Wings In Darkness

by Gregory Kay

He began walking, leaving her to swear as she angrily jammed the pistol back into her pocket and followed.

  “You’re a real pain in the ass...whatever the hell your name is!” she thought at him as hard as she could,”I hope you know that!”

  “My name is Jan, but I am afraid I do not understand that particular slang reference. I have not touched your ass, let alone caused harm to it. By the way, I have wondered why your people use the identical term for the buttock area as that for a loud, notoriously stubborn beast of burden.”

  Fiona released an audible, extremely frustrated sigh.

  “I can just tell that you and I are not going to get along!”

  Her thought projection managed to stir her ‘host’ into a raised eyebrow.

  “But we must. After all, we are family now.”

  That one made her stumble.

  “We are not family!”

  Looking pointedly at her flat abdomen and clearly indicating what Indrid assured her Luke had placed inside it, Jan projected, Oh, yes, we are,” and smiled broadly and knowingly.

  CHAPTER 33

  “Do not shoot. I am friendly, and I am approaching from your front, from the direction you are currently heading.”

  Luke called out, “Did you get that, Sam?” and the startled adventurer-turned-tattoo artist yelled back, “Yeah, but I don’t know how!”

  Looking at the stunned expressions around her, an out-of-breath Kathy gasped, “I think...we all got it!”

  “Alright,” Luke said, then cupped a hand to the side of his mouth.”

  “Come on in; we won’t shoot.”

  “Please think it, not shout it!” The sharp command instantly filled their heads almost painfully as an out-of-breath man in a long trench coat appeared out of the twilight ahead of them, legs clad in silver coveralls and a heavy weapon of some sort in his hands that he deliberately kept pointed at the ground and to the side. “Besides giving our position away to the enemy, you may also attract the attention of things that live here in the void that we are not equipped to deal with.”

  “Sorry,” Luke thought back, a little sheepishly, and distinctly heard Joe Park’s voice inside his head asking, “And just how in the hell are we supposed to do that?”

  “I think you just did,” Kathy answered back, and Whitey grinned with pleasure.

  “This is the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen!” the former soldier projected, and their heads were instantly full of chatter at the novelty.

  “We have no more time!” the stranger mentally shouted. “Joe, Kathy, and Johnny; keep going straight ahead. Sam, you will take command of them, help protect them, and keep them moving in the right direction. A group that size should be safe from most things until you get to the ship.”

  Sam frowned.

  “Ship?”

  “You will know it when you get there; they will be watching for you. Now go!”

  “What about Whitey and Luke?”

  “I cannot do this alone; I need my son and his friend here with me.”

  Luke’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped at the words, and he abruptly realized why the man’s features looked so familiar; they were an older version of his own.

  “Son?”

  Indrid nodded as he unlimbered his weapon, and grinned broadly despite his tension and the fatigue he couldn’t even begin to hide.

  “Yes. This is going to sound horribly cliché, but Luke, I am your father.”

  Luke finally managed to close his mouth.

  “When this is over, you and I need to talk.”

  “Assuming we survive, I look forward to it.”

  Fiona sat beside the bed in the tiny cubicle-sized room and stroked Alison’s bangs away from her forehead, not knowing what else to do. The thought of what – who – Indrid and Jan had told her she now carried rose to the surface of her consciousness every few moments, delighting and terrifying her at the same time. And yet…somehow, the news was no surprise, as though somehow she had known, from the first moment the new life sparked.

  “Jan?”

  “Yes, Fiona?” Obviously he had no trouble projecting from the ship’s bridge, so she decided to try it herself, even though it felt strange.

  “Why did they think Luke killed himself?”

  “Ah; that was me. I had concealed this ship below the water's surface by phasing it onto the bottom of the river, and, after I warned Luke what had happened to you, jumping in was the most rapid way to access it again. I am sorry I frightened you, but I had to phase back into this void immediately in order to meet Father.”

  “That’s another thing; why did it take him so long after pushing that...that...whatever that thing was...”

  “A karvok.”

  “Yeah, the karvok through the portal. That was just on the other side of the room; why did it take him so long to catch up with us after that?”

  “Time and space are different in the void. The weakness he accessed may have been across the room from the portal in your world, but here, it was almost three of your miles away. He had to run, avoiding the creatures here at the same time.”

  “I see. I owe him a big thank you, then, and you too, Jan.”

  “You are welcome.”

  Fiona brushed at Alison’s bangs again and the girl’s eyes blinked rapidly as she awakened.

  “Wha...what...”

  “Shh. Lie still; they’re taking care of you.”

  “Who is?” Her voice was faint, little more than a whisper, and the reporter could only shrug.

  “Whoever these people are. It’s...complicated. Anyway, they have a machine clamped to the side of your head; Jan says it uses a combination of sonic waves, lasers, and nanobots to fix you up.”

  “How bad is it?”

  Fiona thought about lying, and decided against it.

  “The bullet not only split your scalp, but it cracked your skull and gave you a major concussion. According to Jan, the worst part should be healed within three or four hours, and then they can take the machine off.”

  “Did they have to...you know?” she asked, licking her lips nervously, and Fiona reluctantly nodded; as a woman, she knew exactly what it was she was asking.

  “Yeah, I’m afraid so. The machine shaved that side so it could form a vacuum seal.”

  “Wonderful!” Alison sarcastically remarked, just before beginning to cry.

  “Hey!” Fiona grabbed her hand and gently shook it. “You stop that right now! You’re alive, and that’s what counts. Your hair will grow back.”

  “B-but...I’ll look so stupid! W-w-what will J-Johnny think?”

  “I’ll think you’re still the most beautiful girl in the world, and that I love you!”

  Fiona spun, her hand already in her pocket and on her .38 before Johnny brushed past her to Alison’s bedside, and then she was nearly knocked off her feet by Joe and Kathy rushing in right behind him. Even though the impact sent her bouncing off a bulkhead, she ignored them once she realized who they were, and her smile brightened as she called out, “Luke!”

  “He is still outside with our father and the one you call Whitey.”

  Looking at Jan, who had obviously been in a deep mental conversation with Sam and Rhonda, she felt as if her heart was about to fall out onto the textured metal floor, and her throat tightened until she could barely speak.

  “What?”

  “There is a meat puppet – one of those who chased you and attempted to kill you – coming after us, and this one is heavily-armed with a Ra’aki shoulder-fired weapon. If he comes within line of sight of this ship, he will be able to destroy it, or at least cripple it so that we cannot phase out of this void in time.”

  “In time? What does that mean? In time for what?”

  “You must understand; the void is not a true place; instead, it is a place between places; a ‘space’ for want of a better word between what your people think of as dimensions. There are many, but each one exists individually, as a bubble of sorts.

  “The military forces wh
o built this portal in alliance with the Ra’aki caused a destabilization in this void, a weak area much larger than the portal itself, allowing certain of the void-creatures, such as the garuda, the one you call ‘Mothman,’ to pass through. They knew the danger involved, or thought they did, and set up a plan to deal with major incursions to prevent unacceptable levels of contamination of your world that might draw undue attention to the project’s existence.

  “The soldiers manning the portal are required to report every fifteen minutes as part of their duties; if they do not, their superiors attempt to contact them. Should they remain out of contact for more than one hour, they will be presumed to be hopelessly contaminated, and one of your warplanes will be dispatched with large bomb referred to as a ‘bunker buster,’ designed specifically for attacking underground installations. The blast will destroy the installation, seal the portal and kill anything in the immediate vicinity on that side of it.

  “But...what about this side of it?”

  “The blast in an open portal in an already destabilized area will cause a massive and almost certainly critical destabilization of this void bubble.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning that this entire bubble and everything in it will cease to exist, including us, if our ship is unable to phase out of here and into another location.”

  “But Luke, your father, and Whitey...”

  “They hope to kill or cripple the meat puppet and return here before I am forced to phase out to save the rest of you.”

  Sam swore violently.

  “Open the damned door! I’ll go out to reinforce them!”

  “No. Not only would the void creatures take you before you got halfway there, but it will be over, one way or another, well before you arrived.”

  “Damn you!” Fiona screamed, bringing Joe and Kathy running too, to see what was happening, “You can’t leave them behind!”

  No sooner had the words left her lips than she noticed that Jan Cold was crying.

  “Do you think I feel it any less than you do? My father and my brother are both out there!”

  “We’ve got to do something!”

  Jan stared at the controls, watching the timer for so long she thought he wasn’t going to answer.

  “I have my orders, but there is one chance. However, everyone on this ship must agree to take it, because the odds are none of us will survive it. Are you willing to take that risk, both you and my nephew who rides inside your womb? Are all of you?”

  With his mental projection, Fiona realized that now everyone knew the secret she had only found out about from Indrid shortly before, but it didn’t matter now.

  “Yes. Not only do I love Luke, but he and Whitey and your father came for me. They risked their lives to save mine.”

  “Yes,” Alison’s voice shouted weakly from the other room, “Like she said, I owe them my life.”

  Johnny stuck his head around the door, white-faced but with a grim, set expression.

  “I’ll risk it,” he said simply.

  Kathy and Joe looked at one another, and both nodded.

  “Do unto others,” she whispered softly, and her husband declared, “Greater love hath no man that he who lays down his life for a friend. Our souls are secure, and we’ll do the right thing and trust in God.”

  “Amen,” Sam said, “I’ve never left a man behind, and I don’t intend to start with my friends.” He laughed. “Shit, at my age, if I die now what do I miss? The drooling years?”

  “Where you are, I am,” Rhonda said simply, earning a hug from her husband.

  Jan nodded and smiled through his tears.

  “Yes. Thank you all. Now, Fiona, I need you to point your pistol at my head...”

  “The meat puppets look human, like you and I, but they are not. They are a mixture of flesh and machine, specifically grown by the Ra’aki to act as troubleshooters. They have little more mind of their own than a reptile, like a crocodile, but are telepathically controlled through enhanced receivers built into their bodies. They act as go-betweens for the Ra’aki with human governments, as well as to intimidate and frequently assassinate anyone they perceive to be a threat to the secrecy of their existence.

  “They are fast, faster than humans; they are not large, but their muscles are dense with fast-twitch fibers, and they are more like Earth leopards in speed. They are extremely strong as well, and capable of literally ripping apart both humans and void-creatures with no assistance, and this one is armed with a shoulder-fired plasma weapon. Meat puppets are extraordinarily tough, with redundant primary systems, and it usually takes extensive damage just to stop one from attacking, let alone kill it.”

  “So how did you kill that one behind the post office?” Luke asked his father, “It was you, wasn’t it?”

  “No; that was my son Jan – your brother. He had a specialized weapon, however,” He opened his coat to show a short metal rod with a handle and a button; the whole thing closely resembled a telescoping police baton. “This is a recent invention that emits an electrical pulse specifically attuned to the systems in the meat puppets that kills them instantly.”

  Whitey frowned.

  “So why not use that?”

  “Because you have to get close enough to actually touch them with it.”

  “Wonderful!” Luke thought, and Indrid smiled at his sarcasm, then his mouth stretched tightly into a grim line.

  “My thoughts exactly. Get ready; he is here. I sense him.”

  “Where? I don’t see him.”

  Luke’s thought projection was interrupted when the night strobed and a plasma bolt struck the ground just in front of him. There was a small explosion that glassed a patch of ground, made a ragged bush burst into flames, and peppered the deputy’s face painfully with hot, flying debris.

  The intruder had managed to get within a hundred yards of them.

  Knowing the meat puppet had his position, Luke frantically threw himself to one side even while Indrid and Whitey returned fire. Both based their fire on the enemy weapon’s flash, but their target was already moving. Indrid’s round went off harmlessly into the darkness, but Luke’s friend put his military training to use and laid down a professional series of three-round bursts, at least one round of which found its mark.

  “I got him!” he yelled, “I hit the son of a bitch!”

  “Do not shout! He can – “

  Before Whitey could react to Indrid’s frantic mental warning, there was a brilliant flash like a welder’s arc in front of him, and the rifle in his hand exploded. Hair and beard instantly bursting into flames, he flopped to one side, his left leg kicking spasmodically.

  Luke had to forcibly restrain himself from following his first impulse, which was to go to his friend, and his second, to charge straight out there and engage the meat puppet, which was now within fifty yards, coming head-on. Instead, he laid down a three-round burst of his own, then instantly rolled to his left and let another one loose, to the accompaniment of the hypersonic boom of his father’s plasma rifle, before rolling again. It was a good thing he did, because the enemy’s return fire lit up the spot he’d just fired from, setting the grass ablaze and filling the air with eye-stinging smoke.

  If Mr. Smith had been capable of feeling that particular emotion, he would have been distinctly unhappy and not a little disappointed. Although he had obviously seen them first, courtesy of his enhanced visual capabilities, had smelled them even before that, and had even gotten off the first shot, first blood had gone to them. Two of the three projectiles fired by the first man had struck him, one through the flesh of his left arm, causing fairly negligible damage, but the other had penetrated his torso, destroying one of the three primary control modules inside, and lessening his efficiency by a noticeable margin.

  Still, he was more than efficient enough for his masters’ enemies, and his second round had taken the shooter out of commission; if he was not dead, he soon would be.

  Darting forward, a third copper-jacketed bulle
t hammered into his left thigh, glancing off the alloy-reinforced bone before passing through to embed itself in the meat of his opposite leg.

  Smith’s internal electronics instantly recognized and analyzed the flash and noise of the offending weapon, triangulated its position, and his body turned and fired directly at it in less than half a second.

  It was a surprise when two more rounds slammed into his torso from only a few feet to the left of the initial firing, damaging a second control module.

  He fired on the shooter again, only to receive another round from a short distance in the same direction from his target’s original position, this time through the neck. Even while his internal repair systems rushed to attempt repairs, he recognized the pattern and fired again, not where the enemy was, but where he would be.

  Never put three on a match!

  Recalling the lesson his grandfather had taught him, that he’d learned from his own grandfather, a veteran of the First World War, Luke rolled again, only back to the right this time. He reflected it was just as well, because the ground where he would have been lying had he gone to the left once more exploded into flames.

  He fired again, laying down two bursts this time, close enough to hear the sound of the 5.56 millimeter bullets slapping meat, and one loud clang, followed by the hiss of an electrical discharge and a shower of sparks.

  His plasma rifle shattered by a round from the his enemy's last burst, the meat puppet dropped it without breaking his forward motion. Even though Smith was badly damaged, he was more than capable of killing without it. The one ahead, the one with its own plasma weapon, was the one most likely to disable him before he completed his mission, and that made him a priority target.

  Indrid Cold fired and, again, missed the rapidly moving meat puppet; then, before his rifle’s capacitors could recharge, it was on him.

  Seeing Smith too close to his father to allow him to shoot the attacker safely, Luke leaped to his feet and did the only thing he could think of.