Sullivan Saga 2: Sullivan's Wrath

by Michael K. Rose

  “We’re almost out of projectiles,” said Quinn.

  “Throw what you have.”

  “Wait a bit while we gather more.”

  “No. Whatever is on the other side knows that they’re being attacked. If we stop, they’ll think that was all we were capable of. We need to make them close it down now before anything else comes through.” He got to his feet. “Ready, Frank?”

  “Wait,” said Allen. “Something’s happening.”

  Sullivan looked up and saw the disc of the wormhole slowly beginning to contract. After a few seconds, it was no larger than a tree trunk. A few seconds after that it had disappeared from view altogether.

  They all cautiously walked toward the spot where the wormhole had been. “It’s gone,” Sullivan said.

  Quinn laughed. “It’s gone?” He turned to his men. “It’s gone!”

  A cry of joy erupted from the men.

  Allen reached into his coat pocket and took out his remote to signal the ship. “Captain Quinn, you’re finally going to get to see a spaceship.”

  Quinn smiled and looked skyward.

  Allen tapped on the control. “Uh-oh,” he said after a minute.

  “What?” asked Sullivan.

  “It’s not working.”

  Sullivan took it from Allen’s hands. “Did you land on it?”

  “No. I’m sure I didn’t.”

  “Then it should work, Frank. Where’d you get it?”

  “I bought it back on Abilene. It calibrated to the ship just fine.”

  Sullivan knitted his brow. “But it was on the ship when we were in hyperspace. It could have been tampered with.”

  “You mean by Liz?”

  “Yes.”

  Allen opened his mouth to protest but closed it again. “God damn it,” he said quietly.

  Sullivan sighed. “Can we fix it?” he asked, looking it over.

  “I don’t know what’s wrong. I was able to send the ship away with it, so it does have some functionality. I’m just not able to call the ship back. And we don’t have the right equipment to diagnose the problem.”

  Quinn looked from Allen to Sullivan. “You mean you’re stuck here?”

  Sullivan looked at his watch. “Not quite. The ship is programmed to return to the point where we first disembarked in… seventy-four hours. Assuming that program hasn’t also been tampered with.”

  Allen closed his eyes. “We have to at least try to get back. It took us five days to get here,” said Allen, “but that was at a pretty slow pace, not knowing what was in front of us. We should be able to get back in time now that we know the lay of the land.”

  “How long will it wait for you?” asked Quinn.

  “That’s not the issue,” said Sullivan. “It’ll sit there until we return to it, but we can’t risk letting anyone either take it or destroy it.”

  Quinn nodded. “I know I would have tried to blow something like that up if I came across it without knowing about you.”

  Allen pocketed the remote and looked up at Sullivan. “We’d better move, Rick.”

  “No time for long goodbyes, I’m afraid,” said Sullivan, turning to Quinn. “The best of luck to you.”

  Quinn shook Sullivan’s hand, then Allen’s. “And to you.”

  They said their goodbyes to the rest of the men, and Sullivan began walking briskly in the direction they had come.

  “What about the energy weapons?” Allen asked, catching up to him.

  “Someone may be able to reverse engineer the technology, but this planet could still be a target of the aliens. It’ll come in handy if they’re attacked again.”

  Allen glanced back and waved at Quinn and his men once more. When he turned around, he saw that Sullivan had gained another dozen meters. He jogged off in pursuit.

  ALLEN WAS SLEEPING lightly even though he knew Sullivan was keeping watch. They had reached the farmhouse where they’d left the boy several hours before the ship was scheduled to land and had decided that it would be a good place to wait.

  Allen heard a noise somewhere in the house. He lifted his head from the pillow. “Did you hear that?” he whispered.

  Sullivan nodded in response. “Get up.”

  Allen took his gun from his coat pocket and got up on one knee. He checked the charge. He only had one shot left. “What was it?” he asked.

  “I don’t know yet, but I think someone just came in the front door.” Sullivan got up and waved for Allen to follow him. They moved out of the bedroom and peeked down the stairway. A shadow shifted. Sullivan raised his weapon. He noiselessly crept down the stairs, Allen behind him.

  Sullivan caught another glimpse of movement and rushed down the hall after it. Allen took off in pursuit. He saw Sullivan slip through an open doorway and heard yelling a second later. He burst into the room and stopped short. The boy they had met ten days before was cowering in the corner beneath a table.

  Allen laughed. “Well I’ll be damned.”

  The boy, recognizing them, came out from under the table and grinned. Allen smiled back. “Nice to see a smiling face for a change.”

  Sullivan tousled the boy’s hair. “That’s for sure.” He glanced at his watch. “But we have less than an hour to go, Frank. We should get to the landing site.”

  “Hang on,” said Allen. He went back upstairs and returned with his bag. He emptied its contents onto the table and gestured at the boy. He seemed to recognize the food rations from before and threw his arms around Allen before seizing one of the packets and ripping it open.

  Allen grinned, watching the boy eat. “Did you say we have an hour?”

  “Just under.”

  “Then we don’t need to leave just yet. I want to take the time to fortify this place.”

  Sullivan started to protest but changed his mind as the boy smiled at him again. “All right. But we have to be quick about it.”

  They spent the next half hour barricading the downstairs doors and windows as well as they could. When they had finished, Sullivan reached into his duffle bag and took out a Lee-Enfield rifle. “I forgot I still had this,” he said. He handed it to the boy. “You know how to use this?” he asked.

  The boy took the rifle and pulled back the bolt. He ejected the magazine and cleared the chamber. He put the loose bullet back in the magazine then slammed it into place again.

  “I guess that’s a ‘yes,’” said Allen.

  Sullivan smiled. “I hope he makes it,” he said. “It’ll be quite a while before the aliens who did get through can be hunted down and killed.”

  “At least he’ll have enough to eat for a while.” Allen waved to the boy as he stepped out into the hallway. The boy smiled again around a mouthful of food. “We’ve done all we can for him,” Allen said. “Let’s head to the landing site.”

  V: TRANSFORMATION

  39

  BROTHER PETER DID as Pope Pius had recommended: he prayed. For an entire week, he spent the mornings exploring the sights of Rome, primarily those of religious significance, then returned to his hotel room in the afternoon to pray until dinnertime.

  In all that time, he received no answer, no sign that God was hearing his prayers. By the end of the week, he was feeling lost and confused. Neither he nor anyone else had seen any more visions of Christ, as far as he had heard.

  On his seventh day after meeting with the Pope, Peter knelt to pray once more. “Dear Lord,” he said, “why have you not appeared again? I know you have your reasons, but why make us wait to know your will? We need your guidance. I need your guidance.”

  As he knelt by the side of his bed, he heard a noise. He looked up and saw Christ, no longer bloody and on the cross but as Peter imagined he would have appeared after his resurrection. Pristine white robes draped the figure, and a golden glow emanated from behind him.

  “My Lord,” Peter said, holding out his hands.

  Jesus stepped toward him and around the bed. Peter turned to face his savior. Jesus grasped Peter’s still-outstretched hands,
bent his head and kissed each of Peter’s palms.

  Peter wept openly as Jesus guided him into a standing position so that Peter was face to face with him. Peter gazed into Jesus’s eyes then looked away to the side, overwhelmed by the sight.

  “Brother Peter,” Jesus said.

  Peter bowed his head. “My Lord.”

  “My return is imminent. But you must clear the path for me.”

  “What can I do?”

  “You have already begun. You have spread the message of my return, and the faithful across the world are beginning to know that it is true.”

  “I serve only you, my Lord.”

  Jesus smiled. “Your devotion warms my heart, Brother Peter. But there is still much more to do.”

  “Tell me, and I will obey.”

  “The day after tomorrow, on Sunday, I will appear before the crowds gathered in Saint Peter’s Square. I need you to be there.”

  “Yes, I will be.”

  “But you must be with the Pope before he goes to his window to bless them.”

  “With the Pope, my Lord?”

  “Yes. You must prepare him for my appearance. He must be ready to give guidance.”

  “How can I do this? I can request an audience with His Holiness, but I cannot decide when he will see me.”

  “Leave that to me, my son. Ask for an audience with Pius one hour before the blessing. I will ensure that he receives you. That is when I will make my appearance.”

  “Yes, my Lord.”

  Jesus smiled. “You serve me well, Peter.”

  “What else can I do, Lord?”

  “What you have been doing: pray.”

  Peter lowered his eyes and nodded. The grip on his hands loosened. When he looked back up, he was alone.

  40

  FRANK ALLEN CAME back from the cockpit and joined Sullivan in the lounge. “I’ve laid in a course for Edaline,” he said.

  Sullivan nodded. “Was Liz in there with you?”

  “Yes.”

  “I suspected as much. She still hasn’t revealed herself to me, but I know she’s been around ever since we reentered hyperspace.”

  “Look, Rick, the things I was saying to you a few days back….”

  “About how you want me to stop you from doing anything… out of character?”

  Allen laughed. “Yes. I don’t know what I was talking about exactly. But you don’t have to worry about that any more. I know what I need to do.”

  Sullivan arched an eyebrow. “What do you mean, Frank?”

  “I told you before that Liz said I could join her. ‘Cross over’ was the term she used.”

  “No, Frank. You told me to stop you from doing this. You said it when you were away from Liz, away from her influence. I believed you then. I don’t believe you now.”

  Allen laughed again. “It’s all right, Rick. I’ve made this decision with a clear mind. I’ve gone over it again and again. It’s what I want.”

  Sullivan stood and turned away from his friend. “Don’t you remember our conversation? Remember the remote? She tampered with it, Frank. Everything she’s done has been to make sure we do exactly what she wants, when she wants. How can you say you trust her again?”

  “Everything is clear now. I don’t understand all the reasons yet, but I understand all the same.”

  “This isn’t you, Frank. Just like it wasn’t you when you knocked me out and forced me onto this ship against my will. Don’t you remember that?”

  “Of course, Rick. I apologized for it. But I didn’t see any other way at the time. And hasn’t it been for the best? We saved all those people from the aliens. That little boy… he’s alive right now because of us.”

  Sullivan turned back to face Allen. “So you’re definitely going to do it? You’re going to let her take you?”

  “Yes.”

  “How will it work?”

  “Liz said it’ll be just like dying. Only she’ll be able to transfer my consciousness into hyperspace.”

  “And your body? It’ll be left behind?”

  Allen nodded. “I’m afraid you’ll have to deal with that. I won’t be dead, so I don’t think a funeral or service is necessary.”

  Sullivan shook his head. “Do you hear yourself, Frank? You’re talking about your body as though it’s just to be discarded like an animal carcass.”

  “It is just a carcass. Soon I won’t need it. I’ll be eternal.”

  “When is this going to happen?”

  “Liz is making the preparations now.”

  “She’s not here now? Not watching us?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  Sullivan lunged forward and grabbed Allen by the front of his shirt. “Then you listen to me, Frank. Listen! She does something to you, makes you think things you wouldn’t otherwise think. Can’t you see that?”

  “Of course I see it, Rick! She allows me to cast off all the trivial thoughts and feelings that this body forces me to consider. She lets me see things from a perspective that you just can’t understand. I wish you could, Rick! If I could only show you….”

  “You said you trusted me, Frank. You remember that, don’t you? You said you trusted me but didn’t know if you could trust her.”

  “I remember, Rick.”

  “Trust me, Frank. Don’t do this.” He pulled his friend into an embrace and held him tightly.

  Allen briefly put his arms around Sullivan then gently pushed him away. “I love you, Rick. I love you and Kate both. But Liz is….”

  “She’s not Liz.”

  “Damn it, don’t you think I know that?” He turned away and wiped his eyes.

  Sullivan put his hand on Allen’s shoulder, but it was shrugged off. “What do you want from me, Frank? You told me to stop you. I’m trying. But if she—if they—want to take you, what can I do?”

  Allen looked up. “You can let me go. You can let me go with a clear conscience knowing that you did your duty as a friend. But I release you of that promise. It’s out of your hands now.” Allen returned to his chair and sat back down. He looked off toward the corner of the room as though he were listening to a distant sound. “It’s time. I want you here with me, Rick. Please?”

  Sullivan pulled his chair in front of Allen and sat down. He took his friend’s hands in his. “I’m here for you, Frank.”

  Allen smiled. A tear rolled down his cheek and fell from his chin. “Give my love to Kate,” he said. “And my regards to Dale. On my tablet, there are some messages for some friends and family on Earth. Will you see that they’re sent?”

  “I will.” Sullivan glanced around the room. The air had changed. “She’s here now, isn’t she?”

  “Yes.”

  “How will it happen?”

  “I guess I’ll just… die.”

  “And how will I know that it worked? That you’re still around?”

  Allen shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  “Will you be able to visit me the way Liz can?”

  “I don’t know any of that, Rick. I only know that I’ll be able to be with Liz.”

  Sullivan took a deep breath. “You’re sure you want this?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Okay,” Sullivan said quietly. “I’ll miss you.”

  “I’ll miss you, too. Goodbye, Rick.”

  “Goodbye, Frank.”

  Sullivan felt Allen squeeze his hands. After a few seconds, his grip slackened. Sullivan heard his friend exhale heavily one final time then watched as his eyes dimmed and his body slumped forward in the chair.

  Sullivan stood up and wiped the moisture from his face. He gently lifted Allen’s body and carried it to the airlock where he could store it in sub-zero temperatures until he returned to Edaline.

  IT WAS RAINING in Agrona when Sullivan arrived. Being a tropical climate it often rained, but this particular storm seemed especially brutal.

  Sullivan landed the ship at Agrona’s spaceport. He’d contacted Kate as soon as he had emerged from hyperspace a
nd was glad to see her waiting for him.

  Kate ran up as Sullivan opened the side hatch of the ship. She threw her arms around him and held him tight. “Let’s get inside,” she said, wiping the rain from her face.

  There was a small lounge inside the terminal, and Kate sat down next to Sullivan, still holding his hands. “Why is Frank still on the ship?” she asked.

  Sullivan lowered his eyes.

  “Rick, where’s Frank?”

  “Kate… he’s gone.”

  Kate put her face in her hands. Sullivan held her for several minutes while she cried.

  “What happened?” she asked, rubbing her eyes.

  “It’s a long story, and I’ll tell you everything. But Frank—his body—is on the ship. I need to have it seen to. I’m going to call General Miller and have him contact someone who can take Frank’s body to the morgue. But I want to stay with him until then. Will you wait for me at Fort Hendricks?”

  Kate nodded. Sullivan helped her up and saw her to the waiting armored vehicle before turning back and walking out to the ship. He went on board and opened the secondary airlock where he’d stored Allen’s body. He knelt down beside it and put his hand on the cold face of his friend.

  “This is it,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again, but I hope that wherever you are—whatever you are—you really are happy. I hope Liz kept her word. And if you can, let me know.”

  GENERAL MILLER HAD been very helpful and understanding. He’d sent a military ambulance to the spaceport to transfer Allen’s body. Sullivan assured Miller that he’d make the final arrangements and let him know the details.

  When he returned to the quarters where he and Kate were staying, she was lying on the bed asleep. Sullivan stripped down to his underwear and lay down beside her. She stirred. “Rick?”

  “Yes. I’m here.”

  Kate turned around and hugged him. “Can you tell me now what happened?”

  Sullivan took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of her perfume. He told her about the parallel universe and Captain Quinn, about the creatures they had fought and how they had forced the aliens to close the wormhole. Finally he told her about how Allen had died or, Sullivan hoped, passed on.