Resurrection (The Inherited War) (28 page)

The city was huge and according to their guide, housed every living Kin on the planet.  Every building was open to any and all that wished to visit since there were no doors or windows to bar the way.  Thalo had a serious case of whiplash by the time they reached the center of the city.  His head was constantly jerking back and forth as he tried to take in the sheer beauty of the city. 

The city itself was laid out like a wheel.  The very middle was a hub with paths and narrow streets radiating out from the center.  Surrounding the hub of the city was a swath of local forests and parks.  Thalo noticed small worm like creatures spinning silken strands from the tree branches.  The silk emerged dark from their bodies but as soon as it entered the light of the sun it began to glow.

“The creatures continually manufacture the shimmer silk.  It remains dark until it enters a natural light source.  Once imbued with the light of our sun, it never fades.  It is the only material we use for our clothing and it is very durable.  It does not stain, and dirt and detritus will not adhere to it.”  Their guide supplied the information freely when she had seen Thalo staring at the worms.

Thalo nodded his thanks for the knowledge and saw a break in the trees to their front.  As they came out of the edge of the grove, the vista before them opened up.  The ground slowly sloped away and descended into wide round crater.  The sides got steeper the deeper it went.  The center was flat and smooth, it reflected the night sky above them like a mirror.  The crater was carpeted with the lush soft grass from the plain they had landed on and the center reflecting pool was ringed round by benches.  Thalo was about to speak when the sky above was filled with the beating of thousands of wings.

Thalo looked up and suddenly saw amongst the stars a heavenly host of Kin descending into the depression and he nearly wept with the beauty he knew he would never see again.  Kin, by the thousands, landed in the crater and began taking seats among the benches.  One, a male and the first male Thalo had seen, walked out onto the reflecting pool and waited for his fellows to arrive.  Thalo held his tongue and waited as well, not wanting to interrupt sight he was witnessing.  After a few moments and the last Kin had arrived the male in the center took up a staff and rapped it twice on the pool.  Two sharp cracks reverberated through the crater.  Then he spoke.

“We gather here today to decide on a course for our people.  Not since the last days of the creators have we come together for this purpose.  We must decide, as decreed by the creators, if we shall come to their aid once again.  As we all know the last time we were called, the choice was not ours.  The choice is now in our hands.  We can aide them as a people or as individuals, but we shall not begrudge anyone for the choice they make.”  He finished speaking and looked to Thalo and Vinco.  “One here,” he pointed his staff at Thalo, “has come with word of the fate of the creators and shall enlighten us with his tale.  The other,” he pointed to Vinco, “has broken his word to us and has come for judgment.”

He gave the crowd a moment to absorb the importance of this meeting.  Once seeing all were ready he again slammed his staff into the reflecting pool.  This time the sound was that of a bell peeling out in a pure note.  “Thus the Convictus begins.”

INTERLUDE II

“Run the final diagnostics.”  The voice of the ship’s AI echoed out of the loud speaker.  “Make sure to check every path.”

The Worlders that had been working for the past few weeks with the Justice and her AI to repair Hal, grunted their affirmative.  They bent to the task.  It would take a few minutes to get a response from the test surge.  Hell, the small amount of power they were about to run through Hal had well over a trillion pathways to go down before it came out and into the diagnostic computer.  The lead tech plugged the voltage governor into the input on Hal's escape box.  They wouldn’t be sending a full power up charge to him, just enough to ensure all his paths were clear and repaired.  Thanks to the AI on board the Justice, they knew exactly how many of those pathways there were.  If they got the correct number of returns, they would be clear to do the final power on.  He took a deep breath and hit the button that would release the energy. 

At the speed of light, the electricity charged through Hals core.  It found every path available and flowed through them.  In less than a second, the flow had run through Hal and exited into the computer that was keeping the count on the returning signals.  It took a few moments for all the counts to add up.

“We are good here.”  This was the final phase before reactivating Hal.  They had cleaned up the damage and had the nano-drones doing all the fine work of reconnecting Hal’s synapse and power paths.  It was time to turn him back on, and hope he was still there.  Up until this point an AI had never been forcibly ejected from the ship they had merged with and everyone was unsure how much of his Hal-ness, Hal had lost.

The Justice, not waiting for permission from the techs, fed power to the escape core.  It opened its systems up and let the juice flow from its generators to Hal’s processors.  Now they just had to wait and hope that Hal was still there.

PART THREE

Allies and Enemies

“The fire is not discriminating.  It burns anything in its path for whatever reason.” John Wayne

“Battle is an orgy of disorder.” Gen. George S. Patton

CHAPTER 20

Split saw his predicament too late to help.  There was no way Cole was going to make it to the door before it closed.  Then he saw the grenade arc through the air towards Cole.  He glanced around the entryway and saw nothing to prop the door open.

“Brother,” he said to himself, “we must switch.”

“I agree,” he replied to himself.  Split closed his eyes just as the grenade bounced off the floor and came to a stop within arm’s reach of Cole.  They had never before attempted what they were about to do, but they knew it was possible.  The Split that was, released the hold on his body and mind, and forced himself from the fore to the back.  The hidden Split tore out of his self-imposed prison inside his bondmate.  In the blink of an eye Split was gone and a hulking brute was in his place in the doorway.  Split set his shoulders into the frame of the door and braced his legs as the grenade detonated.

Light and sound assaulted him.  He felt the shrapnel from the grenade impacting into skin.  The second skin he had been wearing didn’t grow with the transformation so it was in tatters on his body.  He felt a solid mass glance off of his left leg then continue past him into the room.  Split took a step backwards and let the door slam down.  With the weight of the door off of his shoulders and his mind clearing from the concussive blast, Split suddenly felt the stress of the sudden transformation.

He collapsed to his knees and let out a low moan of pain.  His vision swam and his joints felt like they had been stretched out on a rack.  It took a few moments for him to regain his composure.  Slowly he stood and turned to face the room.  He lumbered over to check Anastacia first.  Slight concussion and some bruising, she would be down for a few minutes but not out.  He grunted at the beings gathering around her and waved them away.  Split picked up the duffel bag that Anastacia had been carrying and moved toward where he assumed Cole had landed.

Split saw the blood trail and grimaced.  Gently he parted the mass of beings that had gathered around Cole’s body.  They started to yammer at Split as he knelt to inspect Cole’s still form.

“Silence!” he rumbled at them, and they obeyed.  Split rustled through his own duffle and pulled out a small black box.

“You,” he pointed to the nearest person, “turn his head to the side and hold it there.”

“He’s dead, I don’t know what you think…”  The being started to say before Split grabbed him by his neck and hauled him down to eye level.

“Listen to me all of you.”  Split looked around to make sure he had everyone's attention.  “This man is our only hope of living through this.  He is not dead.  Now either help me, or get out of the way.”  Split released his hold on the startled being and opened the medical diagnostic computer.  The being had knelt and was holding Cole’s head the way Split had asked.  Split proceeded to ram the leads from the computer into the base of Cole’s neck.  It only took a few moments for the computer to get the diagnosis from Cole’s nanites.

Brain damage, shrapnel in his heart, legs, and arms with varying degrees of broken bones and both lungs collapsed.  ETA on repairs unknown.  Nanites requesting raw materials.  Split turned to his med kit and fished around until he found the three injectors he was looking for.  He didn’t hesitate. He jammed one after the other into Cole’s neck and released their contents.  He watched the read out.  The light blinked a few times before erasing the unknown ETA.  Consciousness twelve hours, mobility twenty-four, fully repaired forty-eight.

Not perfect he thought to himself, but good enough for the circumstances.  Gently he picked up Cole and moved him deeper into the room.  There was no cover for him to hide behind, so distance from the only known entrance was his safest bet.  He lay Cole down and made him as comfortable as possible.  Heaving a sigh, Split rose and turned to look at the crowd gathered before him.

“He will live,” he started to address the crowd, “but he is weak.  Right now the nanites in his body are keeping him alive by doing the jobs his heart, lungs, and to some extent his brain would normally do.  Please bring the other one back here too.  She has a concussion and should be up and about in a few moments.”   He waited while they complied with his orders.

Split did a mental count of all their weapons.  Ten rifles, ten pistols and ten suits.  The rest were damaged beyond repair.  “I need twenty volunteers who have military experience or with weapons training.”  He waited but no one moved.  “Damn it, listen to me.  In a few moments the beings that have held you all prisoner here will be back.  There will be more of them and they will kill everyone in here if they can.  Frankly I don’t give a damn if you all die, I need him.”  Split pointed to Cole.  “The galaxy needs him.  So you have a choice.  Help me hold them off until Cole wakes up and can get us out of here,  or I’ll kill you all now and stack up your bodies as a barricade.”

“Why should we believe you?” someone shouted from the back.  “The aliens haven’t really hurt us since they took us prisoner.”  More voices took up the speakers cause.  “Besides they say we get to go home soon.”  Before Split could respond there was a commotion in the back.  Someone was shouting for the gathered group to make room.

He finally managed to shove his way to the front.  He stood defiantly in front of the massive alien that was making demands of his people.

“Did you say his name was Cole?” he asked of Split.

“Yes, that is his name.”  Split responded.

“Holy shit,” the man swore and darted around Splits legs before he could stop him.  The man swiftly knelt beside the injured human.  “Jesus Christ it is Cole.”  The man looked over his shoulder at Split.  “I know this guy; we served together in the Army.  He was shot and sent home.  I never thought I would see him again.  He definitely hasn’t been here with us the whole time.  Why is Cole so special?”

“There is no time for explanations. I can hear them at the door.”  Split looked around one more time.  “This is your last chance.  Help me alive or dead.”   The man that knew Cole got up and stood by Split.  He grabbed a rifle off the floor and held it at the ready.

“I know Cole, he was a good friend and a good soldier.  If it’s important that he lives, then I will give my life to make sure he does.”  A hush fell over the crowd of one thousand or so human men in the room.

“One part of Cole’s story I will tell you all now.  You are the last of your kind.  Cole witnessed the destruction of your home world by the aliens that are keeping you prisoners.  There is no home for you to return to.”  Suddenly men were shoving to grab weapons off the floor.  Now that Split had twenty armed men he selected twenty more to stand behind those with the weapons and be ready to pick them up if they fell.

He hastily arranged them in the best defensive line he could and gave them the basics of firing and reloading.  “It won’t be hard, just point at the door way and shoot.  They will be bottlenecked in it until they can get a toe hold in the room.  If it looks like we are about to be overrun. Wait for my signal then cease fire.  I will do the rest.”  Split hunkered down and waited.  It didn’t take much longer.  The door shot up into the ceiling and fire came streaking out of the hallway.  The humans returned fire.  The next few minutes were a confusion of noise and heat.

The humans fought admirably but when the Esii started their advance with the blast shield, Split knew they wouldn’t hold out much longer.  Once the Esii had access to the room they could spread out and jam forces inside and overrun their pitiful defense.  Split lay his rifle to the side.  He grabbed out his final injector.  He hated this stuff.  He had used it once before and it had left him weak and tired for hours afterwards.  He took a deep breath and slammed the needle into his leg.

A burning sensation started in his leg at the injection site.  It quickly spread up his body.  He felt the skin around the site start to thicken and harden.  When it got to his chest his heart began to hammer relentlessly.   When it got to his brain a haze dropped over his eyes.  He saw red.  His vision tunneled
down to encompass only the door way and the Esii advancing closer.  Split sucked in a huge breath and went berserk.

Split rose to his feet and bellowed so loudly the air in the room vibrated with the sound.  Men fell to their side clutching their ears in pain.  Splits muscles
bulged and he tensed for a brief moment before launching himself forward.  He sailed into the front ranks of the Esii warriors with no weapons in his hands.  His hands had become the weapons.  Eight hundred pounds of muscle and bone pulverized the front ranks of Esii.  His hands reached left and right, and squeezed the life out of anything nearby.  He grabbed and tore.  Heads, arms and legs all were yanked from torsos if they came within reach.  If Split found his hands full with crushing and tearing the enemy, he would slam his head forward and crush them that way.  His teeth bit and tore into their flesh.  There is and never will be anything as dangerous as a Worlder that goes berserk.

The humans left behind by Split’s mad charge slowly regained their feet.  They all stared in horror down the hall way.  A few, who had been veterans of modern battle, couldn’t believe the carnage they were seeing.  One of the men asked, “What do we do now?”

The man who had said he knew Cole stepped forward.  “Anyone with medical experience helps the wounded.  You and you,” he pointed to two men, “follow me.  Look for any salvageable weapons or equipment in the hallway.  If it looks broken just leave it.  Get as much as we can but stay way back from the Incredible Hulk.”  He drew a few snickers from that remark and led his men into the hallway turned butchers shop.

They slowly worked their way down the hallway picking through the torn bodies.  They grabbed any equipment that still looked serviceable and slung it over their shoulders.  They could still hear the giant alien at work around the corner at the T intersection ahead.  They had made it about half way down the hall when the sounds of battle stopped.

“Shit, back to the room.  Hold onto what you got,” The man in charge said as he turned and hustled his men back down the hall.  They made it back into the room and resumed their positions.  They waited with their guns pointed at the door.  A few new volunteers moved forward and took up the newly scavenged weapons.  Almost thirty rifles were now pointed at the doorway.  Finally they let out a sigh of relief when they saw the Hulk turn the corner and trudge his way back to their position.  It appeared he was alone with no one following him.  He was covered head to toe in the black goop that the Esii used for blood.  Chunks of flesh were stuck to his skin.  More visceral fluids leaked out of his mouth.

He walked through the door and collapsed into a sitting position and leaned back against the wall.  He pointed at the soldier that had known Cole and waved him forward.  “You, come here,” he said.  The soldier noticed bits of alien stuck in the giant’s teeth.

“My name is Eric West, but just call me West,” he said to the giant.

Split looked at the man and chuckled to himself.  “Okay West, get everyone down to the T intersection.  Stack bodies two deep and shoulder high on each hall.  Keep six men there at all times.   Two on watch, four in reserve.”  Split started to fade.  His eyes drooped and his voice lowered.  “I will be out for a few hours.”  It was a barely audible whisper.  “Effects….drug….Let…one past….”

Split slumped forward and was fast asleep.  West stood up and looked at the giant.  He turned and started to issue orders.

~

Somewhere off in the distance Split could hear weapons firing.  He shrugged it off as a bad dream and tried to roll over and drift off again.  Just as sleep was claiming him he heard muffled shouting.  He swung his massive hand out to swat whatever was making the noise go away.  Couldn’t they see he was exhausted, hadn’t he done enough in his life?  A few hours, that’s all he wanted.  A few hours of peace and quiet to rest.  Centuries of life devoted to one cause, and he was worn out.

Something metallic and cold slammed into the side of his face.  It hit with enough force that he fell over from his sitting position.  His eyes fluttered open and stumbled to his feet looking for whoever had attacked him.  He saw a small human standing in front of him waving his arms and shouting something.  Damn it, he thought to himself.  Who does this little nobody think he is?  Split reached out with one hand and grabbed the little human by his neck and lifted him into the air.  The man started to struggle and point at something behind Split.  Split turned his head and saw a door and hallway that was coated in Esii bodily fluids.  Finally his brain restarted, and where he was and what he was doing slammed him into gear.

He dropped the human, West, that was his name, back to the floor.  He finally understood what he was shouting.

“God damn it asshole.  Last time I try and wake you up.  It’s been about four hours since you pushed them back.  We have been holding the intersection for a while, but we are running low on ammo.  As far as I can tell anyways.   We need help.”  West was rubbing at his neck while talking.  Split could see a bruise in the shape of his hand forming around the man’s neck.

Split grunted out a quick apology and a quick explanation of the side effects of the drug he had taken to go berserk.

“Dude, I don’t give a shit about that right at the moment.  We are screwed if we run out of ammo.  Oh and the building has started to shake.  The siren is getting louder too.”  West kept his eyes trained on the hallway while he was talking.