‘So what happened?’ Sam asked. ‘How did they find you?’
‘We have no idea,’ Selenne said, shaking her head. ‘It may be that the Scythe left some trace of its passage. Your father and Talon were sure that they had evaded the Voidborn fleet, but it now appears they were wrong. It was only recently that they were awakened from stasis by the sensors on board the Scythe warning them of a Voidborn ship in proximity to the Earth. That was over twenty Earth years ago, the barest instant in Illuminate time, but long enough for us to understand how the Voidborn had been carefully planning their invasion of the Earth for thousands of years while we slept, believing ourselves to be safely hidden. By the time we understood, it was too late. Suran worked desperately to develop ways to protect your people from the Voidborn control signal, but it was all to no avail. He resorted to implanting our technology in a handful of human infants to see if it would protect them, and that is how I come to be standing here speaking to you now.’
‘That’s all very interesting,’ Sam said, ‘but it still doesn’t explain why you brought us here. I’m pretty sure you’ve noticed that we’re not exactly at full fighting strength, and even if we were there’s no way we can win a fight against whatever it was that attacked us in London. So tell us, why are we here?’
Selenne turned to Sam, staring at him for a moment as if trying to decide something.
‘Did Suran tell you what it was he gave you when he was dying?’
Sam thought back to the moment, months earlier in Tokyo, when his father had lain dying in his arms. Suran had touched his hand to Sam’s head and Sam had felt a moment of blinding pain. It had been the trigger for his Illuminate powers to start manifesting and without them he would never have been able to stop Talon from carrying out his insane plan to unleash the Vore across the planet.
‘No, he didn’t explain anything,’ Sam replied. ‘There wasn’t time.’
‘So you know nothing of the Bridge?’ Selenne asked. ‘What it allows you to do?’
‘No, I’ve never even heard of this Bridge,’ Sam replied. ‘I don’t understand anything about what’s happened to me. Right now, I’d really appreciate some answers.’
‘The Bridge is the key that will allow us to leave the Heart,’ Selenne said. ‘It is an encrypted protocol that is stored within a unique matrix of Illuminate combat nanites. Simply put, it is the mechanism that would allow us to leave this place and finally retake our place in the universe. There were two gatekeepers, both of whom were implanted with the key. One was Talon, and his Bridge was destroyed when he died, and the other, as I’m sure you’ve already surmised, was Suran.’
‘He knew he had to pass it on,’ Sam said. ‘Without it . . .’
‘We will never leave this place,’ Selenne replied.
‘What do you mean, this place?’ Nat asked, looking confused.
‘This,’ Selenne said, sweeping her arm around the room. ‘Everything you see here is a simulation inside the Heart. The Threshold, the portal through which you passed when you left your human forms, is the only means for a consciousness to enter or leave this place and it may only be opened by the key that is buried inside you, Sam.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Nat said. ‘I mean, I get why you wanted to stay hidden, but why trap yourselves like that?’
‘A locked door does not just keep things in . . .’ Selenne said. ‘You may see a prison; we saw a stronghold.’
‘Yeah? Well, I’d say your stronghold’s under siege right now,’ Jay said. ‘And it also seems to me that if it weren’t for you guys choosing our home as a hiding place, we wouldn’t be staring down the barrel of a gun right now. Which really just leaves the question of what you’re going to do about it.’
‘The impertinence of these creatures wears on my patience,’ General Indriss snarled.
‘Yeah?’ Jay said, looking the heavily armoured Illuminate straight in the eye. ‘Well, the fact that we’re facing extinction because of a fight you lost is making me a little short-tempered too.’
‘Jay,’ Sam said quietly.
‘Sorry,’ Jay muttered, ‘that guy’s got a bad attitude is all.’
‘I understand your frustration,’ Selenne said, turning to Jay. ‘We all know what it is like to be hunted by the Voidborn, but I believe there might yet be a way that we can strike back against them. That is why we needed you to come here, Sam. I believe there is a way we can use the Bridge to attack the Voidborn and swing the balance of the war permanently in our favour. We did not come here entirely without protection. There are weapons stored within the structure where your real bodies stand now that were supposed to be used by the gatekeepers to protect the Threshold if it ever came under attack, weapons that only an Illuminate warrior could wield and only then if they were first unlocked by the gatekeepers, Talon and Suran.
‘That key now rests in your hands, Sam, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, your head.’
‘So I can use whatever it was that Suran did to me in Tokyo to unlock these weapons,’ Sam said. ‘Then what? You said they could only be used by Illuminate warriors, and as far as I’m aware the only ones you have are trapped in here.’
‘I believe that you and your companions could wield the weapons,’ Selenne said, ‘but you would need our help. It takes centuries for Illuminate warriors to master their use. The only way that you could hope to use them effectively is if we use the Bridge to connect your own consciousnesses to those of the best warriors stored within the Heart.’
‘Whoa,’ Jack said. ‘You’re saying we should use whatever’s in Sam’s head to let some of the soldiers that you’ve got in cold storage take control of our implants? The implants that stop the Voidborn turning us into mindless zombies? Yeah . . . no thanks.’
‘They would not be in control of your actions,’ Selenne said. ‘They would be more like co-pilots, helping you to make the best use of the weapons.’
‘Are you sure it would work?’ Sam asked.
‘Sam,’ Jack said, ‘you’re not seriously –’
‘What choice do we have?’ Sam said, interrupting him. ‘Do you see any other option? Because if you do I’d like to know what it is.’
Jack stared back at Sam for a second or two and then shook his head with a sigh, falling silent. Sam turned back to Selenne.
‘Now, are you certain this will work?’
‘Certain? No,’ Selenne replied. ‘Confident, yes.’
‘Then let’s give it a try,’ Sam said with a nod.
‘Are you sure about this, Sam?’ Jay said quietly.
‘How long till the first Sleepers start dying?’ Sam asked, looking at each of his friends in turn. ‘Maybe they already have. We can’t just sit around and watch the world die. Every last person any of us has ever cared about is out there somewhere sleeping in a Voidborn dormitory. Our families, our friends, everything that ever counted for something is dependent on us now. We have to do something.’
‘What about Will and Anne?’ Nat asked. ‘They might not want to do this.’
‘They can decide for themselves,’ Sam said. ‘We all can. No one’s going to force anyone, but I get the feeling this might be our only chance.’
‘Sam’s right,’ Jay said after a few seconds’ silence. ‘We have to try at least.’
Nat and Jack exchanged a quick glance before both giving nods.
‘OK,’ Sam said, turning back to Selenne, ‘show us what we have to do.’
Sam placed his hand on the pod with Stirling’s unconscious body inside, looking down on the old man’s ashen features as the rest of his friends filed into the stasis chamber at the rear of the Scythe.
‘So what are we supposed to do now?’ Will said, hobbling into the room on his crutches.
‘Please enter the stasis pods,’ the Construct said, materialising in a shimmer of blue light in the centre of the room. The pods around the room hissed open, as lights blinked on inside each of them.
‘You cannot receive this gift,’ the Construct said
, turning towards Mag, who leant back against the wall with her arms folded and a frown on her face.
‘Not sure that’s what I’d call it,’ she replied. ‘You can see what happened the last time one of you guys started experimenting on me.’ She gestured towards the obvious signs of her partial transformation. ‘I’ll tell you this, though,’ she went on, ‘if you hurt any of my friends, I swear to God I’ll find a way of switching the power off down here and deleting the lot of you.’
‘It’ll be OK, Mag,’ Sam said, putting a hand on her shoulder. ‘We have to do this; it’s the only way.’
‘Yeah, so you explained,’ Mag said, ‘but it doesn’t make me any happier about the whole thing.’
‘I’m not worried,’ Sam said, ‘not with you watching our backs anyway.’ He smiled at her and then headed over to where his friends were examining the stasis chambers with nervous suspicion.
‘You do not need a weapon,’ the Construct said, turning to Sam as he walked towards one of the empty pods.
‘What do you mean?’ Sam asked. ‘If you think I’m going to step aside from this fight in order to protect whatever it is I’ve got rattling around in my skull, you’re in for a nasty shock.’
The image of the Construct flickered in the air for an instant and was replaced by the glowing translucent image of Selenne.
‘I apologise,’ Selenne said. ‘Our constructs are only really intended to serve as emergency crew for our vessels. They are not . . . diplomatic.’
‘You can appear here?’ Sam asked.
‘Yes, but only while you are within a short distance of the Threshold,’ Selenne replied with a nod. ‘And, in answer to your question, there is a very good reason why you do not need a weapon,’ she said, smiling at him. ‘You already have one.’
‘What do you mean?’ Sam asked, looking confused.
‘Suran . . . your father . . . gave you his, at the moment of his death,’ Selenne said. ‘You see, the Bridge is inextricably linked with the combat nanites your father transferred to you so that you could defeat Talon. Indeed, it is part of their controlling code. It can never be taken from you, only transferred to another willingly. Your friends are about to undergo a similar bonding process with their own weapons.’
‘So all of the changes that happened to me after Suran died . . .’
‘Were the results of your nervous system struggling to control Illuminate weapons that you had no idea you had even been implanted with, let alone how to control them.’
‘Is it reversible?’ Sam asked quietly as his friends climbed into the stasis pods.
‘For your friends? Yes,’ Selenne replied. ‘For you, no, I’m afraid not. The interface your father implanted in you was designed to integrate with our technology in a different way to the implants your friends carry. That is why exposure to the Voidborn nanites didn’t kill you when you first encountered them and also how you were able to take control of some of their technology. Everything from the Motherships you captured to your replacement arm are side effects of your father implanting you with Illuminate technology that prepared you to receive the Bridge.’
‘So you think he planned this?’ Sam asked, sounding unconvinced.
‘It would seem so,’ Selenne said. ‘Why, is an altogether different question. I learned long ago not to second-guess Suran. The creation of the Heart, our whole plan for survival, was his idea and he was undoubtedly the most brilliant Illuminate I ever met, but his motives were sometimes hard to discern.’
‘You can say that again,’ Sam said quietly, watching his friends settling back into the brightly lit chambers as they hissed shut one by one, sealing them within. ‘So what now?’
‘Now we wait,’ Selenne said. A moment later the chambers surrounding them flared with a light that was almost too bright to look at. There was barely any noise, just a low-pitched hum that increased slightly in volume as the lights within the pods brightened and then diminished. The room fell silent.
‘It is done,’ Selenne said.
A few moments later there was a simultaneous thud from each of the capsules and their lids began to raise in perfect unison. Sam watched nervously as Jay swung his legs out of the pod and hopped down on to the ground with a slightly confused look on his face.
‘How do you feel?’ Sam asked.
‘Exactly the same,’ Jay said, looking down at his hands as if he was expecting them to turn into something horrible. ‘Is that normal?’
‘Yes,’ Selenne replied as Jack, Nat, Anne and Will all climbed out of their pods. ‘The weapons are currently dormant. With Sam’s help, however, we can activate them.’ She closed her eyes for a second and then a glowing pool of light appeared in the centre of the floor. She gestured for Sam to stand within it. He did as instructed, stepping into the light and feeling the warmth coming from it even through the thick soles of his combat boots.
‘Now relax,’ Selenne said as Sam’s friends gathered in a loose circle around him and Selenne. Sam let out a deep breath, relaxing his shoulders and letting his arms hang loosely at his sides.
‘That’s not what I meant, Sam,’ Selenne said softly, ‘and I think you know that.’
Sam sighed and relaxed properly, feeling his features shift and his perspective on the room alter subtly with the extra half-metre that had just been added to his height. The changes to his appearance were more dramatic than ever and there was little now to distinguish him from one of the other Illuminate, rather than a hybrid of their two species. The only thing that marked him out was his right arm, the golden Voidborn nanites that it was composed of apparently unaffected by the changes to the rest of Sam’s body. He realised as he looked at the expressions on his friends’ faces around him that it must have been an unsettling sight.
‘You know, you’re actually starting to look quite handsome,’ Selenne said with a slight smile. ‘For a human.’
She reached up and placed one hand on the side of Sam’s head.
‘Now let the Bridge open,’ Selenne said, ‘so we may complete the bonding process and activate the weapons.’
‘How?’ Sam asked, feeling a sudden uncomfortable pressure inside his skull. An instant later his mouth flew open as his eyes gleamed with blue fire. He was suddenly somewhere else, floating weightless within the centre of an impossibly vast white crystalline structure that stretched into the distance as far as the eye could see. He began to move through it, points of blue light flickering in the air around him. They slowly joined together, forming bright, twisting streamers of energy that raced away and danced across the surface of the crystals surrounding him. The streamers flared as they connected with the crystal and Sam felt an overwhelming sense of relief as the pressure that had been painfully building in his head seemed to release all at once. He watched as the glowing blue conduits pulsed, light shooting along their translucent lengths and then, just as suddenly, with a bright flash, he was back in the centre of the Scythe’s stasis chamber.
‘Did it work?’ Mag asked, looking at Sam and the others.
‘I don’t know,’ Sam said, looking around the room. ‘Where’s Selenne?’
Closer than you think, Selenne’s voice said softly somewhere inside Sam’s head. Illuminate report.
The transfer was successful, the voice of General Indriss replied. The startled reactions of the others as the voices spoke made it clear they were all hearing the same thing inside their skulls.
Activate the weapons, Selenne said. Jay gave a startled yelp as a cloud of dust swirled around him for an instant and then quickly solidified into smooth white plates of Illuminate armour that covered his body from the neck down. The armour rippled with blue light as Jay raised his arm up in front of him, tapping at the hardened surface of the white bracers he now wore. One by one, Will, Jack, Nat and Anne were also surrounded by swarms of nanites that encased them within identical suits of armour.
‘How does it feel?’ Sam asked as his friends all checked out the new outfits that had, quite literally, appeared from thin a
ir.
‘Light,’ Anne said, ‘almost like I’m not wearing anything at all.’
‘Yeah and my ankle’s not hurting any more,’ Jack said, looking slightly confused.
‘Your suit is capable of treating superficial injuries on the battlefield,’ Selenne replied. ‘It is designed to protect the occupant as completely as possible.’
‘That’s great,’ Jay said, ‘but it’s gonna take more than a suit of body armour to fight the Voidborn.’
Oh, this is not just a suit of armour, Selenne said inside their heads. It’s much more than that.
The armour that Jack was wearing flared with light again and he rose into the air, floating a metre above the ground. He was surrounded by a crackling field of energy and armoured panels snapped into place around his face, forming a helmet. Finally, a smooth white featureless face-plate sealed the helmet closed with a snap.
‘OK,’ Jack said, ‘now I’m flying.’
‘We have handed you a gun,’ Selenne said. ‘Now we must teach you to shoot.’
‘This way, please,’ Selenne said, leading Sam and the others towards a freshly opened portal in the wall opposite the Threshold. They followed her inside and found themselves in a cavernous chamber with smooth, featureless white walls. The glowing holographic projection of the leader of the Illuminate council walked towards the centre of the massive room and then gestured for Sam and the others to sit down on low rectangular benches that rose from the floor.
‘This chamber,’ Selenne said, gesturing to the empty space around her, ‘can serve a multitude of purposes. Its structure is composed of nanites similar to the ones that you have just been exposed to, which allows us to alter its form and function according to our need. For now we shall use it as a training facility to prepare you for the mission to come.’