by Worth, Dan
After the Shaper had invaded his skull and read his thoughts, he had woken up hours later, sprawled on the carpeted floor of his office in clothes sodden and stinking with his own effluvia. The thought of that swarm of things inside his head still made him shudder with revulsion. The last thing he had experienced before he passed out was their millions of tiny limbs scrabbling inside every orifice in his head, in the interstices of his brain. He had told them the truth, something that their invasion of his skull had verified. If he had been lying, he knew that he would be dead by now.
Since then, he increasingly lived in a bizarre, parallel world. Outside, life on Orinoco appeared to return to normal. Businesses re-opened, trade resumed with the other systems in his new Freedom Alliance and people began to go about their daily lives once more. Many, it seemed, supported the new regime. There was a great deal of criticism of the old, corrupt Commonwealth, whose Earth based government cared little for anything outside the richer, core systems. It was time, said many, for dynamic and inspiring leadership in the newer, more distant colonies.
Morgan knew why they said this. The local media outlets were being controlled by his new masters, their directors replaced by agents. Dissent was being crushed. Those who spoke out were disappeared or replaced until the majority of the people began to fall in line with the message of their new government, a government that was itself a sham. They were all puppets, nothing more. Morgan knew this too. Some, having been made hosts, were literally so. Others like himself, were controlled through fear alone. He made speeches, read the words that they wrote for him and said what they told him to say, smiled for the cameras and publicly shook hands with men he knew were no longer to be considered human.
It was Cox who terrified him the most. The man who had been Cox, he corrected himself. He was almost fully healed now, and would soon be able to appear in public if he wore bandages over the wounds. Only Cox’s right eye and hand remained to be repaired, and those could be explained away as injuries sustained during the alleged defence of the system when he had bravely attempted to stop Admiral Haines attacking Orinoco Station, or so the lie went. However, if anyone were to look too closely they would see the horrid tendrils moving back and forth inside the socket as they rebuilt the tissues. Sometimes the bandage over his eye moved.
The creature inside Cox was cold blooded and sadistic in the extreme. It loved to torment him daily with reports of what punishments had been meted out to the citizens of the Freedom Alliance who failed to comply with the new regime, lingering on the minutiae of their torture, dangling in front of him the possibility that this would be his fate too if he stepped out of line, knowing that the face of an old friend now subverted by an alien organism made the experience even more horrifying.
Morgan thought of suicide. He fantasised that if they came for him he would have time to shoot himself, or throw himself from a window. Deep down, he knew that he would never get that chance. They would come for him in the night, like the others, and he would know nothing beforehand. He’d do it now. He ought to do it now. But he knew that he was too much of a coward to do it, and in any case, they had taken all weapons from him in case he tried anything like that. All he had left was the solace of the bottle and he drank himself into a stupor each night, falling into a nightmare filled sleep and often waking up sprawled in the rumpled uniform he had been wearing the day before.
He could hear footsteps approaching in the corridor outside. He knew the sound of the heavy tread. It was Cox. He felt his bowels loosening as the man who was no longer human approached and flung open the door without knocking and strode into the room, stopping in front of Morgan with a satisfied look on his ruined face. The right eye socket was un-bandaged. Morgan tried to avoid looking at it. He knew that if he did he would see the horrid white things moving inside. He suspected that Cox did it just to unnerve him.
‘We have Haines,’ said Cox simply.
‘Haines?’ Morgan replied. ‘But I thought he was dead. The Lincoln was destroyed, wasn’t it?’
‘Not entirely. She fell to earth about two thousand kilometres south of here, but she hit the ground with enough force to kill anyone on board. However, Haines survived. He failed to go down with his ship. We found a number of escape pods and landing craft in the deep jungle from the Lincoln and the other ships that we destroyed. No doubt, we will find more. Haines was captured by our forces less than an hour ago. He was with a band of other survivors from his fleet. Our forces killed the others and captured the Admiral. They’re bringing him here.’
‘What do you intend to do with him? Or is that a stupid question?’
‘Haines’s mind will provide us with a wealth of knowledge. He will be implanted with one of our agents as soon as possible.’
‘Are you sure that that’s necessary? Can’t we just interrogate him the old fashioned way? Can’t you just read his mind like you did mine?’
‘We deployed considerable resources in capturing him. We intend to implant him and then convince the people that he has seen the error of his ways and joined us.’
‘No, please. You can’t do this!’
‘And why not?’ sneered Cox. ‘This is pure human sentimentality at work, a deplorable weakness that holds your species back from greatness. You feel sorry for this man you once called a friend. You actually want to save him, don’t you?’
‘Alright, yes. Yes I do! I can’t bear the thought of him being destroyed like this. The man deserves a dignified death at least! Why does Haines matter so much to you? He has no fleet to command now, and even if he did, the remainder of your warships are more than a match for them.’
‘When it became clear that Haines had survived, we became concerned that he might try to organise some kind of guerrilla war in the system. When we found him in the company of around thirty fully armed marines our suspicions were confirmed. He’s a very capable man, a born fighter. We knew that he would never give up. We have almost come to admire him.’
‘Why would a rebellion bother you so much? The Commonwealth hurt you more than you’re willing to admit, didn’t they?’
Cox started pacing the room, his face like thunder. It was a surprisingly human reaction for someone who was no longer technically human.
‘Not the Commonwealth!’ he spat. ‘The Nahabe! Those sanctimonious... we had not anticipated...’
‘What?’
‘The Nahabe have gone to war! After millennia of navel gazing, they have finally crept out of their corner of space. Our supply lines have been attacked and we are forced to redirect our assets to deal with them. This, the disaster in Arkari space and the reversal in the Solar System...’
‘They’ve disrupted your plans, haven’t they?’ said Morgan, finally gaining some confidence from the alcohol and the sight of Cox enraged at something that had beaten him. So, the Nahabe had sprung a surprise on the Shapers. That was something, at least. Morgan had heard stories that the enigmatic aliens had fought the Shapers before, and survived.
‘It is a temporary set-back!’ snarled Cox, pointing the stump of his severed hand at Morgan. Part of the hand seemed to have grown back along with Cox’s thumb. The stump was swathed in bandages which pulsed with movement. ‘We are putting measures in place to ensure our victory! Currently, we do not have sufficient craft in this area of this spiral arm to continue our campaign at the present, but that will change, we will have reinforcements from the core soon enough. A torrent of ships and troops will be unleashed upon the Commonwealth and all resistance will be crushed! The pathetically primitive ships of the Commonwealth Navy will be pulverised!’
‘But until then, your forces are stretched too thinly to properly defend what you’ve taken so far... you can’t be everywhere at once so you’re consolidating your hold in a few systems. You can’t enslave the populations as the Commonwealth would use anti-matter warheads to wipe them out and you with them and I bet that there’s a limit to how many people you can control at once. There is always the possibility that the Common
wealth could get those stealthed ships past your widely scattered forces to launch a strike. Keeping the majority of the population compliant but still free actually works in your favour until you can bring overwhelming force to bear. You can hide behind civilian populations.’
‘Very perceptive. The Commonwealth would never countenance wiping out a planet full of its own citizens. Their lack of resolve is our advantage.’
‘In that case, Haines can be turned to a greater advantage! If we break him, let everyone see what has become of the great hero of the Commonwealth. Let them see that even he can’t stand against us, against you! If he suddenly seems to support us, no-one will buy it, trust me. He’d rather die, you know that and so does everyone else. Let them see the great man laid low. Better still, why don’t we put him on trial for his crimes, for the civilian deaths that you’ve attributed to him in this system? Why don’t you make him a war criminal, someone for the people to hate?’
Cox looked distracted for brief moment. Morgan had learnt to recognise this as a sign that the organism within him was communicating at length with the others of its kind. He imagined some sort of high speed debate going on amongst the awful things.
‘Your idea has some merit, Admiral Morgan,’ said Cox. ‘It has been decided for the moment that we will proceed with your idea, sentimentality notwithstanding. Haines will be taken to a secure facility. He will be broken, and whether or not he confesses to anything, he will stand trial for his crimes.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Why should you thank me? This is only a brief reprieve. Haines will be found guilty and then he will be executed. You should concern yourself with your own prospects. This scheme of yours has impressed us. Perhaps you are not so useless after all. You are safe, for the moment at least.’
There was the sound of engines outside. A transport was arriving, its headlights casting sweeping beams across the courtyard outside.
‘I have to leave you now. Another batch of prisoners has arrived for processing and I do take pleasure in my work. Care to join me?’ Cox grinned evilly. Morgan shuddered and shook his head wordlessly.
‘I thought not,’ said Cox, with a note of mock disappointment in his voice. With that, he turned and strode from the room, leaving Morgan alone with his booze and the screams coming from the basement as the creature once known as Admiral Cox got to work on his latest batch of prisoners.
Chapter 19
Rekkid sat cross legged in the middle of the floor in front of the huge wall carving, his computer balanced carefully on his knees. There was more light in the chamber now. Arrakid had sent word to the surface and more equipment had been brought down the ramp including a number of lighting rigs to illuminate the huge, vaulted space and communications relays to provide a link to the surface and to the ship. The previously silent chamber now echoed to sounds of overlapping Arkari voices and the clatter of gear being unloaded and set up.
Katherine and Steelscale returned from one of the side passages, Katherine wiping dust and dirt from her hands as she entered.
‘Find anything?’ said Rekkid, looking up from his work.
‘It’s a labyrinth through there,’ Katherine replied. ‘The passages and chambers seem to go on forever. We had a brief look around, but to be honest, we were afraid of getting lost.’
‘We did however see a number of ramps and stairwells leading down to further levels below this one,’ said Steelscale. ‘This underground complex is truly enormous. It could take us days to explore it.’
‘How are you getting on with the translation?’ said Katherine, pointing at Rekkid’s computer.
‘Oh, quite well. I’ve fully translated the inscription on the wall. It’s given me a fair chunk, possibly all, of their alphabet, and a lot more words to be going on with. It’s a start, at least. I’m hoping that we can find more dual language inscriptions like this one to help us fill in the gaps, of which there are a great many.’
‘So what does it say?’ said Katherine.
Rekkid cleared his throat. ‘Well, this is all very interesting actually. It says “We, the Soldiers of the Sacred Way, dedicated this place to the glory of the Ones Beyond the Gate, the Gods Made Flesh, the Ones Who Came Before. They who moulded our souls, they who bestrode the stars and shaped the very worlds of heaven, they who departed our mortal plane. Ever we pray for their return. Ever we search for their path to paradise. Our quest is holy. Our war against the unbelievers is blessed and just. We, the Soldiers of the Sacred Way, are the salvation of our race. We have been to the Home of the Gods. We have witnessed their greatness in ages past. We have taken the gifts left to us and armoured ourselves with our faith. We shall not falter or fail. Death or salvation.” Well I think they achieved the former rather than the latter, don’t you?’
‘It’s talking about the Progenitors, isn’t it Rekkid?’ said Katherine.
‘Yes, I believe so,’ Rekkid replied. ‘Reading into this, it seems that they discovered evidence of the Progenitors’ existence and decided to worship them as gods. This also sounds like the language of holy war. It could explain what happened to the inhabited worlds in this system.’
‘Possibly, but there’s nothing that we’ve seen so far that indicates that this civilisation possessed the sort of technological level capable of shattering planets. This sentence here that talks about “the glory of the Ones Beyond the Gate”. Surely they can’t be talking about the Progenitor portal? Maranos is tens of thousands of light years from here.’
‘I agree that it seems unlikely. It could just be a turn of phrase that we’re unfamiliar with. It could refer to death, for example. Either that, or they found another portal that we don’t know about.’
‘There’s also this sentence: “We have been to the Home of the Gods,”’ said Steelscale. ‘That sounds like they discovered a Progenitor world or habitat... or something.’
‘Yes it does. I think we need to keep looking to get to the bottom of this. I think we’re getting closer to the reason why Eonara brought the Shining Glory to this system. There must be more clues within this place that can tell us more.’
‘Yes, I believe there are,’ said a smoothly modulated voice from behind the trio. In surprise, they turned quickly and saw the drone standing close by. It had approached in complete silence.
‘Forgive me,’ said the drone. ‘Where are my manners? It is I, the Shining Glory. I took the liberty of taking over this simple creature as soon as my faculties were restored. I thought that you could use my assistance down here.’
‘Yes, yes we could,’ said Rekkid hurriedly. ‘So you’re fully repaired?’
‘Not fully. My AI core has now been reconnected to the rest of the vessel’s systems after they were purged of Shaper viruses. However, the repairs to the drive systems have yet to be completed.’
‘Well that’s something at least. It’s good to have you back, ship.’
‘Believe me when I say that it’s a relief.’
‘So, now that you’re back, can you tell us why we were all brought here?’ said Katherine.
‘I’m afraid not,’ said the ship. ‘Eonara granted me full access to her memories, but alas, there was no time to make a complete copy of the data to somewhere other than her AI core, nor to peruse all of it due to its sheer size before the battle with the Shapers at Black Rock. I’m afraid that until we can bring her back online I only have a partial copy, and it contains nothing on this system.’
‘Is there any chance of getting her back as well?’ said Katherine.
‘It’s too soon to tell how badly damaged she is. Her AI core is active, but there has been extensive damage to her interfaces and we cannot rule out the possibility that her mind may have been corrupted by Shaper viruses.’
‘How could this happen!?’ said Steelscale. ‘Surely she must have considerable defences against such attacks, as do you! How have you survived where she, perhaps, has not?’
‘Eonara had full control of the ship. Most of her resources were devoted t
o that task. It seems that during the explosion of the Shaper portal, she devoted all of her processing power to piloting the ship and manipulating the rogue wormhole that had been spun off by the catastrophic collapse of the device, perhaps she was unable to defend herself because of this.’
‘So she did mean to bring us here.’
‘As far as I can tell, yes. Judging from the sequence of instructions sent to the drives, her original intention was to use conventional methods to escape from the Maelstrom, but the ship became caught in a wormhole as it jumped and she decided to ride it out, and manipulate it to bring us here. Unfortunately she managed to almost burn out the jump drives in doing so and they failed soon afterwards, leaving us stranded in orbit. I’ve been analysing the telemetry data but I’m still uncertain how she managed such a feat. What is clear, however, is that the Shapers were bombarding the vessel with viral AI programs as soon as we crossed into the galactic core. It seems that one of them got through and compromised at least her outer defences as well as many of those of the systems of this ship. My automatic systems engaged and isolated me from the rest of the ship once my interfaces were compromised. Eonara was essentially jury rigged into the ship’s systems and had no such protection. Besides which, if she had been cut off from the ship’s systems, we would almost certainly have been annihilated. I am doing my utmost to assist the crew in restoring her to full functionality.’
‘There is something special about this system. Something we’re not fully seeing yet,’ said Steelscale.