Ascent

by Morgan Rice

  “Run!” Ro shouted to the others, pushing them forward.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Kevin ran on instinct, but a part of him could barely remember how to, he was so overwhelmed with emotion right then. He could remember everything that had happened while he’d been a member of the Hive, everything that he’d done. He’d helped to bring down the shields of the world below, he’d helped to attack its inhabitants…

  …he’d sent Chloe away to die.

  “Chloe… I…” he began.

  “Keep running!” she yelled back as they hurried through the spire. “This is no time to tell me what you’re feeling!”

  “Feelings are important,” the Purest running with them said. “They fill the world. They pervade everything. They—”

  “You keep running too, Ro,” Chloe yelled at him.

  They ran, and Kevin could hear footsteps behind them, sounding far too loud against the metal of the spire’s floors. Kevin was just glad that the Hive didn’t keep the worst of its killer beasts in the spires, and that the servitors chasing them were better suited to tasks requiring strength or obedience than to speed.

  They reached a curving ramp that lead through the interior like a staircase. The only question now was which way to go.

  “Do we go up or down?” Kevin yelled. He couldn’t think straight. He was still thinking about all the evil things that he’d done while he’d been a member of the Hive. He hadn’t chosen it. He’d said no to it. He’d said no, and they had still convinced him to become one of them.

  “Focus, Kevin,” Chloe said, and then shook her head with a smile. “Things must be pretty bad if I’m the only one holding things together.”

  “That’s because you’re amazing,” Kevin said. After everything Chloe had been through on the alien’s world ship, she was still there, still able to think of what to do next. They still needed to decide which way to run, but that decision was made for them when Kevin heard the chittering sound of far more dangerous things approaching from below, coming up the ramp with frightening speed.

  “Up!” Kevin yelled. “We need to go up!”

  They started off up the ramp, running as fast as they could. It was hard. Now that he wasn’t a part of the Hive anymore, Kevin could feel his body straining with the effort of staying ahead of the things chasing them. He just hoped that there would be a door soon, or something they could put between them, or something they could use to fight.

  Instead, they came out onto the roof of the spire.

  There was a door there behind them, and Kevin sealed it quickly, hoping it would hold against everything that was chasing them. Above, the power source at the heart of the world ship glowed with white hot malignancy, ready to fire on the alien planet below it. Around them, all of the golden spires crackled with power as they controlled it, directing it.

  “We have to find some way to stop this,” Kevin said, staring up at it in horror. “We can’t just let them destroy a whole planet.”

  He saw Chloe nod. “If there’s a way—”

  “There is no way,” Ro said. “With the process this far along, and outside of the control rooms…” He shook his head. “It cannot be stopped.”

  Behind them, Kevin heard something start to bang on the doors.

  “There has to be something,” Kevin insisted. There was already so much on his conscience. He couldn’t be responsible for the destruction of a whole planet too. He had to help somehow.

  “The most I can hope to do is to distract the Hive through my connection to it,” Ro said. “It will not stop the destruction, but at least it might give some a chance to get away.”

  The banging on the doors was getting louder now, the golden metal buckling under the impact of something far stronger than anything human.

  “Do it,” Kevin said.

  Ro nodded, and seemed to concentrate, his white eyes screwing up with the effort of it. He went still, in an almost trancelike state, and Kevin wished he could see what was going on in the Hive, but his own connection seemed to have been cut more completely, or perhaps it was just that he wasn’t one of the Purest.

  “They’re pushing back against me,” he said. “I don’t know what will confuse them most.”

  “Emotion,” Chloe said. “They don’t understand it.”

  Ro nodded. Kevin was more worried about the thuds that continued to come from the golden door behind them.

  “I… think… I have… it…” Ro managed, but he didn’t open his eyes; didn’t make any move to continue their escape.

  “We still need to get out of here,” Kevin said.

  “I don’t think I can move,” Ro replied. “I can hold it, but I must… concentrate.”

  “So we’re just supposed to abandon you?” Chloe demanded. She didn’t sound happy about that prospect.

  Kevin couldn’t see what other options there were, though, with the banging growing louder on the door and the alien unable to move. If they stood there with him, they would all die soon. If Ro ran, then so many others would be killed as the Hive picked off anyone trying to run from the world below.

  Then he saw the golden disc on the floor and had an idea.

  “Help Ro onto that disc,” he said, and he and Chloe each took one of the Purest’s arms, helping him aboard. “Ro, do you have a controller for the disc?”

  “Chloe’s… symbiont…”

  Kevin didn’t understand for a moment, but then, staring at the thing on Chloe’s arm, he realized that it was the same as the thing the Purest had used to control the gravity around them. It was a connection to the gravity systems of the ship, and probably far more.

  “Chloe,” he said. “This disc can fly, and you have the controls for it. Press the thing on your arm and see what happens.”

  “What if it bites my arm off?” Chloe replied.

  At that moment, the golden doors to the roof gave way, and creatures poured out. They were horrifying, looking part ape, part wolf, part insect. One surged forward, and Kevin acted on instinct, grabbing the stun stick out of Chloe’s hand and jabbing it at the thing. The beast gave a shriek and reared back as energy crackled into it, and Kevin hit it again.

  “Now, Chloe!” he yelled, and felt the golden disc jerk into the air unsteadily.

  “I don’t know what I’m doing!” Chloe yelled back.

  “So long as it keeps us out of reach of those things and lets Ro concentrate, it’s fine,” Kevin said. He kept a hand on the alien, steadying him although the disc’s own gravity meant it was probably nearly impossible to fall off. In the other hand, he held the shock stick ready.

  Kevin saw her press at the thing on her arm, making a disgusted face every time she touched it. The disc spun left, then right, lifted up and dropped down.

  “I think I’ve got it,” Chloe said.

  It looked as though it was just in time, because at least another couple of the golden discs were rising up over the city around them, surrounded by buzzing things that looked part alive, part mechanical, like giant clockwork wasps.

  “We need to get out of here,” Kevin called out as the things came at them.

  Chloe seemed to get the message, because their golden disc set off through the air at a frightening pace, zipping low to the ground and then rising up again, shooting past gray buildings and through tangles of wires.

  The chasers followed them. One of the wasp things came close, jabbing out with a stinger that sprayed a noxious green substance. Kevin jabbed back with his stun rod, and the thing tumbled from the sky to the ground below. Another followed close, zipping after them and looking for a chance to attack. Kevin circled around with it until it was in front of him, just hovering ahead and waiting to come in.

  He ducked as Chloe took them under a bridge, dragging Ro down with him. The wasp thing wasn’t so quick, and struck against it in a shower of green liquid. It burned when Kevin touched it.

  “Ow!” he said.

  “You shouldn’t touch things that come out of giant poisonous wasps the
n,” Chloe said.

  “There are still more of them,” Kevin said, pointing back.

  “There will always be more,” Ro managed from where he stood. “The Hive has a whole world of servitors.”

  “Then we need to get off this world,” Kevin said, looking around until he found one of the spaces that had served to let ships out into the atmosphere around the planet. “There. If we can get to it, there might still be a ship.”

  “Because that worked out so well last time,” Chloe muttered, but she still set off in the direction of the hangar, and whatever might lie inside it.

  The others chased them. The golden platforms came closer, like boats bobbing on a river, ready for boarding. One of the Purest stood on each, along with servitor creatures who had guns that fired bursts of energy that flew through the air, missing their platform and slamming into the interior surface of the world ship.

  “Hold on!” Chloe yelled, as the golden disc zigged and zagged, dodging the worst of the blasts. The strangest thing was that there was no need to hold on; the disc’s gravity kept them all firmly in place even when they looped and rolled. It also meant that the enemies on other discs were just as firmly fixed to their discs.

  One leapt across, and Kevin zapped it with the stun stick. He held it like a sword, ready to thrust at any enemy who came too close, but it wasn’t as though he could scare any member of the Hive off. It wasn’t as though they felt fear. More leapt, and even though they fell tumbling to the ground when Kevin hit them with the stun stick, they didn’t seem to care. As long as the Purest continued to pilot them…

  “If that’s what it takes,” Kevin said to himself, and stood ready for the next time one of the golden discs came close.

  He didn’t wait for the creatures aboard to try to board them this time. Instead, he boarded their golden disc, leaping over with a shout and charging straight at the Purest piloting the thing. Kevin pushed past a couple of the servitor creatures in the way, darting around questing claws as he lunged forward to drive the shock stick straight into the Purest.

  Instantly, Kevin turned and ran, his foot reaching the edge of the golden disc as it faltered and fell. He leapt, his legs continuing to run in the air, his arms pinwheeling. He managed to catch the edge of the disc, almost sliding off the edge as he tried to keep hold of the shock stick. He clamped his teeth together as he struggled to pull himself up, throwing one leg up toward the edge and managing to catch a foot on it. Kevin rolled onto his back, and would have lain there panting except that one of the wasp things flew in close. Kevin sat up, jabbing the shock stick at it, and struggled back to his feet as it fell.

  “Don’t you dare,” Chloe said as he readied himself to take a leap at the second disc. “You almost died with the last one.”

  She pulled the disc back away from the second one, and Kevin stopped short of the edge. Instead of jumping, he weighed the shock stick in his hand. He threw it, and the stick tumbled end over end, striking the Purest on the second disc in a shower of sparks and sending the disc tumbling downward.

  Their disc shot forward toward the hangar, leaving their pursuers behind. It wouldn’t buy them much time, but maybe the little it had given them would be enough. They shot into the hangar, which seemed mostly empty, like a bird roost without birds. Some of the smaller hunter ships hung there, much sleeker and more dangerous looking than the one that had brought them there. Kevin could feel his excitement building a little at the thought of being able to actually fly one of them.

  Chloe landed the golden disc beside one of the nearest ones, and they took one of Ro’s arms each, helping him off as he shook and swayed, his eyes tightly shut in concentration. He was big enough and tall enough that it took both of them to guide him through the doors of the alien fighter, closing them after themselves and locking them shut.

  From the windows, Kevin saw aliens advancing toward their chosen ship. There was nowhere to run now. If they got there, then Kevin, Chloe, and Ro would be caught and killed with no way out. They had to get off of the world ship.

  “Ro, can you help us get this thing flying?” Kevin asked, but the alien didn’t respond. Instead, he stood there in what looked like grim concentration. Kevin guessed they wouldn’t be able to snap him out of that quickly, and that even if they somehow did, it would be a bad thing, since the Hive would be able to see them and strike at them as they ran, along with all the refugees from the world below.

  He moved to the cockpit of the ship, trying to work out how it ran. He’d seen through the eyes of pilots, sent instructions down to a fleet of craft like this, and he thought he knew how they worked, but that had been when they were already flying, not when they were just hanging there.

  “We have to get this ship going,” Kevin said.

  “I know,” Chloe replied. “I’m trying.”

  She had the thing on her arm pressed against the ship’s control panel, and Kevin could hear the hum of power that was coming from it. There seemed to be a connection there, the same way that there had been with the golden disc, and now Kevin could see the controls lighting up.

  He could also hear things banging on the doors.

  Reaching out, he grabbed for what he hoped were the right controls. He grasped a kind of joystick, and a big throttle control that looked like a lever to push forward. He accelerated the ship, its drives pushing it away from the clamps that held it so that they squealed in protest. Kevin felt something give… and then they were bursting away from the ship.

  They moved away from the docking section of the world ship, out through the shield that kept its air inside. Kevin twisted the ship gently to make it fit, and then, with no break between, they were out in space, blackness surrounding them.

  He was flying. He was actually flying.

  Carefully, Kevin guided the ship away from the world ship, moving slowly and carefully, not daring to go any faster. He looped away from its misshapen surface, seeing the crackle of energy building up on it. He did his best to open a radio channel, hoping he could remember the right buttons to make it work.

  “If there’s anyone listening, you need to get away from the surface of the world,” he warned. “They’re going to use some kind of weapon on it. They’re going to blow it up!”

  Something moved into sight: one of the sleek forms of the defenders’ ships. Kevin recognized it for what it was even as he realized that it was flying straight for him.

  “No,” he called out over the radio. “We’re not planning to attack you. We’re escaping. We broke free of the—”

  A blast of light cut him off, and something ripped through the ship, sending Kevin sprawling.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Luna drove the bus forward, feeling every jolt in the road, punctuated by occasional bigger jolts as they hit abandoned cars, the snowplow shoving them out of the way. Luna had to fight to keep hold of the wheel, the driver’s seat all the way forward, determined that she was going to be the one to get them to their destination. Beside her, Bobby leaned into her, pretty much holding her in place with his weight.

  “They’re gone,” Cub said, sitting on the seat nearest to the driver’s. He didn’t look up. “They’re all gone.”

  Luna could understand that kind of sense of loss now. She knew what it was like to lose friends, and family, and everyone else she’d ever known. Everyone knew what that felt like now, and it hurt. It was the worst feeling in the world.

  “That’s part of what we’re fighting to get back,” Luna said. “We can still save so many people.”

  “Not the ones who have died though,” Cub said. “Not my dad.”

  Luna understood how that hurt too. Even if they found a permanent cure today, there would still be some people it wouldn’t help. So many people had died for real, not just been controlled by the aliens.

  “Maybe not us either,” Cub said. “Not unless we’re quick.”

  Luna looked over at him, ignoring the jolt that came from a parked car. Bobby barked.

  “You�
��re not turning back controlled, are you?” she asked. She didn’t know what she would do if the answer was yes. Cub was one of the coolest people she’d met, and he liked her, and she… well, she liked him too. She wasn’t sure she could stop the bus and force him off to walk out into LA. She definitely couldn’t try to kill him.

  “Not yet,” Cub said, “but I can feel it building up in me. It’s like a kind of pressure, and it’s always there, whatever I do. Can’t you feel it?”

  “I can,” Luna admitted. The fear of turning back was always just under the surface, and the threat of it was there too. Like Cub said, it was like a pressure inside of her, the part controlled by the aliens ready to come bursting to the surface if she didn’t fight it every—

  They slammed into another car, the jolt pulling Luna from her thoughts. It would have knocked her from her seat too if Bobby hadn’t pushed into her, holding her in place.

  “Careful!” Ignatius called out from further down the bus.

  “You should be up here anyway,” Luna said. “You’re the one who says we should try the materials lab. You need to help find the way.”

  “UCLA isn’t hard to find,” Ignatius said.

  Maybe that was true normally. In a city like LA, maybe broad streets and big landmarks made it hard to get lost, but that was without the chaos that had come from the aliens’ landing. There were so many cars abandoned in the streets now that even with the modified bus, it was getting harder to push through. Buildings, meanwhile, had been picked clean by looters, either the controlled or just people trying to take what they could from the chaos.

  The bus traveled slowly, but that was fine, because at least it meant that some of the other Survivors could keep up with them on their bikes, the engines sounding higher and faster against the dull note of the bus. It formed the head of a kind of convoy, moving through LA at only a little more than walking pace, bikes following in its wake, and a stumbling, shuffling mass of refugees from the Survivors’ base following in theirs.