Baba Mahanisha knelt on the mountainside, bleeding. He was barely alive.
"Baba, we have to run!" Marco said.
The guru nodded and managed to stumble down the dark mountainside. Marco and Addy ran with him. The wind roared through the night, the clouds stormed above, and rain fell in sheets. Behind them, in the temple, the grays were shrieking. They emerged onto the mountainside.
Marco and Addy kept running, holding Mahanisha's hands, guiding their baba onward.
Before them, it rose from the shadows.
The alien saucer.
It was forged of dark metal, and glyphs were engraved onto its hull like brands into flesh, searing red with internal flame. The vessel hovered before them, the size of the temple, rumbling, spewing fumes. Perhaps it was an alien starship. Perhaps, as they suspected, a time machine from humanity's dark and wretched future. But here it appeared as a deity of wrath, a chariot of fire, a weapon of retribution.
Its cannons turned toward Marco, Addy, and their baba.
The cannons fired.
The companions ran.
The laser blasts flew over their heads. The inferno slammed into the Deep Being temple behind them.
The columns shattered. The archway collapsed. The roof caved in. As the temple crumbled, they ran. Bricks cascaded. Dust flew. Fallen columns rolled. Marco and Addy were fast, but the wounded baba was slower, and bricks slammed into him, knocking him down. A column fell onto his back, and Baba Mahanisha fell. Bricks hailed onto him.
"Baba!" Marco cried, kneeling by his master.
"Poet, we have to run!" Addy shouted.
The grays were descending toward them from the ruins, Abyzou leading the pack, his necklace of hearts flaming. Before them, the saucer descended until it grazed the mountainside. Its front hatch opened, and more grays emerged, bearing electrical prods. Marco and Addy knelt on the mountainside, trapped. Grays stood behind and before them. At their sides lay fallen bricks and columns. They were surrounded. Nowhere to run. No way to fight.
Marco reached out to Addy, to die holding her.
But she ignored him. She stood tall, sneered, and held up a small device. At first Marco thought it was her pistol, but it was smaller, slimmer.
"It's time to meet your goddess, apes!" Abyzou cried. "Your torture begins."
Addy inhaled deeply.
"There's one thing you're forgetting, Abyzou!" she said. "I learned to wish my enemies peace and health. I learned to never harm another." A crooked smile tugged at her lips. "I cheated."
She hit a button on her device, and finally Marco recognized it.
A remote control.
With roaring fire and thundering fury, the starship Thunder Road roared forth through the storm.
Its cannons blazed.
Massive bullets the size of daggers, raging at hypersonic speed, slammed into the saucer.
Explosions rocked the grays' starship.
The saucer fell. It slammed into the mountainside. Metal shattered. Stones cracked. Shock waves rippled outward. Fire roared skyward.
Dust. Shards of metal. Boulders and bricks. All flew everywhere. More bullets raged, slamming into grays. The mountain trembled.
"Addy, you are a bloody maniac, and I love you!" Marco shouted, ears ringing.
She laughed. "A girl always has some surprises in her purse. Mints, coupons, a remote control for a flying hippie van with mounted railguns . . ."
She hit more buttons, and the Thunder Road came to hover above the mountainside. Addy raced into the airlock. Marco hesitated, then knelt by Baba Mahanisha. The guru was bleeding, but he was still alive. Marco strained, shoving against a fallen column that pinned the guru down.
"Poet, we don't have much time!" Addy shouted. "There are still grays on the mountain."
"Addy, he's still alive! Help me!"
Addy joined him, and they rolled off the fallen column. They managed to pull Baba Mahanisha to his feet. The guru, wheezing and bleeding, stumbled into the starship, barely squeezing through the airlock.
Grays charged toward them through the rubble.
The starship rose.
Grays leaped and caught the rim of the airlock.
"Addy, grays on the Thunder Road!" Marco cried.
"The ship is named Shippy McShipface!" Addy shouted, racing to the airlock. "Fight them as I fly."
The Volkswagen soared, cannons blazing. The grays dangled from the airlock, claws digging into the metal. They began climbing into the rising starship. Marco cursed. He had no rifle here, but he saw Addy's katana on the floor. He drew the blade as a gray leaped toward him.
Marco screamed and swung.
The blade slammed into the gray's stomach. It nicked the skin and sank no deeper. It was like trying to slice a block of boiled leather.
The gray laughed. The beast lashed his claws, and Marco pulled back, narrowly dodging the assault.
Marco thrust, howling. The katana's tip perforated the gray's skin, driving a centimeter into the flesh. Marco roared with fury, shoving deeper, leaning into the sword, piercing the creature. He kept shoving until the gray hit the edge of the open airlock.
Marco pulled back the blade and kicked. The gray tumbled out of the airlock, falling to the mountain below.
The ship kept soaring. Baba Mahanisha lay on the floor, still bleeding, not moving, maybe dead already.
Two more grays still clung to the airlock, dangling and struggling to climb in. Marco swung the katana, cleaving one's fingers. The other gray made it into the ship, and claws lashed, slicing Marco's shoulder. He cried and fell back, holding the katana before him.
He swung the blade. The gray caught the sword and wrenched it free. Blood spurted between the gray's claws, but he seemed not to notice. The creature grinned. Half his face was gone, and hearts pulsed around his neck. Marco recognized him: Abyzou, prince of the grays.
The creature stepped closer, clutching the katana. The ship's bullets had slammed into his chest. Marco could see them embedded in the wrinkly flesh. A rib was exposed, a bullet lodged into it. Yet still Abyzou stepped toward Marco. The gray raised the katana. Marco retreated, his back to the wall.
Abyzou spoke, voice thick with mirth.
"You have children in the future." Abyzou's thin lips peeled back. "They will scream for us too."
Marco stared into the oval black eyes, unable to move. Terror. Pure terror filled him.
Yes, they were human.
Yes, they were time travelers.
Yes, Marco would scream and beg for death.
Abyzou took another step, claws reaching out to grab him, then stumbled and crashed down.
The wounded Baba Mahanisha knelt behind the gray, clutching the creature's legs.
Marco lunged forward and grabbed the fallen katana. Before he could stab the gray, Baba Mahanisha yanked mightily. The monk swung Abyzou like a rag doll, hurling the rancid creature out of the airlock. The gray's screams rose from outside, then vanished into the storm.
"I could have killed him!" Marco shouted. "He might still survive this fall!" If that creature could survive bullets to the chest . . .
The baba only stared at him sadly.
Marco stumbled toward the airlock, bleeding, limping. He pulled the door shut, but not before glimpsing several more saucers outside, flying toward them.
"Addy!" he shouted.
"I see 'em!" she cried from the cockpit. "We're ditching this planet."
Marco was about to run toward her when the baba collapsed. The Durmian lay on the floor, robes soaked with blood. His eyes glazed over.
"Baba!" Marco clasped his master's hand. "Don't leave us. Not yet."
His guru gazed upon him with kindness. "Marco . . ."
Marco leaned closer. "Yes, baba."
The guru raised one of his trunks and touched Marco's cheek. His voice was weak, growing weaker. "Do not let them fill you with hatred. Remember your teachings. May you be safe and free from suffering. May you find peace. May you have ease of being."
>
"May you be safe and free from suffering," Marco whispered, holding his master's hand. "May you find peace. May you have ease of being."
The baba's eyes closed. For centuries, Mahanisha had taught the holiness of breath. Lying on the floor of the starship, he breathed his last.
Addy's voice rose from the cockpit. "Poet, get your ass over here and help!"
He ran and joined her. She was still flying in the atmosphere, the storm surrounding them. He hopped into the seat beside her.
"You all right, little dude?" Addy said.
Marco nodded. "Got another battle scar. Killed a couple grays. Same old." He lowered his head. "The baba didn't make it."
Addy stared ahead, lips tight, eyes narrowed. "The storm is thick and hiding us for now. There are more of those assholes not far behind. I don't dare breach the atmosphere, or they'll see us."
"Thank goodness the Thunder Road is small. Hard to detect."
"Her name is Shippy Mc—" Addy began.
"I know, Addy." He placed a hand on her knee. "I know. And your little remote control—and your pistols—saved us. Even though you sneaked weapons of destruction into a temple of peace." Suddenly his eyes stung. "We came to study peace. We brought war and death."
"Not us," Addy said, eyes hardening. "More thugs. More monsters. More evil. And I knew it, Poet. I knew evil was still after us, that we had to fight, that—" She forced a deep breath, and she spoke in a whisper. "I am not my thoughts. I am not my emotions." Another deep breath. "Baba Mahanisha taught us well. He made us stronger. And we'll keep fighting, Poet. Until we win."
"Until we win," Marco said. "We fight together. Always."
Addy shoved down the throttle, increasing speed. "I'll put more distance between us and those assholes, then blast into space and hit the warp drive from orbit. If I curve our flight right, I can adjust for the planet's gravity. Old trick Kemi taught me. We'll be in warped space before those sneaky gray fucks know what happened. Their friends are hitting Earth. When they stared at me, I . . . I saw it. A vision. A fleet of saucers heading to Earth, and the world burning. We'll fly there now to join the fight."
Marco shook his head. "No. We're not flying to Earth, Addy."
She looked at him, eyes flashing. "Poet! I'm not going to hide from this fight. This is personal now. I'm still a soldier, and—"
"We'll fly to Earth, Addy, but not yet. Not before taking a detour." Marco smiled thinly, gazing out at the storm. "We're flying to Taolin Shi. To the world Baba Mahanisha flooded centuries ago. And we're going to find those mechas."
Addy's eyes widened. She grabbed Marco's hand.
"Fuck yeah!" She took a deep breath. "I mean—this is the path we must walk, for to reach light and wisdom one must first pass through darkness and despair. But also: Fuck yeah!"
They soared through the clouds and breached the atmosphere. Below them, the saucers were still lost in the storm. Within seconds, Addy entered orbit and fired up the azoth engine. They blasted into warped space. They streamed through the darkness, leaving Durmia behind—the place where they had learned wisdom, awareness, and strength. They flew toward the watery world where perhaps hope awaited.
May we find hope there, Marco thought, holding Addy's hand as they flew. May we find the weapons we seek. May we find an end to war. May we find ease of being.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Lailani pounded on the cell door, screaming.
"Let me out of here, you fucking scumbag!"
Nightwish, she thought, deactivating her microchip.
Her scum side awakened, giving her strength, speed, power. She grew claws and scratched at the door. It was thick iron, but her claws were sharp. Yet when she scratched too deep, electricity pulsed across her. She fell back, hissing, shaking. She yowled in her rage, a monster trapped in flesh.
Serenity, she thought, reactivating her chip before she lost her sanity, lost her own memory in the depth of scum thought.
Deep underground on this distant world, buried beneath Schroder's lab, Lailani paced her cell. Hours passed. Maybe days. She languished.
Schroder wants to cut out my heart, Lailani thought. But first he wants me to suffer.
She curled up on the floor, drifting in and out of sleep. Her belly rumbled with hunger, and her mouth went dry with thirst. It was cold. It was so cold. She found a dispenser and nozzle in the wall; they gave her dry pellets and brackish water. She was like a hamster in a box. Going mad. She imagined herself a creature, a weird animal losing its fur, eating its young.
She found letters etched into the walls. She could barely make them out in the dim light.
I am Jasmine. Age 12. I love you, Mom and Dad. I love you.
Farther down the wall, more letters.
It has been a year now. I'm scared.
More words across the walls.
I am pregnant.
Blood stains.
He took my baby.
Words scratched with fingernails. Finally becoming mad, senseless marks. Final words.
He wants my heart. I love you.
Lailani hugged her knees, shivering. She closed her eyes.
Time flowed by.
She languished.
She scratched onto the walls.
I am Lailani. I love you, my friends. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the bad things I've done.
She took a deep breath.
"I must keep fighting," she told herself. "I am a soldier. I will not give up."
The time flowed by. She slept. She withered away in the dark.
Until finally the door opened.
He stood there at the doorway, seven feet tall and broad as a prizefighter. HOBBS. Her friend. His eyes blazed red. His memory was wiped. He was now a servant of evil.
He grabbed her arm, his grip a vise. "Come with me."
The robot dragged her out of the cell. The bright corridor burned Lailani's eyes.
"How long has it been?" she whispered, squinting. "Where's Epi?"
HOBBS ignored her, dragging her down the corridor. She stumbled after him, as small as a toddler by her father. She was so weak. How long had she been living off those animal pellets? Days? Weeks? Months, even? Time had lost meaning in the darkness. Her limbs seemed so thin to her.
"HOBBS," she said. "Hobster, it's me. Don't you remember? It's your Lailani. We traveled to Mahatek together. We saw dragons. We—"
He smacked her. Hard. His metal hand left her bloody.
"Silence."
The hulking cyborg walked on, dragging her along. Her blood dripped from her nose, leaving a trail. On the corridor walls hung framed photographs of surgeries. Victims lay bound on tables, mouths open in silent screams, as Schroder carved out their hearts. Some of the photographed victims were children—his children. Lailani remembered their faces from the newspaper clippings.
Below each photograph, upon a pedestal, rested a skull.
Sick bastard, Lailani thought. He collects trophies from his victims, even from his own family.
"HOBBS, listen to me," Lailani said as he dragged her onward. "Your memory has been wiped. Schroder is not your master. I am your—"
He struck her again.
He kept dragging her down the corridor.
There was no use reasoning with him. She knew enough about computers to realize that she could not restore his memory, not with all the pleading in the world.
So I will have to fight.
Down the hallway, she saw double doors with large windows. Through the windows, Lailani could see a surgery room. She glimpsed an IV drip, surgical tools, and a masked figure in scrubs—Elliot Schroder, waiting to carve out her heart.
I am a soldier. I've faced worse than him. I will fight.
She took a deep breath.
Nightwish.
The scum awakened.
At once, she felt the pulsing, jamming signal Schroder filled his lair with. Her consciousness slammed into it like a wall.
She growled and shoved through, shattering it.
; Her consciousness spread. She could see through the eyes of every burrowing snake. See the trophies of skin and skulls. See the dismembered corpses in the freezer. See the altar below her feet, the skulls arranged in a pentagram. She screamed with them. Screamed with them all, the women and children Schroder had imprisoned here. The lost souls who had wandered toward the spider, who had fallen into his web. The rib spreaders breaking them open. The scalpels cutting. The doctor smiling as he pulled out the still-beating heart.
She raced through the tunnels, a centipede with a human face. She lived among the stars and under the soil.
She grew her claws, and she lashed them with fury.
They slammed into HOBBS's arm. They cut through his bad joint, the one that had broken so many times before.
His arm, still holding Lailani, fell.
She ran.
She raced back down the corridor, passing the portraits, passing her cell. She was racing down tunnels, seeking, feeding, one among a billion centipedes. She hungered for flesh. She hungered for death. She would eat the skulls. She would eat the hearts. She served the horde! She would mate in the hot shadows and lay her quivering eggs, a great queen, beloved, and—
Lailani clenched her teeth.
Serenity, she thought, reactivating her chip, restoring her humanity.
Behind her, she heard HOBBS following, his feet pounding the floor. She whipped around a corner, leaped into an elevator, and the doors shut an instant before HOBBS could reach her.
The elevator descended.
HOBBS remained above.
Lailani allowed herself a few deep breaths and wiped sweat off her brow. She realized that HOBBS's hand was still gripping her, attached to his severed arm. She yanked it off.
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Lailani jammed HOBBS's arm into the doorway, preventing the elevator from rising back up.
Panting, she stepped out of the elevator into a warehouse.
Hundreds of robotic dolls filled it.
None were moving. They filled the warehouse, crowded together, wearing frilly gowns. Their porcelain faces gazed blankly. A single light flickered above.
Lailani cringed.
Footsteps thudded deep in the complex; HOBBS was taking another route down. Lailani would have to find her way to her starship—fast.
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