We arrived, or appeared, in the gloom of the quarantine zone. Red lights pulsed along the ceiling above us and the floor beneath. I looked around. Quickly I spotted the blue light of Sean, then the strong figure of Aeniah, soon the slight frame of Blue Dawn and finally the others.
The angels stood around us, their wings outstretched, shielding us from some unimagined horror. They gave off an aura of impossible kindness, of unrivalled benevolence. They seemed to draw you towards them.
Each was slightly different in appearance but in reality all looked very much the same. One of them, who was standing behind me, placed a hand upon my shoulder. A burst of utter sorrow flowed from him and into the very core of me. It shook my very soul. It was as if he was trying to communicate his compassion with our situation. As though there was some deep level of understanding between he and I.
I wondered how could this be a military force when all I felt from them was the very manifestation of love. I wanted one to hold me, to tell me that everything would be okay. That there was no reason to fear the night, for there would always be day. Instead the hand withdrew and he settled protectively behind me. I knew that they would protect us with everything they had. I just didn’t know why. Even Aeniah seemed awed by their countenance, their mercy.
She spoke with a faintly crackling voice. ‘Oh for the love of...Let’s just get on with this shall we?’
Blue Dawn turned towards Aeniah. ‘Something’s wrong. The sensor grid isn’t reporting. The Equinox should offer some protection but I would not wholly rely upon it. Perhaps you would prefer something with a little more explosive potential than that glorified pistol of yours.’
‘I think that this will be more than enough Dawn.’ Aeniah replied briskly. ‘Right then, open her up.’
In front us a symbol flashed from red to green. The door sighed as it heaved itself open. The view of the dock opened slowly before us. The lights were low and everything had a faint blue tinge. By the opening of the door lay several bodies. All bore the Eternis Systems logo.
‘Oh no,’ gasped Aeniah. She rushed towards their bodies, checking them over. The angels soundlessly filed out and made a protective circle around her.
Through the mass of gentle wings I could see Aeniah pause by one body. For a second I thought I saw a tear trickle from her eyes. Sean floated and descended within the circle. He seemed to whisper something to her. She touched his little frame with kindness and rose confidently and wiped something from her eye. I had been right. She was crying.
With some effort she began to pace smartly towards the vessel. I followed after her.
The docks were in a bad way. There were cracks about the glass that gave a panoramic view from the docks into space. There were scorch marks pitting the part of the dock closest to the ship. A few bodies lay scattered around the ground between us and the vessel. We cautiously stepped around them.
Swiftly we paced towards the ship and reached our destination at the umbilical which connected the station to the ship. The condition of the umbilical was even worse than the docks.
The angels appeared to scan the section, listening intently. I understood that they must be listening for the telltale hiss of the environment being vented into space. It occurred to me that this was a perception that I might not have had a couple of weeks ago. My brain appeared to have been re-wired. My thoughts more focused, more mature. Many things were beginning to make sense. I just wasn’t ready to let myself see them. Not yet.
Aeniah thumbed a pad on her arm. A communication from our suits. ‘Knightly the pressure doors are under lock-down, get them open.’
Knightly’s rather shaky voice became audible over the comms. ‘Yes Aeniah, the security cordon about the vessel appears to have been quite successful in keeping away the rebels. I don’t hear the sound of explosives anymore.’ The angels had circles tightly around us. Each one of us had protective arcs of them. They surrounded us, insulating us from what might be.
Blue Dawn looked distinctly unimpressed by the damages made to her docks. Her dress caught on upturned metal as she walked serenely. She seemed almost disappointed at the lack of a challenge so far, as though looking for a chance to take revenge on those that had damaged her station.
‘I am not sure about the reactor state,’ Knightly continued. ‘Ship systems are giving a denial of service on any attempts to reach its systems.’ His voice broke a little. ‘The rest of the ship’s systems are responding normally, although several reports of damage are coming in through automated channels.’ Knightly’s voice began to sound a little uncomfortable as he delivered the rest of his report. ‘Most worryingly, there has been no response from anybody outside of the CIC. I am unable to raise anybody on any channels. What are your orders sir.’
Aeniah looked at us defiantly and said, ‘we are coming to take back the CIC, hold it at all costs. When we get to you I intend to take my ship back.’ As she spoke Knightly authorised the opening of the pressure doors. The umbilical hissed for a second as air escaped into space and rolled away revealing the airlock into the vessel.
‘Confirmed sir, Knightly out.’
From my position behind the others little was visible. The heavenly mass of wings veiled the view into the airlock.
Aeniah, taking point, moved into the airlock with Sean a close second. For some reason Blue Dawn was sticking next to me. I sensed she had an interest in me beyond the interest she had for the others.
We moved together and into the airlock. The pressure door closed behind with another hiss. After a few seconds the second pressure door leading into the vessel flashed green and rolled away. We entered into the hanger of the ship.
The hanger was a state. Where there had once been row after row of light spacecraft there was only charred wreckage. It looked as though somebody had gone up to each individual light-craft and detonated explosives within them.
In the centre was a mass of bodies. From our vantage point we could see several figures dragging the corpses of others onto the pile. They we giggling and discharging rifle fire into the already decimated remains beside them. Death for them wasn’t the point. They revelled in the chaos of their violence.
I rushed forward to the front where Aeniah crouched low. My angels gracefully merged with hers to form a more strategic ring of protection. Whoever they were hadn’t noticed us. I raised my lancer up to my shoulder. The reticule went red and I fired.
An explosion of light erupted from the muzzle and burst into the nearest figure. He was lifted into the air by its force and cleaved in to two. Aeniah let out several pulses from her pistol into the others. Blue Dawn folded her arms. There weren’t many of them and so within a matter of moments Aeniah and I had dispatched them all. The angels never even moved at the sound of the gunfire. Not one twitch.
I moved towards the bodies. I began to look into each of their faces, not sure what I was looking for.
I realised, in a moment of horror, that I was looking for him.
Frantically I began to heave the bodies aside trying to get a glance of more, but Aeniah pulled me away.
‘George, George, shush, shush. It’s okay. He isn’t here. Do you see those markings?’ I nodded. ‘That means that these were guardsmen. Adrian can’t be with them.’ She touched my cheek. ‘He’s somewhere safe He’s waiting for us. You need to keep it together, if only for him. Once we take the CIC, we will find him, I promise you.’
I shook my head in despair. ‘Aeniah, I have tried my best. I really have. I have tried not to worry, not to care. But I just can’t. I have to find him. I just have to be sure. You take my angels and I will go and find him by myself.’ I sensed her doubts and stated confrontationally, ‘I got through Ascension by myself. I found you. If i can do that then I can find him. I’m certain that I can find him. I can feel him.’
Before Aeniah had time to say anything, Blue Dawn interjected. ‘No!’ She put a hand on my shoulder firmly. ‘I can’t allow you to do that.’ Her hand gripped int my flesh. ‘Your
loss would be irretrievable. Your genetic affinity with the Ascension project means that I simply cannot afford to allow you to die. You are the quite possibly the only person left that has any possibility of removing the Artefacts, of saving the world. I know you don’t fully understand why, but you know I speak the truth.
‘I also know that you won’t listen to me.’ Blue Dawn sighed with exasperation. ‘I will come with you and we will take just two angels. One each. Aeniah and Sean can have the rest. That should be more than enough.’
‘I don’t even need that,’ Aeniah broke in. ‘It’s okay, you two can go. By the way Dawn, you do realise that I can’t have Knightly opening the doors for both parties at once, he has enough to do.’
‘Your lockdown will not be a problem,’ she replied dryly.
Aeniah shrugged her shoulders. ‘Knightly open west side hanger door.’ A door to her left opened and with no further ceremony they were gone.
I turned away from the rapidly sealing door and looked at the mess of the hanger. It had to be here somewhere.
I found what I was looking for. It was an undamaged wall-screen. Thumbing the interface I was about to call up a ship schematic when Blue Dawn interrupted me.
‘That will not be necessary. I have a full scan of the ship and access to its entire information database.’
I wasn’t surprised.
‘Where is Adrian?’ I demanded. We had been away for much longer than I thought. His injuries should have healed. He could be anywhere. If he was outside of the medi-chamber the there was every chance the guardsman might had got him.
was getting worried now. It occurred to me that we may have had to scour the entire ship. In fact, I realised, we may never find him. The maddened crew may have dragged him away. The most chilling thought was that he may even have been among the rebels, baying for blood. My eyes looked up at Blue Dawn who appeared amused at my obvious lack of understanding.
‘I have access to the entire database George. Adrian was a patient in the medical bay under the care of Doctor Natieah. Due to complications arising during surgery the patient required additional time in the medichamber. The patient was discharged two days ago. According to medical records his doctor was administering secondary level care at the time the crew mutinied. In all probability he is still there.’ I sighed in relief.
‘The infirmary is located on the upper floor in the aft section of the vessel.’ Blue Dawn brushed her dress. ‘The most efficient route would appear to avoid main hallways and the lift systems, as both will be impassable if a full mutiny is in place. Located at the end of this hanger are launch tube for the vessels. A primitive means of deploying vessels but it suits our purposes. Tube three is pressurised. Maintenance hatch M-44-2-M inside. From there it is simply upwards two floors along the maintenance shaft . The infirmary is one hundred meters from that point.’ She smiled and turned towards the launch tube, past the wreckage of the light-craft.
The angels didn’t appear to follow her. The appeared to be keeping close to me. They opened their wings and wrapped them about me as I walked along calmly. The soft wings occasionally brushing against my face.
Everywhere there was the sound of burning wreckage. The heat was so intense as I passed each flaming husk, but still I felt calm. The angel’s soft touch isolated the world from me. I drew on their strength and continued into the open tube.
Blue Dawn stopped just next to the maintenance access screen. Rather than touch it in the conventional sense she held her hand lightly at a random point just below it. She closed her eyes. After about a seconds delay the screen flickered and granted her access. She turned to me and said, ‘You see, no problem.’
I went ahead of her into the access point. It was a very narrow space resplendent with nothing more than a ladder. I started to climb.
It stuck me that by Earth standards this was a very large ship. Yet I was mindful of the the immense hulk of Ascension surrounding it. After days of walking through the station we had only glimpsed the smallest fraction of it. By comparison the ship was something akin to the size of a flea. In fact, after about a minute’s climb, we were almost there.
The ladder ended on a small ledge with a door at the other end. I climbed up and onto it. There was just enough room for Blue Dawn besides me. She touched a non-specific point on the door and it collapsed as if by force of her will and opened.
I stepped into the science level. The lighting had been knocked offline and only the green emergency lighting illuinated the room. I could barely see.
Suddenly I was confronted by a tremendous force borne against my head. It knocked me over. I struggling upwards. But again the figure beat me back down. From the corner of my eye I saw Blue Dawn, calm as an ocean. She held her hand out and fire leapt from it, instantly incinerating my aggressor.
I looked ahead and watched in terror as five more of the ships former crew bored down upon us. They seemed possessed by some malevolent narcotic and rounded on her quickly. They slammed their fists against her repeatedly. One bent its head forward and bit down upon her face as she tried to push it away. In a moment an angel had appeared. With a most graceful movement of its hands it hurled one of the figures meters across the hall. Its head hit the wall with a crunch.
Behind me something had got hold of my leg. I reach out for my lancer but it was too far away. I turned my head to see a woman in medical uniform grasping dreadfully for my shoes. A heavenly hand dropped onto her head and lifted her high. In a serene moment of beauty she looked into the angels eyes. A contented wonderful look came across her face. She breathed in, in a state of absolute serenity. She sighed gently, her muscles relaxing, never to move again. The gaze of the angel had killed her.
My angel lifted me to my feet with a single hand. I rushed for my lancer.
More and more of the crew were descending upon Blue Dawn. In the frenzy of violence I could only make out that her face was extremely bloodied, yet still it showed no emotion. Occasionally I spotted the blue of her dress hammer-fisting one of her attackers - she fought furiously, all of her grace seemed to have vanished.
In the time that it had taken me to recognise this, I had raised my lancer. I clicked the weapon’s toggle button to wide-dispersal and saw the reticule lock on. I fired.
Bursting from the muzzle a thousand-thousand shards of plasma flew forward, sparkling like sped up confetti. As each point of this blizzard of light impacted upon its target it exploded with a tremendous percussive force. The walls, the roof, the floor, the mass of bodies - all exploded and were hurled around at unimaginable speeds. Many simply disintegrated. Metal panels were launched from their housings to the left and right. The dead fell, all of them.
In that moment I saw that an angel had its wings surrounding a fallen Blue Dawn.
She was badly hurt. Blood streamed from the gore of her face. No evidence of pain betrayed her complexion.
With a flick of her hand she motioned the direction for me to travel. Her angel assisted her to full height and alongside me she limped towards it.
In front two figures rounded the corner. I shot them both automatically. Two trigger pulls, both were gone. Easy.
Curiously by the time we had reached the door to the infirmary I noticed that Blue Dawn had began to walk normally. Much of her skin had returned to normal and she had definitely stopped bleeding.
I opened my mouth but she cut me off. ‘You would have thought that if my body could live this long without ageing and shoot fire from its hands; it might also be able to heal a little faster than yours too.’ Without another word she placed her hand underneath the controls and the doors opened. I could have sworn I heard her mutter Lord save us under her breathe.
The infirmary was pitch dark. Only faint traces of light were visible at all. These came exclusively from the remaining active screens. Some of the displays were at floor level, indicating some kind of commotion had taken place.
Blue Dawn removed something from her pocket. It was a ball no w
ider than an inch. She threw it up into the air. But it did not come down. Instead it stayed floating above us.
She snapped her fingers.
The ball exploded with light and the room became visible.
The reception was an utter mess. Two nurses lay on the floor. The one on the left of me had been stabbed several times. Her crimson blood stained her white and grey suit. Her red cross was almost invisible in amongst the blood. Her mouth was open. Her death, it appeared from the expression upon her face, had not been quick.
Dawn turned towards me and said, ‘George, the door into the medical section appears to be barred. They may have mounted an effective barricade.’ She pointed towards the sealed doorway with an outstretched finger and the little ball flowed over in that direction.
The door was indeed well sealed. Where it would normally have spilt apart in the middle, someone had applied considerable heat to it and effectively welded it shut.
‘So how do we get in?’ I asked.
‘Perhaps we won’t need to. All we need to do is to check that they are alright. It is probably safer for them to be in there alone, than out here with us.’ She began pacing around the room. Though she did not bend her head down, her eyes were clearly searching for something. I turned around and hit the door control. The entrance to the infirmary rolled shut. I placed as much as I was able to in front of the door. At least it would serve as a blockade should someone compromise the door controls and try and get inside.
Whilst I waited for her to find what she needed I thought back upon the days before all of this. The days before it had all gone wrong on Earth. I remembered the heat of those days. The thick atmosphere. The smell of carbon and dust. And yet despite all of this I had nothing but nostalgia for the place. It had been a good time.
Adrian and I had been great friends. We’d met a long time ago and since then had done everything together. We liked the same films. Enjoyed the same sports, even the same books.
I had met him on my first year of college. He had appeared suddenly next to me in the entrance to the accommodation blocks. His hair was long and his eyes were a dazzling green. He was taller than me and far more charming. What I liked most about him was that he had the most wonderful smile. Whenever he used that smile of his it opened up a world of joy. To many it seemed as though the world revolved around his smile.
As all good things come to an end, so had our relationship. The story was simple. It always is. It is so much easier to destroy love that it is to find it.
We had been celebrating. The club music was washing over us. The holos flashed mesmerising colours about the room. Half formed images strobed around. We had left the building for some air, only for second. The noise of Bataga rose above the sound of the driving baseline.
The back alleys had been so dark that night. It was too late for street lighting. Anyone decent was at home in bed. Yet there was something faintly romantic about the silence of it all. Two people freed for a moment, with no eyes to follow them.
For just a moment he had looked at me, our faces had gotten close. His eyes were searching mine for something we had both felt for a long time. We moved closer together. I could feel his breathe on mine.
An engine misfired in the background and we both jumped away from one another. Streets like this were dangerous. A pick-up had pulled over alongside us. There were a group of people in the back. Their skin was inked with the serpent. A clear sign they were from the Waste. Wastemen were only looking for blood.
I ran.
When I could no longer hear the Wastemen I stopped and realised Adrian was nowhere to be seen. I could not find him. He had vanished.
I remembered that I had stayed out there for hours. I had shouted his name at the top of my lungs. I searched, I had fallen.
Then I got the call.
It was his mother. The Wastemen had made him their fun for the evening. One brutal act after another. It was a miracle that he had survived at all.
The truth was that he eventually recovered quickly. His body healed. But something had changed inside him.
From that moment on, I knew he could never see me again, nor even look at me. Each time he glanced at me his eyes filled with a haunting despair and anger, and I hated myself for it.
I never forgave myself.
I realised something important when looking back on that day and uncovered another truth within my life. I had spent all this time searching for salvation, searching the depths of Bagata, the sanctity of work, even searching the heights of Ascension. Yet the most simply truth had escaped me and all I needed to redeem myself lay right here behind that door a few meters away.
‘Aha,’ exalted Blue Dawn. She was behind the reception desk staring intently at the screen. ‘The systems beyond that door have been physically separated from the rest of the vessel. However there is still an old fibre line in place.’
‘Why would there be a fibre line?’ I asked quizzically.
‘Like all ships redundancy is important. Everything has a back-up. The final level of electronic redundancy is a narrow bandwidth line. It does not require much power and so is effective in emergency scenarios.’ She began to play with some of the wiring. I noticed that she had taken apart part the desk and was fiddling with the components that would have been sealed inside it. Soon I heard a series of beeps. They were at regular intervals from one another.
‘Hello?’ A voice asked timidly. ‘Who is this?’
I could not recognise the voice. ‘This is George Engeltine, Special Resources from Eternis Systems,’ I replied. ‘Are you okay in there?’
Abruptly a voice I recognised well came over the speaker. ‘George! Is it really you? Thank fate, it is you. Man am I glad to see you. Where are you?’
‘Adrian!’ my voice broke with emotion. ‘Adrian, I’m just on the other side of the door. We can’t get to you. I want you to listen to me. I want you to hear what I am saying to you. We are going to get you out of there. You’re going to be okay. But for the moment, until the ship is safe, I need to stay where you are.’
‘George!’ replied Adrian with fear in his voice, ‘what happened? The doctor just bolted. Then one of the nurses came in. He was talking to me. Then he sealed us in here. There’s a girl here with me. She was hiding in here. Her name’s Julian. She got injured by another member of the crew.’ I could sense the distress in his voice. ‘George what is happening? The doctors explained that Earth’s gone. That there are these Artefacts...’ he could not continue. He’d woken from the medi-chamber and into this.
‘Yes Adrian. I am sorry. It is all true. It’s just…Stay tight in there. It’s all going to be okay.’
‘Adrian,’ Blue Dawn cut in. ‘Have you experienced any headaches, nausea or repetition of thought. Are you or have you recently dwelled upon something that seemed as though it made no sense, as though you had a desire for something you never knew existed. Do you feel any sense of extreme tension and unease, outside of the reaction one would normally expect from this situation?’
‘No, no, not at all. I mean, for the love of God, I don’t feel great. What’s going on?’
‘Interesting,’ Blue Dawn intoned quietly.
‘What?’ I said urgently.
‘Symptoms of exposure usually occur after two days for those who are unshielded. The crew lasted a week before it got the better of them and they were at least partially shielded. The command infrastructure of this vessel was not based on individual merit, but on probable longevity. Thus Knightly and the rest of the command have survived longer, but are still showing symptoms.’ She turned to me and whispered. ‘It seems as though he might have some sort of natural defence. I do not know if he has formed an immunity or not. But I’ve not seen resilience like it in some time. This is very interesting. The Artefact does not normally…’
She turned to one of the angels and asked, ‘what do you think?’ But the angel merely turned away from her. ‘Didn’t think you’d break your silence,’ she goaded. T
he angel turned to face her again and regarded her with mild curiosity.
‘Exactly,’ she continued slightly irritated by the silence. ‘Why I thought that any of you cared is beyond me. Since the beginning you’ve never spoken.’ Her voice hissed. ‘But I know you can.’ She flicked her hands in anger towards them. ‘And when it was all ending, instead of offering to help me you turned away. What has changed, to make you want to help him? You rarely obeyed my commands before.’ The angel gave her a stern look. It ruffled its feathers and stretched out its wings. But it did not leave and I for one was grateful that they hadn’t lived up to her expectations.
I thumbed my comm unit. ‘Aeniah, have you reached the CIC?’ I asked.
Aeniah’s voice came through crackling, ‘not...quite...yet.’ There was the sound of automatic weapons fire in the background. ‘Stuck in a bottleneck. Damn those Equinox things move quick,’ the sound of her pistol’s heavy discharge made me jump. ‘Motherfucker,’ she grunted.
‘Aeniah, we have found Adrian, I will move to your location for fire support,’ I responded.
‘Sounding like a real guardsman already,’ she laughed. ‘Alright we are in the causeway on the mid’floor. Come from the stern or you will get fucked up.’
‘Okay Adrian is secure in the infirmary. Heading to you now.’ I looked across to Blue Dawn and she nodded.
Shouldering my lancer I moved to look outside the infirmary doors. As I did so something thudded against my body. I felt as though I had been punched. With difficulty I got back into the safety of the room. A crimson stain was developing along my clothes.
‘George!’ shouted Blue Dawn with concern. She began to inspect my wounds. One of the angels brushed her aside and moved its hand and placed it upon my injury.
With shock I realised that I had been shot through the chest. But the angel seemed untroubled by my injury. The Equinox label on the angels dress glowed as its hand became shrouded in a contained light. With a throbbing sensation the room around me became brighter and I felt as though I could see into the heart of everything.
Each person was made out of little sphere’s of light, like the resolution of a hologram. But nothing shone as brightly as the angels. They were so bright that it half blinded me. Indeed the contrast between our surroundings and themselves was so striking that it was almost impossible not to focus upon them. I looked towards its hand which was pouring light from the environment and into me. The world looked like a sea of colour. I could see the energy of the vessel pulsing like so many rainbows. One gravity field collided into the next. I could see the mechanisms of life itself so indistinct and difficult to read but infinitely present. All of this was superimposed over my standard vision of the world, which seemed a dull and lifeless imitation by comparison.
As I was drinking in the bounty the angels were offering I saw the infirmary doors open. The infected guardsman grinned.
Within him, there was no light, only a black inky abyss of darkness.
He raised his rifle. The muzzle opened up a stream of hot plasma towards me. I accepted my death and closed my eyes.
In an instant the profession of the rounds slowed almost to a stop. I held out my hand and focused upon the bullets. Then something happened which I cannot explain. The bullets dissolved into nothing. I held out my hand to the guardsmen and suddenly a huge pulse of light leapt from it. In a moment he was shrouded in a heavenly glow. He was drawn apart by an Elysium fire. The fire exploded and the guardsman was no more.
The angel removed its hand. The world slowly washed back into its original state. Blood from the guardsman soaked the walls. In the explosion of energy that had just occurred, several screens appeared to have been damaged.
All the hairs on my my body were raised. I realised now is how the angels worked. The guardsman. The screens. I had drank in the energy from that angel and used it to save myself.
That single angel had the capability of wielding more power than all the armies in the United World. At the same time I realised with dread why I was so important.
Unlike the others who had lived and died upon Ascension I was able to connect without the help of the Equinox subjects. That is what happened when the being descended us in the hallway outside of the docks and disappeared. That was why the man in medical bay had found me so interesting. It dawned upon me that perhaps I was the solution this. In the same moment I noticed that my wound had healed.
My chest no longer hurt and under the inspection of my fingers, I discovered no trace of a wound. The angles could heal.
The angels appeared restless; it was high time we moved along. This time I decided not to be a hero and instead resolved to attempt the rescue with a little more caution.
‘Perhaps you would like to hear the preferred route,’ Blue Dawn stated dryly. It was incredible how her voice could contain such rhythmical composure and yet at the same time invoked irony and sarcasm, layered thickly, one over the other.
‘Go ahead,’ I muttered.
‘The CIC is one floor down. We are presently at the stern of the vessel and so we are in a prime location. If we take the engineering service hatch for the power-core down to that level, we should emerge ahead of the danger of the reactor and behind the free-fire-zone.’
‘Sounds like a plan, but where is this service hatch?’
‘It is directly opposite this room. The service hatch allows access to a coolant pipe for the reactor. The pipe’s temperature is regulated by running it along the hull of the vessel and so absorbing the cold of space. The average temperature in this section is minus one hundred degrees celcius. This is considerably warmer than the temperature higher up in the tube. As we descend the temperature will rise to close to one hundred. It is with this knowledge that I suggest that you do not spend too long in the coolant system. Your suit should offer you protection for a period no longer than half an hour. But don’t risk it for too long.’ With that she took another small ball from her pocket.
She let it go and it hovered to the infirmary door, which opened to allow its exit. ‘All clear,’ she stated. The ball must have contained some sort of imaging system for her to know this.
She held out her hand for the ball of light. It shut off its light and dropped into her palm. Without a seconds hesitation she walked right outside, with one angel following her. I smiled at my angel in thanks, but it appeared not to notice. Feeling a little disconcerted by the power of her eyes burrowing into me I hurried to catch up with Blue Dawn.
I emerged into the silence of the once bustling science laboratory. As far as I could remember this place had once been a centre of activity. Now however it lay silent. Small dark holes peppered everything. The glass walls that had once provided a window into the mysteries of science, were now so cracked that little was visible. What could just about be glimpsed through the unmarked surfaces of the glass was hardly encouraging.
Vials were smashed, machines were damaged beyond repair, corpses lay motionless upon the floor, or hunched over their machines. The most tragic view that could be seen was a scientist with her arms about a gene sequencer. She had died trying to protect this machine and had failed in her task. The machine was had been smashed to pieces by the bullet that killed her. I wondered what had been the point, wasting life for a smashed glass.
We crossed the small expanse that seemed to continue into eternity and arrived at the service hatch. A printed sign on the right of the hatch stated, danger, reactor coolant, authorised personnel only. With an unlikely amount of strength Blue Dawn yanked upon the hatch and ripped it from the wall. The sound of fracturing metal crept throughout the halls.
I climbed in before her. An angel moved in to follow.
The tube was freezing. It was very, very cold. A warning light on my suit blinked. I kept crawling forwards.
About a yard ahead of me was a sudden bend. I held out my hand and dropped it. In the symmetrical environment of the tube it was easy to forget which way was down. The way was clearly below us. I
didn’t really want to go down the narrow tube, but I figured that there was no other choice. There was no turning back. So I grabbed hold of the side I lowered myself down.
My feet would not hit the ground. In fact the ground seemed to be a long way away. In panic I flailed my feet about. They found nothing. My hands were beginning to tire. I tried again. The change in motion upset my grip upon the growing slipperiness of the tube and I began to fall.
I kept picking up speed. Travelling faster and faster I felt the air begin to whoosh about my ears, growing to a deafening whine.
I felt a colossal pull underneath my shoulders and found to my surprise those shining hands lifting me up. We landed gently upon the floor. The angel kept its wings folded around me the entire time. My shoes made a slight clang, but the angel’s made none. Knowing Blue Dawn would soon be following I began to crawl at full speed towards the light of the access hatch. The temperature was rising now, I could feel it. With a mind not to be crushed by the descent of Blue Dawn I decided to think little on it.
Hurling my hand against the service hatch it opened to give way. I rolled, head-first, onto the floor of the stern of the mid’floor. Standing quickly I realised to my horror that we had ended up on entirely the wrong part of the vessel. I must have gone the wrong way after my fall because I realised that even though we were still before the CIC we were actually ahead of Aeniah and the others.
Coming up upon a large group of infected with minimal protection was not a good idea. My angel, realising just at that moment our mistake, moved very close to me to protect me. I knew in my mind that we had little recourse but to continue.
Blue Dawn dropped from the hatch behind me. Through my peripheral vision I saw her shake her head. I turned to face her head on. Her finger flashed out in the direction of the CIC and I obliged by walking in that direction. With my lancer pressed firmly to my shoulder I strode confidently, comforted by the power of the device alone.
Two figures with fully-automatics rounded the bend to my right. My angels exploded to the right, covering my position. They calmly absorbed the weapons fire as I span the lancer in their direction. Looking through the holo I saw that these two figures were in a far worse state than the others had been in. Their faces were badly lacerated. Their hands were bloody. They seemed excited by the violence of the event and their eyes took on a hungry look.
I fired twice. The lancer compensated for my aim which I was acutely aware was off target. The two infected were blown several feet backwards. The one with a curious wound to his head stepped back up. I took aim and fired again as he ambled towards me. He was again thrown backwards, with even more of his torso damaged. Yet he still rose. His internal organs hanging from him, throwing blood furiously along the floor. Torrents of crimson rain rushed from him, but still he came.
‘Fuck you,’ I screamed - flicking the lancer onto auto. I held my finger on the trigger and a continuous beam projected itself from the device. The beam flashed towards this undying figure. As it rushed towards him the walls were cooked in the heat of its fire. When it touched him, he was immediately set on fire, blackening rapidly. Yet still he seemed to stagger forward. The beam however was too strong. In just one moment of infinite rapidity, he flickered violently out of existence and into small fragments.
We rounded another corner with speed, knowing that we must have alerted the others. Quickly we found a vantage point from which there was sufficient cover to lay down some fire. Sure enough a horde of infected began to run towards us, screaming with inhuman voices.
Running towards the cover I let fly with the beam which arced as I spun to the ground. Its awe inspiring force pulverised the front line of the wave. I saw Blue Dawn’s hand ejecting hundreds of blue darts with a flittering sound. Each dart broke like glass upon the infected, exploding seconds afterwards. The shards threw flesh across the hall. I took position and switched to the bombardier mode on the lancer. Squeezing the trigger a hollow thud sounded from the barrel and a partially visible bolt threw itself from the muzzle. An explosion of tremendous size threw me backwards. Even the angels lifted their hands in front of them to shield themselves from the blast-wave. The walls buckled and promptly ruptured. Metal snapped with a terrifying whine and silence filled the room.
Hurriedly I searched for Blue Dawn. She was dragging herself to her feet, still immaculate. Her dress had collected some dust but it shimmered and I could see it falling off in a cloud. Within just a few moments she appeared again as though she was taking a stroll along a summery lane and not as though she had just survived directly in the aftermath of an explosion. She brushed her now spotless dress anyway, as if out of habit, though I did not know where she could have picked that up.
In a partial and dizzy gaze I steeled myself and stumbled forward. Aeniah was not far away.
I saw a figure running towards me as Aeniah’s distinct voice burst over the comms. ‘Put that fucking gun down, it’s me you twat.’
With elation I put my lancer down.
‘Thanks for cleaning up that mess George.’ She stared at me with an amiable expression. Ever one to avoid a moment of awkwardness she continued, ‘well what do you want? Do you seriously expect a hug?’ I looked down but to my surprise she locked her arms around me and whispered, ‘thank you.’
Aeniah let go after a moment and glanced at her wrist display.
‘Listen up inmates,’ she boomed over the silent transmission. ‘The CIC isn’t far from here. So grow a pair and let’s do this. No complaining now, I won’t stand for it.’ Aeniah finished her heavily punctuated sentence and practically ran to the sealed door that I realised was merely yards ahead.
There was no resistance and we reached the door in a matter of minutes. Aeniah hammered her fist upon it and screamed down the comm lines for Knightly to open it. After a few tense moments of trepidation Knightly responded by opening the door.
We pushed and jostled each other into a room of worried looking people. People grey with fatigue. Each of them were sullen, hunched over and defeated. Their pained expressions seemed withdrawn and resigned. Many barely seemed to notice us.
Then then the angles started to file into the CIC in formation. Someone screamed and not for the first time there was pandemonium on the deck. The CIC crew began to rush towards the opposite corned of the room. Others raised their lancers towards the angels. All were shouting incoherently.
Aeniah discharged her pistol into the air and a silence ensued. She was about to open her mouth to speak when the angels did something that I had not seen them do before. They flickered once and vanished.
All except my angel.
‘They mean, or rather, they meant, no harm.’ Aeniah implored. My angel rested its hand upon my shoulder and gently squeezed. I smiled back at it. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Blue Dawn was looking at us with curiosity.
She caught me registering her stare and frowned at me with contempt. Without a word she glided serenely towards Aeniah who was busy barking orders at her subordinates. No doubt Blue Dawn was looking for some way to assert her authority.
The second she was out of sight my angel bent its beautiful head towards me and whispered in a musical voice that sounded like a wind-chime, ‘Don’t trust her.’
11