Chapter 43:
Rendezvous

The interrogator directed Jack eastward and the small flyer sped over dense rainforest. Trees beneath them started orange, then turned green after a few kilometers and finally thinned out at the foot of the Virunga Mountains.

“Set down in that clearing,” the interrogator said, and Jack did.

The flyer neared the ground and its stubby legs extended, then bent under the weight as the vehicle kissed the Earth. Just as Jack began to wonder how to remove himself from the cradle, the vehicle released him. He was back in the real world. Back in his own body. The experience was disorienting beyond belief.

The night was dark and rain had just begun to fall. The feeling of standing there beneath the clouds, splashed by rain and caressed by the warm winds, was simply brilliant. Jack’s skin was caked with months worth of filth, and he wanted nothing more than to stand in the rain and feel clean again. Feel new again.

“I should kill you,” Jack said after a long silence.

“You still have the option.”

He considered reaching for his gun, but he had too many questions that needed answers. The interrogator might have been suicidal, but he hadn’t worn out his usefulness. Not yet. “Will you tell me what’s going on?”

“Where should I begin?” the alien asked.

Jack’s shoulders were soaking wet, and the water trickled down over the rest of him. “Is Kai your real name, or was that just a cover?”

“Real name. When did you figure it out?”

“Not until you handed me the gun. You called me Jack. So, I gather you’re not Finnish, but… how do look so human?”

“Our shape is similar. For the rest, I altered my outward appearance. I created a disguise in order to gain your trust.”

“Helluva disguise,” Jack said. “I bought it hook, line and sinker.” He listened to the melodic pitter-patter on the leaves all around him. Just that morning, he was sure he’d never hear that sound again, yet there he was.

“That can’t be everything you want to know.”

“Of course not,” Jack said. He took a tentative step out of the flyer and onto the wet soil, fearing it would disappear the moment he touched it. When he was confident it was real and not going anywhere, he took another step and then sat down among the plants. “I want to know how this all happened. How did we end up here?”

Kai walked over to him, and Jack motioned for him to sit down. “It’s a long story,” Kai said.

“Take your time. I’m a patient man.”

Kai pulled his mask off and shoved it in his jacket, then took a deep breath. “As you wish. It starts thirty-two of your years ago. My people, the Somari, had just come out of a century long war, and for the first time in our history, our people were united. It was the dawn of a new age of prosperity, fueled by the technological advances made during the war.”

“What sort of advances?”

Kai smiled. “Genetic engineering. Biotechnology. The ability to manufacture new bodies from whole cloth, and transfer minds from one to the next.”

“So you’re…”

“Enhanced. A biotech construct. This is my third body, counting the one in which I was born.”

“Okay. Now we come to the part of the story where something terrible happens.”

“Yes. The Nefrem happened. Their battle fleet appeared in orbit one day and laid siege to our planet. Just like that, we were embroiled in war again. We thought we could defeat them, but their forces were too numerous. Too powerful. It took them only thirteen days to conquer our world, and our Archon chose to destroy it rather than concede defeat. He would not allow them to devour us.”

“Devour you?”

“That’s how the Nefrem operate. I’ll spare you the details.”

“Thanks. So… how did you survive?”

“I was placed in a bottle and set adrift on the sea of stars.”

“And you ended up where?”

“Other Sinits like me… infiltrators… they discovered which star systems the Nefrem were targeting, and the Archon’s dying wish was that I be sent to warn them.”

“And?”

“Five years later, my capsule arrived in the Oikeya system. The code be praised, Jack… You simply can’t imagine all the many strange wonders of that system. It was so rich and full of life. Three whole living worlds! Three, each with a completely unique ecosystem and collection of intelligent species. And that was only the beginning. Out among the asteroids were gargantuan membranous sacks full of water. Islands in space, each of them alive and intelligent, and full of yet more creatures. Life, free of the shackles of gravity. And all of it brought together, interconnected by living space ships that fly as naturally as a fish swims through water.”

“Sounds too good to be true.”

“I know. I thought the same thing every moment I was among them. I was sure I had died and gone to… heaven? The Oikeyans had no concept of war or hatred. No struggle or strife. They lived in peaceful harmony with one another, and they were all so very naive.” He was quiet for a long pause. “When I told them the destroyers were coming, they laughed. They actually laughed.”

“What’d you do?”

“Everything I could. I preached to whoever would listen, and trained whoever would learn. I traveled the system for eight years trying to build some kind of defense, until the Nefrem advance fleet finally arrived. The Oikeyans greeted them with open arms and paid dearly for the mistake. Millions died before my forces were able to turn the fleet away.”

“But they came back?”

“Of course. The destroyers returned in numbers that made a mockery of their assault on my homeworld, and they brought their living planet this time. The war was over before it ever began.”

“How many died?”

“Forty billion, Jack. Slaughtered, eaten and churned out into more Nefrem. The sixty million refugees here on Earth… they are all that remains.”

“But why come here, Kai? Why like this? You could’ve asked us for help.”

Kai looked him dead in the eyes. “Because you are Nefrem.”

“We look like them?”

“No, Jack. You are them, and there can be no mistake in this. You’re genetically identical. We only learned of this world from them. The location of your system was cleverly hidden in their databanks. It was heavily encrypted and obscured behind falsified information, and I believed the secrecy was to prevent enemies from discovering the location of their homeworld.”

“So you brought the Oikeyans here to strike back.”

“Yes. We came prepared to wage the final battle. To tear out the weed at its root. The plan was to take the Nefrem by surprise and wipe out their civilization before they could mount a counter-offensive, and in that, we were fairly successful.”

“Except we’re not the Nefrem,” Jack said while shaking his head. “This doesn’t make any sense. We’ve always been here. We evolved here, and until you arrived, we were pretty sure there wasn’t life out there at all. I mean, we’ve only just taken our first baby steps out onto other planets, for Christ’s sake.”

“I know that now. In fact, your people survived precisely because you’re not the Nefrem. They live in hives the size of your largest cities. They have no farmland or suburbs. If you lived like that, you would have already been destroyed.”

“I’m so glad this has been a learning experience for you, Kai. Really. I mean that.”

“Sarcasm aside, the truth is that I can’t turn back time, and I can’t undo what I’ve done, but we still have a choice about who to become in the wake of this.”

“Yeah, I know the guy who said that.”

“I do too, and he’s an amazing creature. After everything that’s been done to him… everything he’s seen and been through, he still refuses to kill innocents. He could have destroyed the entire city in a flash of light, but he chose not to. I subjected him to more pain than any living thing could be expected to endure, and yet he spared my life.”

“He must be a God damned idiot.”

“Not at all. You’re a better man than even you realize, Jack Hernandez, and there’s something noble inside of you that I don’t understand. Something luminous that I couldn’t snuff out no matter how hard I tried. I will never cultivate a soul like yours, but I can become a weapon of your will, and perhaps atone for some of my mistakes.”

“And if I prefer you dead?”

“Then I’ll die. I deserve no less, and I know it… but I don’t think you’ll make that decision. You know that I can do more good alive than dead.”

“We’ll see,” Jack said. “No offense, but this all seems a little too convenient. You’ll excuse me if I don’t lead you straight back to the resistance.”

“I understand your apprehension, but I’ve no reason to deceive you. Your people have gotten sloppy in recent months. Your primary installations have already been located and dealt with, and all that remains are the fortified shelters… Arks, I believe you call them. The Oikeyans are mounting a final offensive as we speak, with the intent of finishing the fight once and for all. Humanity doesn’t have much time left.”

They both sat there and listened to the falling rain. Then a motion in the distance caught Jack’s eye, and he struggled to focus. Months of captivity had left his vision less sharp than it once was, and with some effort, he made out a rhino and two jackrabbits moving down the hillside. His first instinct was panic. “We’ve got company!” he shouted and scrambled up from the ground.

“Relax,” Kai said. “They’re friends.”

“What?”

“There are objectors among the Oikeyans that still believe life is sacred above all else. They want to end the war. When I informed them I was going to free you, these three volunteered to accompany us.”

Every muscle in Jack’s body was rigid and his heart was racing. Kai might have spent months torturing Jack, but at least he looked human. The exterminators were a different story. They still had a profound effect on him, and the sight alone sent adrenaline surging through his blood.

“Fuck me. Okay. I can handle this. Accompany us where exactly, Kai?”

“Up to you.”

“Figures,” Jack said. With that, he dropped back down and laid himself out in the ground cover. The rain fell harder every minute, and he was wet like a river. “For the time being, can I just lie here? I just want to lie here in the rain for a while.”

“If that’s what you wish. Should I… go somewhere else?”

Jack thought about it for a second and then said, “No. I may not like you, but you’re all I have. I’ve already had my share of solitude.”

“As you wish.”