by Ian Williams
“Shit, shit, shit,” he said to himself.
With his sweaty palms making smears on the window, he looked down upon the city, to where the device was sending its immense energy beam. After only a short amount of time the fight between the shield and the beam had been won outright and finally a route through had been created.
“We have a go people, prepare to drop on my word.” Brigadier Harrington kept the line open for Graham. “Don’t worry, Mr. Denehey, I'll talk you down as you go. Now, expect a sharp increase in momentum at first. If you need to close your eyes by all means go ahead, we’re controlling everything from here. So, here we go.”
The man with the release controls then spoke up. “Initiating drop…now!”
As if in slow motion, the POD began to slide straight down and away from the Ring. Graham watched in shock as the others nearby also sped off toward the ground. He slammed his hands above his head and pushed against the immense force of acceleration. Everything became a blur of motion as he fell, and not even the city below retained any detail.
For the few seconds it took for his velocity to level out his stomach had all but vacated its normal position. It now seemed to have taken up residence at the base of his throat. If not for the sheer speed of his fall he would surely have vomited against the glass.
Seconds later and Graham’s POD was sending him updates of his descent, its calm tone a complete contradiction to the violent movement. “Descent speed at 120 miles per hour. Extending wings in three seconds.”
After the sound of an electric motor came a clunk as something settled into place. With all of his strength, Graham lifted his head an inch off of the headrest and saw two tiny black wings, no more than a metre wide each, protruding from the sides of his craft. With these the POD aimed itself roughly in the direction of the immense hole in the shield.
He fought against the gravitational force that pulled his body into the soft walls of his internal surroundings. He was desperate to keep his eyes staring ahead of himself, to make sure his path did not take him directly into the energy shield – or indeed the energy beam punching a hole in it either. But however much he tried, his body just could not counter the bone shattering vibrations coursing through him.
The POD rattled as it was whipped by strong winds and passing clouds, which had washed over Graham’s domed window-like a night-time wave of frothy sea water. Then, once beyond the reach of the evening clouds, came another shudder. This time the POD swung to the side to avoid the new force being inflicted upon it.
The cause was all too clear for Graham to miss. The route through the hole in the shield took him worryingly close to the angry sputter of energy from the Laser device aboard the Ring. Along with the magnificently bright sight came an ear popping roar as he neared the spectacle.
“Hello? Hey!” Graham called out as his mind turned to panic again. The shock had quickly passed, ready for another sensation to take over in its place. He found himself trying, in vein, to cover his eyes from the glare amid a growing light show of dazzling beauty, and great power. For that moment he could not be entirely sure he was not heading directly into the beam.
Thankfully, Brigadier Harrington heard the call and answered almost immediately. “Stay calm, Mr. Denehey. The POD is now approaching the shield. In a few moments you will be inside it and gliding toward your landing sight. Just hold tight and stay alert.”
“This is bloody crazy.” Graham ignored the attempt to calm him down and instead went straight for the throat of his mentor. “You bastards are going to get me killed.”
“Graham, you’re losing focus.”
“Of course I’m losing focus; I’m falling to my death in a fucking metal coffin!”
Another shudder of the POD brought Graham’s mind back to the foreground. He again lifted his head to see out only to find the shield now the next object racing toward him like a raging bull of purple energy.
“POD approaching obstruction, plotting safest possible course,” an automated voice said.
Ahead he could just about make out the black outline of the other PODs against the bright purple of the shield. They were moving as fast as bullets in the direction of the hole, but were much closer than Graham. They were going to enter first.
“Graham, we’re watching you from here. Everything is fine, you’re not far from the landing sight. Only another thirty seconds or so to...” The Brigadier cut the line for a short moment, but came back a little earlier than he had planned. “Shoot them then,” he ordered.
“Wait, what?” Graham’s heart leapt almost out of his chest as the first explosion rocked his POD to the side just as the purple glow passed him by. Now inside the confines of the city, his tiny craft had become a fast moving target for the enemy to take pot-shots at. The sound of debris smacking into his metal case and ricocheting off it again sent painful pulses through Graham’s temples.
“Incoming fire, activating evasion protocols,” the POD said as it instigated a set of thruster bursts away from the next round of explosions.
“Christ! We’re taking fire, come in, taking fire from the ground.” This voice came from one of the other PODs as each became embroiled in a field of fireballs that lit up the buildings below.
The view from inside the glass dome of the POD was soon flooded with orange flames and grey smoke. Graham felt each and every explosion as though inside his very body. They were getting closer.
Brigadier Harrington’s voice erupted through the speakers inside Graham’s vehicle a moment later. “The Ring’s defensive systems are online now.”
Graham was startled again by his view outside, this time by something shooting across his bow. He turned his head to the side to find what had arrived to the fight and was stunned to see a car-sized flying craft whizzing past. It was not alone, either. Not long after, another came by him, before it proceeded to spin and change direction almost instantly. “What are they?” he shouted above the noise.
“Dammit, why didn’t we know about these drones?” Brigadier Harrington was talking to one of his technicians. “The enemy has a squadron of them, all heading straight for the PODs and we never knew they even existed?”
One of the drones appeared ahead of Graham as it set about avoiding another burst of flames. It spun a couple of times and then set its course aimed directly at him. He watched it head straight in his direction, its rotors turned at a vertical angle to keep it moving at speed.
“Oh shit! Someone shoot that thing, someone please shoot,” Graham roared back through the radio system. His voice carried so much strength behind it to have almost completely emptied his lungs of air, leaving him totally breathless.
The drone continued its approach in utter defiance of Graham’s desperate plea. It shone a white light through the air and lit up his POD for all to see, as if to confirm he had become its target. It wanted him, wanted to split his craft in two and feast on the soft and gooey human centre.
“Course correction, firing thrusters.” The automated voice came at precisely the right time.
Just as the drone released a thunderous and booming jet of energy from its nose, the POD turned its own nose toward the nearest skyscraper, now only a few hundred or so feet ahead. The energy shooting from the drone passed over Graham’s head a split-second later, missing him by inches. It remained so close to him that it imparted a searing heat onto his skin, like that of touching a heater accidentally.
“Graham, do you read me?” It was Brigadier Harrington again.
Graham replied instantaneously. “I’m here, I’m here. You’ve got to land this thing, before we’re shot out of the sky.”
“We’re on that right now. Just try to stay calm. Look, I’m not going to lie to you, this isn’t what we had planned.”
“No shit. Land already!”
“The initial landing site is out of the question, there’s too much activity in the area. The enemy was waiting for us to enter; they were ready the minute we sent the PODs.”
“So pick
somewhere else then.” Graham flinched as another drone flew by, this time followed by a bright flash of light. His POD was suddenly fighting to make its way through a cloud of solid debris as the drone burst into a million pieces before his eyes.
“Scratch one!” An excited voice broke through the noise to proclaim his perfect aiming of the Ring’s defensive cannon. Those aboard were making a noticeable dent in the enemy’s flying drone force as the descent neared its unexpected end, one about to be explained to Graham as carefully as possible.
“You’re not going to like this, but we’ve no choice here anymore. Do you see that skyscraper coming up?”
“I see it, how could I not?” Graham called back, his anger all too obvious.
“Well, your new landing site is roughly somewhere on the 80th floor.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Just hold on tight!”
The automated announcer took over from then on. “Landing site identified, altering course.
The POD shifted to the side with another forceful use of the thrusters to bring it swiftly in line with the top third of the incoming skyscraper. It then followed with a solid burst of the front facing thrusters to slow Graham’s approach. The force from the firing thrusters moved his entire body weight down to his knees, which would have buckled if not for the straps holding him tightly in place.
All the while he saw the fleet of drones zooming around and avoiding fire from the Ring. For the time being they were too preoccupied with their own safety to threaten Graham or the other soldiers.
A computer overlay of the landing area popped into the glass display in front of his face. It showed a virtual landing strip that ended inside the building ahead. As he neared the night-time reflection of the surrounding city and glowing shield in the buildings windows, the thrusters fired to keep him in line with the display.
“Oh, shit,” Graham yelled, his eyes shut and his head turned to the side.
When the POD smashed through the giant window of the 80th floor, it did so with tremendous force. The floor of his craft screamed out in a high-pitched squeal as it slid across the ground. Graham opened his eyes to see nothing but ceiling tiles shooting by him, joined a moment later by tables and chairs. His momentum tossed the insides of the office building aside like bowling pins, scattering them far and wide as he skidded by.
He held on for dear life, with the hope it would all end soon.
Still the thrusters fired to slow his path. They did their best to prevent him from continuing out the other side of the building. But the POD moved as though on ice, making its way smoothly through the building. It crashed through one plaster wall after another as it travelled.
Eventually it came across a concrete pillar that just would not budge, stopping it in its tracks and flipping it over. With all the force of his upper body thrown forward, Graham’s straps had loosened enough to send him face-first into the glass door of his small craft. The last thing he saw before falling into unconsciousness was a dark red circle where his head had hit.
“Graham?” The voice in his head spoke softly and slowly, and became more distant with each millisecond that passed. “Buddy. Can you hear me?”
Everything then turned to black.
Chapter 11
Conversion
Stanley followed the shadowy figure of Isaac through dark corridors that shimmered as though made of glass. He stroked the nearby wall as he walked, feeling the smoothness against his skin. It was cold to the touch, but he did not mind. To him it stood as a sign of something magical about to come. This was not a world designed by human hands, this was so much more beautiful. And after the replay of the past he had witnessed – one he had been cast in the role of Isaac during – he had come to expect no less from his master.
They passed more of Isaac’s servants as they ventured deeper into the structure, Isaac continuing along with his arms crossed behind his back. Each person Stanley saw wore the usual attire, that of black fatigues, and were as unblinking and emotionless as those he had dealt with before. Yet these were working in the heart of the homeland, so appeared more at home within the bowels of Isaac’s secret lair beneath the city. They had been allowed the privilege of residing near to their master’s throne; a privilege Stanley was beginning to appreciate he may be about to be granted too.
Isaac took them through one last long corridor before reaching their true destination. This was no recreation, like before, but very much the reality of their world. Stanley was thankful for that, as the whole idea of being trapped within such a strange and timeless universe, as that of Isaac’s virtual worlds, brought an ache to his mind. He had been tricked so easily into believing he was Isaac in that moment that he worried what else he could be brought to believe.
Where the corridor ended it immediately opened out into an enormous cathedral-like space, with tall arches of smooth glass running the length above them. Inside there was room to fit at least four jumbo jets sitting side-by-side. It was immense. Or it would have been if not for the area having been broken up into specific zones – all manned by more of the Sentients in human bodies. Separating these zones were glass pillars and semi-transparent walls.
“This is the centre of my operation,” Isaac said. He stood with his arms outstretched and his head tilted up to the impressive patterns between the arches. Pride for what he had created was smudged right across his pale face.
Looking out to the left of their position, Stanley could roughly make out a purpose to what he saw. There, as though completely normal for them, a group of Sentients stood facing a floating orb with their eyes shut and their heads bowed. As if this alone was not enough to cause him a few troubled thoughts, more was then added.
The orb reacted to any Sentients near to it by sending out a streak of electricity that slowly explored the air between them, until finding the black boxes on the sides of their heads. The moment they made contact with these fingers of white energy they snapped their heads back and gawked at the ceiling above them. What concerned Stanley the most, though, was their eyes; each turned entirely white and seemingly brimming with glowing power.
“What is happening over there?” he asked.
Isaac took a quick look in the direction that had distracted his guest and smiled. “Each of my servants requires updating every now and then. Think of it like installing a new operating system. It keeps them all ahead of the enemy’s attempts to stand in their way.”
“Are they being prevented from doing their jobs then? By the other humans, I mean.”
“On a few occasions, yes. Such setbacks are to be expected in times of war. I take their loved ones, and they reply with an attack on my relays. They may bring one or two down, but they will never stop me. There is another purpose to these Orbs, one only a few are able to make use of.”
“May I ask what that might be?”
“Come,” Isaac said as he ushered Stanley toward the object.
They neared the glowing surface of the Orb, where Stanley began to appreciate its real size. The thing was the height of three full-size men standing on each other's shoulders. The Sentients standing around it were like children looking up with reverence to an elder. None of them recognised their master was within the vicinity, they were too consumed by the Orb. He could see why. He felt an almost irresistible urge to caress it, to keep it in permanent contact with his body in some way.
“Go ahead, Stanley, touch it,” Isaac said, another smile on his face that could tempt even the strongest of wills.
With an initial period of hesitation, Stanley offered his left hand over. His mind raced as he considered the possible outcomes. He had come to realise that his tests were to help him understand the real power his master had, and so this would be yet another impressive sight. Except when his skin made contact with the icy surface of the Orb he was in for an instant shock.
A flash of light followed.
“What happened?” Stanley said. His hand left it immediately after. He cou
ghed a moment later when his voice came out slightly weaker than before. Something strange had tried to happen, he had seen as much for the split second he allowed it to go on. For a moment he was no longer in the same place. Fear had gotten the better of him, though, pulling him away from what should have occurred.
“You have nothing to be afraid of, Stanley,” Isaac said, beside him once again.
“What was that?”
“Touch it again and find out for yourself.”
This time when he placed his hand upon the smooth surface of the Orb he waited for the same flash of light, expecting it to burst into his mind like before. Perhaps having already experienced it once had taken the intensity of it away, as it affected him less this time.
After the flash came more, much more now. He was outside, in the open air, and looking to a Sentient to his right. He had left the underground cathedral of Isaac’s glassy world behind and ventured elsewhere.
He turned his attention to what knelt before the Sentient near to him. To his surprise there was a line of six people – all ordinary citizens – positioned there and waiting for something to happen. They were bound by the hands and all showing the signs of exhaustion. Stanley found himself being drawn into the scene further as he tried his hardest to work out what was going on.
Another Sentient stepped forward and joined Stanley, before handing him a small, round implement. When he looked down to take the item, he was distracted by his clothing; he wore the same black as the other two. Slowly he was beginning to see what had just happened. He had not been transported there at all, his mind had somehow entered this body.
“What’s this?” he said with a much deeper voice than his usual.
His two fellow Sentients remained silent and did not even acknowledge he had asked them anything. They continued with the procedure instead. Both stepped toward one of the captured humans and held out the same round object he now held in his gloved hand. With no interaction from the Sentients at all the devices lit up and then leapt onto their nearest person. The affected prisoners snapped up into a straightened position and rolled their eyes back. Whatever was happening to them it appeared quite painful.