by M. R. Forbes
“What are you suggesting?”
“You go in first. I’ll stay back. Once you give the signal, I come in and take it by surprise.”
“Pozz that. I’ll leave the comm active so you can hear everything that’s happening. I’ll say Rhonna when I want you to come in.”
“Pozz,” Hayden said, slipping over to the side of the doorway and putting his back against the wall.
Chapter 33
Nathan kept the rifle down as he entered, intent on not revealing that he knew who the Other was pretending to be.
General Neill was so busy shouting orders he didn’t notice Nathan’s appearance. His eyes were fixed on a large display at the front of the room, where dozens of feeds were showing the action around the city.
Nathan only glanced at it as he entered, but he immediately noticed Hangar Six front and center. A third rocket was in the process of launching from it. The second largest feed was beside it, showing the western wall of the city, the original wall Tinker had constructed to keep the trife away. There were already soldiers on it, spewing fire from their weapons as they shot down at whatever was on the other side.
Not that Nathan didn’t know what was on the other side. The trife hadn’t wasted any time coming forward to attack.
“Nathan?”
Nathan turned his head to the left. He hadn’t noticed Chandra at first. She was in the back corner, almost as if she were intentionally hiding in the shadows.
“What are you doing here?” she asked as if she didn’t already know.
He had broadcast his intentions across the comm. How could she not know?
“Stay back,” Nathan said, taking his eye off her. He shifted his jaw to activate his comm. “General Neill. Turn around.”
The general froze at the command. Then he whirled around, reaching for a sidearm at the same time he did. Nathan took two quick steps forward, reaching out and grabbing Neill by the shoulders. He drove a knee up into the man’s gut before knocking the pistol away, leaving Neill doubled-over and unarmed.
“That’s fucking treason, Stacker,” Neill hissed.
“Give it up,” Nathan said, training his rifle on the general. “I know who you are. Or rather, what you are.”
“What are you talking about? Are you out of your damn mind?”
“Come on. I’m sure you think we’re all pretty dumb, but we aren’t that dumb.”
“Nathan?” Chandra said. “What’s going on?”
Nathan glanced around the room. Like the area outside, there were stations with terminals on them. Like the area outside, there were people at the stations. Like the area outside, all of those people were slumped over. Dead.
The displays on the desks all showed the same thing. He had seen it before. The visual interface to the launch vehicle initiation sequence. The screen was static at the moment, no longer under General Neill’s control.
“Chandra, are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine. Why?”
“Don’t you see what he’s doing with the terminals? Don’t you see he’s launching the virus?”
“General Neill is trying to protect the city. That’s all I see. And you’re getting in the way of that. Where’s Sheriff Duke, anyway?”
“Dead,” Nathan lied. The Other must have hit her with its weapon, causing her to imagine Neill was still trying to lead the Liberators instead of launching as much of the prepared virus as they had.
“Stacker, I think you must have gone crazy again,” General Neill said. “The trife are at our doorstep and you’re doing what to help with that?”
“I’m trying to stop the Other,” Nathan said.
“The Other? I don’t know what makes you think it’s in here. You should be out there finding the fucking thing.”
“I’m in the right place. I’m sure of it. I know you’re the Other. I know what you did. I’m going to guess you aren’t bulletproof?”
General Neill didn’t answer.
“Colonel Stacker,” Chandra said. “I’ve been here the whole time. I was trying to fix the comm link, but I didn’t have much luck. Then the shields went back to normal and the comms came back up. That’s General Neill. I’m sure of it.”
“How do you know?”
“He grabbed my shoulders and shoved me back here. He said I was in the way. The Other is using a holographic projection to disguise its appearance. The hands that grabbed me were definitely human.”
“If you’re hallucinating, then you’re probably lying to me right now and you don’t even know it. You think what you’re seeing is real, but it isn’t.”
“How do you know what you’re seeing is real?” Nathan turned his head at the sound Doc’s voice. She was standing on the other side of the room, near a terminal he hadn’t noticed before. “There’s no way any of us can prove that we aren’t seeing things,” she said. “That’s a logical fact.”
“So I’m hallucinating?” Nathan said.
“You could be. Or I could be. Or Chandra or General Neill. There’s no way to know.”
“I know it isn’t me,” General Neill said. “I have no clue what’s going on, but there’s an army of trife out there, our shields are down, and our troops are all over the damn place.”
“Whos fault is that?” Nathan said.
“Fuck you, Colonel,” Neill said.
“It isn’t the General,” Chandra insisted. “It can’t be, because if it is that means I’m seeing things. I don’t want to see things that aren’t there.”
“You don’t get a choice,” Doc said. “None of us do. But I know it isn’t me. I’ve been monitoring General Neill and Chandra the entire time. I think you’re right. I think it is General Neill.”
“What?” the General said, turning on Doc. “Are you out of your mind?”
“Maybe,” Doc admitted.
Nathan stood in the center, his eyes shifting between them. He was pretty sure General Neill was the Other, but Doc was right. There was no way to be completely confident. Maybe they were all affected to some degree. Maybe he was wrong about the Other being present at all. The thing had been messing with his head since he and James had cleared the entrance to the underground complex at Area 51. What reason did it have to stop now?
He noticed the display behind General Neill out of the corner of his eye. Another launcher had finished its sequence and was rising into the air. He didn’t have time to stand here and try to decide. He had to do something, now.
He didn’t get the chance.
General Neill noticed his distraction and lunged toward him, grabbing his rifle and pushing it away. He got off a hard punch to Nathan’s gut. The blow knocked the air out of him, and he gasped, taking a step back at the same time the General’s follow-up caught him in the jaw. Nathan shook it off, getting his hands up and taking another step back.
General Neill kept coming, trying to break through Nathan’s defenses. It took four blocks before Nathan found an opening in the General’s defenses. He used his forearm to push the General’s next punch aside. He threw his shoulder into the man. He was at least fifty kilos heavier than Neill, and the shove pushed the General back just enough for Nathan to raise his rifle and pull the trigger, putting a single round square in the center of General Neill’s chest.
Nathan crouched over him, keeping an eye on Chandra and Doc as he did. They hadn’t moved, watching the violence with fear and fascination. Nathan lowered his hands to General Neill, running his fingers over the dying man’s face and tracking the contours.
“It’s...not...me,” Neill gasped, his eyes and chest falling still.
“Nathan,” Chandra said, stepping toward him.
“Don’t move!” Nathan shouted, getting back to his feet and swinging the rifle toward her. He looked over at Doc. “Don’t move, Doc.”
“Nathan, the Other isn’t here,” Chandra said. “I know you think it is, but you’re wrong.”
“It was controlling the launch sequences. It stopped when I entered this room.”
/> “It’s playing you,” Doc said. “It’s playing all of us. How do we even know the launches stopped? It could all be in your head.”
“What do you see? Did the launches stop for you?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
He frowned, confused. “We’re all having the same delusion?”
“We have no idea what the Other is capable of doing to us. Its technology can manipulate our senses.”
“Yeah well, I’m sick and fucking tired of being manipulated. One of you is the Other.” He turned back to Chandra. “You’re the one trying to convince me it isn’t even here.”
Chandra put her hands up. “Colonel. No.”
Nathan took a step toward her. His finger shifted to the trigger. “Yes. If it isn’t you, I’m sorry ahead of time. But I have to stop this. Now.”
His finger started to move.
Something hit him from his left, hard enough to throw him sideways. He tripped over General Neill’s corpse before slamming into one of the terminals on his way to the floor.
He heard a single gunshot and rolled over to see Sheriff Duke standing where he had been a second earlier, facing Doc. She was sitting on the ground, blood beginning to run from her chest.
Blue blood.
“Stacker,” Hayden said. “You shot the wrong one.”
Nathan stared at him. He had forgotten about Hayden. Forgotten about the code word. Forgotten to call for backup. He glanced over at Chandra, whose face was pale. He had nearly killed her.
Hayden stepped over to Doc, keeping his sidearm trained on her. “I know you understand me,” he said. “You’re probably dying right now. There’s no point keeping up the charade.”
Nathan watched as Doc flickered and wavered before fading away. His breath caught in his throat with his first look at the Other.
It was humanoid, narrow and lanky like the sphere had suggested, with long fingers and short toes. He wasn’t sure if it was wearing a suit of some kind or if what he saw was the alien’s flesh. It was an oily black like the trife, only the surface seemed to morph and change, depending on the way the light was hitting it. Its head was large and slightly oblong. It had no eyes. No nose. No mouth. It was like a shadow had pulled itself from the corner and come to life.
Only now that life was ending.
“Chandra,” Hayden said. “Are you normal again?”
“I think so, Sheriff,” she replied. “What the hell is going on?”
“Go to one of the terminals and see if you can get the shields back up. It looks like the last launcher is gone.”
“How many?” Nathan asked, pulling himself to his feet. He was still staring at the Other. Still amazed by it.
“Four got out,” Hayden said. “I wish I knew where they were going.” He looked back at the Other. “If any of those things land near my wife, I’ll find your fucking homeworld and I’ll do the same to you and yours.”
The Other didn’t move. It did produce a sound. A deep rumble. Laughter.
“You think that’s funny?” Hayden said. “You think you’re so smart? So superior? You caused some trouble, but you aren’t going home, and your kind isn’t coming here. We’re still here. Humankind is still here, and we’ve still got access to the stars. How do you like that?”
The Other stopped laughing. Its blue blood was still pouring out of it, off its legs and onto the floor. Nathan thought it was an odd color for blood – even alien blood.
Hayden continued staring at it. Watching it. Waiting for it to do something. When it didn’t move, he went over to it and shoved it with his foot. It toppled over and didn’t move.
“I think it’s dead,” Nathan said, standing beside Hayden.
“Looks like it,” Hayden agreed.
“How did you know it was Doc?”
“Educated guess.”
“What do you mean educated guess?” Chandra said. She had positioned herself at the main terminal and was moving through the menus. She tapped the control surface and then stood up. “Shields are coming back. Easy when you aren’t under the influence.”
Nathan looked up at the stream from the western wall. The energy shield dropped right along the outer edge of the stone structure. The soldiers standing on it started cheering.
“With everything the Other knew, I figured it had to be pretty close to General Stacker. Someone Stacker might have confided in. I was also thinking about how it attacked you in your apartment, Nathan. About what it might have wanted.”
“Ebion,” Nathan said, the truth dawning on him. “It didn’t come for me. It came for her. She was close enough to Tinker that she had intel on the launch vehicles, the shields, everything. She was a robot, so she wouldn’t accidentally blab about any of it, and nobody in Edenrise was about to try to make her.”
“The Other pulled the data out,” Hayden said. “I think that’s also how it managed to live so long.”
“What do you mean?”
Hayden extended the claw on his left hand. He leaned over the Other, drawing it back. Then he swung, hard and fast enough that it whistled as it cut through the air, and then through the Other’s neck. The blow severed its head, and it rolled away from the body and onto the floor, trailing blue blood.
“I’ll be damned,” Nathan said.
There was no muscle and no bone, only a thick gel material with what appeared to be a matte black alloy spine in the center, with a tube running through the center of that and spilling the blue liquid. The oily surface of the Other wasn’t a suit, but it also wasn’t skin. It was a surface. A membrane laid on top of a machine unlike anything he had ever seen before.
“It’s a robot?” Chandra said.
“At least part of it is artificial,” Hayden said. “Is the whole thing? I don’t know. We’d have to cut the whole body apart and examine it to find out, and we don’t exactly have time for an autopsy.”
“And if this thing was posing as Doc, it means Doc is dead,” Nathan said. “Maybe even since she boarded the Pulse after James and I returned from Area 51.”
“Most likely,” Hayden agreed. “The real thing might be stuffed into a cargo bin or something.”
The idea chilled Nathan.
“Speaking of not having time,” he said. “What the hell do we do now? General Neill is dead. I’m a traitor. The city is in a state of emergency. Four thousand delivery vehicles are on their way to delivering their payloads--”
“And Tinker and James are out west, looking for the Pilgrim,” Hayden said. “When they find it, they’re going to bring the key and the door back together and let in who knows how many of those.” He pointed to the Other. “Or maybe something worse.”
“Something worse?” Nathan said.
“If that thing is a machine, somebody made it. And if the Others are capable of making something like that, if they’re capable of making a starship with a reactor the size of my fist that can power the energy shields, if they’re capable of creating an interstellar bridge...I don’t want to find out what else they can do.”
Chapter 34
“Shhh. It’s okay. Mommy’s here.” Natalia Duke leaned over the crib, reaching down to pick up her crying daughter. The moment her hands found purchase on Hallia’s sides, the infant began to quiet, instead looking up at her with inquisitive eyes. It was a look Natalia knew all too well. “Just like your father. Are you going to be a Sheriff instead of an Engineer?”
Hallia made a soft cooing sound while Natalia brought her up to her shoulder. She gently stroked the baby’s back, heading back out of the nursery. Even though Hayden was rarely in the apartment for more than a few days at a time, it still felt empty without him. During the many days he had been gone to the Eastern Expansion Zone, she had been able to feel his presence, his calm strength and devotion to their family. When he got back, she knew she and Hallia would be the first thing on his mind. He’d come home to see them before he did anything else.
Damn, she missed him.
She reached up to brush away a tear, recal
ling the last time they had spoken. She had told him she could take care of things, and she meant it. That didn’t mean losing him wouldn’t hurt.
“He’s not dead,” she told herself. “Not him.”
It wouldn’t be the first time she feared he was gone. It wouldn’t be the first time he had survived when the odds were stacked against him. That’s what Hayden did. He was a fighter. A survivor. He didn’t know when to quit, not when it came to anything he cared about. He hadn’t given up on her when she was at the lowest point of her life. She wasn’t going to give up on him, not unless she saw his dead body with her own eyes.
“Daddy will be back soon,” she said, bouncing Hallia in her arms.
She walked over to a worn couch in the corner of the too-large space, where she had left her bag. Her eyes trailed out through the window, to the remains of the city below, to the water a little further out, to the rusted structure of an old bridge whose span had been intentionally destroyed centuries earlier. The first time she had seen it, trife were living near the supports, a reminder of who this planet belonged to.
There were no trife there now. There were no trife within two hundred kilometers of Sanisco. Between Hayden’s efforts, Bennett’s support, and the pair of Goliaths that roamed the area, they had managed to carve out a niche of safety for any people who wanted to take advantage of it. All they had to do was follow the law, and after spending their entire lives without rules most fell right in line.
She picked up the bag, expertly slinging it over her free arm. Becoming a mother had seemed to give her an added dose of dexterity, allowing her to do things with one arm that she would never have considered before. She hugged Hallia tighter at the thought. She and Hayden had wanted to be parents for so long, and the path had been anything but easy. She was grateful every day.
Especially if Hallia was going to be the only part of Hayden she had left.
She shook her head, angry at herself for letting the negativity in. She had better things to do with her time today. More important things. She had promised Malcolm she would finish repairing the portable reactor they had found near Lavega, even if that meant not getting any sleep. Not that she’d been sleeping much anyway.