Chaos Cipher (94 page)

Ignoring all
else, Raven followed the glowing compass of symbols in his palm as
the nanology worked beneath his skin to light a large walkway at
the end of which stood a twenty foot high cylindrical safe door.
Edged into the steel was the name MS 408 – Ragnar’s
Safe.

‘
MS four,
zero, eight,’ Nitro said aloud, his voice echoing through the
chamber. ‘This is the place. But who the hell is
Ragnar?’

‘
I bethinks
the name is irrelevant,’ Raven scoffed.

Within
moments of them reaching the area the locks began to turn. Access
codes and initialisation sequences were being input from an
external source. And with a groan of steel on steel, the huge safe
door hinged open to reveal a well-lit safe-room, filled with
compartments and scattered files and papers.

Raven stepped
inside while Nitro kept watch by the door. The giant Olympian
followed his palm and found what he had been looking for. A glass
cabinet, within which stood a long and broad blade, almost as tall
as Raven and as dark as the Olympian’s name professed.

‘
The Shadow
Goliath,’ he gasped in astonishment.

‘
What is
that?’ Nitro asked, looking around his arm. ‘Just an ornament,
right?’

‘
The Shadow
Goliath is no object for mere admiration,’ Raven declared as he
gazed at the blade with a sense of bereavement and ignobility. ‘Tis
the mark of our culture. A weapon gilded with Obsiduranium coating,
whose counter-particles were dropped into the core of a black hole,
forging an almost unbreakable structure. One who wields it, can
manipulate its mass; one who wields it, can put into it their
energy. I see now why my family were here. Whoever owned Ragnar’s
Safe, wanted also to find an Olympian Genetic as I, capable of
using such a weapon.’

‘
But it’s
just a sword,’ Nitro laughed. ‘When up against a gun, what damage
can it do?’

‘
Naïve
Titan,’ Raven smiled, green eyes still avariciously beset on the
displayed weapon. ‘The weapon cannot be wielded by any mere
Olympian, but one trained to be frugal about their bio-nanology.
Bullets alone will not kill such life forms. Armed with the Shadow
Goliath, bullets to me will be not but used led.’

Beside the
weapon was a gauntlet, the very same kind of glove worn by his
brother when he powered the Obsiduranium catalyst with his own
nanology. Finally, amongst them all were three black spheres,
perfectly opaque and mirroring everything in their curved
reflection. Raven saw his nose bulge in their mirrored centre as he
stood before them, his head shrunken and the room’s eight corners
caught in the perfect curvature.

‘
Well, good,’
said commander Nitro Harbeck, ‘grab them and go.’

Raven drew
back his fist and smashed the glass cabinet to pieces. He tore the
gauntlet free from its recess and fitted his palm into the glove,
its auto tightening systems clamping down. Nitro watched in
astonishment as with it, Raven picked up the black sword and
brandished it over his shoulder casually. He reached out for the
three spheres and they assembled into his palm where they circled
like Baoding balls, and Raven glared at their hypnotic motion,
contemplative.

‘
Raven’ Nitro
said looking around. ‘Be quick, we need to get moving.’

‘
Hast thou
ever been honest with thyself, Nitro Harbeck?’ the Olympian asked
as he turned. ‘Hast thou ever taken glance upon the mirror with
truth in thy aspiration?’

‘
What the
fuck you talking about?’ Nitro asked suspiciously, lifting his aim.
‘We have a partnership, Raven. Don’t forget that I had to put a lot
of trust in you to bring you here. We have to work
together.’

‘
It might to
do thee well first,’ said Raven, ‘to know thyself. For if all
relationships are based on trust, and then certain truths must be
the syndrome. Since thou art receiving a mind screening after this
mission then it couldn’t hurt to know some things
first.’

From his palm
one of the spheres jumped into the air between them and a flash of
spurious light filled the void. Nitro tried to shield his face but
the light bled through his bones and skin, seeping into his mind
unabated. It caused no pain, but dazzled his senses in overwhelming
surges of emotions he’d never before experienced. And Nitro saw her
face again for the first time in years. She had been weeping. She
had been carrying the baby who was also hysterical and he was
telling her it was for the best. She pleaded, but he was
indifferent, sworn to duty, proud. There was no other way, he had
told himself. There can be no other way, because any other way
would jeopardise all that our great society has worked so hard, and
sacrificed so much for.

Don’t
go
…

Had he said
that? Had he really thought that?

Don’t take
her away…

Had he
imagined tearing off those badges and racing after them before they
were thrown into the back of an APC and taken away? He must have
imagined it, because it hadn’t happened, yet the thoughts were
there. In fact, all that had happened was he allowed the Syridan
army to carry out their arrest and remove his wife and
child.

‘
Because she
threatened the state…’

‘
Yet thou
imagined fighting off the soldiers? I’m curious to know
why.’

‘
I don’t
know…’ Nitro whispered meekly.

Raven stood
in the brimming light as it faded to return everything to focus
again. The Olympian warrior’s hair had somehow been restored to its
youthful pitch black vigour and his skin no longer etched with age.
He was rejuvenated by whatever qualities lay within those spheres,
and somehow Nitro had been telling Raven of his past, bearing his
soul like he had to nobody before. He’d told the giant Olympian
more about his family than he’d even told Ripley.

‘
I imagined
fighting off the soldiers because what they were doing felt wrong,’
said Nitro at last. ‘But I didn’t carry through with it because I
was sworn to duty. Sworn to protect my country… And I was supposed
to protect my family…not oppress them.’

And a great
weight suddenly lifted from Nitro Harbeck, and he realised quickly
that tears had been flowing.

‘
There’s no
shame in feelings,’ Raven admonished as he passed the broken
commander. ‘To control them is an act of dignity. But never deny
them. Thou art an emotive sentience.’

And Nitro
wiped his eyes and slumped by the open safe.

‘
What was
that thing?’ he asked. ‘What the hell did you just do to
me?’

‘
That,’ said
Raven ‘was a gift from the Sacred Star Acolytes, the light of
Elixir. You may call it enlightenment, anamnesis, epiphany. It’s
the reason I have come so far. It’s the last of its kind; and
perhaps the first intelligent being humanity has ever encountered.
Its light fills the space, that missing link we seek between
thought and nature, words and materialism. And because of the
actions of thy human kind it will soon perish. Like everything else
thou so arrantly aim to destroy with all thy omnipotence, humanity
fails to recognise its responsibilities. While earthly men dream of
their servitude to vengeful Gods they fail to see thou hast become
so veritably alike them. I sympathise with the devil who takes on
the eternal battle with an enemy he knows beyond defeat, because
respect is a mutual value as are goodness and evil, for are we not
all capable of both? If respect were to be shared equitably, such
scarcities as the Elixir would not perish.’

Nitro blinked
in shock, and he glared down at his badges incongruously; then
began to remove his decorated armour.

‘
I can’t wear
this,’ he said. ‘I feel sick!’

‘
Keep it!’
Raven said, landing his heavy palm upon Nitro’s armour to stop his
efforts. ‘Thy mark. Thou shalt not run from thy responsibilities,
hast thou heard not a word of what I just said?’

Nitro
attempted to stand, then stumbled tiredly and collapsed on his
backside again, staring blankly at the ceiling.

‘
An epiphany
is an overwhelming experience of enlightenment, to understand your
place, your nature, is not an easy thing. It will take thee yet
some time to invoke back your energies.’

‘
What about
you?’

‘
I have a
mission to finish.’ Raven said, ‘I’ll be taking The Nova
Storm.’

‘
I have to
find them, Raven.’ Nitro explained as the Olympian warrior turned
away. ‘Fuck the Shield of Spheres, fuck the Orbital Guard. Fuck
this Serat son of a bitch. I have to find my family.’

‘
And I’m sure
with such virtuosity, you shall,’ Raven nodded. ‘But turning away
from thy sins is to deny thy penance. The Elixir asks not for
perdition, but for recognition, to be true to thyself. Remember
what was learned in the light of that sphere. It’s a fleeting
moment, but do not let it go lightly. The shock is still fresh,
commander Harbeck, realise who you are. I will finish up from
here.’

Raven slung
the broad sword over his shoulder and turned to leave the room
before Nitro shouted after him.

‘
It’s
Richard!’ He said. ‘Nitro’s an alias. One of many, but my name’s
Richard Hartley.’

‘
Tis a good
start,’ said Raven, while respectfully bowing his head. ‘And a
pleasure to finally meet thee, commander Richard. A pity the
meeting was so very brief.’

-76-

A
s the elevator made the last few
meters to the top it locked into position and Raven shoved aside
the gate. He could hear the rain clattering through the surrounding
forests and the lightning flashed voraciously in the clouds above,
illuminating the dark swaying palm trees and surrounding herbage.
Shouldering the large black sword he shifted into the rain, his
bright pale green eyes glaring through the strands of his long and
wet black hair.

Once behind
the Nova Storm’s cockpit, Raven rested his hand over the flight
deck and his nanology traffic poured through the veins of his arm
to hack the computer. The Nova Storm softly hummed to life after
security protocols were bypassed and the engines fired into life.
Raven sat back to allow the harness to drop down and lock him into
the seat. Gently, the cadonavis lifted vertically into the sky and
stopped at an altitude of fifteen thousand feet.

‘
Raven,’ a
voice channelled into the ship’s communication network. ‘Where’s
Nitro?’

Raven lifted
his gaze from the flight deck to Chief Claudia Noble on the
cockpit’s head’s up display.

‘
The
commander has conceded to a brief hiatus,’ Raven explained. ‘I
shall be taking the mission from here.’

‘
What did you
do with him?’

‘
He is
alive,’ Raven divulged.

‘
We have an
arrangement, Raven,’ she reminded. ‘You have what you wanted. Now
honour that arrangement.’

Raven stared
out at the clouds where the crosshairs of his cadonavis aligned on
Havenband Province, the hiding place of the Galileo
Coterie.

‘
What news
came out of the Havenband Province?’ he asked.

‘
There’s been
nothing,’ said Claudia. ‘Everyone we send vanishes and there’s no
more contact. SkyLord Gallows is now arranging with private and
state defences globally, to plan to resolve this issue. I want
Shield of Spheres to beat them to the punch without too much of a
problem. You’re a specialist, Raven. That’s why you’re here. Be
sure that if you get Serat, then the Xenotechs are without purpose.
You might even be able to save your hidden group, the Galileo
Coterie. Make no mistake, Serat will not pause to destroy
them.’

Raven was
silent for a moment as he assessed the decision, eyes staring at
the Havenband Province marker bearing North-East, ready to launch
there.

‘
We know the
Galileo Coterie have been residing there,’ she explained. ‘We know
there have been some Olympians on this planet still. But Raven,
they are no longer our concern. If you face that Xenotech alone,’
she said, ‘you’ll end up like everything else we send there,
specialist or not. Killing it doesn’t stop Serat.’

‘
She knew all
along.’ Raven said levelly, ‘Avenoir knew we would not get here in
time.’

‘
Yes,’
Claudia nodded. ‘That’s what Chronomancers do. They
manipulate.’

‘
No,’ Raven
insisted. ‘I do not believe the child brought me here to destroy
the Atominii world as I had schemed to do for so very long. She
brought me here to stop this threat.’

‘
You believe
that?’

‘
I would have
torn this world to pieces in the name of vengeance,’ Raven sighed
with a dreamy gasp of realisation. ‘Yet a more fearsome foe got
here before me and I believe he will not stop his mad philosophy at
this world.’

‘
You’re
right.’ She stated, ‘but you’re going to need back-up.’