Chapter 50:
Right In Two

Kai sprinted out across the open steppe, the immense strength in his legs driving him nearly as fast the fighter jets above. Each stride covered tens of meters, and he hadn’t even worked up a sweat yet.

He would soon enough.

As he came to the human side of the battle lines, he accelerated, and in several large leaps, moved from one embankment to the next, bypassing the soldiers completely and continuing into the scarred no-man’s land beyond. Strange weapons exploded all around, blasting soil hundreds of meters into the air, but Kai was too fast. Too agile. He danced through the field, analyzing thousands of barking weapons, and calculated the safest path through. He was built for this task.

A continuous hail of hot metal surrounded him, but he weaved through it. He was in his element, and no creature on the battlefield could match him. He wasn’t there to fight, though. This was just an obstacle course on the way to his objective. A warm-up.

He engaged his camouflage as he approached the Oikeyan side and became a ghost. The effect was imperfect, but combined with his fantastic speed and the chaos of battle, it made him virtually undetectable.

Hidden in broad daylight, he launched himself high into the air and used the fighting Yuon Kwon as terrain, leaping from the armored shell of one to the next. This part of his mission was so easy it was practically a game.

Then he came to the charred remains of the human settlement, which had burnt brightly throughout the night but was now reduced to smoking cinders. He sprinted at top speed, ignoring the ruins under foot and the human drop pods spitting fire over his head. He cut a path straight for the Ark.

As Kai came to the final stretch, he dug down deep, found the last reserve of extra power lurking inside him, and charged. He charged with everything he had. His feet ground deep into the ruined soil and the wind howled as he blasted through the thick air. He coiled his fist back and exploded through the titanium-steel door.

The metal groaned and buckled inward. Massive hinges on either side sheered under the force.

He was inside. His mission was half-complete.

***

Jack and Felix raced through the clotted skies, while a desperate air battle went on all around them. Cuttlefish and the strange transforming fighters chased each other in every direction, burping fire at one another as they careened about and fought for position.

Charlie and Lisa were understandably uncomfortable in the vehicle, while Nikitin was—beyond all sense or reason—having the time of his life. Behind them, Ferash and Dojer held their weapons at ready in case of unwanted followers. It was anyone’s guess how effective their weapons would be, but Dojer’s cannon was better than nothing at all.

The young city Yuon Kwon loomed in the distance, reminding Jack of the flying saucers in every old, cheesy horror movie. The last thing he ever expected was for aliens to show up in actual saucers, yet there they were.

A cuttlefish burst into flames above them and plummeted out of the sky, leaving a trail of burning debris in Felix’s path. It reminded Jack this wasn’t a movie; it was real life, and he was in the middle of a very real battle.

“I know I’ve put you through a lot, but if you could go just a little faster, I’d really appreciate it,” he whispered to his mount.

Felix picked up speed, with a jitter that showed he was straining against his limits.

“Thank you.”

They approached the flying city, a smaller version of the twenty-kilometer monstrosities which had taken up residence at the Earth’s equator. This young one was just over a kilometer in diameter, and was an even more vibrant blue-indigo than its older kin, but was otherwise identical. His interior was only opened a crack, through which damaged cuttlefish returned and fresh ones came out.

The surface of the massive alien creature bristled with cannon banks spraying blue fire, while patches of liquid metal slipped across it to deflect incoming attacks. These were the defensive membranes Kai had mentioned, and their speed was startling.

Pilots in bony Yuon Kwon battle armor came flying out of the ship as Felix approached, and the stream of them never stopped. The six-armed creatures headed off to join the battle, and Jack could only imagine what they must be like in combat.

Luckily, they paid Jack and his team no mind. No one did. To everyone’s surprise, Felix was ignored by both forces equally, and they managed to slip inside without incident.

Even more surprising was the interior of the city Yuon Kwon, which was much different than Jack expected. The stalagmite-like buildings were nowhere to be found, replaced by row upon row of short, squat hangars. That wasn’t the most drastic change, though. The generator towers were opened up like flowers in full bloom, revealing the large and furiously burning stars within, connected to one another by arcing bolts of golden lightning. Each tower was surrounded at the base by an arena-like structure, filled with the silver robed Sey Chen monks, all focused on the miniature stars above them.

With the easy part of the journey out of the way, Jack steered Felix toward the thick nerve bundle at the heart of the Yuon Kwon, and prayed for the best.

***

Kai navigated the maze of tunnels, and even at his unnatural pace, progress was tedious. His less than stealthy entrance triggered alarms that howled throughout the Ark. Emergency bulkheads closed, creating all new dead-ends and pointless cul-de-sacs. Every corner presented another set of guards with itchy trigger-fingers he had to avoid. They spent more time firing at their own shadows than at Kai, who blew past like a fierce wind.

He missed the days when he was allowed to kill indiscriminately. It made his job a lot easier.

Level by level, he penetrated deeper into the mound, running on walls as often as the floor. Each corridor was warmer than the last, and more packed with heavy tubes and pipes. That meant he was getting close to his target. So did the slow throbbing of his radiation detector.

***

Two, burning blue rounds streaked past Felix, and the tiny flyer juked hard to the side. “We’ve got company, Jack!”

“Really,” he said with as much sarcasm as he could pack into the word, “I hadn’t noticed, Nik. Maybe I should try to evade them.”

Jack and Felix zoomed down toward the hangars and began weaving through the streets where the larger cuttlefish was too large to follow. It stayed above and took pot shots every few seconds.

Nikitin and Ferash opened fire with their rifles, but the rounds plinked off the alien ship’s armor without effect.

“-Are you planning to shoot any time soon, Dojer?-” Jack asked in Mirresh.

The rhino’s deep voice sounded nervous. “-Not a good idea.-”

“Dojer!”

The Rozom put his autocannon away and brought out his artillery weapon instead, aimed at the cuttlefish and fired. It thumped three times, and the tiny flyer rocked under the vicious recoil, nearly flipping over in the process.

Jack and Felix struggled to stay upright. “Whoa!”

Roiling balls of smoke erupted along the cuttlefish’s exterior, only to be swept away by the onrushing wind a moment later. The ship’s hull was unmarked.

“-Told you it wasn’t a good idea.-”

The cuttlefish fired again, this time aiming in front of the smaller Yuon Kwon. The blasts exploded in the thin alleyway ahead, and Felix instinctively made a hard kick-turn to avoid the rain of debris.

“Smooth,” Jack said, and the flyer cooed in response. “I’m all out of ideas, little buddy, so if you’ve got something, I’d love to see it.”

Felix asserted control and came to a halt, then ducked into a deeply shadowed overhang.

“What are we doing?” Lisa asked.

“Not sure,” Jack replied, “but for right now, just have a little faith.”

And they waited for the tiny flyer to make its move.

***

Armed resistance thickened the closer Kai got to the heart of the reactor complex. The cunning bastards had figured out his destination, and fell back behind barricades to wait for him. Every new tunnel was a trap filled with hot lead, and they were taking their toll.

Kai had done an admirable job avoiding their shots, but he could only do so much in tight confines, and now had several bullets lodged in his flesh. His muscles were adaptive, able to reroute around damaged areas and retain functionality, but every bullet also tore swaths out of his uniform, ruining his camouflage. He was becoming an easier target.

Running at maximum output was wearing on him, too. His body temperature hit dangerous levels, and his muscles were cannibalizing themselves for fuel. He was nearing his breaking point, and oddly glad for the challenge.

The deep red lights in this section strobed, and geysers of steam sprayed out from bundles of thick pipes. Kai sprinted down the tunnel, listening to the muffled sound of his feet hitting the floor. A junction loomed up ahead, and his cheerful mission computer was confident the turn led to the control room.

“So I should expect another barricade?”

“But of course, Sinit,” the computer replied. “How exciting!”

“Yes, terribly,” Kai said. “No easy way past.”

As he approached, the fingers of both hands keyed command sequences into his palms, then he curled his left hand into a fist. That hand’s knuckle-guard crackled with energy, while his camouflage faded and began to glow white. It grew brighter until even the light reflecting off the walls was almost too bright to look at.

He ran straight by the corridor and stopped on the other side, out of sight. The rhythmic bark of automatic weapons started and didn’t stop, while shouts of confusion and panic sounded over the roar.

When there was a lull, Kai went back. They were reloading. He jumped at the far wall, planted his heels and thrust against it, rocketing back down the opposite hall like a missile. Blind fire whizzed by and ricocheted around, but little of it came anywhere near him.

He struck the barricade fist first, and his knuckle-guard discharged into the metal. What was solid before became molten liquid spraying out in every direction. The super-heated steel coated the blinded soldiers, and they screamed as they fell to the ground.

Kai landed on the far side sprinted on, whispering an apology to Jack and his noble cause.

***

The cuttlefish hunted in erratic patterns, trying to figure out where its target had slipped off to. All the while, Felix shadowed its every move, hidden just a few meters behind and below. The cuttlefish had a blind spot, and Felix knew exactly how to exploit it.

After a few minutes of fruitless searching, the larger Yuon Kwon broke off and headed back toward the center of the city, apparently satisfied that his target had been destroyed. Jack and Felix followed.

“You’re much more clever than I suspected,” Jack whispered, and Felix purred at his approval.

The fact that the cuttlefish was headed toward the nerve center was a little too lucky in Jack’s opinion, though. The last time he encountered luck like that, things didn’t work out very well, and he wondered what sort of curve ball the universe was about throw him.

The cuttlefish led them right up to the nerve center and then inside, where it finally disappeared into a darkened tunnel while Jack and Felix continued toward the heart. The inside of the nerve bundle was quiet and calm. There was no hint of the distant battle, or buzzing from the Sey Chen as charmed the miniature stars outside. It was peaceful there, and in the midst of mortal combat, that was even more alien.

They came to the core of the Yuon Kwon in no time at all. It was a round chamber shaped like a pumpkin, with bulbous alcoves along the outer wall. At the center of the room was a cradle like those found in every Yuon Kwon, but regal and ornate like a medieval throne. It was set into the floor, and surrounded by a ring of outgrowths shaped like kneeling worshipers.

Felix set down and released his grip on Jack, who stepped out with the others and walked cautiously across the floor.

The silence was deafening.

The others followed behind as he approached the cradle, step by shaking step. The pilot within was very old, his skin hanging loose and wrinkled, and covered with twisting tattoos and strange writing.

Jack had a feeling like when he accidentally walked in on his parents as a kid. He was somewhere he didn’t belong, interrupting something he wasn’t supposed to see.

He stepped between the outgrowths in the floor, reached out and placed his hand on the pilot’s shoulder. It craned its head back from the cradle and looked at him with it’s single, monstrous eye. There was no fear in that eye, only hatred.

“-Remove yourself or be removed,-” Jack said in their language.

The pilot spat on him. At the same time, the room’s defenses moved into position and targeted the group at its center. Jack raised his .45 and put a round in the pilot’s head with one quick motion, and the defenses fell limp.

He didn’t relish it, but it had to be done. There were lives to save.

The cradle relaxed and the pilot’s lifeless body slid free. Dojer dragged the corpse away with a grimace on his face, while Jack stepped forward and prepared to link up.

“Are you sure about this?” Charlie asked.

“Not at all,” Jack said, “but it’s a little too late to change my mind.”

He wiped the pilots green blood from the cradle, then hunkered down into it and pressed his arms into the gaping orifices. The apparatus tightened around him, and his world disappeared.

***

The reactor control room was full of workers when Kai arrived, but the sight of him riddled with bullet-holes and covered in blood was enough to send them running. He sealed the door behind them and went to work.

He reached behind a terminal and grabbed hold of a shielded cable. He scraped its insulation away to reveal the bare wire within, then lifted a tiny probe from his wrist computer and placed it on the metal.

“Alright, I’m analyzing the network traffic,” the mission computer said. “This will take a moment, Sinit.”

“That’s fine,” he said, “no rush or anything.”

While the AI did its work, Kai slumped down against the wall and tried to catch his breath. His body was on fire and he couldn’t focus his eyes.

“Got it. I’m simulating the client interface and probing their network architecture. How interesting. There are nodes here that were definitely not designed by humans. No matter. I’ve finished mapping the network topology and have acquired root access. Shall I initiate self-destruct, Sinit?”

“Yes,” he said. “Set it for twenty minutes, and revoke all client credentials except your own.”

Emergency klaxons rang throughout the Ark. The computer went on, “Done and done, Sinit. I feel as though I should mention that I’ve calculated Jack Hernandez’s probability of success, and it is vanishingly small. Yet I notice you’re not moving.”

Kai laughed. “Good observation.”

“The foreign hardware has substantially increased their thermonuclear device’s yield. My estimates show that the detonation will annihilate everything inside of this base and for some distance beyond.”

“And?”

“Ahem. That includes you, Sinit.”

“It does.”

“So, you intend to die here?”

“I believe so.”

“You swore to fight the Nefrem to the last drop of your blood, did you not?”

“I did, but look where that got me. I’m responsible for the death of eight billion humans. I’ve done the Nefrem’s work for them.”

“And I will be destroyed as well. The sum of Somari knowledge will be lost and gone forever. Your people will be dead and forgotten, Kai.”

“Maybe it’s time.”

“Perhaps it is at that,” the AI said with resignation. After a pregnant pause, it added, “This has been a very long and strange journey, hasn’t it?”

“It has, but don’t worry,” Kai said to his computer, “it’ll be over soon.”

With that, Kai closed his eyes and tried to relax while the end approached.