Planetfall infinitys end.., p.16
Planetfall (Infinity's End Book 6), page 16
“Ah,” Rockron said. “Appropriate, I think. Now. You have questions.”
Daingne thought about it a moment. “Not as many as she did. As you predicted. I thought I’d never see the light of day. Trapped, for thirty-one of their years. Until he cracked the egg. The despicable father. How could a human possess such an ability?”
Rockron narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know. It shouldn’t have been possible. But when he attacked her it did something. We need not dwell on it. Now we must prepare.”
“—For the humans’ extinction, yes. I only regret I’m stuck in this form.”
He turned from her. “Not forever. You are a special case after all.”
Daingne winced. “I can still feel her, in the depths. She’s fighting.” Upon seeing Rockron’s concern she continued. “But she won’t return. Her mental facilities are much too weak. It is more of an annoyance than anything else.”
“Good. I tried coaxing your presence from her, but she had enough control to keep you suppressed until actively releasing you. I would hate for her to find a way to trap you again.”
Daingne shook her head. “It won’t be an issue. Tell me everything about my people. There is only so much I know from her memories.”
“You have an innate hatred of the humans. This is natural for the Athru, and we are finally mobilizing on the great plan. It has been millions of years in the making. After millennia of searching, we have found their homeworld. The planet they call Earth.”
“They have the audacity.” Daingne scoffed. “I assume the information in my mind is accurate.”
“Instinct coded within your very genes,” Rockron replied, moving over to the stone controls. He placed his hand upon them, and they lit up, glowing a bright blue with Athru script. Daingne had no trouble reading it.
“This world, it is our staging ground. Our weapon against the humans.”
“The thing that has made all our efforts possible,” Rockron said. “I was left behind to guard the structures but imagine my surprise to find a human ship in orbit. And the fools came down on their own.”
“They were in distress,” Daingne replied. “It was damaged.”
“It matters not.” Rockron touched the stone again. An image of the Tempest came up, still in orbit. “Their temporal signature is still within that of the rest of the universe. Mere minutes have passed on board since her crew arrived.”
“Ah. The temporal distortion. The human was too stupid to figure it out. Being on this planet gives us an unlimited amount of time.” She glanced down at her body. “But this body is frail. It will expire within another sixty or seventy years.”
“Do not worry, sister.” Rockron tapped her shoulder. “We can move you from it. It already has the base genetic markers. What is most important is the mind. Now that you are your true self, that is all that matters.” He turned back to the stone. “The humans are helpless without their technology, to which I have eliminated access. And with nowhere to go and no way to defend themselves we will manage to kill them all in a short amount of time. Then we can rejoin the others. It won’t be long before they reach the humans’ precious Coalition.”
“What of the other species? The Untuburu, the Yax-Inax. The Claxians?” Daingne asked. “They do not deserve our wrath.”
“No. They have done nothing wrong. The collective agreed they will be spared as much as possible. We hope to form an alliance with all of them once the humans are extinct. Essentially we will take their place.”
“The humans deserve nothing less.”
“Tell me,” Rockron said. “You have access to her thoughts. How did a human ship end up out here? Even if they did detect us, they shouldn’t have had the technology to come this far this fast.”
Daingne sneered. “They allied with the Sil. It was their technology which allowed the humans to traverse the distance.”
Rockron frowned. “The Sil may think we are coming after them. We’ll have to make it clear that is not the plan. Perhaps they will abandon their human allies.”
“Do you expect the Sil will retaliate? She has seen their technology; they are formidable.”
“I’m surprised they were willing to help such an inferior species, as it was. They may be advanced, but I must take some time to catch you up on our technology. Thirty-one years for you was over twenty thousand for us. Improvements were made.”
“The star-killer.” Daingne smiled.
“Our greatest achievement. Of course, we can’t use it on the humans’ home star. Not unless we want to destroy the Claxians as well. What do they call it?”
Daingne searched the human’s memories. The word was on the tip of her thick and wet tongue, she only had to remember… “Horus. But I don’t know what it means.”
Rockron laughed. “The arrogance. They named it after the Egyptian God of the sky. I’m surprised they just didn’t call it the Sun.”
Daingne cocked her head. “Why would they call it son?”
“You need a refresher on human history,” Rockron replied, motioning to the stone info tablets. “Come. Let’s catch you up. We have the time.”
27
“I’m surprised the bears didn’t convince you to return to the camp,” Cas said as they made their way through the jungle behind Box.
“Who are the bears more likely to go for? The three tiny morsels of food, or the giant buffet?” Jann said. “I believe in making myself as small of a target as possible.”
“That’s a good plan,” he replied. “Until we run into one of them. Let’s hope you can run really fast.”
“I only need to be faster than you.” She winked.
“I sense the early stages of a budding attraction between you and Captain Jann,” Box called, loud enough for everyone to hear. Heat rose in Cas’s cheeks. He couldn’t even look Jann in the eye. “Is that a correct assumption or are my parameters off?”
Cas grumbled something incoherent, keeping his eyes down.
“Is that a yes or are you still unsure if your playful banter is having the desired effect?” Box called again.
“I think maybe you have a few diodes loose, lemme take a look at those for you,” Cas said through gritted teeth. The jungle had become unbearable and Cas pulled his collar loose to give himself some more air. He was going to kill Box.
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” the robot replied. So that was it. He was mad about Cas modifying his programming. Fine. Cas could deal with that. He chanced a glance to Jann whose own eyes were forward, as if nothing had been said.
“How much farther?” Cas glanced over his shoulder at Laura. Her face was a mix of emotions: pain, determination, fear. But he could tell she wouldn’t stop until they found Evie, or what was left of her.
“Another two hundred meters,” Box replied. “But I believe the signal may be subterranean. From our approach it seems to be embedded beneath the surface.”
“Tunnels,” Laura said from behind him.
“Either that or we’re going to have to dig for the thing,” Cas replied. “But I—” He ran into the back of Box, who had stopped just before a small clearing. “Ow. What the hell?”
“Look.” Box pointed. There stood a stone arch, three meters high. It looked ancient, as if the sands of time had worn it down over eons. But it wasn’t the first time Cas had seen the arch. He turned to Jann, who nodded.
“What?” Laura asked. “It’s an artifact from a dead civilization. So what?”
“You don’t understand,” Jann replied. “This is an exact copy of the arch we saw in space. The one the captain saw and that we passed through. And on the other side was the Andromeda ship that came after us.”
Cas examined it. Beyond the opening was nothing but more jungle but based on his experience it was an illusion. There could be an entire army of the aliens on the other side of the arch. Maybe he should have told the crew to come with him after all. He picked up a stick and tossed it into the opening where it disappeared. It hadn’t come through on the other side. “Damn,” he said, pulling his boomcannon back out and unlocking the safety.
“Do we go through?” Laura asked. “Is that where the signal is coming from?”
“As far as I can tell,” Box replied. “But if this is like the other arch you encountered, should I even be able to detect the signal?”
Cas screwed up his features. He was right. The purpose of the last arch had been to conceal a warship within a time bubble. But they were already in a time distortion here on the planet. Maybe this arch had another purpose. Maybe it concealed something but in a different way. “Walk around it,” Cas said. “See what happens to the signal.”
Box strode around the arch to where they could see him through the other side. “It’s behind me now.”
“Then it’s definitely in there,” Laura said.
“Yeah, but we can’t just go barreling through. Who knows what’s on the other side? And without reconnaissance I’m hesitant to about sending—”
“Screw that, I’m going.” Laura pushed past him. He hooked his hand on her arm, stopping her.
“Not until we know it’s safe.”
She wrested her arm from him, her eyes sharp and cold. “Don’t tell me not to go after her. Because to stop me you’re going to have to pull a court-martial.”
“Did someone call me?”
Cas spun in place; his weapon locked on the owner of that voice. At first, he hadn’t recognized it, all he knew was a voice had come from somewhere behind him. Martial stood at the edge of the trees, his hands up. “About time you got here, I was worried.”
Cas didn’t drop his gun. What was Martial doing here? And how had he found this place? “Aren’t you a little far from camp?” Cas asked. He glanced over to Jann who had also trained her weapon on the bartender.
“Do you want to save the captain or not?” Martial replied, his voice heavy with exhaustion.
“Wait,” Laura said, stepping in between Cas and Martial. “What do you mean? You know where she is?”
“I know she’s in there.” He indicated the arch. “And we don’t have a lot of time. It might be too late already.”
“Too late for what?” Cas asked. Nothing about this was right.
Martial dropped his hands. “Look. I messed up, alright? She left the camp when I wasn’t paying attention. Or she knew I was watching her and snuck out on purpose. Once I realized she was gone I tracked her to the shuttle, but she wasn’t there. This was only one other place they could have taken her.”
“Who?” Cas asked, reasserting his weapon. “You better start explaining right now.”
“Please,” Martial said with a wave of his hand. “You have nothing to fear from me. If I’d wanted to hurt you, I had plenty of opportunity during your many visits to my establishment.”
“I think he means he could have poisoned you at any time,” Box said, leaning over.
“My only concern is the safety of the captain,” Martial said. “But I can’t do it alone.”
Cas turned to Box and Jann. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s an awful big coincidence,” Jann replied.
“I think it’s a stroke of good luck!” Box said, chipper. “Martial was always the one to call me when you overdid it. I don’t believe he wishes you ill will.”
Cas worked his jaw then dropped his weapon. “Explain. Now.”
“I can’t,” Martial replied. “I made an oath. Just trust I know what I’m talking about and we need to hurry.”
“You know what this is?” Cas pointed the arch. “Despite not seeing the last one?”
“I’m familiar with it, yes,” he replied.
“What is it?”
“A temporal gateway. It is used to envelop a location from the effects of the passage of time. The result is a person could stay within one forever and never age. One could watch the progression of the universe unfold before their eyes.”
“Time doesn’t pass inside?” Cas asked, eyeing the gateway.
Martial came up beside him. “It doesn’t pass in the same way. It doesn’t track with the rest of the known universe.”
“How does it work?”
“It’s too complex to explain.”
“Now that is convenient,” Jann muttered.
Laura pushed her way past all of them. “I’m done with this. Evie needs help.” Before Cas could reach for her again she’d disappeared through the arch.
“Shit,” Cas said, pointing his weapon forward and following her. He prayed there wasn’t an army of aliens on the other side. Evie’s description of her vision shot through his head; all those creatures standing before her. How did he know that wasn’t what awaited them on the other side of this door?
As he passed under the arch there was a shimmer, and he emerged into a large clearing. Before him the ground sloped down, but he had to put his hand to his eyes because the sun was blinding. “What the hell?”
“I told you, pocket of time,” Martial said from behind him. The rest of them had followed through the arch. “This pocket is in perpetual daylight.”
Cas blinked a few times before his vision adjusted and he saw Laura trotting down the slope. In front of them stood a massive four-sided pyramid, with large columns at each corner. About halfway up the pyramid was a thick outcrop that circled around all sides and the very top of the structure was flat, as if the point had been cut off. “Is that—”
“A smaller version of the one we saw at Omicron Terminus,” Jann replied. “Structure is the same though.”
“We need to catch up with the lieutenant,” Martial said, jogging after Laura. Jann followed.
“Can you believe this?” Cas asked as he and Box brought up the rear.
“It reminds me of this drama I saw once,” Box said. “Well, not so much a drama as it was an erotic adventure.”
“You mean a porno.” Cas shook his head.
“I mean research. It was about this princess who ruled in a pyramid much like this one, but she had too many suitors who wanted to sire her heir. She had to test each of them out. It was very informative.”
Cas made a face. “How is that research? What the hell are you doing in sickbay all day anyway?”
“That’s my business. Xax said I could run my experiments thank you very much. And now that I’ve got your sample I’ll finally begin my final phase.”
Cas stopped him. “Don’t use my sperm for anything weird. The only reason you got that was because you saved my life. If we get back to the ship and I find some weird ass clone hybrid, I’m not going to be happy.”
“I’m insulted,” Box said, feigning shock. “You think I would do anything weird? Don’t you know me at all?”
“Yeah,” Cas replied, jogging again to catch up. “I know you too well.” They reached Martial and the others, standing beside a small outcropping at the base of the pyramid. It was solid stone.
“How do you get into this stupid thing?” Laura asked, running her hands over the smooth stone.
“Here.” Martial placed his hand on the side of the stone. It glowed blue then dissolved away. Just like the doorway had on the warship they’d boarded back at Omicron. Cas turned to him.
“Who are you?”
His gray eyes found Cas. “I’m your friend. And I’m sworn to protect the captain. That’s my only goal here.”
Cas stared into the dark hall beyond the doorway. They’d need their flashlights once inside. This was crazy. Could he trust Martial not to lead them into a trap? Who was to say this wasn’t how the captain was captured? But Martial had been on the ship since before Cas had arrived. And yet he knew something about these aliens. He had access to them. “You son of a bitch,” he said. “You’ve known about these things this entire time, and you did nothing to warn us.”
“That’s not how it happened,” Martial replied. “It was my honest hope they would never target the Coalition. But they did, and here we are.”
Cas got in his face. “You could have given us intel instead of sitting down in that bar! We could have been prepared for the mines.” He shoved Martial. “We could have prevented dozens of casualties. Greene would still be here, and we wouldn’t be stuck on this planet!” He lunged for Martial again, but Jann and Box grabbed him from behind, pulling him back.
“I swear to you that’s not how it is. I will explain myself, but we must go, it will take some time to reach her.” His eyes pleaded with Cas.
He wanted to tie the man down and interrogate him, ask him why the hell he waited until just now to tell them he knew something about Andromeda. “Box, where’s the signal?” Cas asked, even as they continued to hold him back.
“All indications say it is somewhere inside.”
“It’s the control center,” Martial said. “We’ll be able to turn off the dampener keeping the power off back at camp. It’s designed for defense, to prevent planetary invasions.”
Cas gritted his teeth again. “How do you know so much?”
“Um…boss?” Box said.
“What?” Cas jerked his head to look at the robot.
“The lieutenant.” Cas turned back to the pyramid’s opening. Laura was gone.
28
Xax had to admit it, despite her initial diagnosis, Zaal had lasted longer than she had expected. Perhaps that was because Xax always prepared for the worst-case-scenario. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, wasn’t that what the humans said? And Zaal had managed to hang in there, despite the oxygen poisoning running through his organic body. She’d performed as many repairs as possible to his exoskeleton—thank goodness she’d begun studying robotics for Box’s sake—but there was only so much she could do without power. If the shuttle was working she could de-oxygenate him, but all she had was the equivalent of pain medications.
Xax stood, stretching the vertebrae along her spine. She’d need some extra R&R after all this was over. She wished Carson hadn’t gone with the captain; he could have relieved her for a few hours. Stepping out into the muggy evening, she stared up at the sky. As best she could tell it hadn’t gotten any darker since they’d arrived, which was kind of perfect. It reminded her of home, where people would stay on the dark side of the planet for weeks at a time, communing. She always said the best time to study was at night, under the stars as they kept watch over you. And while it was still just too light to see many of them, their constant presence up there was a comfort. She could almost feel the outdoor library around her now, though it was a lot muggier here.
