by Amy DuBoff
>>The computing processes are at bandwidth capacity with the backdoor opening into the network. We’ll need to bootstrap our escape.<<
We’d so better get some sort of medal for this.
The map in Ava’s mind updated with a red line tracing through a series of corridors on a zig-zagging incline, with one notable exception.
Uh, Ruby, that’s a fifty-meter-tall vertical shaft.
>>Yes.<<
How am I—
>>You have claws, remember?<< Ruby interrupted. >>You punched straight into the stone before, and you can do it again.<<
Considering that she didn’t have an alternative idea, Ava followed the new course.
She retraced her steps down the broad passageway, then took a sharp right down a narrower passage into the chamber with the vertical shaft in the middle. The area beneath the shaft was covered with an especially thick patch of the spongy fibers.
This ship design doesn’t make any sense.
>>I believe these chutes were used by the biological guards we encountered earlier.<<
Think there are more of them?
>>Almost certainly. Whether or not we will cross paths, I don’t know.<<
Until they were right in front of her, there was no point in worrying about what may or may not be around the next bend.
She looked up at the shaft, four meters above her. That’s a hell of a leap.
>>You can make it with a running start. You’ll need to dig your claws in and haul yourself up. I ran the models based on the baseline I established in training, and you can do this.<<
Ava drew a deep breath. Okay, here it goes.
She took six rapid strides toward the shaft, pushing off with her knees on the final step. She launched into the air toward the opening.
The stone was barely within her grasp. She extended her arm and thrust her claws into the stone. As she made contact, her momentum carried her past her mark, causing her claws to slip.
She swung her other arm upward and plunged it into the stone to steady herself. However, the field around her slowly began to disintegrate the stone, and she slid downward.
You need to adjust the intensity! she shouted to Ruby in her mind.
>>I’m trying…<<
Only four centimeters remained between Ava’s claws and the bottom of the shaft.
Her downward slide slowed, but didn’t stop completely.
You need to adjust the field around each hand as I move. Ava withdrew her right claws and swung herself upward to grab above her head. When her claws were locked into place, she repeated the motion with her left. After two more laborious swings, she was finally able to secure her feet on the stone ripples underneath her.
She looked down. Psh, easy.
>>Climb!<< Ruby shouted.
Looking upward, Ava realized how far fifty meters was. I suddenly miss those stairs from earlier.
>>Less lamenting, more vertical motion. Nick and Sam won’t be able to hold off the defenses for much longer.<<
Ava raced up the vertical rock face, using her claws and feet to propel her upward. Once she got in the rhythm, she accelerated into super-speed.
She rocketed out of the top and into the center of a chamber. Three passageways fanned out in opposite directions. The map flashed in her mind, pointing her up a ramp to the right.
Ava charged toward the opening, but her feet were knocked out from underneath her midstride.
When she caught herself with her hands, she looked back to see a beast like the ones she’d encountered on her way in. It rounded on her, fangs bared.
Shit, where did that come from?
>>Apparently they have been waiting for us.<<
I’ve had enough of this shit! Ava slashed at the beast, raking her claws across its side.
The beast yelped and recoiled, its hindquarters only a step from the shaft’s lip.
Ava kicked it in its wounded side, knocking it down the opening. That’s how it’s done!
>>Ava… look behind you.<<
Two dozen beasts crouched in the shadows, ready to pounce. The four luminescent eyes above each of their powerful jaws were filled with bloodlust. One daring creature slinked forward, snarling at Ava.
“If you won’t join us in life, then your death will bring us pleasure,” the chorus of Dyon voices whispered at the edge of her consciousness.
Nope.
Ava sprinted for the passageway leading to the pod. She could hear the pack of creatures loping behind her, but she kept her attention ahead.
>>You can outpace them, but we need time to get inside the pod,<< Ruby warned.
Ava already felt like she was running as fast as she could, but she pushed even harder. The world around her changed—almost like it was skipping forward. Features in the passageway that had seemed far away were suddenly next to her.
Ava didn’t know what was happening, but she didn’t care. All that she knew was she had to put distance between her and her attackers, and her pod was right up ahead.
The Dyons still beckoned at the edge of her mind, asking her to stay. The tone of their most recent pleas had soured, changing to a request for her to stay so that they could ‘dissect’ her and ‘revel in her suffering’.
It wasn’t a good sales message.
She burst into an open chamber, the stone walls extending upward farther than she could see. At the center of the open space was her pod, seemingly undamaged. It still rested on the fibrous material they had landed on, but everything else was different.
On her final approach to the craft, Ava peered upward, and that’s when she noticed faint pinpricks of light.
You sunk the ground around the pod, she said to Ruby.
>>When you can reprogram the insides of a ship, sometimes the simplest solutions are the best.<<
Ava raced into the back hatch of the pod and closed the door. She wasn’t sure how far behind her those creatures might be, and she didn’t want to find out.
>>They’ll be here in thirty seconds,<< Ruby supplied as she powered up the pod and tapped into the navigation controls. >>We’re clear of them, but Nick and Sam are on their last legs. The Dyons will regain control within four minutes, and we’ll lose the window to launch the Arti-Sun attack.<<
Cutting it awfully close.
>>Those little delays added up,<< Ruby said as the pod shot upward toward open space. >>I’ll get us to the Raven as fast as I can.<<
Millions of voices called out to Ava as the pod zoomed through the cylinder and up into open space. She ignored them, letting out a little laugh. As she relaxed, she returned to her human form. That was the craziest thing I’ve ever done.
>>I’ll celebrate when we’re out of blast range.<<
Ava noticed the countdown clock in the corner of the pod’s front viewport. The arrival time to the Raven and the opportunity window for the assault on the Dyon ship were only seconds apart.
We’ll make it. A whole four seconds to spare!
Ruby didn’t reply.
The Raven came into view up ahead, and few things had ever been a more welcome sight in Ava’s life. However, her joy was cut short when she saw the telltale signs of the engines igniting.
Fuck! They’re about to leave without us.
>>Bay door is still open. I’m taking us in!<<
Ava secured her harness, then held her breath and gripped the armrest. We have to make it back. We’re so close now…
She had been willing to give her life for the mission when it was about venturing into the unknown, but now that she was so close to success and safety, she wanted nothing more than to be back with her team… and to see Luke again.
The Raven went from a distant speck to taking up the pod’s viewport in an instant. They were coming in way too fast to dock.
Oh, shit, we’re not going to make it… Ava’s heart dropped.
Then the Raven rolled to the side and began accelerating away from the pod, matching its trajectory.
Wait, they’re going to line up with us so we can get onboa
rd! she realized.
>>Only a fighter pilot like Rod would think of that.<<
Ava remained silent while Ruby made the necessary adjustments to pull off what by all accounts should be an impossible maneuver. The remaining distance between the two craft closed quickly, and the pod came into alignment with the bay entrance. She half-closed one eye and braced.
A bang, followed by the squeal of grinding metal, assaulted Ava’s senses. She was knocked sideways, and would’ve been sent tumbling from her chair, were it not for her harness holding her in place.
The pod came to rest in an emergency net.
Ava breathed a sigh of relief. Looking out the front viewport, she saw her team’s temporary workspace a mere four meters away. Without the emergency net, her teammates would have been a splat on the bay wall—and her, too, for that matter.
Ruby, I never want to do that again.
* * *
“Pod just reached the Raven!” the helmsman announced.
Kurtz straightened in his chair. Only three minutes and twenty-seven seconds to go. Nick and Sam need to hold on.
“Maintain your position,” he ordered. “Shields in the Alaxar Trinary are still tinted?”
“Yes, sir,” the communications tech acknowledged.
“Prepare to fire the Arti-Sun on my order.”
“Weapon is charged, sir,” the weapons tech stated.
Kurtz watched the progress of the Raven onscreen. Despite its actual speed, it appeared to be lazily approaching the Hellfire across the vast span between them.
He couldn’t believe Widmore had authorized the reckless pod retrieval. As much as Kurtz wanted to see Ava home safely, having the pod come in hot like that had put the entire mission at risk at the last second. If any of the calculations had been off, the pod could have easily careened into Nick and Samantha’s workstations.
They had made it, though, and they were about to blast the Dyon bastards out of existence.
“Thirty seconds to clearance from blast range!” the helmsman updated.
Almost there…
The final seconds ticked down onscreen. Kurtz took a deep breath right before it reached zero.
“Fire!”
The floor rumbled as the Arti-Sun blast shot across open space to the Dyon ship. The energy beam collided with the vessel, lancing through it with a spectacular plume of blue light. Secondary explosions rippled through the ship as it collapsed slightly. A bright flash in the center of the ship whited out the screen at the front of the bridge.
When it cleared, fragments from the Dyon ship were hurtling outward, and the energy orb at the center of the ship swelled to encompass them. As the orb slowly contracted, no sign of the vessel remained.
* * *
Ava collapsed to the floor of the Raven’s bay as she stepped out of the pod, gripping her head.
Millions of minds screamed in agony. Somehow, she was still linked with them.
>>What’s wrong?<< Ruby asked frantically.
So… many… Ava could barely form the words in her mind.
When Gidyon had been destroyed, she had felt the Dyons’ pain in their final moments. But that was only one nest; this Dyon ship had hundreds. Each of the millions of minds within the collective consciousness cried out in one last bid for life.
It sucked Ava in. Her invisible ties to them bound her mind to theirs, and as they faded, she found herself on the edge of an abyss staring into nothingness.
She tried to shift again, to break her hold, but she couldn’t feel her body.
Ruby! She wasn’t sure if the call escaped her private mind.
The darkness closed in around her.
>>Ava!<< The AI was there, somewhere in the distance.
Ava tried to reach out to her, only she had no bearings. She was falling inside her own mind.
Then a new presence emerged.
The Dyons’ voices of hate and pain were gone, replaced by a distant chorus that drew her back toward her physical self.
Her eyes shot open, and she picked herself up off the ground.
>>Ava, are you all right?<<
Yeah, I’m fine now.
Edwin and Widmore ran toward her, as Nick and Samantha rose from their workstations, their faces drawn with concern.
“What happened?” Widmore asked, offering to help her the rest of the way to her feet.
“I need to decontaminate before anyone touches me,” she told him, standing upright on her own. “I think the Dyons had some sort of hold on me up until the end. They’re gone now.”
He nodded. “The ship has been destroyed. It’s over.”
“Thank the stars!”
“It was fucking spectacular!” Nick grinned.
On the screen set up behind the work area, a video of the sphere’s explosion was replaying on a loop. Ava watched the beam slice through it, and saw the secondary explosion vaporize the entire structure. She had to admit, it was a sight to behold.
Samantha looked her over. “You look like you’ve been through hell. Is that blood all over you?”
“There were some… obstacles,” she replied. “I spoke with them briefly, when I was in the core. This was a rogue group. The ship had the last of the Dyons who held those ideals.”
Widmore released a long breath. “This is going to be an interesting debrief.”
“That’s for sure.” Ava shook her head. “If you don’t mind, I’ll go shower now.”
The major looked her over. “It would be inhumane to stand in your way.”
“Hugs after you’re not covered in… that,” Nick said, tracing his finger through the air from Ava’s head to feet and back.
“Rock-dog blood. Don’t you think it goes well with my hair?” Ava smirked. She had yet to see her own reflection, but she could only imagine the horror show.
“We’ll see you soon. Well done,” Widmore told her.
She climbed up the ladder and headed to the washroom. As she started to strip down, a bright chorus of voices suddenly spoke in her mind.
“Thank you. Now we are free.”
She jumped with surprise. “Are you the others?” Her hearted pounded in her ears, but the fear only lasted a moment.
A warm glow filled Ava as the distant alien presence embraced her. She had no idea where they were in space, but in that moment, they were connected across the light years.
Joy washed over her—an elation so complete that the world around her melted away. She basked in the warm light surrounding her mind.
“Who are you?” she asked them.
“We are life. Love, compassion, hate, greed—we understand the spectrum of experience. Some of us, unfortunately, fell to the darkness that lives within us all. But now, thanks to you, they are free of their burdens, and we may build anew.”
“We didn’t know if there were others. I’m sorry we destroyed this ship and the world in Gidyon. I—”
A sense of serenity filled Ava’s mind. “We understand what you did was necessary. You tried to stop them through other means first. Not everyone would have been so compassionate when faced with such a challenge.”
“I wish it hadn’t come to that.”
“The cruelty that was in them is not our way. It needed to be stopped before it spread.”
Ava nodded. “I’d hoped there were others of your kind with different motivations. There’s so much we want learn from you! Your technology, everything you know—”
“You are still a young race,” the chorus interrupted. “It is not yet time for us to share all that we can offer, but we’ll be watching you from afar. We see what your Federation has done for this galaxy, and we know its inhabitants are in good hands—especially yours.”
The warm glow began to retreat from her mind, and she braced for the inevitable internal void when it left her. However, even as she sensed the presence loosening its connection to her, the feeling of fulfillment didn’t diminish.
“A parting gift,” the voices said. “Keep protecting those in need.”
As quickly as they had arrived, the alien minds vanished.
“Wow,” Ava murmured aloud.
>>Something unusual just happened,<< Ruby said. >>New information appeared. It’s like you have a new memory, except there’s no record of it ever happening.<<
What is it?
>>I believe it’s instructions for how to control your nanocytes.<<
Ava’s heart leaped. You can make it so it won’t hurt? I won’t lose control?
>>I don’t want to make promises, but my preliminary review suggests that is the case, yes,<< the AI confirmed.
With those abilities, what will I be able to do?
>>It will be an adventure.<<
CHAPTER TWENTY
As Ava exited the docking concourse at FDG headquarters, a group of two dozen warriors cheered and clapped.
Uh, what? None of the people looked familiar to her.
>>The video of the ship’s destruction was shared within the FDG. Your team was cited as carrying out the op that made it possible,<< Ruby explained.
No one ever gathers like this.
>>The circumstances were different.<<
The AI did have a point. Most missions took place almost exclusively in the field, with little support from headquarters. In this conflict with the Dyons, however, the fight had come inside the facility’s walls. Though the battle itself was fought in a remote location, the victory rang as a shared triumph—the vanquishing of a foe that had impacted the lives of everyone in that division of the FDG in some way.
“Man, I could get used to this hero’s welcome all the time,” Edwin said with a grin.
Ava smiled back. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
“Too late,” Nick ribbed. “Pretty sure he’s already updated the bio on his main Net video account with ‘galactic savior’ as his official job title.”
She scrunched up her nose. “Wasn’t that on there already?”
Samantha laughed. “Oh, Ava, you should know by now that Edwin’s ego knows no bounds.”
“Formal debrief will be in thirty minutes. See you then,” Widmore said as he passed by Ava and her team.
“Yes, sir,” she acknowledged.