by Joshua James
“Can you read my mind?”
“Soon, you’ll be able to hear what I’m thinking as well. Then you’ll understand. But for now, open your mind to me, or we can force our way in. Your choice.”
“Like hell,” Saito growled.
“Very well.”
Saito tried to fight the forceful mining of his mind. It was a hard battle, one that he wasn’t used to, but he wasn’t going to give up. Instinct told him to think about something other than war and tactics. He needed to focus on something that would shield his other thoughts from the Shapeless. Only one thing came to mind.
For about ten seconds, Saito pictured his wife, the real Beverly, holding their newborn son in the hospital. It was the happiest single moment of his life.
“I applaud your tactics,” said the false Saito as he literally clapped. He didn’t quite understand figures of speech yet. “But it’s not enough.”
Saito yelped in pain, teeth gritted, as cold hands reached in and began picking at his brain.
“The harder you fight, the worse this will be. With or without your mind, we will flatten this city. We will burn this world to the ground.”
Head still ringing and aching from being pried open, Saito could barely stay conscious. He might as well have passed out, because he was in a daze, unable to really process anything he saw or heard.
It seemed like he was having an out-of-body experience as he watched himself being lowered by his tendrils to the command deck floor. Nor did he feel Beverly pick him up.
“Take him back to his quarters. Make him comfortable. We have much work still to do.”
Eleven
Ben stood at the base of the ladder.
He didn’t know where it led, although Engano had said it was safe. All he knew was that they needed out of those sewers. But without their HUDs, it was risky.
“Why are we letting him go first again?” Engano asked for the umpteenth time.
“Because I said so,” Ben said stubbornly. He didn’t trust her not to have something up her sleeve, and he wasn’t going to put anyone else at risk if he could help it. It wasn’t like he had that much left to live for. “You can guide us, but I’m going first.”
“Leave the kid alone,” LeFay said. “If he wants to stick his head up first and get it blasted off, I support that.”
“Ridiculous,” Engano said. “Every other person here is more qualified.”
LeFay nodded. “Since it’s so safe, though, it shouldn’t matter, right?”
“It should be fine,” Engano said.
“Consider me reassured,” LeFay said.
The bickering between the two of them was getting tiresome for Ben, and that was saying something. He’d come here with Ace and Clarissa. He’d lost track of how many times he’d expected their tiffs to turn into open gun battles.
“If you do get dead, though,” LeFay said, “I’m taking that rifle.”
“Thanks for the support,” Ben said. LeFay was still impossible to read, and even less trustworthy now than before, as far as he was concerned. It wasn’t clear to him whose side she was on.
Ben slung his rifle around his shoulder and started to climb. The rungs were rusty and rough, but somehow slippery as well. When he reached the top, he was faced with a heavy manhole cover.
“Son of a—!” Ben quickly retracted his hand as soon as he touched the manhole cover. It burned him.
“What’s wrong?” asked Ada as she and the rest of the group looked up at him.
“It’s hot, really damn hot.” Ben looked at the manhole cover. Through the little holes in it, where water drained down into the sewer, he saw what looked like fire.
“Maybe we should move on some,” said Tomas.
“No, we need to go up here,” Engano insisted. “This should be in the Government District. There’s safe rooms scattered around there, plus we can re-arm ourselves.”
“You sure that’s where we are? Without our HUDs, and it’s a big city,” Ada said.
“One hundred percent? No, but I’m pretty sure. Either way, we can’t stay down here. Those things will find us. Hell, they already did, once.”
Ben listened and agreed that Engano had a point. “Hold on. I think I got this.” He repositioned himself on the ladder to use his artificial arm to dislodge the manhole cover.
Ben wasn’t prepared for what he saw when he poked his head up out of the open manhole. The Oblivion cult did a lot of damage, sure, but it was damage that could’ve been easily fixed. But with the Shapeless, the scale of the devastation they unleashed was on a different level.
Luckily the manhole was in the middle of the street, because the buildings on both sides were on fire. Ben could feel the intensity of the heat against his face. It was so extreme, it felt like his eyes were slowly cooked, evaporating the tears that tried to protect them.
A UEF fighter screamed past overhead before unloading a couple of bombs about half a mile away. Ben felt the ladder and ground shake from the force of the explosions. He’d be lying if he said his resolve didn’t take a hit as well.
“How bad is it?” Ace called up.
“Not good,” answered Ben.
“Like on a scale of pretty bad to a hellscape, where we at?”
“Definitely on the hell end of the spectrum,” Ben said as he climbed up out of the manhole onto the street. He didn’t see any movement. “Come on up,” he said.
One by one, Ben helped everyone up out of the sewer. Ada was the last one up. She took one look around and said, “We’re too exposed here out in the open. We have to move, and fast.” She turned to Engano. “You know where we are?”
Engano scanned the buildings.
“Well?” LeFay hissed.
“I’m looking for landmarks,” Engano snapped back. “Give me a second.”
“Good luck finding landmarks in this burning pile of shit,” Tomas said, and Ben was forced to agree. The damage here from the relentless bombardment of the Shapeless forces was extreme.
But Engano was as good as her word. “We’re right outside the district. We need to go that way,” she said, pointing towards a side street that wasn’t in quite as bad a shape as the one they were on. The fires hadn’t reached it yet.
Before anyone could reply, Engano started off in that direction, head down, moving with purpose.
“She’s not really a team player, is she?” Ben murmured.
“Sure she is,” LeFay said, coming up beside him. “Her team. And we’re not on it.”
Ben started hustling along next to LeFay, with the others falling in behind. “Sounds like you used to be.”
“Yeah, funny story, that,” she said.
Ben waited for her to elaborate, but LeFay seemed to be finished talking. “And you tell it so well,” he said at last.
“Not story time,” she said. “But remind me to tell you later. If we aren’t dead.”
The small side street was in better shape than the main, but it was by no means untouched. Ben saw hands sticking out of the rubble from collapsed, bombed-out ceilings. He saw one poor soul’s body slung halfway out a shattered window, the upper half of their torso lifelessly hanging. One of the shops on the street must’ve made machine parts, because they were strewn all over the street. A thick black smoke hung around, making it hard to breathe, his eyes watering. And the smell was like death, burning wood, and cooking meat.
“Hug the wall,” Ada said urgently.
Ben did it without question. It took a moment before he heard the tell-tale sound of a ship somewhere overhead. He glanced up, and his heart raced as a UEF fighter slowly passed right above his head. “It’s looking for something,” he said.
“Or someone,” Engano said. “We need to keep—"
“Did you see that?” Ada said.
“See what?” Ben asked.
“I saw it, too,” Tomas said.
“Saw what?” Ace demanded.
“Those weren’t from the Atlas,” Ada said. “The Marine HQ was right on the hanga
r side with those fighters. I got a good look at them.”
“Those looked like damn UEF fighters to me,” Ace said. “Just because you don’t recognize the tail code doesn’t mean—”
“There was no tail code,” Tomas said.
“What?” Ben asked. “Are you sure?”
“Positive,” Ada said. “No tail code.”
Now it was Ace and Ben’s turn to exchange a look. They might not have been on the Atlas like Ada and Tomas had, but they didn’t need to be on that exact ship to know that there wasn’t a single starship-based UEF squadron in the universe that flew without tail codes.
“So what does that mean?” Ben asked.
“It’s them,” Ada said flatly. “It’s the Shapeless.”
Twelve
“Wait, are you telling me that those damn things are mimicking entire fighters now?” Ace whispered loudly. “Somebody please tell me that’s not what we’re saying.”
“Not just that,” Ben said, as the realization dawned on him. “They’re mimicking entire spaceships.” He turned to Engano. “I know this will sound crazy, but that’s what those ships are. It’s not the Atlas or some Atlas-class ships, as if those even exist. Those ships aren’t the UEF at all. They’re those aliens, the same ones we just saw down in the sewer. I know it sounds crazy, but I swear—”
“It doesn’t sound crazy,” Engano said.
Ben felt more surprised by that than the realization of what was happening here. “It doesn’t?”
“Agent Moreno said she saw this happening at a sphere in space near the sanctuary station.”
Ben felt like he’d been punched in the gut. “She didn’t say anything to us about that.”
“Maybe she did and you weren’t listening,” Engano said. “It doesn’t seem to be one of your skills. Luckily, it’s one of mine.”
“What did I tell you,” LeFay said. “The top know-it-all around.”
“If I knew anything at all, I’d have been able to stop this,” Engano said darkly. “So don’t tell me what I know.”
As the shadow of the ship slipped past, Ben couldn’t help but think about the odds of their situation. Here they were, six survivors watching an alien invasion unfold around them. He stared at Ada, still covered in Francesca’s blood. All he could think was that he’d failed. He’d failed the group. He’d certainly failed that teen girl, who’d wanted nothing more than to survive.
“All clear,” Ace said. The Shapeless faux UEF ship had moved on.
Ben swallowed down his doubt. There was nowhere to go but forward. “Where is this taking us?” he asked as he stepped away from the wall and continued down the narrow street.
“It’s gonna take us into the Government District,” Engano said. “Through a back way, one not many people know. From there we can make it to the Senate Circle. The bomb shelter there…it’s got everything we need.” She kept her eyes on the sky as she limped along with the group.
“Everything we need for what?” inquired Ada.
“To survive, endure, hold out long enough to figure out a way to fight back. Or escape,” answered Engano.
“And how in the hell do we fight that?” Ace pointed up at the smoke-filled sky. One of the Atlas-shaped dreadnoughts hovered far overhead.
“By being smarter than them,” replied LeFay. “Which means most of you are screwed.” She looked at Ace. “Especially you.”
Ace flipped her off.
After two more side streets, Ben found himself staring at a locked gate with an old-fashioned keypad. “You gotta be kidding,” he murmured to himself.
“How quaint,” LeFay said as she saw the keypad.
Engano entered in a numerical code. “Sometimes it’s the old tech that works best. Hard to hack. You should appreciate that, tinkerer.” The gate latch popped, and it swung open.
“After you,” Ben said to Engano.
“What a gentleman,” she said.
Beyond the gate, the Government District had more open space than just about any other part of Vassar-1, so it was easier to traverse. There was less cover, for sure, but they weren’t choking on smoke from burning buildings. They just had to move fast and smart.
“So where’s this shelter?” asked Ben as he and the rest of the group emerged into the open courts and plazas of the Government District. It was clear they couldn’t stay here and had to move. If not, they were sitting ducks.
Engano pointed at a large amphitheater-shaped building that sat on the far side of an enormous, wide-open courtyard.
“That’s a lot of open space—shit.” Ben barely started to speak before Engano started off across the courtyard.
“Either she has a death wish, or she knows something we don’t know,” Ada said.
“She definitely knows plenty we don’t know,” LeFay said. “But she also thinks the universe bends to her will. That’s always been the problem with working with her.” She stood up and followed after Engano. “The rest of us who know better have to clean up the mess.”
Ace shrugged. “We either follow them or we don’t.”
Ben cursed and started off after Engano and LeFay.
They weren’t even halfway across the courtyard when a Shapeless UEF fighter flew directly overhead. It looked as if it was just going to fly by when it stopped in mid-air. Instead of turning around, as any normal ship could and would do, the whole vessel morphed and transformed so that the front of it appeared where the back was, and vice-versa.
“Move!” screamed Ada, rushing the group toward the nearest wall along the edge of the courtyard that appeared to offer some cover. But it was a long way away.
Ace leaped out in front of the group like his ass was on fire. Amazing how fast he could move when he wanted to.
A moment later, the Shapeless UEF ship opened fire on the fleeing group. Unlike air-to-air rounds, the ground-facing fighter cannons shot slugs the size of grenades, with almost as much impact. Huge chunks of the street flew up and stung Ben’s legs. “We’re not gonna make it there,” he screamed ahead to Ada.
Ada didn’t slow. It was impossible to hear anything. It was all Ben could do just to shield his face and eyes from taking shrapnel, and everyone else was doing the same thing. The only thing working in their favor was the fact that fighter strafing, even with ground cannons, wasn’t ideal for hitting a dispersed group.
“Spread out!” Ben shrieked, and this time he must have really shouted, because even Ada turned around. “Don’t bunch up!”
Ada and Tomas nodded and split apart by several dozen yards. Ben stuck with his original trajectory, which took him further away from LeFay and Ace, but Engano stuck with him. Still, they were far less of a clear target now.
Sure enough, the strafing run soon stopped. Ben imagined the fighter was challenged to even make out its prey from its vantage point, let alone hit anyone, but he had no idea what the alien capabilities were. He imagined that even if they took the shape and capabilities of a typical fighter, they’d still retain whatever advantages they might naturally have.
If they had any. Something about that thought seemed important to him. Did the Shapeless have any abilities of their own, or did it all come from whatever they absorbed? Could that be a weakness?
His thoughts were interrupted by Ada pointing up and shouting.
“It’s coming back!”
Thirteen
Ace tried popping off some rounds at the fighter, but they didn’t connect. Even if they had, well, they wouldn’t have had any real effect.
Ben’s heart raced like a rodent when the kitchen lights turn on. He heard the unique screech of the fighter ship coming down for another strafing run. He was so caught up in trying to plan an escape for the group that he didn’t see LeFay stop in her tracks, not at first.
“Don’t be stupid, LeFay,” Engano snapped.
Ben glanced at her, then followed her line of sight. He spotted LeFay standing calmly in the middle of the courtyard, facing back toward the incoming fighter.
W
ith a steely resolve, she started to unbutton her shirt.
“What the hell are you doing, you weirdo?” Ace shouted.
LeFay ignored him. Once she had exposed the middle of her rib cage, she pressed down right in the center of her chest.
With a hiss, Ben realized that an airtight seal on LeFay’s chest had been broken. A little compartment opened up. From inside, she took out a small sphere.
“Goddamn biohackers,” Engano said under her breath. “Damn unholy tinkerers think they’re hot shit. You’re gonna get killed, LeFay.”
“Better me than you, right, Heather?” LeFay answered.
“Obviously,” Engano said. “But you still don’t have to do this.”
“What is she doing?” Ada said. She seemed to be the last to realize that something very strange was happening.
“Shit!” Ben snapped. “We can’t just leave her out there to be torn to shreds by those fighters.”
But Engano reached out and grabbed his arm firmly. “Let her work.”
“But that’s crazy,” Ben started to say. “She can’t—"
The fighter began firing at LeFay. She simply stood there as slugs smashed into the ground, getting closer and closer. Then, as if spurred by some unseen cue, LeFay reached back and launched the sphere at the fighter.
It wasn’t just any toss. LeFay’s arm was a blur. It made his own powerful artificial arm look like a joke. Ben realized that she had more strength in those biohacked arms than he’d imagined. Note to self, don’t get in a fist fight with LeFay.
“You might want to move,” said LeFay as she turned back to him.
Behind her, the sphere she’d tossed up at the fighter exploded in a most uncanny way. Instead of the fire and force from a traditional grenade, the sphere blew up in a cloud of incredibly bright sparks, connected by electrical arcs. As soon as one of those arcs hit the fighter, it stopped firing and looked to be heading straight into the ground.
A burst of air practically lifted LeFay off the ground, but she somehow managed to keep her feet as she strode away from the crash-landing Shapeless ship.