by Brett Patton
Marjan swiped at Matt’s Demon’s visor with his claws. Matt brought an arm up, blocking him at the last moment. Marjan’s Demon’s hand glowed with blue-white fusion power as he struggled to find a grip for his Fusion Handshake. If Matt let him lock on, he might be done for.
Dazzling light filled the chamber as Norah and Mikey unloaded with their Zap Guns. Cells vaporized on either side of the two struggling Demons, showering them with red-hot spatters of molten aluminum. Walkways flashed yellow-hot and crumpled into a tangle of twisted metal. Matt imagined he could hear short, high-pitched screams as the HuMax were wiped out, one by one.
“No!” Matt screamed, and bucked Marjan off him. He fired thrusters and went full-force at Norah. The reflection of the incandescent Zap Gun beam in her visor cast a jagged highlight along its mirror surface, as if she were smiling.
Matt hit Norah before she could react. Her Zap Gun fire went wild, slicing through the remaining cells. Metal girders and duraplas sheets collapsed and pelted the Mecha with razor-edged debris. Matt batted it away as he dug into Norah. She struggled to bring her Zap Gun around and aim it at him.
Behind them, Mikey continued the wholesale annihilation of the opposite cells. His job was almost complete; the entire north side of the complex slumped in on itself, ready to crumple. Deep blue ice showed through holes in the structure. Where the Zap Gun touched the ice, it billowed clouds of white steam, which instantly froze into snow and fell inside the complex.
Norah’s thoughts were a reflection of Mikey’s and Marjan’s. She was enjoying this. She would enjoy it even more if Matt toppled with the Union installation. To her, he was the one thing holding her back. She had faith in the Union and its orders.
Matt shoved her Zap Gun away as it sputtered to life again. It shot upward through the remaining cells, slicing through the metal like butter. The cell block collapsed outward, crashing to rest on the ravine outside. The rest of the roof slammed down around them. The few remaining HuMax in their jerry-rigged space suits disappeared under the debris.
Matt screamed silently. Dead. All dead. He couldn’t help them. He’d completely failed.
Marjan hit him again, wrapping his hand around Matt’s head. For a moment, Matt’s POV was completely filled by the glowing blue Fusion Handshake port. He could count the ribs in its dispersion modifier, and he saw the power cycling up to firing potential.
I could let it end here, Matt thought. What place do I have in a Union that condones operations like this? In a Union that, in some ways, might be worse than the Corsairs?
Save the universe. However we can.
Red-hot anger surged through Matt. He couldn’t just let it go. He had to keep trying. And there was only one way he could stop Marjan now.
Merge, he thought.
For an instant, the three Mecha melded together. Matt felt Norah’s familiar panic, but she couldn’t stop the process. Matt was too strong.
No, Marjan thought. And he pulled away.
Marjan’s Demon’s hand emerged from the beginning Merge. Then his leg. Marjan’s Demon struggled against the mass, and pulled itself almost completely free.
Matt reeled in shock. How could Marjan resist the Merge?
Gloating satisfaction came in waves from the other man. I’ve been practicing, he thought. You’re no longer the master.
Marjan’s Demon thrust its talons into the proto-Merge of Matt and Norah’s Demons. It tore through Matt’s biomechanical flesh like a knife. Matt screamed inside his viewmask.
Merge, Matt thought, putting all his force into the command. His Demon quivered and pulsed, trying to comply, but Marjan’s Mecha remained stubbornly separate.
Do you know where my hand is now? Marjan thought, dry like dust and crackling like static.
DeMerge, Matt thought, trying desperately to scramble away. But he remained stubbornly attached to Norah. He sensed her grim amusement. Behind him, Mikey finished wiping out the rest of the cells. All the HuMax were dead. Every single one.
My hand is wrapped around your pilot’s chamber, Marjan thought. And my Fusion Handshake is charged and ready.
Surrender or die, Matt thought. Except Marjan didn’t expect him to surrender. Didn’t want him to surrender.
It was over, no matter what he did now. He’d failed.
Matt caught the flash of a red shape out of the corner of his eye, blurring fast. His cockpit rocked as a new figure hit the three Mecha, hard. Marjan’s thoughts went instantly from gloating satisfaction to immense surprise. His grip on Matt’s biometallic innards slipped.
Desperately, Matt bucked as hard as he could, thinking, DeMerge! Norah’s Demon melted away from him as Marjan’s hand popped out of his chest, triggering a Fusion Handshake in free air.
Matt flew backward from the blast. He came to a clanging halt on the shattered wreckage of the south cell block.
Tags in his POV told the story. The thing that had bowled into them was Elize’s Mecha, its visor still only half-mended. She’d turned to Matt’s side!
Matt didn’t have time to celebrate. Mikey came at Elize, pinning her with a grip around her neck. Norah and Marjan stood and fired thrusters, accelerating his way.
“Go!” Elize cried through the comms. Then she turned to her attackers and said, “I give up! Repeat, I surrender!”
Matt crouched, preparing to fire his own thrusters and head into orbit. But a new warning flared in his POV: THRUSTER RECONFIGURATION INCOMPLETE: DISABLED (90 SEC).
What the hell? A leftover from his partial Merge? Matt didn’t have time to think. He had to get out of there.
He whipped around. Behind him was the tunnel the Imps had emerged from. Too small for a Demon. But if he changed form, the way they did when they flew in space, maybe he could do it.
Transform, Matt thought, charging at the tunnel. His Demon hunched over and changed as he moved, elongating and narrowing. His body streamlined, arms reaching out in front of him to become grappling hooks, head and pilot’s chamber moving forward in his body. His legs melded into a sinuous tail that propelled him along like a snake.
Matt’s snakelike Mecha shot into the tunnel, just as the other two Mecha came up short. Marjan beat the entrance to the tunnel and tried to ram through, but his Demon’s bulk wouldn’t fit. And, apparently, he couldn’t transform as Matt had just done.
* * *
Two hundred meters into the tunnel, it terminated at a closed steel air lock. Its cycle light glowed red, indicating it had been depressurized. Matt’s snakelike Mecha rose so he could peer through the window in the door. The air lock beyond was closed. He could see only hints of a larger space beyond through the tiny windows on the other side. His POV showed a significant heat signature from the room, though. That meant it was probably still pressurized.
Which meant there might be someone in there. Someone—or something.
Still, it wasn’t as if he had a choice. The tunnel didn’t go anywhere but to this air lock.
“Lowell, it’s over,” Colonel Cruz’s voice came over Matt’s comms. “Return to the surface to be escorted back to the Helios.”
“So it’s no longer ‘Major,’ is it?” Matt asked.
Silence for a while. Cruz hadn’t been expecting that. When he came back onto the comms, his voice was lower, more reasonable. “What are your other options? Stay there and starve? There’s no other way out of this system.”
“Same for the HuMax,” Matt said.
“Return to the surface.”
“And have Marjan rip me apart?”
“That was regrettable. I’ll ensure your safe passage back.”
“To a court-martial,” Matt added.
“For internal review. It would probably come to that, yes. But again, what else will you do?”
I don’t know, Matt realized. The thought was oddly freeing. Y
es, he could go back. He could go through the trial. He could spend the rest of his life on Keller.
Or in a place like this. You’re a genemod too. What would the Union, or even Dr. Roth, give for carte blanche to study you?
Matt shuddered.
One thing he could do: investigate that room. He put Colonel Cruz on mute, wrapping himself in chill silence.
Matt opened the first lock door and nosed his Mecha in. The lock was just large enough to hold the giant Demon, with it curled in on itself like a boa. He started the pressurization cycle and waited for the interior doors to open.
They revealed a large, cylindrical space, with a high domed ceiling. Inside, chrome bars and green hospital curtains sectioned off the floor space, with the outer walls fronted by glass-walled offices.
A medical facility, Matt thought. Probably where they did the genetic work on the HuMax. He could only imagine how nightmarish a place it must have been.
The problem was, this looked like another dead end. No corridors led away from the dome. There was no way out.
THRUSTER RECONFIGURATION COMPLETE, Matt’s POV showed. He sighed. A lot of good that would do him. He stood, transforming seamlessly back into the Demon’s standard humanoid form.
In the chamber, the chrome tubes holding the drapes swayed slightly. An Imp burst out and ran at Matt. It carried an MK-14, but it didn’t raise it to fire. Its antipersonnel missile launchers were empty, just gaping holes along the sides of its torso. It slammed into Matt’s torso and beat his Demon with the MK-14. Through the tiny slit-window to the Imp’s pilot’s chamber, Matt saw the sketchy outline of a man’s head.
The Imp was clearly out of ammo. Matt plucked off the struggling Mecha with one razor-taloned hand and held it out at arm’s length. He let it struggle awhile longer; then when it was clear it wouldn’t stop, he disconnected its fusion power pack.
The Imp stopped moving. Matt set it down on the floor as the lid to the pilot’s chamber flipped open. Inside was a HuMax with graying hair. He glared up at Matt’s Mecha with eyes that burned with murderous rage, then scrambled out of the cockpit and retreated into the drapery.
Matt followed. He found the man standing in front of a hospital bed where a young woman sat, shaking her head woozily. Even in a shapeless hospital gown, she was beautiful, with regally high cheekbones and short flame-red hair. Her eyes, like the man’s, were gold and violet.
The woman was the first to notice Matt. Her eyes went wide and she scrambled off the hospital bed. The man turned and stood in front of her, his arms out in the universal gesture of protection.
Matt sighed sadly. There was nothing the HuMax man could do to save her, for all his superhuman abilities. Against a Mecha, he was powerless.
Matt triggered his external comms and said, “I’m not going to hurt you.”
The two winced at the booming voice of Matt’s Mecha. The man didn’t move or say a word.
And why would they have any reason to believe him? Everyone was dead. Everyone except these two. And as soon as the other Mecha came, they’d be dead too.
“Are there any other ways out of here?” Matt asked, gesturing around the dome.
“I’ll not help you hunt the rest of us!” the man spat.
“I . . .” Matt trailed off. I’m not like them anymore. I’ve gone rogue. But how did he say that, in a way that would convince these HuMax?
“They’re probably already dead,” Matt said.
“Monster!” the woman screamed.
Matt couldn’t contradict her. He hung his head. “Look. I know you won’t believe me, but I’m—well, I’m hiding too. Hiding from a court-martial. So if there’s any other way out of here, I’d really like to know.”
The man bent low and muttered something to the woman. Something like I think there was one fighting against the others.
“There’s nothing except this lab,” the man said. “This is the end.”
Matt shook his head. Trapped. Until the other Mecha managed to transform themselves.
Bright light, like lightning, lit the duraplas dome. A pillar of flame traced a lazy figure eight in the ice outside the dome. A sound like distant thunder rolled over them.
“What was that?” the woman cried.
With a groan, Matt realized exactly what it was: his former team, probing the ice with their Zap Guns. They were out on the surface, shooting down into the ice.
“More Mecha,” Matt said. “Shooting at us.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because I wouldn’t kill you,” Matt told her.
As if in answer, another pillar of brilliant white light exploded, this one closer. Thunder boomed even closer as the ice outside the dome fractured, splintering the light into rainbows.
“What do we do?” the woman asked.
And that was the question, wasn’t it? What could he do? Stand there and wait to be vaporized or try to take on three other Demons at once? Or—
“Get in the Mecha,” Matt said.
“What?”
Matt irised open the pilot’s chamber and pushed himself through the magnetorheological gel. Surfacing, he pulled his viewmask aside and looked down at the two HuMax from his vantage point on the giant Mecha’s chest. He thrust an arm out of the cockpit and waved.
“Get in,” he said, kneeling so his chest touched the floor. Handholds opened on the Mecha’s skin, leading up to the cockpit access.
The two held back, leaning close to talk to each other. Without his enhanced senses, Matt couldn’t hear what they were saying.
A third Zap Gun beam lanced the ice, even closer than the last two. Half the dome lit with the brilliance of an atomic explosion, nearly blinding Matt. Even the HuMax covered their eyes.
“Now or never!” Matt yelled.
The man pushed the woman ahead of him. She scrambled up the front of the Mecha with surprising speed. The man paused at the base of the Mecha’s chest and looked up, as if suddenly uncertain.
The woman reached the pilot’s chamber. She pulled herself over the edge and paused for an instant. Her gaze flickered from Matt to the depths of the magnetorheological gel, back to Matt. Her eyes were a little larger than a human’s, and her violet-and-gold irises were intensely colored. A complex series of emotions passed over her face in a handful of seconds: relief, anguish, shock, betrayal.
“Get in!” Matt said. Calling down to the man: “Come on!”
“I’ll drown!” the woman shouted, pointing at the gel.
Another Zap Gun beam hit, this one the closest yet. The entire dome went white and groaned under the close call. When the beam passed, the screech of escaping air filled the chamber.
“You’ll be fine!” Matt said, and pulled her in. She splashed in the pink murk and spluttered.
“Respirator!” Matt said, pointing at the emergency air. Without a viewmask, she wouldn’t see anything, but she’d at least be safe.
The woman pulled the respirator on and gave Matt one last distrustful look before pushing herself as far away as possible from him. The three would have a tight ride in the cramped pilot’s chamber.
Matt looked down. The man was halfway up the Demon’s chest, moving fast. Good. They’d both—
The world disappeared in light. Matt’s eardrums popped, first inward from the pressure wave, then outward as the air exhausted from the circular dome in a terrific gust. They’d been hit glancingly by a Zap Gun beam, but that was enough—the chamber was compromised!
When Matt could see again, the man simply wasn’t there. He caught a glimpse of something rising on the column of air through the Zap Gun’s blasted channel. The woman next to him splashed and cried out, her voice almost ultrasonic in the thin atmosphere. Matt’s eyes bulged as he whooped out all of his air. His head spun. Near vacuum. He’d be unconscious in seconds.
“Get down,” he tried to yell. The words came out as a single squeak. He pushed the woman down into the gel, snugged on his viewmask, and triggered the cockpit iris. Everything went dark, then lit in the Mecha’s POV. Next to him, the woman thrashed and screamed through her respirator. Her fists beat at him, surprisingly strong in the viscous gel.
Matt turned and grabbed blindly, catching her by the shoulder and neck. She grappled with him, her hands finding his neck. Matt bent low near her ear and screamed, hoping she would hear:
“If you want to get out of here alive, stop fighting with me!”
The woman ceased struggling and sobbed something, maybe something about her father. Was that who the man was?
“There was nothing I could do,” Matt yelled.
The woman just shook her head and cried. Matt turned back to the front of the Mecha, where his POV showed Marjan’s Demon emerging from the channel his Zap Gun had cut.
Matt didn’t hesitate. He drew his own Zap Gun, aimed it at the ceiling, and triggered its irresistible force. The lab exploded in white clouds of water vapor. Behind him, Marjan tumbled backward into the channel he’d just cut.
Matt’s Zap Gun blasted through the ice. Steam vented upward, clearing the remains of the dome.
Matt followed the steam upward, firing his thrusters full force. Up through the thin atmosphere, up away from the icy world. To orbit.
But where, he wondered, will I go from there?
7
EXILE
In orbit over Planet 5 of the nameless system, Matt’s Demon transformed into a streamlined shape, a red arrow with thrusters on the back and Firefly ports forward. It looked like a pre-Expansion vision of a spaceship, a grand vessel for transporting passengers and cargo from star to star.
Except for one problem, Matt thought. Without a Displacement Drive, I’m not going anywhere.
Especially here. His POV showed no familiar tags, no named systems at all. Every star was nothing but a catalogue number, every planet just a numeric appendage. They were so far out none of the empires of humankind had claimed a single foothold.