Dark Rivals_Age of Expansion_A Kurtherian Gambit Series

by Amy DuBoff

  Help me shift!

  >>I’m trying, but there’s something blocking it.<<

  Fuck. She tugged against the invisible restraints binding her, but she couldn’t trace where they were coming from. It was as though the air in the room had congealed around her.

  Her mind raced as she thought about the possibilities—what might make this encounter different than the others.

  Ruby, are there any foreign bodies inside me? Did that creature inject me with something when it bit me earlier?

  The AI was quiet—too quiet for Ava’s liking.

  You found something, didn’t you?

  >>There is something, yes,<< Ruby replied. >>I didn’t detect it before because it wasn’t active.<<

  I’m guessing it is now.

  >>It appears to be made up of the same mineral as the telepathic receptors, only this nanotech is carried in the bloodstream.<<

  You have to disable it.

  >>I don’t know if I can.<<

  I’m frozen, here!

  “You don’t need to fight it, Ava,” the chorus of voices said in her mind. They spoke together, but there were distinct tones layered in the statements, like they wanted to talk together but weren’t well-rehearsed. “You’ve run for so long, you’ve never even heard what we have to say.”

  “Fine, then talk,” she replied, with no genuine intention of hearing them out. The moment she had the upper hand, she would be out of there and on her ship, headed back to the Hellfire, and then they’d blow these Dyon fuckers into oblivion once and for all.

  The bonds holding her loosened ever so slightly, allowing her to place her foot, which had been left awkwardly in midair when she was frozen midstride, on the ground.

  “You assume we are the enemy, but you know nothing of us.”

  “I don’t know where you come from,” Ava retorted, “but around here, we have an ancient expression that states ‘actions speak louder than words’. I know you communicate telepathically and all, but the same principle still applies. So let’s go over what you’ve done—that I know of. First, there was holding a bunch of people prisoner. Then there were the people whose bodies you stole for your own. And then there’s the whole part about forcing genetic modifications on people. You can say you’re not our enemy, but that’s pretty damn antagonistic.”

  The chorus laughed. “Is it wrong to enslave animals for slaughter and consume a lesser being? You do it all the time.”

  “That’s for food—for our survival.”

  “As you are to us.”

  Well, shit. They caught me in a logic loop I can’t talk my way out of, she said to Ruby.

  >>Don’t tell me what they’re saying actually makes sense.<<

  Without getting into an argument about the nature of sentience, they have essentially asserted that we are to them what cattle are to us.

  >>You can’t reason with a being whom perceives such a disparity between our stations in this universe.<

  No, I can’t. But hubris has a way of coming back to bite someone in the ass.

  Ava returned her attention to the aliens. “If humans and others like us are so inferior to you, then why bother talking to me?”

  “We left our physical forms long ago, but some of us have come to miss the pleasures of a corporeal existence,” the chorus replied.

  “Yeah, well, that doesn’t give you an excuse to go take whatever body you see fit.”

  “We do not wish to take the form of those we have seen. They are imperfect and lack a sufficient connection to the Etheric. We wish to move at will.”

  “Part of your being lives in the Etheric, then?”

  “You would not understand the nature of an existence that isn’t tied to one place or time.”

  “Time?” Ava’s heart leaped. “Are you suggesting that you’re four-dimensional beings?”

  The chorus laughed again. “You humans and your simple concepts. All you must know is that we have been seeking a vessel to return us to our corporeal roots—one which we may inhabit for as long as we see fit, jumping between bodies and gaining power from their use.”

  “You mean sending a soldier into war and gaining pleasure from its pain.”

  “Pain and anger… Those have always been the greatest fuels. The others never agreed, but that is why they have remained weak.”

  “What others?” Ava asked.

  She and Ruby had discussed the possibility at length over the past month, speculating about other Dyons who were drawn to the positive emotional spectrum for their fuel. Ruby’s discovery about the ship earlier in the day had supported that theory, but this was the first admission from a Dyon that there might, indeed, be others with a counter point of view. It was a glimmer of hope that defeating this ship might offer a lasting chance at peace, and not just another reprieve until a bigger assault, as had been the case between the battle at Gidyon and the appearance of this ship.

  The chorus chattered amongst itself for a moment—a cacophony Ava couldn’t begin to decipher. It would seem there was some disagreement regarding the other Dyons.

  “The others have no ties to us,” the chorus replied at last. “They remain one, but we are many.”

  “Yet you still speak as a ‘we’,” Ava pointed out, hoping to get some kind of rise out of them.

  “And you speak of your nations as if all citizens are one, even though you emphasize individuality. Are we not afforded the same distinctions?”

  “An interesting argument, given how flippantly you disregarded individual life when it came to inhabiting Kurtz and Heizberg.”

  “Necessary pawns to further our ends.”

  “Yeah, well, maybe we aren’t as simple as you think we are. You insist on your superiority and the worth of your life over ours, but we continue to best you.”

  The chorus closed around her like a dark cloud. “When you destroyed our world in Gidyon, we learned from you. You can’t stop us now.”

  Ava ignored them. Is the comm link still up? she asked Ruby.

  >>Yes, the device is functioning perfectly.<<

  I was hoping you’d say that.

  She smiled at the Dyons inside her mind. “Yeah, see, you talk a big game, and yet you haven’t been able to stop us. Are you going to deny that I stuck my hand right through your walls and planted that device? You can make all the threats you want, but the fact remains that you can’t remove that module, or you would have done it already. For all your talk of ‘we’ and your collective, you’re so intent on destruction that you’ve forgotten how to work together. And that’s where we have you beat. We are driven by bonds of love and duty—and those will always be stronger than anger and hate.”

  “We have you, Ava. If you could have escaped, you would have done so by now.”

  “See, that’s where you’re wrong.” She smirked. “I’ve been stalling.”

  In the background, Ava had been keeping part of her mind focused on the comm link to the Raven while giving her mini-speech. The link grounded her, offering a tangible connection to her friends—her work family—for whom she’d do anything. That bond had always been a force to use against the Dyons, and it was no different now.

  When transforming in the past, she had often used anger as her fuel. This time, she was building her reserves on the positive spectrum. She was going to beat the Dyons, and it would be on her terms.

  With a surge of energy, she snapped the invisible bonds holding her, using the momentum to spur a transformation into her Hochste state.

  The Dyons were caught off-guard, the chorus crying out in her mind with surprise and anger.

  “You can’t hold me,” she told them. “You may be many, but the strength of individuals working together for good will always be more powerful than those seeking destruction.”

  Her body elongated and thickened into the powerful fighting beast that had always been in her heart, even when she didn’t have the physical form to match. Now she was complete, and she was going to make sure this bad batch of Dyons wouldn’t
be able to harm anyone again.

  * * *

  “We have a connection!” the comm tech on the bridge of the Hellfire exclaimed.

  Kurtz jumped up from his chair.

  “Patch me through to the Raven.”

  Major Widmore appeared onscreen, standing four meters to the side of Nick and Samantha, who were seated at workstations in the vessel’s hangar.

  “What’s your status, Major?” Kurtz asked.

  “We just made contact with Ava. I have good news and bad,” he replied. “She was able to install the device, and my team has successfully infiltrated the vessel’s systems. However, we haven’t yet gained access to the defensive systems that previously prevented the Arti-Sun from performing.”

  “We figured this wouldn’t be instantaneous. You just need more time?”

  “Correct, sir. Ruby gave us a big head start, and we’re close.”

  “I don’t see what’s bad about any of that.”

  “It’s not about the hack, sir. Ava needed to venture deeper into the ship than we’d anticipated. She’s presently more than twenty-three kilometers beneath the surface.”

  Kurtz’s heart sank. “Is she on her way out?”

  “We… think so.”

  “Major?”

  Widmore shook his head. “We lost verbal contact with her shortly after we established the connection with the ship’s system. The comm link is open but muted.”

  “Then let’s find her! If you’re patched into the ship’s systems, then surely you can locate her.”

  “It’s taking all of our computer resources and know-how to keep the backdoor open. Ruby added in some extra measures that we hadn’t accounted for.”

  Kurtz’s brow knit. “Like what?”

  “She seems to have reprogrammed the internal layout of the ship.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “We’ll need to wait for them to get back here to explain, sir. But the point is, the ship has a mind of its own, and it’s rather angry about what we’re doing to it.”

  “Sir!” the helmsman interrupted. “The alien vessel increased velocity.”

  “Match its speed,” Kurtz said.

  Next to him, Vera paled. “Estimated time to arrival in the Alaxar system decreased by seven hours at our new speed.”

  Shit, if we get any closer than six hours, the debris field will be too close to the system to hide. “She’ll need to be out in the next hour,” he replied.

  “Hopefully it will be less than that, sir,” Widmore said, having overhead the conversation. “I don’t think Nick and Sam will be able to hold off the counter-defenses for more than another twenty minutes, even with EI assistance.”

  “Don’t underestimate us, sir,” Nick said with a slight smile from the workstation behind him. “We could do this all day.”

  “You’re being a showy ass,” Samantha countered with bite in her tone, eyes narrowed. “We’re barely holding it together. Be honest.”

  “Okay, yeah, things could be better,” Nick admitted.

  “Sir, we’re to the final security block,” Samantha continued. “Once we break through this, the ship’s defenses will come down. After we execute, we’ll have five minutes tops.”

  “Can you hold here?” Kurtz asked.

  Nick and Samantha exchanged glances. “For a little while, but we can’t say for how long,” he replied.

  “Is the Arti-Sun ready to fire?” Kurtz questioned the weapons tech.

  “Yes, sir, standing by.”

  FDG warriors are prepared to die for the greater good. Ava entered that ship knowing full well she might not make it out again. The way of the warrior. Honor. Courage. Commitment. The ideals that Terry Henry Walton had established as the foundation of the FDG.

  But it wasn’t just her in there; Ruby was along for the ride. Though created through alternate means, hers was a sentient life, all the same.

  Two for a system.

  The math was easy, but he wouldn’t throw away two lives while there was still a chance to save everyone.

  “Your orders, sir?” the weapons tech asked.

  Stars! I can’t fire on her—not until it’s our last resort. He switched back to the comm link with the Raven. “Continue to hold.”

  “Yes, sir,” Widmore confirmed. “The Dyons are putting up a hell of a fight, but we have the upper hand for now.”

  “And there’s no way to Ava’s position?”

  “Not without putting our other efforts in jeopardy. We’re waiting for acknowledgement that she’s at the pod.”

  Shit, where is she? Kurtz nodded. “Alert me as soon as she’s en route, or if the Dyons are at risk of regaining control of the defensive systems.”

  “Stand by,” he addressed the weapons tech. “We need to give her every moment we can spare.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Telepathic bonds tried to pin Ava, but she slashed them back with a mental scythe. “I’m not some lab specimen for you to possess!”

  “You are so close to what we need to become something more. With a form such as yours, and the superior intellect of our collective, we can dominate. We can make you one of us.”

  “I have no interest in joining your freaky cult!” she spat back as she ran. She morphed between her human and Hochste forms, ever-changing to prevent them from getting ahold of her again.

  “But don’t you want to be part of something more? We can see into your mind—your heart. You are able to connect with other minds in a way that no one else of your kind can. You’ve always been alone, despite the connections you’ve convinced yourself are enough. But we see it—we sense how you want to be part of something bigger than yourself.”

  “Don’t you get it?” She scoffed in her mind. “I am part of something bigger than myself. The FDG, the friends and family I have, the love of my partner—having those things does make me more than what I am on my own. I don’t need to kill and dominate others to achieve that.”

  “You’re so restricted! They are weaker than you. We made you something more, and yet you continue to answer to them.”

  “They’re my friends. I continue to work with them because I care about them and the rest of the people in the Federation. Personal sacrifice is what allows our people to prosper as a community.”

  She reached out her mind toward the Dyons, probing to see what fueled them. The hate, the anger, the need to possess—it had to have come from somewhere.

  The emptiness swirled in the ethereal space that existed between her mind and the collective consciousness of the ship. Looking at it cohesively, she could sense the disparate parts that Ruby had picked up on in her digital analysis. The hundreds of Dyon nests were striving for the same thing; ironically, that goal was to separate.

  Ava tried to understand the underlying motivation. Her quest for inner truth was what had made her so effective at her job in the past, looking into people’s minds to identify what drove them. Appeal to that inner desire, and the person was hers to command.

  As she looked into the collective mind of the Dyons, though, it was strangely empty. The thirst for pain that fueled them permeated every thought, but beyond that… there was a void.

  To her surprise, her heart softened.

  This thirst for pain wasn’t driven by a fundamental, biological need; it was a reflection of what they already felt—isolation, loneliness. They sought to prolong that state of being because they no longer remembered another way to live.

  “How did you get to be so bitter?” she asked them. “Why do you seek out pain while others of your kind thrive on love?”

  “There is no other way!” the chorus screamed.

  Ava understood now. She had seen their inner self. This group was angry and bitter at the universe—essentially, immature teenagers acting out at the worlds. They were dissatisfied with their own existence, having not yet come into their own, and so they sought to make others suffer, and be a part of their own perceived suffering.

  She felt sorry for them, to
have stooped to that level. Such an ancient, powerful race could have been so much more, but hubris had been their undoing. Power, ambition… though their intentions came from a place of self-improvement, they were blinded by a singular focus on dominance.

  To thrive, one needed to understand the larger context of their actions.

  Examining the Dyons made Ava appreciate that much more what the Etheric Federation had done. To bring together so many different people who could have been enemies was one of the greatest accomplishments in the galaxy, across all time. It was a foundation from which they could grow toward a future with greater equity and justice.

  “Are you sure you won’t reconsider?” she asked them. “This is your last chance to stand down.”

  “If you won’t join us, then you will die with the rest!”

  Well, that’s a pretty clear answer, she said to Ruby.

  >>Negotiations didn’t go well?<<

  You can’t reason with people who refuse to acknowledge there’s another side. We’ve done everything we can. They chose this for themselves.

  She never took death lightly, but she readily acknowledged it was a part of war. And right now, it was her duty to stop the war with the Dyons before it claimed more innocent lives.

  Ava broke the telepathic connection with the Dyon collective. Driven by her desire to return to her loved ones, she sprinted toward the exit.

  As Ruby had promised, the corridor was a straight shot. The question was if the pod would be waiting for her at the end.

  >>I have the pod’s homing signal!<< Ruby announced.

  Stars, that’s a relief!

  >>One problem, though. The ship only restructured to bring the pod down to a level even with the top of the main chamber, not the bottom deck.<<

  Ava’s heart skipped a beat. That’s almost a kilometer up! Maybe more.

  >>I’m trying to work out a path to get there. Nick and Sam are in the system, so I have access to an accurate real-time map.<<

  Can you have them move the pieces around to get the pod to this level?