‘I can’t believe that actually worked,’ Jack said, shaking his head in disbelief.
‘That makes two of us,’ Nat said. ‘But we’re not safe yet.’ She turned and looked at the other end of the structure, which was still firmly attached to the canyon wall. At the moment there was no sign of the swarm climbing the canyon wall towards it, but something told her that it would only be a matter of time. She couldn’t shake the feeling that they were just delaying the inevitable.
‘Wow!’ Will said as he dropped to the ground next to Nat and Jack. He walked past the hovering Hunters and leaned out over the ragged, severed edge, peering down at the smouldering clouds of dust far below. ‘You guys don’t mess around, do you?’
‘There wasn’t really time for subtlety,’ Nat said. ‘We need to move our forces and reinforce the other end of this thing. ‘We’re not out of the woods yet. Have you guys seen any sign of Mag or Jay?’
‘That’s what we were doing up there,’ Will said, as Anne dropped down beside him. ‘We were trying to keep that thing busy while Jay and Mag snuck on board.’
‘While they did what?’ Jack asked, his eyes widening in surprise.
‘Did they make it?’ Nat asked.
‘I’m not sure,’ Anne said, shaking her head. ‘Jay’s armour was malfunctioning, so we couldn’t get a fix on his position. I’m pretty sure they managed to land on that thing, but then Mag’s tracker just vanished. I’ve got no idea what happened to them after that.’
‘Well, let’s hope they did get on board,’ Jack said, looking up at the tiny black dot in the sky that was all that was visible now of the giant mysterious vessel as it vanished into the heavens. ‘Because right now, I think they’re the only chance Sam’s got.’
10
Sam felt cold, smooth stone against his face as he drifted back into consciousness. He struggled to reconstruct his memory of the past couple of minutes. He could recall flying up towards the giant alien ship, but beyond that nothing. His eyes flickered open and all he could see was blackness, and for a horrible moment he thought he’d been blinded, but after a few seconds he realised that there was the tiniest glimmer of light somewhere nearby, just enough for him to make out black shapes looming in the shadows around him.
He pushed himself up on to his knees, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his head. The only thing he could hear other than his own breathing was a low, almost subsonic throbbing sound that seemed to come from somewhere beneath the ground. As his eyes continued to adjust to the darkness, Sam could make out more and more details of the room around him. He could see now that the dark objects were huge columns of twisting, faceted black glass, within which sinuous things writhed and twitched horribly. Sam recoiled from one of the columns as something inside it seemed to react to his presence, slamming against the glass with a wet thud. He continued to walk slowly and quietly through the shadows, staying as far away as possible from the columns. Ahead of him, a sheer black wall appeared from the darkness. Sam walked towards it, reasoning that if he followed it along far enough, sooner or later he should find a door.
‘Assuming there is a door,’ he whispered to himself. He reached out and placed one hand on the wall, jumping back with a startled cry as it responded instantly to his touch. The surface seemed to disintegrate in front of him, revealing an enormous wall of crystal-clear glass, through which light flooded into the room. Beyond the window, the deep blue disc of the Earth glowed brightly in the darkness of space, breathtakingly beautiful, but very, very far away.
Sam suddenly noticed patterns of red light dancing on the wall around the window. He turned and saw a column of fire materialising in the centre of the room, its deep red flames sending shadows the colour of blood flickering across the floor. The column seemed to glide towards Sam and he instinctively backed away until he felt his shoulders press against the smooth, cold glass of the window. The flames drew nearer and nearer and yet Sam could feel no heat from them; if anything they seemed to bring a deathly chill to the air.
When the column of fire was only a few metres away from Sam, it stopped advancing and, spinning very quickly, collapsed in on itself with a sudden bright flash. Sam winced, screwing his eyes shut, almost blinded by the intensity of the flare. He slowly opened them again, letting out a gasp as he saw a towering figure standing before him. Superficially, the creature looked like an unusually tall Illuminate warrior, but instead of bone-white plates of armour it was clad in shards of glistening obsidian crystal that glowed from within with a deep red light. Its armour was topped by a pair of elaborate crested pauldrons that framed the alien being’s monstrous head. Where its eyes should have been, scarlet flames burnt, tongues of fire flickering across its jet-black skin, reaching towards its temples. Instead of an Illuminate’s nose, there was just a pair of reptilian slits, and below that a lipless mouth that spread wide in a sinister rictus, revealing long, jagged, dagger-like teeth.
‘Greetings, child of Suran,’ the monstrous creature said. ‘I have been so looking forward to meeting you.’ Its voice was sinister and unsettling, deep and multi-layered like many voices speaking in perfect unison. The creature took a single step towards Sam, looming over him and flexing the talons of its massive clawed hands. ‘I believe you have something that belongs to me.’
‘Who are you?’ Sam croaked, his mouth suddenly dry.
‘I am the Primarch,’ the creature replied, ‘and you will give me what I want, human, or I will burn your world to ash.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Sam said, shaking his head. ‘What is it that you think I’ve got?’
‘Something that was taken from me a very, very long time ago,’ the Primarch replied. ‘Something that will finally allow me to destroy the hated Illuminate once and for all. Your father stole it from me and then hid it inside your skull.’ The Primarch reached out with one of its massive clawed hands, gently running the razor-sharp tips of its talons along the side of Sam’s head. ‘It is called the Bridge and you are going to give it to me.’
‘I’m not giving you a damn thing,’ Sam said, wincing as he felt the Primarch’s claws suddenly pressing harder into the side of his skull. ‘If you want it, you’ll have to take it.’
‘If it were that simple you’d be dead already,’ the Primarch snarled, gripping the back of Sam’s head. ‘Suran was many things, but he was no fool. No, the Bridge is bound to you; only you may use it.’
‘Well, it looks like you’re out of luck, then,’ Sam said defiantly, gritting his teeth as the Primarch tightened its grip. ‘I’ll die before I help you.’
‘You seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that I’m giving you a choice,’ the Primarch said with an evil smile as it twisted Sam’s head, forcing him to turn and look out through the window. ‘Allow me to demonstrate.’
The view through the window suddenly shifted, the Earth racing towards them as they seemed to fly down, getting closer and closer to the surface. First it focused on Europe and then on the United Kingdom, zooming in still further until eventually an aerial view of London filled the screen.
‘I believe this is your home,’ the Primarch said as Sam felt a chill run down his spine. ‘You never did find the rest of your family, did you? Your mother? Your sister? Don’t worry. I found them for you.’
An instant later a pair of display panels opened next to the aerial view of London, both of them showing live video feeds. Sam gasped in surprise as he saw what was displayed on the panels. One showed the writhing, agonised body of his mother, and the other, his sister, who was clawing at the air as if trying to fight off some invisible attacker.
‘Perhaps, to prove my good intentions, I should end their suffering?’ the Primarch asked.
‘If you think I’m going to help you just because you offer to release my mother and sister, then you’re wrong,’ Sam said, trying to hide his emotions. The truth was he hadn’t seen either of them since the day of the Voidborn invasion and, until a few seconds ago, he’d had no idea whether they w
ere even alive or dead. There were countless Sleeper dormitories across London and searching all of them would have been impossible. He’d always told himself that the best way to ensure their safety would be to defeat the Voidborn, but to see them like this, enduring whatever it was that was tormenting the Sleepers when he was so powerless to help them, was its own form of torture.
‘You misunderstand me,’ the Primarch replied. ‘I didn’t say I was going to release them; I said I was going to end their suffering. In fact, I’m feeling so generous, I’m going to end the suffering of every living thing in that city.’
An instant later, a light brighter than the sun flared in the centre of London as the Voidborn Mothership’s core detonated over the city. The raging furnace of the earthbound star that had been created by the core’s collapse consumed and annihilated everything within a five-mile radius. Beyond that, a devastating, blazing shock wave spread out across the rest of the city, flattening everything in its path above ground level and scorching the earth with a ceaseless roaring inferno. Less than a minute later, all that remained of the ancient capital city was a ten-mile-wide crater surrounded by a trackless wasteland of smouldering rubble.
‘No! Sam said, with an anguished sob.
The Primarch released its grip on him and Sam dropped to his knees, his palms on the glass. Everything and everyone that had been part of his life before the Voidborn invasion had just been obliterated.
‘What have you done?’ Sam gasped, feeling the hot sting of tears in his eyes as his world shrank down to a tiny white-hot core of grief and pain.
‘Erased ten million barely evolved apes from the universe,’ the Primarch said with a sneer. ‘I have done and will do far worse.’
‘I’ll kill you,’ Sam said, his voice hoarse with grief. ‘I swear to God, if it’s the last thing I do, I’ll watch you die.’
‘Empty threats,’ the Primarch said, ‘now give me the Bridge.’
‘No,’ Sam hissed, climbing to his feet and turning to face the Primarch. ‘I’ll never help you. After what you’ve just done . . . I’d rather die.’
‘You still don’t understand, do you?’ the Primarch said. It gestured at the window again, the display zooming in on an aerial view of another sprawling city. ‘I believe this place was once called Shanghai. Fifteen million humans packed into such a tiny space. Such a pity. What a waste.’
‘Please . . . don’t . . .’ Sam said, knowing with a horrible certainty now that the Primarch did not bluff. ‘You can’t . . .’
‘Don’t be so childish, human. You know now that I can and that I will,’ the Primarch replied with a sneer. ‘The choice I offer you is a very simple one. Give me access to the Bridge and let me end the Illuminate once and for all and I will spare your people. Refuse me and I will force you to watch as I erase your species from existence.’
‘So you’d have me trade our lives for theirs?’ Sam snapped back. ‘Either way, that’s genocide.’
‘Yes, I’m giving you a very simple choice: it’s you or them,’ the Primarch growled. ‘Now choose!’
Sam stared at the city on the screen. It was an impossible choice. He did not doubt for an instant that the Primarch would carry through with its threats. The insane creature was right about one thing: the choice that Sam now faced was terrifyingly simple and utterly stark. He had no way of knowing if the Primarch had any intention of honouring its agreement, but only one of the two choices before him offered either of their two species any hope of survival whatsoever.
‘OK,’ Sam whispered, knowing in that instant that whatever happened now, he was damned. ‘I’ll do it . . . God help me . . . but I’ll do it.’
Sam, please don’t do this, Selenne said, her voice barely a whisper inside his skull.
The response from the Primarch was instantaneous and violent. It rounded on Sam with an enraged roar, grabbing Sam’s head with both hands as crimson lightning arced from its fingertips. Sam let out a scream; it felt like something inside his head was on fire.
‘How dare you!’ the Primarch bellowed as it forced Sam to his knees, bolts of scarlet energy dancing from its fingertips and across Sam’s skull. ‘How dare you bring one of the Illuminate here!’
Sam didn’t even hear the Primarch, all of his senses overwhelmed by the searing pain inside his head. Then the torture stopped as quickly as it had begun. The Primarch stepped away from Sam, a look of satisfaction on its face. A swirling blue cloud contained within a cage of crackling red fire hovered above its outstretched hand.
‘Selenne?’ the Primarch said, sounding surprised. ‘You were a fool to come here inside this child. What did you hope to achieve?’
‘I hoped I might be able to reason with you, Sabiss,’ Selenne replied, the swirling blue cloud pulsing with light in time with her voice. ‘You were a being of reason once.’
‘The time for negotiation passed millennia ago,’ the Primarch replied, shaking its head. ‘And the creature you knew as Sabiss is long, long dead.’
‘He is not dead,’ Selenne replied. ‘He stands before me.’
‘You murdered him!’ the Primarch screamed, its voice suddenly filled with rage. ‘Yes, Selenne, you killed him, but you have no idea how long it took him to die. You and Suran were just the same, always desperate to make the next discovery, to explore the new frontier. You both lied to me; you told me the transfer process was foolproof, that there were no risks, that it would be an eternity of dreamless sleep. You sent me to the stars on a journey that lasted millennia, but I did not sleep. Something happened that meant I could not sleep.’ Sam heard the unmistakeable fragile note of insanity in the Primarch’s voice, its tone becoming ragged and high pitched. ‘Even I don’t know when Sabiss died, Selenne. Was it after a hundred years of drifting in the void? A thousand years? Ten thousand years? Can you even begin to imagine that, Selenne? To be lost, truly, hopelessly lost? Adrift in a ship that you cannot control, still awake, still aware, trapped for eternity.’ The Primarch’s final words came out as a malevolent hiss.
‘By the Illuminate,’ Selenne gasped, genuine shock, horror even, in her voice. ‘We didn’t know, Sabiss; we couldn’t have known. Suran and I were your friends. We thought the Primarch was lost. When we received its final transmissions, we were certain that it had been destroyed. The final damage reports that the Primarch broadcast were catastrophic. We had no idea that you were still adrift out there and that the hibernation protocols had malfunctioned. We would have kept searching, no matter how long it took, until we found you . . .’
‘Oh, but the Illuminate did find me, Selenne,’ the Primarch said, barely contained fury in its voice. ‘Or at least their automated colony vessels did, seventeen thousand years later. Do you want to know what sustained me in that perpetual dark, Selenne? I’ll tell you. It was the belief that the only reason the Illuminate had never rescued me from my endless torment was that something terrible had happened to our civilisation. I told myself that was why no one had ever looked for me, because you were all dead. But then, when the automated colony ships found me and repaired the Primarch, allowing me to hijack their systems, I discovered the truth. I was not the last of my kind; I had just been forgotten. So I took those colony ships and used their nano-forges to create a new species. A warrior species forged in the furnaces of the heavens, the instrument of my final revenge, the Voidborn.’
Sam slowly got to his feet. He reached out with his mind to the Illuminate nanites throughout his body, willing them to reform his armour.
‘You’re wasting your time,’ the Primarch said, turning to Sam. ‘No Illuminate weapons will work on board this ship, unless I will it. That’s why Selenne cannot physically manifest.’ It gestured towards the swirling blue cloud trapped within the energy cage hovering in the air nearby. ‘I make the rules here.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Sam said. ‘I never opened the Bridge for you. How did you bring Selenne here physically? She . . . she was supposed to be safe.’
‘Safe in the Heart, you mean
?’ the Primarch asked. ‘Locked away in Suran’s precious sanctuary? You and your little resistance force were responsible for sabotaging my first attempt to retrieve it. The loss of the core drill in London was . . . irritating, but not as irritating as not knowing how you had done it. I couldn’t risk sending any more of my forces deployed on this planet against you, at least not until I was sure you wouldn’t steal any more of my ships. And now it appears that you and your friends are about to destroy my new drilling rig, having hijacked a whole continent’s worth of my forces.’ The creature walked towards Sam, towering over him, flexing its massive clawed fingers as crimson lightning flickered between them. ‘As I say . . . irritating.’
Sam swallowed hard, mentally preparing himself for fresh waves of agony as the Primarch raised its hand to the side of his head once more.
‘But none of that matters any more,’ the Primarch said, lowering its monstrous head towards Sam’s ear, its voice dropping to a low, sinister whisper. ‘Because you brought me something that is much, much more precious. You see, once you open the Bridge to the Heart for me, the Illuminate’s sanctuary becomes their prison. A prison from which there is no escape and of which I am the only warden. There will be no need to retrieve the Heart physically any more. In fact, it can stay precisely where it is. The Illuminate will be trapped in a nightmare that I completely control. Their torment will last an eternity, just as mine did.’
The Primarch walked around Sam, running its claws across his shoulder blades, just hard enough for him to feel their tips digging into his skin.
‘Oh, I am sorry. None of that answers your question, does it?’ the Primarch said with a sly smile. ‘You have not yet physically released the Illuminate from the Heart, so how could Selenne possibly be here? Let me guess. She told you that she was just a voice in your head, there to help and advise. But it was actually rather more complicated than that, wasn’t it, Selenne? Would you like me to explain it to our friend here?’