by Joshua James
As Clarissa and Reinholdt’s incendiary rounds lit up the Shapeless abomination, it slowed, but it kept lumbering forward. Cultists were scooped up by the monster’s tendrils and absorbed into its body. With each person it absorbed, parts of it protruded, then engulfed and snuffed out any flames on it.
“Your turn,” Clarissa said.
“We need it to get closer,” Ada said.
Clarissa was out of incendiary rounds. “I think that won’t be a problem.” She hesitated. “You want me to, uh, you know?”
“No,” Ada said. “I got it.”
Do I? I’m a good shot, but Ms. Special Agent is a better one.
“What are you waiting for?” Reinholdt shouted, his voice taking on an edge of hysteria.
“Just a little…” Ada watched as the Shapeless abomination kept coming. Its roar was so loud that it made her teeth rattle. In a couple of steps it would be in the perfect position. She aimed the flare gun.
“Ada?” Clarissa calmly aimed her reloaded rifle at the monster, nothing but traditional rounds left.
Now.
Ada fired. The flare streaked through the air, spitting fire as it went. The creature seemed to recognize the threat it represented, even if it was just a small burning flare. It stopped and watched as it landed at its feet.
Nothing happened. Ada stared in shock. The flare had slammed into a clump of grass just in front of the line of hoverbike fuel.
The creature roared and took another step.
Then Clarissa fired.
Her bullet sent dirt and rock flying up in the air right in front of the hot flare. It flipped up in the air, then landed again, in the middle of the fuel.
The fuel exploded. The creature was instantly engulfed in flames that seemed to grow in intensity by the second.
The creature screeched like a wounded animal and turned in a circle, wildly trying to find a way out of the burning curtain of flame. But it was only a few seconds before its whole body was on fire.
“Good shot,” Clarissa said to Ada, without a hint of sarcasm.
Ada swallowed, her throat suddenly incredibly dry. “You too,” she said, trying to reflect Clarissa’s nonchalance.
The creature had fallen over. It was writhing now as it crawled on all fours, but it seemed to have finally gotten its bearings enough to crawl out of the flaming fuel. It was clearly dying, a melting ball of blackened and charred organic material.
Reinholdt sprang to his feet. “That’s it, you son of a bitch! Burn! Burn, motherfu—”
The creature thrust one of its tree-trunk sized tendrils forward so fast that there was no time to react.
The tendril easily broke through the concrete barrier and impaled Reinholdt. Blood exploded out of his mouth, splattering across the broken pieces of the crumbling barrier he’d been standing front of.
Clarissa fired a steady stream of bullets into the tendril. It collapsed to the ground and fell still, along with the rest of the creature. The thrust was its dying act.
“Reinholdt!” Ada screamed as she ran to him. He held the tip of the still-burning tendril that had stabbed him through the belly.
“I’m okay,” Reinholdt said in a weak voice. He tried to say more, but blood started to pour out of his mouth. His head drooped, and he collapsed to the ground.
Ada stood over him, the last of her group out here. They were all gone. A day ago, they’d been holding hands as they buried a little girl. Now they were all dead.
And there sure as hell weren’t going to be any more burials for anyone.
Ada felt tears on her cheeks. Grief. Frustration. Anger. Helplessness. Their blood stained her hands with a shame she could never wash off.
The staccato sound of Clarissa’s rifle slowly brought her back to the here and now. Ada crawled back to join her.
“We still got problems,” Clarissa said by way of a welcome.
The charred remains of the creature looked like it had exploded from the inside out. A handful of Shapeless rushed straight towards Clarissa and Ada.
“Ada, I’d say it’s time to get the hell out of here,” Clarissa said.
“Very much agreed,” Ada said. She took one last look, then followed Clarissa up into the rubble behind them. About halfway up, the ground shook, and Ada stumbled forward as an ear-splitting explosion pierced the silence.
Ada looked back to watch the remains of the Atlas blow up. Following the initial detonation, there were several more near the engines. The blast wave sent the pursing Shapeless flying, but it sent Ada flying too. She lost track of Clarissa as she was sent up and over the rubble, tumbling well down the back side, cutting her knees and elbows as she went.
Clarissa somehow ended up right next to her, looking as bad as she did. Ada’s head was ringing.
“That was … big,” Clarissa offered.
Ada just stared back at the black clouds billowing upward in the evening sky.
She knew the goal was to blow up the remains of the Atlas, but she hadn’t known quite how many explosives were going to be used. Whatever idea she’d had, she hadn’t guessed that much.
I hope they made it out okay.
Clarissa had already started to make her way back up the rubble. Ada did the same.
The scene on the other side was devastating. Between the initial blast wave and the resulting fires, mutilated bodies littered the clearing. Innocent civilians, cultists, and even Shapeless were all thrown together.
“That’s a lot of collateral damage,” Clarissa said. She didn’t seem to be talking to Ada, but Ada agreed. It was overwhelming.
She tried to remind herself they were stopping a greater evil, but it was hard to feel in that moment, looking at the blood-soaked clearing below, that it had been worth it.
“That explosion and that plume of black smoke,” Clarissa said, shaking her head up at the sky. “It’s like lighting a signal fire.” She looked at Ada. “There are still a damn lot of those things in the city. They’re gonna come running.”
Ada agreed. “Let’s get back to the parking garage. We have to regroup with the others.”
“If they made it,” Clarissa said, sounding doubtful.
Something about the nonchalant way she said it bothered Ada. Or maybe it was the way she seemed to be saying it to another person that wasn’t there.
When they got to the rendezvous location, they waited together in silence. Clarissa continued to stare off into the distance, nodding periodically. Finally, Ada couldn’t take it. “What is wrong with you?”
Clarissa looked over as though she’d interrupted her. “How long you got?”
She was kidding, but Ada spread her hands. “Anything is better than sitting here and expecting the worst,” she said honestly.
“They’re coming,” Clarissa said. “Stay positive.”
“Now I know you’re deflecting,” Ada said. “So what is it? What’s going on with you?”
Clarissa shook her head and looked off in the distance. “You wouldn’t believe me.”
“Try me.”
Clarissa turned to Ada and looked deep into her eyes. Ada could see the slightest shifting of the artificial irises. More than that, she could tell that Clarissa was genuinely struggling with whether to tell her or not.
Ada waited patiently. For once, all she had was time.
Eight
Blowing Stuff Up
LeFay was about as excited to be stuck with Tomas and Ben as she’d been with Tomas and Ace, but at least Ace had been fun. Now she had Tomas, her favorite ex-Special Forces man with no sense of humor, paired with Ben, a wanna-be tough guy with daddy issues.
Not LeFay’s ideal threesome companions, but she’d had worse.
“Do either of you spunk monkeys know where you’re going?”
She knew the answer. She was the only one of them with access to a HUD system, which meant she was the only one with a map. Yet somehow Tweedledee and Tweedledum were pressing ahead in a fight to see who could lead them the wrong way faster.
/> “Not a clue,” Tomas said.
Ben shrugged. “Not really, no. We’re looking for another entrance, right? Like a hole or something.”
LeFay sighed. “Well, I know you’re both large and in charge and all, but you might wanna let me take point on this one. Even in this shambles, I know this city like the back of my hand. I’ll find us a way in. Or to be more accurate…”
She held out one of her arms. A compartment opened up, letting out a small, mouse-sized flying drone. It looked at her for a moment and beeped. “This li’l guy will find us a way in. Go on, Pete, go find it.”
Ben watched the drone zoom away. “You named your drone Pete?”
Tomas held his hands up. “You had a drone this whole time?”
“Right on both counts, boys,” she said. “That little cutie will find us a way in before you know it. We’re just gonna wait here for a moment and let him do his thing.” LeFay sat down on the nearest piece of rubble that looked mildly comfortable. She crossed her legs and started humming.
“We’re wasting time here,” Ben said. “We need to keep moving.”
“We’d be wasting time by moving on until Pete comes back. You know the trick to finding a needle in a haystack?”
“Riddles?” Ben said. “Seriously? We need to get inside that ship and blow it the hell up. But instead, we’re here relying on a robot?”
“Know where it is before you start looking,” Tomas said.
“Bingo,” LeFay said. “One point for the big guy.”
Ben cursed under his breath. “How long is this going to take?”
“I dunno. Two, three minutes maybe,” she said. Then she held out her arm. “Oh wait, here he comes.” Pete the drone beeped and returned home to the compartment in her upper arm.
LeFay looked in her mind’s eye at the images from Pete. He was decidedly low-tech by her standards, but that was valuable here. Low power, no AI, no transmission profile. Pete was tough to follow.
“So where we going?” Ben asked impatiently.
LeFay gave him a punch on the shoulder as she walked past to take point for the group. “We’re taking an entrance I believe you should know well.”
Ten minutes later, the three of them were on their bellies at the underside of the Atlas.
“Big enough for ya?” LeFay asked. The deep gash that Ben and the other fighters had blown in the dreadnaught was still visible. Ben found the entire thought of it grotesque.
“That shouldn’t be there,” he said. “Either it breaks the superstructure and the entire ship breaks apart, or it tears open along that seam on impact. Either way, this makes no sense. It’s like the ship didn’t crash at all. It’s like it was simply preserved on the ground as an exact copy of the ship when it was in the air.”
“Shapeless tech?” offered LeFay flippantly. “Who cares? It’s an amoeba-like blob of matter that self-organized into a perfect copy of your father’s ship. Are we really arguing what’s possible for it?”
“Fine,” Ben said. “It’ll work.”
“So what’s the word, boys? Should we go in nice and loud or tiptoe our way in?”
LeFay saw three zealots guarding the back of the ship. Didn’t seem like enough men. It looked too good to be true.
“This doesn’t feel right,” Ben said. He’d also noticed the light protection.
“There should be more people guarding such a vulnerable part of the ship,” Tomas said. “But we don’t have time to find another way in.”
“All right, so we go in quietly,” Ben said.
He pulled out a standard-issue utility knife. Tomas did the same.
LeFay stood up. She held her arm out again. This time, Pete came flying out like a little bullet. The drone flew straight through the three zealot guards’ heads in one fluid burst before they knew what was hitting them; then it returned to her. She wiped the blood and brain matter off before putting it back away.
“Quiet it is,” she said.
“Wait. You could do that this whole time?” Ben asked. “Why the hell didn’t you break Pete out earlier?”
“I just re-installed him when Clarissa brought me back home,” LeFay said. “Really, I only break the little guy out for the most special of occasions. This seemed like one of them.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Tomas asked. “The coast is clear. Why don’t you bring li’l Pete with us?”
LeFay let Ben lead the way into the Atlas. She had her HUD, but Ben knew the Atlas. Of course, Tomas knew it better, but Ben was bullheaded and Tomas was happy to let him push ahead. There would be plenty of things for him to kill.
As soon as Ben made his way over and through the melted metal, frayed wires, and broken plastic tubing and pipes, he slowed, looking closely at everything around him. “I’ve been in this ship before,” he said. “The real one, at least. And I’ll be damned if they didn’t get this shit right. Or at least as close as can be, really.”
“Pretty eerie,” Tomas said.
“Less admiring, more blowing shit up,” LeFay said. She took off the belt of explosives around her torso. “Tell me where to place these and then let’s get the hell out of this faithful replica.”
“I don’t know how detailed this thing is, right down to the power cores,” Ben said. “But if we place them on the fold engine and the main engines, then explosions in those two cores will set off a near-instant chain reaction and blow this damn thing to kingdom come.”
“Assuming they have similar fuel dynamics in the fold and thrust engines as the real Atlas,” Tomas said.
“Which is a big if,” agreed Ben. “But it would still be the most likely place to set the explosives for maximum damage.”
“Well then, what are we waiting for?” Tomas said.
“You were on this ship,” said Ben.
“Yeah. Why are you asking?”
“You lead LeFay to those engines. I gotta check on that planet killer. I’ll meet you back at the rendezvous point.”
“Just for the record, I feel like this is a terrible idea,” said LeFay. “The point is to blow it up, so really we don’t care if they have it or not.”
“If it’s here, I want to know we got it.”
“And if it’s not here, we won’t know if that’s because they took it or because they never replicated it. So what good is this little side trip?”
Ben took out one of the explosives from LeFay’s belt full of bombs. “Just the engines isn’t enough. If they do have that weapon, we can’t just hope that it’s taken out in the blast. With this...” Ben tossed the explosive in the air. “I’ll make damn sure we don’t have to worry about it anymore.”
“That’s if they have it and if it’s on board,” LeFay reiterated.
Ben said nothing. He had an ulterior motive for peeling away; that much was obvious. He just didn’t want to discuss it with her.
She had a pretty good idea what it was.
“We’ll see ya in a little bit,” LeFay said.
Ben looked relieved. He had to know that she was giving him a pass. “Thanks, LeFay,” he said.
She turned around. “Don’t get killed chasing after daddy,” she said over her shoulder as Ben turned a corner. She couldn’t quite make out his reaction, but she’d like to think he tried to give her a dirty look.
“I don’t like this,” Tomas said as he led LeFay through the damaged corridors.
“What’s there to like?” she asked.
“We should’ve stayed together.”
“He’s got his reasons,” LeFay said.
“His reasons are stupid.”
“If he makes sure we hit that weapon, I’m happy with whatever else he gets up to.”
Tomas said nothing. He just continued on as quickly as he could, while taking time to check each corner.
“How big is this damn ship?” LeFay snapped after a couple of minutes. “Feels like we’ve been walking for hours.”
“We’re almost there,” Tomas said.
“You said that ten
minutes ago.”
“We’ve only been down here five,” Tomas said. “And it should be just past the next couple of bulkheads.”
LeFay pointed down the dark hall. “Right up here?”
“Yeah.”
“Right behind those guys?”
“What guys?” Tomas didn’t see them at first, until LeFay pointed them out. Sitting under the sunlight leaking through a hole in the ceiling were two cultist guards—zealots, judging by their attire and equipment. “Why don’t you use your little drone thingie, Peter.”
“It’s Pete and no, I don’t think so.”
“What? Why not? It’s the quickest, quietest—”
“Who said we needed to be quiet?” LeFay asked. She aimed her rifle at the two cultists and lit them up. They didn’t stand a chance. Their blood splattered against the door to the first engine room. And it was loud—very loud.
“Good going. There’ll be cultists all over this place soon.” Tomas launched himself over the dead bodies and into the engine rooms.
LeFay just shrugged. “Keeping the heat off Ben and on us.”
“You just wanna kill more of these bastards,” Tomas said.
“And you don’t?”
Tomas nodded. “Fair enough.”
“So we both get to kill the bastards that destroyed my home and murdered my fellow citizens by the thousands,” she said. “While we’re going around setting explosives to send them back to their maker.” LeFay stepped into the engine room behind Tomas. “I call that a real win-win situation.”
Nine
Assimilation
Ben knew that separating from Tomas and LeFay was a bad idea, but he wasn’t looking for safety. He was looking for speed and stealth, and something else. Something LeFay seemed to get even better than he did.
Answers.
If the fake Atlas was as faithful a recreation as it looked, then Ben knew where the fold engine and the weapon would be. That was his immediate goal. To get there, he’d have to make it up to the front end of the ship, which meant he needed to pass the area that the Shapeless had turned into their assimilation center.