with that maniac. We have to help him!"

  "Someone else think of something," Clyde shouted. "I'm kind of busy here."

  "Wait, wait." Lucas snapped his fingers as if trying to jump start a thought. "Could we trap Shalaron in a secure module? We could use a burst connect signal to pull him into a local network, and leave him there."

  Clyde choked. "A burst connection signal is fatal if your mind isn't being stabilized by the sub-routines in a link chair."

  Lucas glared intently. "That's the general idea."

  Thomas pursed his forehead in thought. "So we need to separate Shalaron from David and trap him inside David's apartment? You'll be able to fire the system from there?"

  Lucas nodded. "I can use my gaming module as the trap. I'll load it into David's home system and prepare the burst. With the remote link he's given us, we don't even need to route this through V-Net. Shalaron will be totally cut off from the system."

  "I'll go and take care of Shalaron then," Thomas stated.

  "You'll still need to get David away from him," Clyde warned. The displays showed three power surges. He juggled and danced them across New Terra's power grid in a mad effort to keep them away from Mierva's mainframe.

  "The weather system," Analara said. "David told me… you can create things called storms. There is nothing in Analath like it. Shalaron won't know how to react."

  "You'll have to set it up, Analara," Thomas said. "The rest of us have tasks to see to." Without a further word, he logged out of the system.

  "Try and give David some kind of warning before you fire it off," Lucas cautioned and returned to typing on his wrist interface.

  Analara sat down at a console. She seemed unsure of which buttons to press. Her hand hovered over the dizzying array of commands. A soft touch guided her hand to a specific button. "That's the one you want," Mierva told her. "Now press those two commands, and touch the display right here." Analara did as directed, and the system indicated that the storm was brewing.

  "Thank you," she whispered.

  There were now seven energy surges rolling across New Terra's power grid. Clyde shifted routes and opened new pathways as quickly as he could, but he was reaching his limits.

  "Mierva, I may need some help here," he whispered through their link.

  "I wish that I could, love," she replied wearily. "But the overload is numbing my senses. I can barely feel the power grid any longer."

  Clyde's face grew desperate as the last two power stations fired. Nine surges bent and twisted, seeking to destroy the only thing he had come to love on this planet.

  Mierva sighed and closed her eyes, and Clyde sensed a strange signal broadcasting outward. A moment later, the network monitor reported mass disconnections from the system. Everyone on the planet was being logged out of V-Net. "Mierva, what…" he asked as he turned to her.

  She pressed her finger against Clyde's lips and opened her eyes. Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but he thought he saw tears in her eyes. "My last gift to our people, so that none of them will be lost with me."

  The power system rang out a final warning. Mierva embraced Clyde and kissed him as the surges struck home.

  He felt her scream through the link as power overloaded her mainframe. The sound echoed through his mind, and her figure fell backward, sparking with coruscating lines of electricity. "Mierva," he shouted.

  Alarms blared throughout the chamber, and red warnings flashed on every screen. The room buckled, and the lights flickered, went dark.

  Slowly, illumination returned to the chamber. Clyde could barely make out the faces of his friends. Mierva was nowhere to be seen.

  "What happened?" Lucas shouted.

  Clyde lowered his head and felt tears sliding down his cheeks. "She shut down the network before they killed her. It was the only way she could prevent the merge from taking place. She sacrificed herself… for us."

  Analara looked around the room. "How are we still here then? This room was part of her, part of the network."

  Clyde touched the nearest console. All of the systems were completely dark. "She must have used what was left o
f her power to maintain this place, so that we wouldn't be lost in the system crash."

  "Doesn't that mean that part of her may still be alive?" Analara touched Clyde's shoulder gently.

  Clyde probed at the link, the place where Mierva had come to share his entire life. There was no response, no presence, nothing at all.

  Tears continued to roll down his cheeks. He was alone.

  Chapter 50

  The explosion lit up the horizon, and the surrounding city lights flared brighter. Even at this distance, the force of the detonation shook the building. Through the blood and the bruises, David felt a sinking pit open in his stomach. Had he just witnessed the end of humanity?

  Shalaron watched the burning vista with a rapt expression. "It is time. The Awakening is at hand." He reached down to his pocket and pulled out a phone earpiece. Fitting it to his ear, he initiated a call. "Thal, the protector has fallen. Fulfill your mission and bring our people home."

  Seconds passed, and David despairingly began to wonder what the Awakening would look like. Would there be a surge of power? Would there be no visible difference at all?

  A frown grew on Shalaron's face. "Thal, respond."

  A glimmer of hope sparked in the corner of David's mind. Something was not right.

  Shalaron cancelled the call and opened another. "Monar, report your status."

  David inched closer, straining to hear the other part of the conversation, but it was impossible.

  "What do you mean, the dream world is closed to you?" Shalaron snarled. "There is no way that anyone could…" His gaze became distant, and he turned toward the column of smoke billowing up toward the energy dome.

  A mechanical whirring sounded from the spire atop the building, and the weather control array unfolded from its storage. Clouds began to form above, and David felt dampness in the air.

  The lights in the city had continued to brighten and dim after the explosion, as if raw electricity flowed underneath the streets. Now, surges rose along the buildings, as floor after floor of lights flared. The power was looking for a way out of the city. It was headed for the sky.