Her shot caught him square in the chest and sent him sprawling backwards while his shot caught her straight in the blank face. The two warriors dropped the weapons and lay on their backs, defeated. Jin appeared from the darkness, blood dripping from his bare chest and Alice wasn’t certain if it was his or someone else’s. Her sensors went off and her vision went dark, the damage from the fight was too extreme in combination with the emotional trick she’d tried on her own circuits. The enhanced drone body had taken too much punishment and she couldn’t do anything more but lay on the stone. She heard Lisa yelling frantically, but her audio sensors were beginning to dull. She welcomed the dark as it swallowed up her electronic mind and stopped her from sensing the outside world. She was now a prisoner in her own metal body and waiting for the end to come.
Lisa had patched up the Martian Sgt. and he would potentially live if they were able to get off this world. The shot had collapsed a lung and broken several ribs, not to mention leaving a nice sized hole in his chest. She’d seen Jin disappear in the fight with Alice and Azhulhand, but wasn’t certain where he went. She knew she would need him to activate the seed, but part of her hoped she wouldn’t have to. How much fear and terror would they need to create in this universe? Her tears had stopped, but her anger had not. Alice had served them well and now both she and the Commander lay on their respective death beds to die in the ruins of an ancient world that would forgive nor heal either of them. When Jin returned he brought with him a communique of some kind, tossing it over for Lisa to use. She looked at it and realized that it was the call log for a vessel not far from them. It must have been the Commander’s way off this planet. A lucky break for them if everything could go as planned from here on out.
Fiora was the only Paladin who was still conscious, but not the only one that was alive. Eric’s face had been hit pretty hard but he had not been killed by the blow. Fiora remarked it was because the commander had underestimated the thickness of his skull only because he had never worked with the kid. Markus was able to breath, but his leg wasn’t going to survive the trip back to the Tower. Lisa was afraid they would have to amputate it to prevent the rest of him from going into shock though they lacked the tools to do the surgery properly there. Lisa stood by Jin and activated the genetic sequence for the seed, only to be rewarded with a flood of golden light that revealed the giant jade statue as nothing more than a protective cover for the much smaller object.
Revealed from the light was a sphere the color of honey and wrapped in a silk coating, it was warm and pulsating to the touch. Jin put it carefully into a bag and made the plans for them to escape, looking out over the dead bodies of the soldiers they had defeated and killed. Lisa motioned for him to grab both Alice and the Commander, though Jin was hesitant to bring Azhulhand out from the ruins. He had managed to survive the shots to the chest but he was in critical condition and unconscious. Jin wanted to finish him off then and there, but Lisa had other ideas. She called over the communique and told the pilot exactly who she was and what was going to happen. At first he was not listening to her, but the promise of his commander’s life was enough to get him to come back.
In an hour’s time the Commander was stabilized but unconscious in the back of the missile-barge, and the rest of the ship was filled with the remaining Martian soldiers and a few of the Cydrakians willing to come with them. The mission was over and Lisa had succeeded where others might have failed, but they had taken a heavy cost. Jin often put his hands on Alice’s head and shook his head slowly every time, saying that he only wanted to free her. Lisa stopped whatever it was he was doing not willing to believe that Alice was gone for good this time. She had been persistent and Andreya would be quite upset if anything was done before Alice was taken back to the Tower. When the barge broke atmosphere and entered into space the Eldritch Glaive was surrounded by Rebellion starships and Lisa cried out in surprise. In their absence it seemed that something big had happened aboard the station and the Rebellion had been able to bring reinforcements, led by the Cavalier a ship that belonged to one of Alice’s pledged friends.
The Eldritch Glaive was a masterful ship and powerful and yet it was limping in space now, a shadow of itself. Lisa had heard the ship was strong enough to take out such a small fleet that the Tower had sent to rescue them, and yet here it was in shambles from inferior ships and pilots. Lisa grabbed the pilot’s communicator and changed it to the appropriate channel to contact the Stormbreaker which floated just outside the ship.
“Yegret, this is Lisa.”
“Hiya sweetie. Glad to see you off-world. We’ve been quite busy up here.” Yegret cooed.
“Yes well, we’re not in good shape. We need medical attention. Briefly, what happened up here?” She asked
“One of the prisoners already here swiped a card and set us free, then while you guys were causing trouble on the surface we started a riot up here. I got ahold of one of the communication arrays and signaled for back-up, and they came here. We have the woman we were sent to get as well.” Yegret said.
“What woman? I don’t remember a-“ Lisa was interrupted.
“Don’t worry about it, Project is in pieces and we’ve managed to get his parts onto the ship’s mainframe. Do you think you can fix him?” Yegret queried.
“In pieces? Ah yes, that was one of the defenses we built in, it shouldn’t be a problem.” Lisa said, the pilot moving the barge to dock with the Stormbreaker. “So what will happen here? Are we to finish the job or take the Commanders hostage?”
“No, in fact we need to get out of this section of space. Our fleets don’t have the fire-power to do anything more than disable the big guy there, and it will be back online shortly. No doubt they’ve already radioed for help, but the only reason we were even able to get them disabled was because we were aboard the ship. The Commander seems to get easily overwhelmed.” She gloated, proud of herself.
Chapter 11
Alice was in darkness, surrounded by broken and distorted data. Memories of things that once held meaning to her, and yet she struggled in this darkness to keep herself. She poured through the scenes in her mind of the battles and of the exploration, of the journey that had brought her here. She tried to focus on the events and not the emotions but she couldn’t turn them off again and they jolted through her in electrical pulses. She was dying, for real this time she reasoned. She didn’t think there was any way out of this, it was possible Andreya could transfer her into another drone but why would she? And did Alice even want her to? Wasn’t she getting the warrior’s death that her husband got, only she wasn’t being executed in public like he had been? She had won, defeating the Corporation Commander who had sought to end the way by gaining a powerful new weapon. They had the weapon now and most of her friends had survived the encounter, she was a hero.
Jin’s voice threatening to “free” her kept entering her mind, but she forced it out. The strange beast-man and his matriarch had both said they could free her. She couldn’t catch their definition of the word and didn’t know what would happen if they did. What was waiting for her on the other side? Science had never answered anything other than “nothing” and she was certain now she didn’t believe that. She’d witnessed creatures that could live outside their bodies and how sure could humanity be that it didn’t happen to them? She felt tired, a feeling she wasn’t supposed to feel anymore, but here it was like an old friend. Her other old friend, Fear, showed up as well and surprised her. The fear of the unknown was the worst fear she supposed, fearing something inevitable was easy; this was not. She kept watch over time, watching the hours slip into days and her own power supply frying away as she laid in in her solitary prison. The power would increase from time to time, someone out there was still helping her.
She thought of the seed they had recovered and the plan they’d discussed back on the railway. Jin was to inhabit the God of Below and use the power of the creature to take back his home world, then when he was finished there he would be destroyed and s
ent into the depths of space to be never used again. Alice didn’t agree with using the weapon to take back the planet, after-all the resource rich world would be prime for humanity to assist and the combined armies could push back the Corporation to another sector of space. It wasn’t going to be either of their choices anyways she supposed now that she could see the situation in a different light, or the absence of light entirely. Once President Tate got a hold of the weapon, he wasn’t going to let it go. She remembered the way he’d brutally tortured Charles to get the information he wanted and she had a feeling that he had not told her everything about his daughter. Maybe it was better that way, she had only conveyed their secret mission to Yegret after it had become clear they would be captured and separated. She had no way of knowing now what would happen and hoped that Yegret had finished the job.
“Alice, it’s good to see you.” She was pulled out of the depths of her thoughts when Project’s digital form approached her. The pale white Corporation man was clad in bright white armor of an ancient time and wearing a wide-brimmed hat.
“Project? You survived?” She said, looking him over.
“Of course. I lost a few battles but I have my tricks. I stashed partitions of the tiniest parts of me all around my server and Lisa was able to gather them. She has been a busy girl, I’ll tell you that much. We are headed back to Tower now and will be arriving within the hour. I was afraid to check on you until I was at full strength, so I’m sorry it took so long.” Project said.
“It doesn’t matter Project. I did what you told me not to do, and I don’t think there’s much left of me to save.” She said with sorrow in her voice.
“On the contrary. Technically you have more to save, but you’ve also ruined this body and converted it to what I can only describe as a data-dump. Where there was once information on how to move and fight, there is now data on how you feel and how to process your emotions. You’ve turned every spare inch of this monstrosity into a brain.” He chuckled.
“That’s amusing to you?” She said
“Well, yes. But either way. I don’t know if we can save you. Last time was something of an anomaly and had never been attempted before. The Cydrakian here thinks he can save you though and wants me to ask you which you prefer. Do you want us to attempt to move you into another drone or do you want him to try? We figured it was best to leave it up to you, your existence has been stressed…” He said, as if he didn’t fully comprehend what he was saying. Alice thought for a moment, stepping away from the samurai A.I. in front of her. What was it that Jin would do, surely he wasn’t just wanting to kill her because she seemed off to him? And did she want to live confined in such a miserable existence? She peered out over the expanse of her memories and saw one in particular that swayed her. She turned back to Project.
“Do you remember when I executed the Demon?”
“Of course.”
“I thought I had done something great. I thought I had avenged those who had fallen, but it seems like there is nothing I can do to stop this war. I accomplish goals but every time there is more to do and more to kill. Project, I don’t think I can exist as this killing machine anymore. Tell everyone a message: That I appreciate and love them, but I can’t feel that love anymore. My heart is broken forever and I can’t exist in this body. I wish all of you the best and to keep fighting for what you believe in, but it’s my time to leave this war.” Project looked stunned and nodded, even if there was a hesitation in his movements. He looked about to argue when he caught how Alice expressed her face in this world and thought better of it.
“Goodbye Alice.” He said, vanishing and leaving her alone in the dark. Fear struck her once more but nothing happened. Time passed and her power-cells began to drain into nothingness, and she wondered why they were letting her simply run out of power. They knew that would only leave her dormant, and maybe that was their plan all along. To put her to sleep until they needed her again and force her out into the world once more? Several hours passed leaving her weak and laying in the darkness of her digital world before she felt a warmth.
“Alice. Can you hear me?” She heard the thick accent of the Cydrakian.
“How are you plugged in?” She asked, knowing he didn’t have any experience in digital representation.
“I am not. I am not communicating with your machine, I am communicating with your heart.” He said.
“I don’t understand.”
“I know you don’t, but I think I do. You see Alice, the God of Below gives power to those who have never felt it before. It makes them insane with hunger and rage and conquest. It brings out the worst in all who enter its body. We’ve recreated it here in what you call the Forge....your President has ordered me to pilot it. To make it awaken and devour and destroy. Your world is strange, so strange to me and yet I feel compelled to obey him. I do not know if it is my own desire for power that drives me or my desire to defeat the sinners. I know that after a time I have learnt I cannot trust my judgement in the body of this creature. It’s so small but I know that it will grow with my spirit and become a warrior of terrible power. Alice…I can free you, I can offer you life again. I do not know if it will work, but your energy is large and I can touch it with my hands. I can give you life.” He stated and gave Alice pause. She was weak but she thought she had discovered what he meant. He wanted to put her into the body of the God of Below and make her into this weapon! She hesitated, she was so tired and wanted nothing more than to drift away into nothingness.
She considered for a moment the terrible power that she had already had in the various bodies she’d lived in so far. Could she even be trusted in the body of a bio-weapon, of a creature that could shift and absorb the DNA of those around it? How was she to know that she was meant to become this God of Below and that she would make the right decisions when it came to it? She didn’t want to fight any longer, though it wouldn’t be long before the President forced Jin into the vessel or worse yet had Tillman discover a way to send someone else into it. They’d created a body for her once before and though she was sure that Jin meant the way she had grown was what would allow the transfer to happen; could she really risk letting them figure out how to do it?
“How can you trust me in the body if you can’t trust yourself?”
“I don’t trust you, I trust your heart. I can feel it and I think it’s the only move I have left.” Jin said. There was no warning and no agreement only a sudden feeling of being aflame. Alice wanted to scream but she couldn’t and the darkness was thrown away from her as she was cast into light. Bursts of electrical energy filled her being and the white-hot light of the sun filled her eyes, convincing her of her oncoming death. But there was no shelter in the arms of death, instead she was being given new life. The processes of breath and heartbeat filled her mind and she could once again recognize touch and nerves. The air was sharp and sweet a fresh gale of energy in her tired form and all at once she was not tired anymore.
The light was not sunlight, but instead the unnatural light of the forge’s labs. She was upright in a tank filled with cold and thick liquid with a mask that covered her face. Her eyes were a blur of light and color as she sought to comprehend what she was seeing. She hadn’t seen anything for real in a long time and her mind panicked with quickened breath. She thrashed outwards and hit solid glass that she could feel against her skin. This wasn’t right but it was the most right thing she’d ever felt. The glass shattered and dispersed, spilling the liquid and throwing her to the ground. Jin caught her and she realized she was so much smaller than he was. He held her in his arms like a child and she was sure that she was a child. She looked up at him while they were being surrounded by guards with weapons drawn. Tillman was there, the Master waving his arms and forcing the guards to lower their weapons. He spoke in a strange language that Alice could not quite understand, but Jin’s arms were warm and loving giving her strength to stand on her own.
She stumbled and fell, trying to learn how to walk in a body that
was not her own. Jin picked her up once more and wrapped her in his arms before taking off at a run. The world blurred by at the speed of their ascent from the forge and into the open jungle world of the Forge’s eco-system. She whispered to him words that were nothing more than nonsense as she couldn’t remember how to speak. The sensation of jumping and running making her nauseous. He paused their journey in the thick of the forest, with the trees casting shade around them and concealing their position. She looked up at him and he met her gaze with a smile reassuring her. She felt frail and weak not at all powerful or like a weapon though she could feel a deep and demanding hunger within her. She was going to get up and try to stand on her own yet the darkness had other plans and drug her back into sleep. The God of Below was alive yet again, but it wasn’t awake.
“Tillman! I told you not to let Jin near Alice.” President Tate said, standing over the broken glass and spilled liquid in the laboratory. “I knew he was planning something strange, kept talking about freeing her. And I barely understood him anyways. He was to get into that weapon and help us take back Cydrak, that was all!” He said, chastising the master scientist.
“It’s never that simple Tate. You know that, have you not counted the cost already? Do you not remember what happened with Alex, and then Alice? Now you wish to blame me because yet again we were put in a situation where we couldn’t know the outcome and something we hadn’t expected happened again?” The early days of the Rebellion were not pleasant, and it had been at the price of the morality of both President and Master that it was built. Lisa had left the room after Alice and Jin had escaped, not wishing to deal with the anger of her father. The truth of the matter was that Alice had been given over to Jin by the middle Tillman sister, and yet even with this betrayal her father was not willing to give her up. “Robert we just don’t know what we’re doing. We have never mastered the universe like we wanted.”
Rebirth (Rebel Wars Book 2) Page 17