The Last Exodus

by Paul Tassi

  “I planned nothing, but it was good fortune the pair of you have become . . . compatible after much initial hostility. There may be hope for your species yet.”

  “What? There are whole worlds of Sorans out there.”

  “Yes, but you are an alternatively evolved strain. You are physiologically unique. The differences are subtle, but present. I’ve studied your species intensely for years now, and there are many aspects of your genetics that are remarkable.”

  “We’re not doing this to repopulate the universe with humans. It’s . . . something else.”

  Alpha looked surprised.

  “An emotional connection? A pleasant side-effect. How fortunate for you. Though it is likely the result of proximity compounded by intense duress.”

  “I see you’re a romantic then.”

  “Sarcasm. Humorous.”

  “So let me get this straight, you wanted Asha and I on the ship so we could be the last surviving members of our species?”

  “You were preferable to my current crew, which was in stasis, devoid of brainwaves, so yes.”

  The elevator continued its slow crawl. Alpha quickly continued.

  “Though you have proven yourselves more than capable on this journey. I am certain without the pair of you I would have never escaped the clutches of your dead planet.”

  He paused.

  “Additionally, I . . . enjoy the presence of others onboard. Years of solitude can warp and degrade the mind.”

  Alpha had convinced Lucas the pair of them was more than another science project, though it was still a strange concept. Lucas thought of Earth. In the past few months, it had likely cooked even further. Soon the poles would be the only proper place to reside, and then they too would go up in flames. Outside of their brain-dead companions, he and Asha really were the last man and woman on Earth. Well, from Earth. Could love actually be found in that? Or was it just “proximity and duress” the way Alpha said?

  As the elevator doors opened, Asha was already waiting for them at the end of the hall. She was dressed in baggy black pants and a white tank top and leaning in the doorframe of the stasis room. She answered their next question.

  “I took the ladder. I hate those elevators.”

  Lucas was glad she’d missed their conversation. Alpha approached the lab door and opened it, ushering them inside.

  The room was an utter disaster, with pieces of metal and wire everywhere. Lucas wondered how on earth Alpha was getting anything done. There were materials he’d pilfered from all over the ship, and Lucas and Asha had to tread carefully around it all in order not to trip. Finally, they arrived at the desk, where two long cases lay.

  “This item has been crafted specifically for Asha.”

  The first case opened on its own accord. A long, flat, black blade was inside. The handle was laced with electronic circuitry, some of which fed into the dark metal above it.

  “Take it,” Alpha said. “It is not meant for my grip.”

  Asha picked it up, looking at it with wonder. It was quite a bit longer than her arm, and the blade was so thin that, when turned sideways, it was barely visible at all.

  “It’s light,” she remarked with awe. “Really light. What is this made of?”

  Alpha looked proud.

  “An alloy that I will not attempt to pronounce in your language, but one more durable than anything you have crafted on Earth. It is what constitutes the armored parts of this ship.”

  “You forged this out of the hull?” Lucas asked.

  “I secured a piece from the inside. Normally the alloy is not able to be rendered thin enough to forge a blade, but I devised a process to do so using [garbled] and [garbled].”

  “It’s . . . lovely,” Asha said, enraptured by her new weapon. She held it aloft in the overhead light.

  “Much of the coming combat will be close-quarters, and I thought you could put it to proper use.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “That will cut through any class of armor when wielded with proper force. Additionally, it is laced with electricity to be used as a paralyzing agent.”

  Alpha motioned to the handle. Asha slid her finger across a small protrusion at the hilt and the black blade crackled with blue electricity. Asha’s eyes lit up in a similar fashion.

  “May it serve you well.”

  Asha was too floored to say any more. Alpha turned to Lucas and motioned to the second case.

  As the lid rose, Lucas couldn’t believe what lay in front of him.

  It was Natalie. Transformed.

  His beloved gun had been salvaged from the brink of death, and from the looks of it, given a hell of a makeover. Alpha spoke as Lucas took it into his hands.

  “Our weapons are too large for you to wield effectively. I took the liberty of infusing your damaged rifle with Xalan technology, and I must say I have created a weapon more effective than either planet offered originally.”

  The grip and stock and even the trigger were the same, and the faded NATALIE could still be seen etched into the rear. The sight was retrofitted with a holographic scope, and the magazine had been replaced by a cylindrical power pack. The entire frame was streaked with circuitry and a few lights on the side glowed a dim blue. Whatever personified vision Lucas had seen of Natalie in his dream, this was more beautiful.

  “What does she shoot?” Lucas said, overlooking the use of the pronoun.

  “Superheated plasma rounds. But ones far more volatile than anything in the typical Xalan arsenal. The technology is normally reserved for artillery, but I’ve managed to condense it into a much smaller package. As such, it will melt through all manner of materials with ease and produce a great deal of concussive force.”

  Lucas hadn’t even noticed Natalie had been taken down off the mantle in his room. He supposed he’d been occupied with . . . other activities. But it felt incredible to have his treasured weapon back. Despite its new killing power, it felt like the same old gun in his hands. There was no trace of the wound that had crippled it, and the gun seemed to hum with power.

  “I ask that you not test fire your weapon inside the ship. It may cause . . . complications with the hull. I have programmed a simulation that will mimic the effects of firing for training purposes.”

  Alpha presented them with two more gifts. Lucas received a short knife made out of the same material as Asha’s sword (though not electrified) and Asha a case of ammo for her Magnum. The bullets were explosive, and Alpha said something about them containing microscopic fission reactions before his translator became a jumbled mess of sounds when he couldn’t explain the technology any further. He then motioned to the rear of the room, where two unfinished sets of power armor lay stretched out, one larger, one smaller.

  “I have not yet been able to complete your armor at this time. Converting from a Xalan body type to a human one is a rather prolonged process, and the weapons took precedence. But I hope to be finished shortly so that you may grow accustomed to them.”

  A rough metal skeleton of some other device sat a few feet away. It was large. Quite large.

  “And what’s that?”

  “Another project. One that requires much more work. Though it may prove to be the most necessary of all. You will understand when I am finished.”

  Alpha turned away from the machine.

  “I imagine you would like to test out your weapons. Feel free to do so, but please do not destroy the ship before we have a chance to face Omicron.”

  The armory seemed like the most logical place to try out their new gear. The boxes upon boxes of weapons they’d taken from Earth were largely useless now. Bullets alone, Alpha had told them, would prove futile against the advanced armor of Omicron’s elite squadron, while the explosives would have to be extremely well placed to have an effect.

  Asha had already chopped up a handful of storage crates with her sword and was practically giddy as she tore through a nearby light machine gun like it was foam. Her form wasn’t exactly that of a seasoned
samurai, but it wasn’t bad either.

  Lucas, meanwhile, couldn’t fire the newly refurbished Natalie without carving giant holes in the wall, so he set about employing Alpha’s “test fire” mode instead. The program caused the gun to simulate recoil in its three main firing modes. It could shoot a stream of small plasma rounds like a typical machine gun, it could be focused to line up a distant shot like a sniper rifle, and finally a switch with the Xalan symbol for “carnage” turned it into an area of effect shotgun, blasting a million tiny plasma particles at close range. The barrel narrowed and widened, lengthened and shortened, based on which option was selected. The kickback when he test fired its final setting was enormous, and the sound deafened them both for a few seconds. If the gun was live, Lucas imagined the metal wall in front of him would be a large, smoking hole. But he would have to wait to be sure.

  Asha had no safety mode on her blade, so when she shoved it into the wall and activated the electricity, they both jumped as the surge blew out the power to the door. The controls smoked and sparked, and they could no longer close the entryway. Asha merely shrugged as Lucas glared at her.

  He busied himself thumbing through the different scope options, which were a significant upgrade from Natalie’s old crosshairs. Zoom went up to 20x magnification, and as he scaled back and aimed at Asha, he could see that his lenses included thermal, infrared, and ultraviolet, all of which set his target apart from the background, turning her some bright color of white, orange, or purple. He was surprised to find one last option, simply marked “X.” Upon activation, Asha turned skeletal, and he found he could see through each crate, even over into the next room if he focused correctly. He could only imagine the tactical implications of being able to see through walls.

  “Could you not point that thing at me?” Asha said as she ceased sword swinging. “I’d rather not be vaporized before we even start fighting.”

  “It’s not hot,” Lucas said as he tapped an indicator on the gun. It was only programmed to fire when the scope read Lucas’s eye, to help prevent having his own gun used against him. Alpha said that he had entered Asha’s retinal pattern as well in the instance that Lucas had been killed and she needed the weapon to defend herself. It was a morbid thought, but a logical one. As such, he let Asha familiarize herself with it for a bit, while he handled her sword.

  It was light. Impossibly light, if it was as durable as Alpha claimed. Lucas picked up a submachine gun he now deemed useless, tossed it in the air and cleaved it into two with ease. He may as well have been cutting through a throw pillow. To test the mettle of his new knife, he struck it against the blade. The two were indeed forged from the same material; they sparked brightly, but left not even a scratch on one another. After only a minute, Asha wanted it back.

  At the end of the day, Lucas mounted Neo-Natalie back on the perch above his bed. Sure, half the weapon was now Xalan, but it was more beautiful than ever. He thought back to his dream where the gun had come to life before him in an ethereal form of her namesake. She really was his guardian angel, watching over him during these long, hard years. He’d certainly test that title during the upcoming battle.

  But she wasn’t the only one in his corner. Asha walked down the corridor as she did nightly, this time with her sword strapped to her back. It was clear she was never going to let it out of her sight, and it joined Christian’s Magnum as a permanent fixture on her person. Lucas sat at his desk as she approached, unwinding with a worn, water-stained copy of Brave New World. It hadn’t occurred to him until recently that all that remained of Earth’s treasured literature was sitting right here in his quarters. He had some classics sure, but authors like James Joyce, Ayn Rand, George Orwell, and the ancients like Homer and Dante were all lost to history. He’d searched around his collection and found no trace of the works of Shakespeare or a single copy of the Bible. Well, at least Harry Potter lived on.

  Asha unslung her sword and flung it at the opposite wall behind Lucas. He was so used to such commotion around her that he only directed his eyes upward toward her while his nose remained buried in the book.

  “Watch this,” she said.

  She was wearing a small metal cuff Lucas had never seen before. Bending her wrist upward, a small light activated in the center. Immediately, the sword flew out of the wall and back into her hand, fifteen feet away. That made Lucas put his book down.

  “Whoa.”

  “Alpha just finished up the bracelet a few hours ago.”

  “How does it work?”

  “Some sort of directed electromagnetism, but I had him spare me the boring details. It’s just nice to know I’ve got some range on this thing if I need it.”

  “Even still, I wouldn’t let that out of your hand too often.”

  She looked at the handle and swung the blade around in a circle across her palm.

  “Yeah, I’m worried one of these times it’s going to come back and take a few fingers off.”

  She walked past the desk and jammed the blade into the top.

  “Hey!” Lucas cried sharply.

  Asha rolled her eyes.

  “You really care about this stuff?” she said, motioning to his furniture. “In a few weeks we’re going to either be dead or on some alien planet. Either way, I doubt you’ll be taking it with you.”

  Glaring at her, Lucas dislodged the blade from the wood and handed it back to her.

  “Fine,” she said flatly, and threw it into the opposite wall once more. Mercifully, it stuck a full foot away from where Natalie was perched. Lucas continued his glare. Asha ignored him and sat down on the edge of his desk.

  “You think this new ordinance is going to get us through?”

  Lucas leaned back in his chair, his scowl fading.

  “Honestly, I’ve no idea. Truth is I’ve expected to die nearly every day for the last few years. Why should this be any different?”

  Asha was silent, her feet dangling loosely.

  “The Ark has been a sanctuary, sure. But it was always only temporary,” Lucas continued.

  “Yeah,” Asha said. “But it’s the closest thing to something like home in a long while now.”

  Lucas couldn’t dispute that.

  “I never got to defend my home back on Earth. It was gone when I showed up. At least this time I’ll have a chance.”

  Asha lay down on the mattress and looked toward the ceiling. Lucas set his book down and joined her. Only the faint whir of machinery was audible as the lights dimmed.

  “I don’t want to die yet,” Asha said quietly. “I want to make it there. I want to see what all this was for.”

  “We will.”

  “Will we?”

  “We will.”

  22

  The day had come.

  Lucas shifted uncomfortably in his hand-crafted power armor. Even after training in it every day for the last few weeks, and despite Alpha’s constant adjustments, parts still pinched him at times. The suit wasn’t pretty, that was for sure. It was a patchwork of unpainted dark metal, some from the original armor they’d taken from the mothership, the rest scavenged from the Ark itself. Given an unlimited amount of time, Alpha said he could make armor almost entirely out of the hull alloy that composed Asha’s sword. But in a crunch, he had to make do with a few select pieces of plating in key areas. The electronic implants in the suit allowed Lucas to move more quickly and exhibit strength beyond the capabilities of his natural body, though he had to be in perfect shape to be able to utilize it correctly. It had taken him three days and a dozen bruises just to learn to walk in the thing, and only recently had he fully mastered running and jumping.

  Lucas stood with Natalie on his back and his helmet in his hand. His black-bladed knife was fixed to his chest, and he surveyed the CIC about three inches taller than he stood normally. Beside him was Asha, her own armor a similar design to his. She too had her helmet off, and her dark hair was pulled back into a high ponytail. Together the pair of them stared into the viewscreen, the hazy blue-g
reen light of the space-time tunnel greeting them. It wasn’t much longer now. Soon they’d arrive in a new solar system. Fifteen planets, eighty moons, and a yellow sun only slightly larger than their own. Somewhere out there, Sora, their haven, awaited.

  Lucas was jolted out of his thoughts by a thud and a vibration that shook the floor. He looked at Asha, and the calamity repeated itself. Then again, even louder. It was getting closer. They turned around.

  The central door of the CIC opened, and a giant armored mechanical monster came lumbering through, the top of it almost grazing the doorframe. Lucas marveled at the behemoth. It wasn’t a threat—he knew who was responsible for it.

  It continued its march toward them, each step shaking the room even more. It had two legs and two arms, all four of which were wider than Lucas’s entire body. One appendage ended with a large, metallic recreation of a Xalan claw. The other arm had no digits, only a massive cylinder that had to be some sort of weapon. The torso was heavily plated, and Lucas recognized the familiar black alloy. The suit had no neck, causing the head to be engulfed into the body. Two brightly lit slits vaguely resembled eyes. The suit spoke.

  “Greetings.”

  The familiar mechanical voice now had actual machinery to go with it.

  “Holy shit,” Asha said breathlessly.

  The center of the mech split open, and as it did, the arms and backward-bending leg plating followed suit. Alpha stepped out and walked toward them.

  “Behold, our final weapon,” he said, motioning behind him. “I feared I would not complete production in time.”

  Lucas walked over to the mech.

  “Jesus, this thing is huge.”

  And it was. It had to be eleven feet tall, and nearly that wide.

  “I designed it making sure that it could provide maximum protection while still moving about the ship. It should be able to access all the main areas, though a few smaller corridors will remain out of its jurisdiction.”

  Asha ran her hand over the right arm that ended in a giant cannon.

  “How did you make this thing?”

  Alpha motioned for them to follow him around to the rear. As they reached the backside, a familiar blue glow was visible, coming out of the cracks of the plating. Alpha opened a panel and their suspicion was confirmed. The blue null core that had initially powered their ship resided in the base of the suit’s spine.