Vontaura

by James C. Dunn

  ‘Yes,’ she panted. ‘It hurts so much!’

  ‘I know, sweetie. Hang in there. It’ll be worth it, trust me.’

  Before long, the contractions began again and Gílana cried out. No baby yet, but she was close. She had to be.

  Anna gazed out the window. Black beasts rampaged across the city. Men below fought back. She couldn’t see what Gordian had seen. Not human. Her eyes were heavy. Her legs weak. All her energy spent.

  After several minutes Gordian hurtled back into the apartment. ‘That thing,’ he said breathlessly. ‘It’s coming!’

  ‘How far?’ Callista asked.

  ‘Minutes away.’

  ‘And the beasts?’

  ‘The beasts,’ he said. ‘They’re still down there. They haven’t entered the building. Whatever is it, it looks human. But it’s not. It’s coming alone.’

  ‘I was right,’ Anna said. ‘It’s coming for me.’

  ‘Show me your arm,’ the old woman said. ‘Show me!’

  Anna reluctantly pushed her sleeve up. Blood pounded through her. Her arm was filled with veined strands, blackened and throbbing.

  ‘Hell on Earth!’ Ketrass cried. ‘What is it? What’s wrong with you?’

  ‘Ever since Erebus,’ she said. ‘I—’

  Gílana screamed again. But it was not a scream of pain. It was a scream of terror.

  They each turned slowly to the apartment door. It was open. But blocked by a figure. It looked almost human. It was tall and thin with a body draped in cloth of dark gold.

  Nobody moved.

  Gílana whimpered.

  ‘Shhh,’ Callista said. ‘Anna . . .’

  The figure stepped in.

  Gordian threw himself forward, rifle in hand. He fired twice and missed. The humanoid forced him aside like he was nothing more than a child. The Crilshan landed on his front in the middle of the room. The thing stepped past Gílana, Ketrass, and Callista. It looked to Anna.

  ‘It’s coming for me!’ She backed away, up the steps.

  It followed slowly.

  Gordian was on his feet again. He leapt in front of it yelling, ‘Me! Come for me!’ He swung the rifle out.

  The creature dodged it faster than possible, then reached out, picked him up by his neck, and launched him across the room and over the kitchen counter. He landed askew, unmoving.

  The humanoid looked back to Anna with deep golden eyes, glancing aside at the whimpering women. It moved again towards her. She ran up the steps, tripping and turning, whimpering and weak. The apartment spun.

  She reached the top, scrambling down the corridor and into her bedroom. No way out. Nowhere to turn. She aimed her coilbolt at the window and fired, shattering the glass. She breathed out, slammed her door shut, and fired at the iron bolt’s lock. It broke as her bedroom door slammed open. She forced her way out onto the balcony.

  Down below, fire and smoke covered the city. Sirens, screams, and the rattle of gunfire filled the air. Hovercraft soared below and up high, assaulting countless skeletal beasts now rampaging wild upon the helpless inhabitants, Crilshan and Titanese suffering side by side.

  Glass crunched behind her. She turned to see the creature emerge. It was huge, hairless, with those powerful, golden eyes. She backed up to the edge. The being stopped. It looked down upon her, and stretched out its hand, palm open.

  ‘What do you want?!’ she cried.

  ‘CONTROL!’ the creature cried with a deep, rolling utter. ‘Give it to me!’

  Her wrist shook. She gripped it tight. Did it want the bracelet?

  ‘How? How?!’

  ‘Give it to me! I am Masterium. GIVE IT TO ME!’

  SIXTY-SEVEN

  ANNA CLOSED HER eyes, the world around her spilling by. Biting wind tore through her hair. The creature stepped closer, hand outstretched. It wanted the bracelet. But she didn’t know how to give it.

  ‘I am Masterium!’

  She closed her eyes, listened to the raging battle. This creature was tearing her home apart. It wasn’t here to help. It wanted the bracelet. The evil voice at the centre of Erebus. Could it be . . .

  ‘GIVE IT TO ME!’

  She heard the Accentaurian’s words: ‘You will lose everything.’

  Starting and ending with my life?

  She dragged her feet to the very edge.

  So be it.

  Anna turned and stepped off the balcony. She surrendered to her fate. Her heart jumped into her throat. The city around her blurred into one great shadow. But she did not plunge far. Her feet struck something hard, launching her back up. She landed on her back. She was on the balcony again. The humanoid was waiting.

  The air rose up around her. Dark metal lifted from beneath. The wail of an engine joined. Blaster fire! Coilbolt bursts! The entire glass window shattered. The creature staggered forwards. Then it stopped.

  Before them both a craft ascended, its side compartment wide open. Diego Ferranti stood within, anger in his eyes, coil and blaster firing fiercely. Anna remained lay on her side, covering her ears. The humanoid above her charged forwards, dodging the attack. But Ferranti concentrated his fire, sending it back against the wall, an imprint in bright red blood left up against it.

  But the creature was not finished. It carried on, eyes focused on her. It wanted the bracelet, and it was going to get it. Ferranti fired again and the blaster took the creature’s arm completely off. It screamed a deep howl of agony and reached for Anna, lunging forwards—

  The craft above spun horizontally, its tail end missing Anna and striking the gold-clothed being onto its back. With one arm it reached out one last time for Anna, took hold of her wrist. She rolled away, back towards the edge.

  ‘RETURN!’ the creature said.

  ‘I . . . what?’

  ‘RETURN!’

  ‘I don’t—’

  It rolled onto its side. Towards her. Past her. Over the edge of the balcony. As it plunged to its death, Anna could make out its cry once more. ‘RETURN!’ And it faded into the wind like dust.

  * * *

  ‘Anna!’ Ferranti cried through the surrounding noise from the craft above. He leaned out of the carrier and pointed into the apartment.

  ‘Ferranti! How?’

  ‘Anna, get back inside! Down the steps. Make sure no one is upstairs!’

  She did as she was told and grasped her coilbolt, staggering over broken glass, through her bedroom, and down into the apartment. She knew what they were going to do. There was nowhere else to land the craft.

  At the bottom of the steps, Callista lurched toward her. ‘Quick,’ she said. ‘Behind me!’

  ‘No, it’s all right,’ Anna said. ‘It’s gone. Whatever it was, it’s gone.’

  ‘Gone where?’

  Behind her, Gílana continued to cry out in pain. Louder, it would seem, than before. Gordian lay, out cold, in the kitchen, where Ketrass sat beside him, repeating his name.

  ‘Down!’ Anna shouted and she pulled Callista behind the couch, covering Gílana with her own body.

  The room shook; the sound of an engine enveloped the small space. Debris fell from the level above as Ferranti’s craft drove its way into the place where once three bedrooms had been. Metal emerged at the top of the steps. The craft’s side compartment opened and a set of stepladders dropped where the stairs once were.

  Ferranti plunged into the room. He was thin, so thin, with sunken eyes and a grave look upon his face.

  ‘Only in heaven,’ Callista said.

  ‘Where’ve you been?’ Anna asked.

  ‘Out there, following a single beacon. We saw the moon and fled. It followed us back.’

  Then, from behind Ferranti dropped Xerin Kramer. He too was armed, dressed in a Crilshan military uniform with his face covering concealing his non-Crilshan eye. He stared at each of them.

  With a groan, Gordian sat up slowly. Ketrass left his side and embraced Kramer tightly. ‘I thought you were dead.’

  ‘Not yet,’ he said.

&nb
sp; ‘We don’t have time for this,’ Callista said. ‘The baby’s going to come. We need to get out of here.’

  As she spoke, several military hovercraft darted past the tower, discharging rockets and blaster-fire at the building parallel. Black-boned organisms scaled the outside of the tower. Many were cut down but the rest continued up.

  ‘They’re coming for me,’ Anna said. ‘They must be! That thing wanted this.’ She held out her hand.

  ‘Quick,’ Ferranti said. ‘We need to cover the corridor outside.’

  ‘I’ll do what I can,’ Gordian said, heading for the door. Blood trickled down his forehead. Ketrass followed him out, picking up the second rifle.

  ‘Callista, stay with Gílana,’ Ferranti told her. ‘Have her hold on as long as she can.’

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘Kramer. Anna. Come with me.’ He headed through the rubble and pushed his way into what was left of the once-hidden vault.

  ‘It’s no use,’ Anna told him, following the two through into the room. ‘They found it. They destroyed it.’

  ‘No!’ he said. ‘There must be some way.’ He began pushing aside broken panels and metal debris.

  ‘It’s no use, Diego!’

  ‘I am not giving up!’ he said, pushing over everything he could. ‘Kramer, help me!’

  The professor joined him. Anna watched them struggle desperately. She was so glad Ferranti was back – even a little at the sight of Kramer. He was right. They couldn’t give up. She turned her head, able to hear her sister crying outside. She wanted nothing more than to go to her. This was her fault. That creature had come for her, for the bracelet trapped around her wrist. She had to help fix this.

  There must be some way!

  ‘Here!’ Kramer shouted. ‘A light! There is a connection here somewhere.’

  Ferranti followed the light to a power source at the back. ‘Here, take this,’ he said, handing Kramer a group of wires. ‘We need access to comms, visi-comm preferably.’

  ‘That panel there,’ she said. ‘Behind you!’

  He reattached what he could, switched the power on, and stood back as an image materialized on one half of a broken screen between them. It was the docking city. It was gone. The picture pointed up at black smoke. Dark bodies moved everywhere.

  He switched the image. The Martial City. The three shared a stunned silence. The city was consumed. More and more of the beasts poured in, breaking into every section, destroying everything they touched.

  The image moved again. Central City. The piazza outside Central Tower had been reclaimed by Crilshan soldiers. Dozens of beastly bodies lay still, surrounded by blood. It appeared every last soldier, Titanese and Crilshan, was barricading the entrance gates, piling wreckage into barriers. The beasts upon the other side were throwing themselves at the gate. They were going to get through.

  ‘Diego?’ she said, horrified.

  ‘We have minutes,’ Kramer said. ‘Let’s just figure this out.’

  ‘You know those things,’ Ferranti said. ‘More than anyone, you know!’

  ‘I know less than you think.’ Kramer leant back. ‘They were dormant when we found then. Very quickly they emerged from hibernation when exposed to our environment. They adapted quickly. Seven to eight feet in height, each with two horns on their skull, half a meter to a meter in length. They were deadly, purely carnivorous—’

  ‘We don’t need a description,’ Ferranti said. ‘We need to know how to fight them.’

  ‘It’s simple,’ Kramer replied. ‘We can’t.’

  ‘Then what?’

  ‘They weren’t sapient,’ Kramer said. ‘They weren’t intelligent. My studies suggested they were instinctual creatures, following each other, pure impulse.’

  ‘And commands,’ Anna said.

  Kramer glared. ‘What?’

  Anna held her wrist towards him. The silver-black band, now part of her, still shook, gleaming before them, dark strands covering her palm and striking through to the elbow.

  ‘That,’ he said. ‘You found it inside Erebus.’

  ‘As soon as I put it on, they did as I wanted.’

  ‘They listened to you?’

  ‘I commanded them.’

  ‘So who’s commanding them now?’

  ‘That thing. It called itself Masterium. It wanted the bracelet. Could it—’

  —Titan! came a voice as though from nowhere.

  ‘Who was that?’ she said.

  —Titan, are you there? It was muffled, coming from beneath the rubble at their feet. This is . . . Abacco . . . can you . . . me?

  ‘A speaker!’ Ferranti reached down among the wreckage. ‘There must be an external connection!’ He kicked away a plank of metal and exposed a loudspeaker unit. He reach around to the panel behind and altered the visi-comm so that it presented a block of large letters. ‘Come on, there must be a way. Come on – yes! We’re linked. Alignment fleet! Titan is here, are you receiving this?’

  —This is the Achakachula. We hear you!

  He checked the scanner again. ‘It’s them!’ he cried.

  ‘Who?’ Kramer said.

  ‘All of them!’

  ‘Who?!’

  ‘The Alignment.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Let me see,’ Anna said, pushing through. ‘He’s right!’

  Ferranti laughed. ‘Enusti war craft! Crilshan barrages! Proverian carriers!’

  ‘How many?’

  ‘Dozens! Titanese too. Samosian. Mar-Andran. They’ve come!’

  Anna laughed. And then a voice entered through the damaged comm link. It was a poor sound, but the strength echoed around them, sending shivers down Anna’s spine like only one voice ever could.

  SIXTY-EIGHT

  ALARMS AND SIRENS. Yells and screams.

  Ruben Berenguer and Yux Dishan crossed the threshold of the Achakachula’s viewing centre, armed and uniformed, to a panoramic vision of hell. The Enusti flagship had inserted itself into Titan’s orbit and the viewing centre crew stared in horror at what awaited them.

  The black-rock moon had beaten them here.

  Meteors, hundreds of them, poured from within the moon, down towards Titan’s surface, vanishing into the blood-red haze, down towards the Twelve Cities.

  A number of ships followed behind the Achakachula, all the remnants of the hidden Alignment. All had followed the Enusti flagship from Samos. Most were Enusti and Crilshan, though various other interstellar spacecraft, both military and civilian, had followed the ultimatt path.

  Adelaide Abacco strode the length of the viewing centre ‘General! What are you doing here?’

  ‘This is my world,’ he said.

  ‘Your world is ending. There is nothing we can do for it.’

  ‘I refuse to believe that for a second!’

  ‘I did not wish to come here. Heading for Earth was our hope. The moon has beaten us here. Your people are lost. Face it.’

  ‘No. Contact them. Send a message. There must be survivors.’

  ‘And what can we do for them?!’

  ‘Something. We must do something! There are millions down there. We cannot abandon them!’

  ‘They are lost, General!’

  The Empress’ commander, Balvyn-Rath, interrupted. ‘We have attempted contact. All open channels are filled with the black-rock moon’s signal. We cannot get through.’

  ‘Then use a private wavelength,’ Ruben said.

  ‘Whose?’

  ‘Mine!’ He strode the length of the viewing centre to Balvyn-Rath’s private panel-pane and entered his secure key. ‘There is a connection. We can speak.’

  ‘Titan!’ Abacco cried. ‘Titan, are you there? Can you hear me, Titan? Anybody? This is Empress Adelaide Abacco. Can you hear me?’

  Nothing.

  ‘There is nothing we can do, General. I am truly sorry. We must leave.’

  ‘No.’ Yux Dishan crossed the room. ‘Send down what crafts you have. Save as many as possible.’

  ‘
My ship—’

  ‘Take the fleet into Saturn’s orbit. The Achakachula can lead them over the disc. Avoid the black moon until they know we’re here.’

  ‘They know we’re here,’ Balvyn-Rath answered.

  ‘You’re sure?’ spoke the Empress.

  ‘Absolutely.’ He adjusted the great projection before them and angled it towards the black-rock moon. Meteors were now headed for the fleet. Hundreds of them.

  ‘Take us round,’ Yux said. ‘Commander, course correct now!’

  Balvyn gulped. ‘Central command, listen up! I need you to adjust your path. Follow the route I’m sending through.’ In seconds the piloting team at the centre of the vessel had adjusted their path. The rest of the fleet followed suit.

  ‘Make the leap,’ Abacco said. ‘Get us out of here!’

  ‘No!’ both Ruben and Yux cried together.

  ‘How dare—’

  —Alignment fleet! A voice entered the bridge. Titan is here, are you receiving this?

  ‘I know that voice,’ Ruben said. ‘Diego, is that you?’

  —Ha! General?

  ‘It is me.’

  —I don’t believe it!

  ‘Believe it and listen, Captain. We’re going to do what we can for you. Who else is there?’

  Silence. His heart hammered his chest, breathing struggling to slow. He was certain: his family was not down there. He was not that lucky. Then again . . .

  —Uncle?

  His heart fluttered. ‘Anna?’

  —I’m here, I’m fine. So is Gílana and Callista. We’re down here.

  He could hear her weeping. ‘Listen to me, Anna. I love you. I love you all.’

  —General. It was Ferranti again. General, there are several of us down here. Many more are trapped in Central City. We have a craft. We’re going to move. Is it safe? I have no access to scans of the surrounding area.

  ‘The atmosphere is compromised,’ he said. ‘We’re manoeuvring around Saturn’s rings. Titan is compromised. We do not have the strength to take her back.’ As he said the words his mouth grew dry, his body shivering, his pulse unrestrained.

  ‘We have to deploy missiles,’ Abacco said.

  ‘Over my dead body!’

  ‘Don’t tempt me, General!’

  The Empress held his gaze. His eyes stung, but he knew she was right.

  —There is no way to stop these creatures, Ferranti said. No way without taking the Twelve Cities along with them.

  —Then how? Anna said.