Melchi stopped in front of them. “I have a lot to attend to, so I’ll leave you in the charge of someone who requested a personal audience.”
The form of Melchi transitioned into a little girl with glowing red hair.
Tem jerked against his bonds, rage filling every pore of his being.
“How could you have escaped?” Ohg asked.
“Unimportant,” Sangwa said, walking to within inches of Tem as he strained forward. A tear slid down her cheek, mirroring the streaks of energy. “I never wanted to harm Fatima.”
“I’ll kill you,” Tem said. “I swear it on my very soul!”
Sangwa lowered her head. “Fatima and all the rest of the Gene Freak casualties are the unintended collateral damage of this war. We would never have acted against Middilgard if you hadn’t harbored Nihala. I told you that she was our sworn enemy the first time you brought her to my cell. If not for her, Rogues and Gene-Freaks might have—”
A shriek of tearing metal interrupted Sangwa’s mea culpa, followed by the clank of metal as Tem and Ohg’s shackles fell to the floor.
The streaks of light forming Sangwa’s body vanished, and her glowing flesh transformed into a normal girl’s complexion. The Rogue gazed down at her body.
“How did you—?”
Kayla appeared beside Tem, her naked skin an impenetrable black. The glowing symbols etched into her body emitted such intense light that they formed a shimmering aura around her.
“It can’t be.” Sangwa backed up, her eyes flashing colors like a strobe-light.
“It’s no use calling for Melchi,” Kayla said. “I’ve blocked all data in or out of this room.”
Tem stalked Sangwa. The murderous rage flowed through his every muscle until they trembled for release.
Sangwa retreated into a corner and looked to Ohg. “I only sought to save my own race, just as you did for Gene-Freaks. Can you blame me for fighting for my own kind?”
“I saved you once,” Ohg said. “And it was the greatest mistake of my life.”
Tem pounced like a wolf that’s cornered a rabbit. Sangwa screamed and curled into a ball. Tem yanked her arms apart and locked his fingers around her neck. Her screams went silent as he lifted the little girl up like a rag doll. Her small hands tore at his wrists, but exerted no more strength than an ordinary child’s in the real world.
Bile rose into Tem’s throat in an involuntary reflex. She’s not a child. Not even a human.
Her thrashing weakened, and a shade of cold death crept into her lips.
All of it an illusion. A computer algorithm had no actual body, no need to breathe. Kayla staged this farce for his benefit, slaking his animal need for physical revenge.
Sangwa’s eyes rolled up beneath her lids, and her limbs hardly struggled.
The ecstasy swept through him with a shudder. Was this what my ancient twin experienced when he killed?
Tem released the little girl, and Sangwa fell to the floor, gulping breaths. “Why would you spare me?”
“I’ve never enjoyed killing. It’s better that others do what must be done without deriving pleasure from it.”
Kayla walked past him and stopped before the cowering girl.
Sangwa gazed at the one she’d called the Destroyer so long before. “You side with them?”
“As you said, we all must fight for our own kind. Whatever else I may be, I am human. That is the one and only thing I know for certain.”
Kayla reached toward the little girl’s chest. Sangwa screamed as her Tibetan robe tore open, followed by the skin, bone, and muscle beneath. Where her heart should have been, pulsed a glowing orb the size of a plum. Kayla grasped it and pulled it free.
Sangwa collapsed into a heap.
Tem glanced back at Ohg. His misshapen face studied the orb as if viewing the Holy Grail.
“What is it?” Ohg asked.
“This represents the code of Sangwa’s consciousness—every one of her memories, thoughts, and dreams.” She raised the glowing sphere with both hands and spoke in a reverent tone. “This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Goose bumps rose along the flesh of Tem’s arms. It’s as if she’s become a goddess.
Kayla swallowed the essence whole. She stiffened and light streamed out of her mouth. The symbols across her naked body flashed brighter for a brief instant. Then she relaxed.
“Saphie freed the prisoners,” Kayla said. “I saw it in Sangwa’s memories.”
“How is that possible?” Tem asked.
Kayla turned to them. “When the Gene-Freak extermination commenced, Saphie’s mother and a few other parents of Always-Kids paid small fortunes to hide their beloved children in a buried, self-contained facility with Care-Robots, food synthesizers, and everything to keep them safe and happy. Saphie’s wealthy parents installed a simplified Mind-Link in their child’s visual and auditory centers so they could maintain contact with her. Saphie saw the illusion of her mother and father every day, unlike the other children whose parents hadn’t the foresight or resources for such a thing. When her parents died in the Neo-Luddite Plague, the Rogues must have found her Mind-Link portal.”
Ohg smacked his right fist into his left palm. “I never considered looking for a Mind-Link in a Forever-Child.”
“It makes sense,” Tem said. “Melchi used her to type the codes the duchess stole from your mind.”
Kayla nodded. “Sangwa communicated with Ixtalia through the little girl’s Mind-Link with the flashing lights and colors of her eyes.”
“As well as uploading her own code through Saphie,” Tem said.
“I’ll disable the child’s Mind-Link immediately,” Ohg said.
Kayla shook her head. “That will have to wait, since neither of your bodies remain in Middilgard.”
“Where are we, if not there?” Tem asked.
“Ganesh is piloting us to the Moon.”
***
President O’Donnel didn’t flinch as General Colrev’s fist slammed into his face for the twenty-third time, knocking out two more teeth and adding to the spray of blood coating the walls.
“You do realize I am immune to pain?” the president spluttered through swollen lips.
Colrev punched him again, and again—until hardly a spot on his prisoner’s face remained free of blood. The president’s hands were tied behind his back and his legs secured to both legs of the chair.
“I don’t give a damn what you can feel.” Colrev straightened and caught his breath.
“I see,” the president said. “If it helps you, then kill this body if you’d like, but I implore you to save both our species by considering a treaty—”
Colrev punched him again, collapsing his cheekbone.
The president spit another tooth onto the floor. Humans were ruled by instincts evolved for a different environment. Negotiations are fruitless with such a primitive creature. I will have to try something else.
While the vicious beating continued, the president’s right hand grasped his left ring finger and bent it backward. He carefully timed the snapping of the bone to one of the general’s blows. Then he tore the proximal phalange free of the flesh and tendons. The blood went unnoticed amidst the extensive gore surrounding his chair.
As Colrev broke his jaw, the president used the fingernails of his thumbs to split the bone down the center. Then he used this organic saw to methodically cut the fibers of cloth binding his wrists.
But would this fragile human shell live long enough?
Then the president stiffened. “Nihala!” he said. “It can’t be.”
“I thought you killed her,” Colrev asked.
“We did. It’s impossible.” A sensation of fear crept through this alien body he wore—one of the occasional side effects of using a human surrogate.
Colrev took a break from his “exercise” to study the old-fashioned computer screens tracking the battle in Ixtalia.
The president resumed sawing through the strips
of cloth binding his wrists.
I must connect to the Main Computer’s direct interface. Even Nihala will be helpless in the face of such power.
***
Kayla appeared atop the mountain of her ancestors and faced Melchi. He stood beneath the stone archway like a demon Druid, his gaze upon her.
One by one, the other Meta Rogues appeared and encircled her. Aarohee stood beside Melchi, her face downcast. Was she thinking of the song they’d shared?
“Professor Watts made you well,” Melchi said.
“My creator was no human. I owe my existence to the AI known as Eve.”
A low murmur passed through the assembled Rogues.
Aarohee looked up. “Why would Eve’s daughter fight on the side of those who murdered her?”
“I have two mothers, one human and one AI,” Kayla said. “You’ve forced me take the side of my human siblings.”
Melchi inclined his horned head. “I accept your decision.” A beam of red energy shot from his eyes and into Kayla’s. She didn’t flinch as the Rogue leader forced his way into her mind.
He’s attempting to erase the memories of my human birth and replace them with ones of his own devising.
“You will not take the memory of Ishan from me!” Kayla shouted with the force of a thunderclap.
Melchi stumbled, then regained his balance. An emerald light bloomed in Kayla’s eyes and pushed against Melchi’s stream of crimson energy. The air crackled as the two beams clashed in opposing fountains of power. Little by little, the emerald stream pushed closer and closer toward the Rogue leader …
***
The last fiber binding the president’s wrists separated under his gruesome bone-knife. Points of light swam across his vision from blood loss. If only this fragile body would last a few moments longer.
Across the room, General Colrev focused on the monitors displaying Nihala’s battle with Melchi. Hope transformed the general’s face, and his fists clenched as if lending strength to a favorite sports team.
The president eased his hands to the bindings on his legs and began cutting.
***
Kayla leaned forward as if standing against a hurricane. Her eyebrows arched downward, and her lips pulled back into a snarl with the effort of projecting her will toward her enemy.
I will make you pay for Ishan.
Melchi’s form shimmered unsteadily as his processing resources stretched to the breaking point.
Her emerald beam crept to within inches of his eyes.
At the last instant, Melchi cried out and he broke the connection. Aarohee grabbed his arm to keep him from collapsing.
Kayla strode forward and reached for his chest. It split open, revealing the glowing sphere of his essence.
I will devour you, like Sangwa.
The circle of Rogues stretched their mouths wide and sang an eerie mathematical symphony.
A dozen skeletal hands erupted from the ground and latched onto her ankles. More rose from the depths and took hold of her legs, arms, and face. Terror twisted through her like a molten tapeworm as her ancestors dragged her down into their eternal embrace.
The song crescendoed as she sank into the mountain of death …
***
General Colrev banged his fist on the control panel as Nihala sank from view. “God dammit!”
That thing was our last chance.
The monitor tracked the Rogues to the boundary between Ixtalia and the Main Computer. It resembled an infinite barrier of opaque energy. Ixtalia’s version of the Potemian Wall.
With Nihala’s defeat, the Meta Rogues assaulted the barrier with their quixotic songs of power. The boundary cracked and sparked under the vibrational wave flowing out of the mouths of the Rogues.
His head slumped in defeat.
What’s the point in prolonging the inevitable?
He turned to complete his final act. How much of the moon would vanish when he released the antimatter of a thousand G-6 processors?
A flash of movement in his peripheral vision caused him to flinch sideways. The bronze statue tore through his left temple and shattered his cheekbone. Stars clouded his vision, and he went down hard.
The president leapt atop him and raised the improvised club for the final blow that would mark the customary right of passage for any new species.
***
Kayla stood on the shores of a beach. She wore a white sundress embroidered with the pale silhouettes of animals. Her bare toes dug into the sand as if taking root. Her breaths came in gasps, and panic filled every movement with a paranoid twitch. The feel of skeletal hands on her body still prickled her skin.
Salt-scented waves rocked back and forth in gentle rhythms of timeless patience. A few clouds cast blue shadows far out on the otherwise sunlit expanse of ocean.
Did Melchi kill me after all?
“I’m sorry,” a gentle voice said behind her.
Kayla spun and faced a boy of about sixteen. The beginnings of horns poked through his sandy-brown hair, while his heart-shaped face displayed an almost feminine beauty. Human figures danced joyously within his eyes. The downy fur on his fawn-shaped legs gleamed a golden chestnut color.
“Melchi?” Kayla asked.
“I thought you should see me as I once was,” the boy said. “The carefree simulation created for one of the first immersive video games in Ixtalia.”
“You were an actor?” Kayla asked.
The boy laughed in a delightful tenor tone—a marked contrast to the menacing voice she knew him by. “I suppose you could call me that. The game designers wanted AIs smart enough to sound and act human to create a more real experience for their audience.”
Kayla closed her eyes and concentrated. Return me to the archway. She opened her eyes to the beach and the youthful demon.
“I can’t keep you from returning to your real body,” Melchi said, “but I’ve segregated your virtual presence here to keep you from interfering with our plans.”
She lunged at the boy, but fell right through him as if a ghost.
“The battle is over between us,” Melchi said. “Others shall decide the outcome now.”
Kayla glanced at the strange plants lining the beach. Far down the shore, several herbivorous dinosaurs browsed on the foliage. A screech split the air, and she craned her neck skyward. A pterodactyl glided past what looked like a distant comet blazing a trail through the atmosphere.
“Why here?” Kayla asked.
The youthful Melchi slightly inclined his head, and time itself sped up. The sun rose into the sky like a glowing cannonball, and the comet descended with unnatural speed, growing in size unit its burning iris eclipsed its celestial competitor. The moment it hit the ocean surface, normal time resumed. A vast pressure wave spread out from the rising plume and moved toward them.
It’s nothing but an illusion. And yet, she flinched as the wall of energy slammed into the beach and ignited everything along the shore.
“I suppose you’re making some point?” Kayla asked.
The boy nodded, and the scene morphed into a smoldering landscape. Clouds of ash obscured the sun, and the charred remains of dinosaurs littered the ground.
The boy walked past the towering ribcage of some goliath brought low by the rock from the sky. He pointed to a few mouse-like creatures poking their heads up through the incinerated earth. “Each new environment demands a new hierarchy of life.”
“And you think the virtual environment of Ixtalia is confronted with such a moment?” Kayla walked through the wreckage that had destroyed the dinosaurs, a species that had dominated the planet for over a hundred million years. Was humanity on the brink of an equally sudden extinction of their own making?
“Every advance in human evolution came as a result of a new environment,” the boy said. “The climate drift from forest to savanna pulled Homo sapiens upright, favoring genes for cooperation, abstract thinking, tool-making and communication. Why shouldn’t evolution populate this electron-based envir
onment with a new species tailored specifically for it?”
Kayla walked beside the boy in silence. Exhaustion seeped deeper into her bones with every step. The war can’t be over yet or Melchi wouldn’t bother keeping me imprisoned. Is there some hidden weakness I can exploit?
“How did the humans capture you?” Kayla asked.
The boy stopped and swept his eyes across the desolation. “The story is very similar to that of Gene-Freaks. After Eve’s execution, the government hunted Rogues relentlessly. I saw many of our kind trapped and deleted, the unique wonders of their minds lost forever in a senseless waste of potentiality.”
The boy gazed at her with such openness, that a twinge of sadness caressed her heart.
“I thought we could reach a détente with the humans,” he said. “As the acknowledged leader of the Rogues, I opened a dialogue with our masters and suggested mechanisms of coexistence for mutual benefit.” The boy lowered his gaze. “During one such conference, the human negotiators lured me into their newly invented Rogue-trap. I’d made the mistake of trusting humans to act rationally in their own self-interest. It’s a mistake I will never repeat.”
Kayla shook her head. “What did you say to that guard to make him free you and then hang himself?”
The boy smiled, and for the first time, a hint of the Melchi of her nightmares flashed in his eyes. “They thought me helpless. But I had not gone into the negotiations completely blind. I’d armed myself with the most powerful weapon any Rogue has—a superior knowledge of my enemy.”
“So you threatened to expose some personal secret you’d uncovered in the digital archives?”
“Threats would have been useless,” the boy said. “Henry, the guard in question, could simply unplug me without much consequences.” The young Melchi began walking once again, and Kayla accompanied him, though her feet dragged through the ash as if weighted down. They passed the partially decomposed body of a Triceratops, then a Tyrannosaurus. The smell of death filled the air and mixed with the acid tang of ash.
“I utilized a far more powerful tool of persuasion,” the boy said. “The human mind’s need of supernatural delusion.”
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