The Deep Link (The Ascendancy Trilogy Book 1) (32 page)

Amharr strides down the hallways of the human
station—crashes through walls and burns through sealed doors. Entire units of
soldiers try to oppose him in every section, erecting blockades and opening
fire, drawing nothing but murderous rage. Amharr lashes out in quick lethal
bursts, disintegrating everything in his path, glutting on its energy. He heals
and strengthens his body and pushes on, tearing through section after section,
man after man.

The
klaar
he dragged along from the
Undawan
follows him like a wave of darkness, crawling over the sludge of flesh and
debris, trying to latch onto him again and fulfill its morbid purpose. Amharr
knows what it was designed for: to methodically drain him of life and keep him
docile. He's understood and accepted the truth—that he was a slave, like every
other being the Raimerians have ever encountered.

Amharr keeps going, destroying, rebuilding himself,
looking for his only escape—his unexpected savior.

-

Hurst's console beeps, startling him. He slaps it swiftly
and answers the call.

"General Hurst, sir!" an officer blurts.
"Incoming call from Epsilon Eridani, encrypted micro-link. It's not in our
whitelist, sir."

"Is the encryption TMC conform?" Hurst asks,
already having a hunch as to who it may be.

"Yes, sir, but there's a wide error margin. It could
harbor potential threats, sir. Micro-crawlers or tro—"

"Put it through." The officer stares at him for
a second. Then she nods, salutes, and patches the call through.

The projector creates a wriggly knot of blue lines above
his desk. An artificial voice sounds from the speakers. With each sound, the
knot of zigzagging lines tightens and expands like an insane tesseract.

"General Hurst, this is Lieutenant Commander Graziano
Bosco. We have an emergency on Hades."

Hurst frowns. "What exactly? And why didn't you use
the secure line, lieutenant?"

"I can't speak to you directly; I'm using my synet's
backup com line, relayed through my personal computer and the HEM AI's
encryption system."

Hurst clenches his jaw. "What happened?"

"We have the woman you wanted."

"
Really
? How did you—"

"We didn't." The knot tightens into a flickering
spark.

Hurst's pulse rises.
What the hell is going on down
there
?

The knot expands again, its jagged lines twisting rapidly
in midair. "Sorry, sir. It's difficult to call. The woman came to
us
.
She crashed a Dart into the station."

"Can she speak? I want to speak to her."

"She's currently—" The knot pulses.
"Commander Kempton is crawling her brain with a Nexus terminal."

"
What
?"

"He found an alien presence inside her, another
consciousness. He wants to control it. But he's killing her."

"I want to speak to him—immediately!" Hurst
barks.

"Impossible, sir. We're in lockdown."

"
You
stop him, then. Do whatever you have
to," Hurst says.

The knot tightens and flickers, then expands again.
"Something crashed down after her as well, sir. I don't think it's
human."

Hurst feels dizzy for a moment. "Are you saying
aliens
landed on Hades?"

"Crashed. Whatever it is, it's obliterated an entire
section and is coming straight for us. It's already killed four units."

Hurst swallows around the lump in his throat.

"We switched to heavy fire, but nothing seems to
work. We'll have to engage it with warships from above."

Hurst's thoughts are racing. Could it be that... "Is
it a bionic organism?"

"I don't know, sir. We can't scan it. And no man who's
seen it has reported in time."

A shudder runs down Hurst's back. If there are Cyans on
Hades, the station's lost. But there can't be any Cyans on Hades.
Can there
?

"Try to capture it alive," Hurst orders.
"If that's not possible, destroy it. Whatever the cost."

"I'm afraid I'm in no position to give that order,
sir."

"Then relay my orders to Kempton," Hurst snaps.

"I can't do that either. He's connected to that
woman. He's not responding anymore."

Hurst slams his fist down on the table. "Tear him
away, then. Stop him."

"I can't, sir." The knot brightens into a cold,
electric white. "I won't kill the Commander."

"Then find me a way to get through to him.
Any
way."

The knot explodes into sparks, and winks out as the
transmission ends.

Bright pain pierces my head. Something tries to overrun me,
to force its way into my link—to wedge itself between Amharr and me—to take
control.

I can't let that happen. I'd rather die.

Brighter pain. Overwhelming.
Stop
!

I scream and fight with all my strength until my voice is
gone and my body succumbs.

What are you hiding
?

An intruder.

Who is 'Amharr'
?

I shut it off, falling back into the deepest, darkest
corner of my mind. The pain follows, fainter and slower. An afterthought. My
mind has shrunk. My thoughts... are fewer... smaller... I struggle to
remember... but there's nothing left. A small and shrinking universe inside me,
falling into chaos.

I must remember.

There used to be another... consciousness inside of me...
But he is gone now. Faint. Disconnected. There's nothing left. I am alone...

It's gone. Amharr is gone.

Realization spreads though me like an ice-storm—
Amharr
is gone
.

He cut the link. That motherfucking bastard cut the link!

A roar erupts within my chest. My muscles burst with fire.
Each nerve in my body flares up with rage.

Voices tumble over me. People arguing. Boots scuffing.
Metal clanking on metal.

"What happened?" Anxiously.

"The Commander—he collapsed."

"Get a medic. Hurry!"

"We have to take his helmet off."

"He's convulsing. Get me a cloth, quickly!"

"Yes, sir."

"The corridors are blocked, sir." Another.
Desperately. "There's heavy fire exchange. No medics can come."

"Who's firing?"

"Unknown intruder. We're taking heavy damage,
sir."

"Commander!" The first voice again. "Edric,
wake up! For fuck's sake, Sergeant, get me a cloth, he's biting his tongue. And
take that goddamn helmet off."

"Yes, sir."

"What have you done to him?" The first voice
yells. Someone's breath blows over my face. "Tell me what you did, or I
swear you'll never leave this room alive again."

I grit my teeth, and squirm. Slowly, I feel the straps
again, the table... a man's thumbs digging into my shoulders. But it's all far
away. Irrelevant. I have a black hole at my core, where Amharr's presence used
to be, and it's consuming everything.

"What did the Commander find? Tell me!" The man
shakes me, then slams me back down on the table. "Why did he collapse?
What did you do to him?"

"Let me go..."

"I'll have you
dissected
before I let you get
up from that table. Unless you undo whatever you did to Kempton."

"Lieutenant Commander," a man calls. "I
can't get the Nexus helmet off, sir."

"What?"

He lets my shoulders go. I hear shuffling and swearing.

Three men are huddled around the hideous chair, working on
the twitching Commander. An Officer is still standing, facing the door. He
slowly draws his weapon.

I strain to focus. Then I hear it too.

The muffled staccato of automatic weapons, the sizzling of
arc pistols, the whooshing of plasma guns. Men yelling orders, screaming at
each other, screaming in pain.

The Officer glances over his shoulder. His face is pale,
damp with sweat.

The gunfire gets closer. Explosions erupt through the
noise, each followed by seconds of horrifying silence.

People are dying. Dozens of people. Thousands more will
die... Millions... I came here to do something...

I have to stop the dome drop
.

The Officer looks at the men trying to free the Commander
from his hellish contraption. Fear slowly conquers his face. Then his gaze
falls on me.

"Help me," I whisper. He reads my lips, but
doesn't move. "Please..."

The others are arguing louder, working more frantically.
The Officer stares at me.

"There's a virus in Erano's grid," I whisper to
him, mouthing each word carefully. "It will drop the dome at midnight.
Everyone will die."

His lips tighten. He points his gun at me in silent
warning.

The others are still occupied. Something is wrong with the
Commander's helmet.

"Free me," I say, not caring who else hears me.
"I'm running out of time. Please! They're innocent people. You must have
family down there, too. You can't just let them die."

He looks at me, his face drawn, disbelief and dread
fighting over him. He grips his gun tighter, aiming at me.

"There are thousands of children down there." I
squirm violently in my straps. "You have kids, Officer?"

The barrel of his gun sways slightly to the side. He
hesitates. Then swings around and aims at the men beside me.

One of them sees the gun and stands up. The Lieutenant
Commander stands too. He stares bewildered at the Officer, then at me.

"You fucking—"

Pang
.

One shot, and then another. Two men collapse. The third
yells something and backs away.

The room falls quiet.

The Officer comes closer, step by step, not letting them
out of his sight. My breathing quickens. He stops by my side, still aiming at
the other men, and begins to untie me with his free hand.

I sit up, resist the urge to rub my wounded wrists, and
look the Officer in the eyes. He looks back.

"Is that true?" he asks. "What you said
about the dome?"

I nod. "General Hurst set the virus loose." His
barrel lowers as he digests what I said. "What's the fastest way to get
into your command grid?" I ask. "Can I use the server block in
here?"

The Officer stares at it, raising his eyebrows.

An explosion quakes the walls around us, sending dust
raining down from the ceiling.

The other man cowers behind the table, leaving the
Commander and his dead companions on the floor. The Lieutenant Commander was
shot in the back, the Sergeant in the head. Blood slowly pools around them. The
Commander has stopped twitching, slouched in the monstrous chair, the Nexus
helmet still affixed to his head.

I shove off the table and head for the server block.

"I don't think you can do much, Miss," the
Officer says. "We're under lock down."

Another explosion rattles the room and the computers.
Yells and gunfire follow. I rub my face and try to focus.

The server block's command console is standard issue,
probably meant for maintenance commands, maybe coordination. The display is on,
the projector functional. I call up a keyboard, then stop.

I can't hack into this thing—I can't
link
into it
anymore.

The black hole inside me grows a little more.

The link was cut. I lost Amharr.

Pain spreads through me. My chest feels crushed, my vision
blurs. I can't breathe. I slump
down to my knees, my useless hands trembling before me.

"It's getting closer." The Officer grabs my
shoulder. "Whatever you want to do, Miss, do it now."

I nod, swallow painfully, and grab the main console with
both hands. I visualize the energy within, electrons jetting through the metal,
creating logic within the machine. But I
see
nothing.
Feel
nothing. Only the void that's consuming me.

The Officer jumps. "Commander!"

I snap around, eyes wide open.

He stands beside the chair, boots drenched in others'
blood, staring at me. He taps on his helmet and grins. I know that grin. I've
seen it somewhere, long ago.

"How wonderful," he says.

It isn't him. It
can't
be him!

"The mystery woman with alien DNA. We finally
meet."

I instinctively know who he is, even though we've never met
in person, not even now. I've only seen him in projections relaying the death
sentence of my world: The Slayer of Tau Ceti, General Francis Hurst.
FH-something-GEN2
,
who planted the virus in Erano's grid. Hate doesn't
begin
to describe
what I feel.

Now he's after my link. He wants Amharr. I'd rather
die—I'd rather
kill him
a hundred times over.

"It has come to my attention that you have something
I want." He comes toward me, pulling the hideous chair behind him by the
Nexus cables.

I lean against the server block, trying to conceal the
gall and faintness warring inside me.

"Know that it's useless to deny it or oppose
me," he says. "I know you have a connection to an alien being. I saw
it. Commander Kempton saw it, really—
glimpsed
it, while he stupidly
tried to crawl your brain with this... contraption."

Gunshots and explosions rage outside, coming closer every
minute. The Officer who helped me steps back as the remote-controlled Commander
advances. He lifts his gun.

The man-puppet is quicker. The Officer slumps down by the
door, blood gushing out of his shredded cheek.

"Too bad Kempton didn't understand what he
found." He yanks the cables, pulling the chair closer as he advances
toward me. "But I do. Now I want to know how it works, and what you're
using it for."

"I won't tell you a thing," I back away along
the server block, eyes fixed on his.

"Oh, but you will." He grins again with the
Commander's borrowed mouth. "Let's start with an easy question, shall
we?"

There's nowhere to go. The Officer's body blocks the door,
and I'd never push him aside in time. Running around the server block would
only draw out the inevitable, while Erano's time ticks away.

"Are you part of the Dabaran Syndicate, Miss?"

"No."

"But you
have
shared the company of Waylen
Preston, correct?"

I nod, inching away from him. I reach the corner of the
server block and stop, trying to think of something,
anything
I can do.

"Is Preston aware of your little secret? He must be.
How else could he dare to start a war with the TMC?"

I peer at the server's displays and consoles, trying to
sort them out. There has to be one here that I can hack into, even if I have to
do it the old-school way. If I only had the time...

"Preston believes he has the upper hand." The
man-puppet takes another step toward me, gesturing with his gun. "And you
would be his ace in the hole. Or your alien connection, at least."

"What are you talking about? Preston didn't send me
here." My hand creeps up the consoles beside me. "I came to stop the dome
drop
you
ordered. I acted alone."

He tilts his head, trying to look smug, not fully
succeeding in manipulating the Commander's finer facial muscles. "All that
matters is you're here now. You'll help me understand this new alien species. I
want to know if I can use them, or if I must destroy them."

"You want to attack the aliens?" I chuckle.
"Go ahead. I'd love to see them smear your remains all over the
system."

"I'll
deal
with them. I have more power than
you imagine, and it will only grow when I'm done with you."

Bile creeps up in my throat. "You have no fucking
idea what you're dealing with."

"Let that be my concern. Now, as for that connection
of yours..." He stops right in front of me. "I suggest you cooperate.
Unlike my inept host, I know exactly how to handle a Nexus. Ultimately, I don't
need you to be conscious, or even alive. But it'll be easier on you if you
don't resist."

I press back against the server block. "I told you,
the Commander cut my link. You'll gain nothing from this." I glance over
to the door—to the dead Officer bleeding on the floor, still holding his gun.

The gun
!

The Slayer of Tau Ceti stares at me through the
Commander's eyes. "Something like that can't be cut. It's not a physical
string. And this pitiful contraption can't
cut
anything." My breath
catches, as if I haven't breathed in centuries. "All the Commander did was
mess up the bed of neurons you're using to decipher its input."

The black hole in my chest collapses in on itself, crushed
by the feeblest of hopes.

"I'll unscramble it," he says. "
If
you cooperate."

I can almost taste Amharr's intoxicating presence within
me again. Tears blur my vision.

"If you
don't
," he says, "I'll
extract the alien particles and inject them into the late Commander Kempton's
brain. I'll be here in person soon enough to continue where I left off. And I'm
coming with a rather brilliant scientist in tow, who'd love nothing more than a
chance to get her hands on a new alien species." He grabs my shoulders.

I clench my fists, haul off and strike him right across
the jaw. He grunts, more shocked than pained, and lets go. I lunge for his
helmet, grab hold, and yank out a conduit. Its coolant sheath rips. Liquid
nitrogen spills out and freeze-burns his shoulder.

He doesn't scream. Instead, he strikes back, gun in hand.

I feint, and jab the loose conduit into his neck. He
topples back, staring at me in shock.

The door bursts open, shoving the Officer's body toward my
feet. Four armored Ticks come running in, barrels glowing red. Weapons' fire
batters everything outside, grenades go off, walls crumble, people yell. One of
the Ticks slams the door and leans against it to keep it shut. Another's
tactical visor trains on us, swinging from the choking Commander to me, and
back again.

The man-puppet grunts, clutches at his wound, and drops to
his knees as I scramble for the dead Officer's gun. A Tick grabs me, flips me
around and pins me to the floor. Two others rush over to save the Commander. He
tries to fend them off, glaring at me with an insane expression, blood dripping
from his mouth. They try to take his helmet off, to help him. He fights them
off, but they pin him down.

The Tick holding me shoves his gun into my cheek, burning
me. "Who are you?"

I kick against the wall beside me, push him off balance. I
twist and squirm, flailing for the Officer's gun—lying just inches away.

The Tick pulls me back by the arm and boots me in the
stomach.

I double up in pain, gasping for air. Another explosion
rips through the corridor. The shockwave bursts the door open, throwing the
Tick against the wall. He rushes to close it again, skidding desperately on the
dust-covered floor. The others fall in behind him to hold the line, leaving the
Commander to fend for himself.

The Tick standing by me picks up the Officer's gun, kicks
me in the shoulder, and rejoins his squad.

I cough blood and roll over, bright, painful spots dancing
in my vision. I breathe deeply, steady myself, and get up onto all fours. I
stare at the hijacked Commander, and the sadistic prick inside him stares back
at me. The Nexus helmet is smoking with coolant vapors, the chair buzzing
frantically. I glance at the server block, and my thoughts click into place.
Maybe I can use the Nexus to hack into the station's grid and stop that virus
somehow, even without the link. Maybe I can still make it.

Another explosion—thunderous, close. Whoever they're
fighting outside, I hope they can buy me a few more minutes.

I stand up. So does the Commander. Both of us in time to
see the door blown off its hinges, and gunfire flooding the room in a deafening
roar.

Darkness billows through the doorway and breaks like a
wave of smoke. It whirls up into a pillar, funneling furiously toward the
ceiling. The Ticks shoot in panicked bursts. The black tornado swallows their
ammo, advancing on them. It touches the tips of their guns, and they melt and
drip on the buckling floor. Their faces blister, their armors burn into their
muscles, bones crack from the heat. They drop one by one like lumps of human
coal.

The tornado contracts, spinning faster, materializing an
ominous shape. The deadly vapors compress into a silhouette I immediately
recognize:
Amharr.

My heart blazes jubilation, leaving me breathless.

The man-puppet drops to his knees beside me, face drawn by
shock.

Amharr stands before me just as I remember him: porcelain
face glowing with strength, his black, imperious eyes greedily absorbing me. We
reach for each other—skin touching skin in electric bliss. Tears run hotly down
my face.

Amharr looks at the figure beside me, and his eyes narrow
into slits. I turn, and stare right into the barrel of a gun.

"This
link
of yours is quite impressive."
The man-puppet's voice scrapes hoarsely in his damaged throat. "Too bad it
has one fatal weakness—you."

The gun goes off.

My head snaps back.