by Rob May
‘Just remember,’ the President said, ‘that I’m only doing this in self-defence. I can’t let you destroy me. And don’t say that I didn’t give you a choice: you could have lived a thousand lives if you joined yourself to the bionoids. You could have lived forever!’
‘Who wants …’ Brandon said between blows ‘… to live forever?’
The President’s words caused his mind to flash back to a book he had read recently—an exciting spy thriller he had found in the library of the Proteus, when they had been sailing across the Atlantic. ‘There’s a saying,’ he said, marking time as he waited for the chance to make his next move. ‘You only live twice, anyway: once when you are born … and once when you look death in the face …’
‘And do you see your death now?’ the President sneered as lighting flashed and thunder rolled overhead.
‘No,’ Brandon said, bracing his feet back against the tree. ‘I see yours!’
And with that he pushed forward, using the remaining power of his mind to propel himself and his opponent into the air. They flew towards the lightning tree three hundred metres away—more specifically, to an open knothole high up on its trunk, a hole large enough to swallow the two antagonists.
There was a metallic clang as the President’s back hit the hard core of the lightning tree’s inner trunk. Brandon held him there with all his strength, until the moment when the hairs on the back his neck rose up, and the air lasted like aluminium in his mouth.
Then he sprang backwards, just at the moment when lightning struck the top of the tree and sent a billion volts racing down the trunk. The President was not so much short-circuited as obliterated as the nanoscopic robots that made up his body were scorched away.
Brandon floated down to the ground on his own cushion of bionoids. He looked back up to where smoke was billowing out of the knot hole.
‘That was the end of your second term,’ Brandon said. ‘Presidents don’t get any more.’
Then he turned his back on the scene and headed for the city.
17—ASCENT
Jason lay dying, in the wreck of the zelf prison ship they had commandeered just ten minutes ago. So much for their revolution. Brandon had crawled up beside him, promising that it wasn’t over yet. He had grabbed Jason’s hand, but had then collapsed and fallen silent. Over the sound of groaning metal and crackling flames, Jason could hear the whine of engines, as the zelf captain who had shot them down landed nearby.
He was coming to finish the job.
Jason tried to turn his head as something moved behind him.
‘Don’t try to move.’ Hewson said. ‘I’ll hold off the zelfs.’
‘Why aren’t you dead too?’ Jason coughed.
‘Zelf armour,’ Hewson said, making a rapping sound like he was striking his chest. ‘Now don’t try to move or talk.’
‘Oh, just get the hell out of here, Hewson,’ Jason said, hacking up blood as he tried to breathe. ‘Get to the tunnels and escape, while you still can!’
A shadow fell over his face. ‘We’re not leaving you,’ another voice said; a rough, gravelly voice, but one that made Jason’s heart surge.
‘Doo!’ he spluttered. ‘You’re alive!’
‘Before we crashed, my seat suddenly popped up and shot out of the ship,’ she said.
What was she talking about? ‘Ejector seat!’ Jason suddenly realised. ‘Lucky you! But don’t hang around waiting for me to make a miraculous recovery—run, Doo. Go back home and be queen of the balaks! Come back and rescue Grok another time.’
‘No,’ she said, fingering one of her long knives. ‘If you die, then I’ll die avenging you. We are fated to be together, Jason, in life or death.’
What could he say to that? He lay back, barely conscious, listening to Hewson and Doo as they prepared for their last stand. Hewson was giving the princess some in-the-field training with a laser rifle. Sparks flew as their position came under fire from the approaching zelf soldiers. Jason could feel waves and undertows of pain washing over and dragging back through his body. His final thought was a memory of Doo—her face, as it had looked the moment she stepped smiling out in the aisle on the their wedding day … the moment before all hell had broken loose and postponed their happiness forever …
Then there was nothing.
* * *
Absolute silence. No pain. No sense of danger or terror.
It was quite nice. Being dead wasn’t too bad, all things considered.
Jason!
Oh what now? Hell, Brandon, leave me alone, alright? How can you even get inside my head anyway? Firstly, I’m dead. Secondly, you destroyed the bionoids. And thirdly, I’m dead. I know that’s only two points really, but the first one was so important, I thought I’d mention it twice.
Well, Brandon’s voice echoed in Jason’s skull. You’re wrong about being dead. You’re right about the bionoids though. I did destroy all of them … well, almost all of them …
Jason was finding it tough to work out what Brandon was going on about. The pain in his body was intensifying; it was like being poked with a thousand needles all at once, while being simultaneously tickled and roasted over a hot barbeque. You weren’t supposed to still feel pain when you were dead!
The Arch Predicant scanned for bionoids after your destroyed them, Brandon! Don’t tell me you managed to hide some from him.
No, Brandon said. Not some …
Then how are you talking to me now?
We entered the city though secret tunnels under the force field, Brandon said. Me, Kat, Hewson and the balaks. I ordered the bionoids to wait outside, but I found a place where I could hide one single bionoid … safe from any scanners, safe even from the other bionoids.
Jason was confused. One bionoid? One tiny robot, smaller than a speck of nothing? What was the point of that?
The point, Brandon said, was to reboot the entire bionoid program—to start from scratch. When I went back out into the jungle, I had to destroy half of the bionoids because they had become independent—they had harnessed the power of the President’s mind and had become stronger than me. Then I had to destroy the rest in the temple, when the Arch Predicant almost managed to gain control of them and kill you!
Yeah, thanks for that, Jason said. Then suddenly he twigged. The catron’s claw! That’s where you hid the last bionoid! You gave it to Kat to look after, and she brought it back to you in the prison. I remember now—you said the claw was like the toughest shield ever.
Yep, Brandon said, with maybe the faintest trace of pride in his thoughts. And the claw is not only the best place to hide a bionoid, but it’s also the best material to build new ones out of, too. The bionoids are self-replicating, and the new generation are shielded with catron bone: impossible to detect, and impossible for anyone to steal control!
And then Jason realised that while they had been talking, the pain that had been torturing his body had been ebbing away. He opened his eyes—both eyes, because his wrecked eye had now been rebuilt and repaired. Brandon was kneeling next to him, his wounds also healed, and with a crazy grin on his face.
‘Wait a minute!’ Jason said. ‘You said you all got into the city through tunnels?’
‘Yeah,’ Brandon said. ‘Come on, get up and I’ll fill you in later.’
‘So you didn’t use rubber sheets to get through the force field?’
‘What? No, of course not. That would have been a ridiculous idea!’
‘Ah hell!’ Jason said. ‘I was so proud of that plan! Did you have to resurrect me just to tell me what an idiot I am?’
* * *
The dark streets of Perazim were wet with rain. With no force field to burn away the storm, the city was like a bare forest of trees without a canopy. The drains were already overflowing, and the approaching zelf soldiers were wading through water that came up to their knees.
Doo was taking pot shots at the soldiers from the cover of the wreckage. When she saw Jason get to his feet, she didn’t waste words. ‘Take thi
s,’ she said, handing him the gun. ‘I’ve not managed to hit one of them yet.’
Jason poked his head above the wreckage and was greeted by a volley of laser fire. He ducked back down again. ‘I didn’t rise from the dead to get a laser bolt between my eyes,’ he said. ‘We need to think of another way out of here.’
Hewson crawled over to them from where he had been laying down defensive fire. ‘There are eight of them and the captain. They’re all grouped together, in the middle of the road where the water is shallowest. If we had a grenade, or some way of taking them out all at once …’
Jason turned to Brandon. ‘Power me up,’ he said.
‘What?’
‘You’ve used the bionoids before to increase our strength, give us energy, make us jump further and move faster. Power me up, and I’ll go deal with them.’
‘You’ll kill them?’
‘I’ll show them a world of pain,’ Jason said. ‘But with my fists, not the bionoids. Trust me, Brandon—let me do the things that you can’t. My conscience isn’t as delicate as yours. I’m not a puss—’
Brandon raised an eyebrow.
‘Just hit me up, would you!’ Jason urged.
Brandon smiled. ‘You think I saved the bionoids not to use them? Go do your worst!’
Jason returned the grin, then leaped up onto the smashed hull of the prison transport ship. Lasers flews towards him almost as densely as the rain poured down, but as the bionoids flooded his mind and unlocked his senses, he could get a handle on the situation like he was using a slo-mo power-up in a video game.
He turned side on and tilted his head back. The lasers passed harmlessly by. Then he bent his legs slightly, straightened up …
… and flew through the air in a massive arc, splashing down right in the centre of the gang of soldiers. Before they even had chance to wipe the water off their visors, he had smashed in the helmets of four of them with his bionic fist. He grabbed the rifle barrels of two others, and crossed them over each other. When the soldiers fired, they shot each other dead. Jason kicked out at the soldier behind him, sending him first crashing back into his squadmate, and then sending them both crashing back across the road until they were taken by the current raging down the gutter.
The zelf captain took one look at the carnage and fled back to his ship. Jason was still buzzing from the fight. He made to give chase, but suddenly collapsed, struggling to catch his breath.
Brandon, Doo and Hewson were at his side. Brandon looked as exhausted as he was; it had been a huge mental effort supporting Jason during the fight.
‘Listen,’ Brandon said. ‘You have to pace yourself, or you’ll burn out. The bionoids are still replicating—there’s not as many of them as there once was. But I’m going to give you half now and link them to your mind. Then we can divide up: you go after the Arch Predicant; I’ll go find Kat and help her get all the slaves out of the city.’
Jason nodded enthusiastically. But it hadn’t passed him by that something significant had just happened. ‘You trust me with the bionoids?’
Brandon nodded. ‘Use them responsibly, but use them as you see fit. The universe doesn’t need people like me selfishly holding onto the bionoids; it needs people like you, too, who aren’t afraid to face up to the realities of the bionoids’ true nature. They are a medicine and a weapon, and if anyone’s going to take responsibility for that weapon, I want it to be you.’
Jason put his hand on Brandon’s shoulder, almost crushing him. ‘Thanks, mate,’ he said.
Their little moment was interrupted by some thunderous crashing and the sound of laser fire and explosions. Further down the long, wide street, an armoured tank swerved out from an intersection and headed their way. The turret on top, however, was facing backwards and firing at something pursuing it. Jason eye’s widened as three giant dragons rounded the corner and stomped down the street.
‘We should go,’ Hewson said, as calm as you like.
‘The jungle beasts will keep the zelf army busy,’ Brandon said, ‘and the Arch Predicant shouldn’t be able to detect the new catron-armoured bionoids. Think you can get to him, Jason?’
Jason looked up at the imposing edifice that was the Tower of the Moons. ‘It’ll be easier to climb the outside than fight my up through every level,’ he said. ‘I logged plenty of time practicing on the climbing wall back at school, though.’
‘Yes, the one that was only twenty metres high,’ Brandon said. ‘But I get your point. Good luck!’ They bumped fists, and Brandon and Hewson split. Only Doo remained at Jason’s side.
‘I’m not letting you take him on alone,’ she said.
Jason shrugged. ‘I thought we didn’t have to do everything together until after we were married?’
‘I just want to make sure my brother Grok is alright before you go in there and start smashing things up,’ Doo said. ‘Then, when he is safely out of the way, I’ll help you smash things up!’
‘My kind of girl!’ Jason said. ‘Come on!’
Doo wrapped her arms around Jason’s neck, and he jumped upwards. They landed on a ledge, fifty metres up, and watched the zelf tank rumble past beneath them, the dragons stomping and splashing after it.
As he rested to regain his mental energy, Jason watched the giant bald chicken monsters disappear out of view. ‘I don’t blame them too much now for ruining our big day back in the jungle,’ he said.
‘This is our big day,’ Doo said. ‘The day the balaks regain their freedom. And anyone is welcome to join in: dragons, catrons, humans … just not zelfs!’
‘What about the friendly zelfs?’ Jason said, as he resumed the climb. ‘The resistance, the innocent civilians … Brandon?’
Doo sniffed. ‘Well, maybe one day we might all live in harmony. Maybe.’
Jason concentrated on the climb. The bionoids flowed through his body, down his arms and into his fingertips, giving him a Spider-man-style grip on even the tiniest cracks. He felt invincible, and soon they were halfway up the tower, passing through the city’s residential sector. Soldiers hurried along the bridges, walkways and suspended plazas that linked the buildings. Civilians were being ushered indoors. There were no jungle creatures to be seen this high up … although Jason did notice a squad of zelfs shooting at something that had just leaped away around a corner. The wildlife of Corroza, who were used to the maze of treetops, would love their new playground.
‘Look out!’ Doo shouted.
Clinging to a window ledge, Jason twisted his head to see what she could see. The zelf captain’s big black spacecraft had swung into view from around the opposite side of the Tower of the Moons, and was now strafing past them with all guns blazing. On instinct, Jason willed up a protective bubble of bionoids, like he had seen Brandon do so many times before. Doo gasped in relief as the lasers bounced harmlessly away.
Their attacker arced out of view around the other side of the tower, but Jason guessed that it wouldn’t be gone for long. ‘When he comes back around, I’m going to try and reach out with the bionoids and mess with his brain,’ Jason said. ‘Hopefully, he’ll spaz out and crash.’
‘Can you do that and keep up the shield at the same time?’ Doo asked.
‘Dunno. Let’s find out.’
He didn’t need to find out. The spaceship came around for a second time, but this time it didn’t bombard them with lasers. The hull of the ship was crawling with shiny black humanoid creatures, with long limbs, beaks and claws. Villaxx! The zelf captain’s ship spun wildly out of control and then fell away, disappearing from view.
‘Alright!’ Jason said. ‘Now I even love those guys. I might just forgive them for biting off my arm.’
‘The zelfs never learned to live at peace with the jungle,’ Doo said portentously. ‘It will be their downfall.’
They climbed higher and higher. Almost two kilometres up, and the rest of the city was now far below them. When he looked down, Jason could see explosions and fires breaking out everywhere. The rain continued to fall, sen
ding up clouds of thick smoke. He hoped that Brandon and Kat had managed to escape. Jason tried sending them some thoughts via the bionoids, but it was too hard to reach out with his mind and also concentrate on climbing. He misplaced his fingers and almost fell.
‘Careful,’ Doo said cheerfully. They were almost at the temple.
‘Aren’t you scared?’ Jason asked.
‘No,’ Doo said. ‘I know you won’t let us fall. I know we’re going to defeat the Arch Predicant and rescue Grok.’
‘Because Zaal told you I was the chosen one?’
‘No,’ Doo said. ‘Because I trust you! It’s you I have my faith in now.’
Doo’s words gave Jason the strength to make the final ascent. Soon they were climbing up the ancient stones that made up the very first zelf temple. They clambered over a ledge and collapsed on the cold, hard temple flagstones. Out of the rain, it was still and quiet up here. Lightning lit up the vast empty chamber, and only the occasional peal of thunder split the silence and sent echoes bouncing deep into the corridors. They were still several levels below the great pyramid, but there was no sign of any of the bare-chested temple guards, temple acolytes or servants.
‘With any luck,’ Jason said, ‘the Arch Pred dismissed his guards and turned in for an early night. He’s probably asleep right now, blissfully unaware of the carnage in the city.’
Doo drew both her long knives from her belt. ‘I don’t want it to be that easy,’ she said viciously.
And as if in answer, a hollow mocking laughter floated down through the temple, rising in volume until it was a hysterical cackle that could even be heard over the storm.
‘It’s never that easy,’ Jason groaned.
18—RECKONING