Universe in Flames 3: Destination Oblivion (17 page)

“I
. . . I wasn’t lying back then,
and I’m not lying now.”

“You made me kill
Sarah and my unborn child, and now you will die, you hear me!”

“You killed a
clone!”

A series of
lightning shivers traversed Chase’s body from head to toe and paralyzed him to
the core.

“WHAT?”

“I cloned her. Her
psyche was too strong. I tried torturing her. I even killed her once, but when
I brought her back to life, I felt the child inside her. I knew I would probably
kill the child if I kept torturing her, so
. . . so I made a clone, a perfect duplicate of her and
your unborn child and broke the clone instead. I don’t know how the cloned
child survived the abuse, but it did. I saw the opportunity to get your
attention right there. Once I broke her and invaded the clone’s mind, it was
mine to control fully.”

Chase fell to his
knees. Tears flowed like rivers and his hair fell back down as his aura
receded.

“What are you
saying? I
. . . If
. . . If you’re lying—”

“What? You’ll do
what? Kill me? I got that, believe me. You’ve demonstrated not once but twice
the ability to do so. I needed to confirm you could access that power again,
though.”

“Why? What is it
to you?”

“I need your help
with something.”

“You think I’m
ever gonna help you?”

“Well, if you ever
want to see Sarah again and hold your child in your arms, you will do exactly
what I ask, for as long as I need you. Otherwise you can kill me right now. But
if my heart stops beating for more than thirty seconds, she dies instantly.”

Chase clenched
his teeth and fists. His brain still couldn’t fully process the news. Hate had
consumed him for so long. It had become his only companion lately. Right at this
moment, though, he felt light re-enter his blackened and scarred soul. Little by
little, a glimmer of hope he thought gone forever slowly permeated him from
within.

Sarah and
Chris are alive!

Chase looked down
at the ground, his gaze fixed on the broken and burnt concrete. His mind raced.
All the future he thought gone forever, the happiness he thought he would never
feel again
. . . All
these emotions raced through him and he had trouble dealing with their overwhelming
force hitting him all at once.

“Now what?” he
muttered, his voice trembling.

Argos healed
himself by engulfing his body in red energy. Soon it looked as though the long
fight had never happened. He dusted his dark and burned clothes.

“Now we need to
get Aphroditis and get to the Tartarus system.”

“Why there? And
why do you need Aphroditis?”

“Why does it
matter? You’ll do as I say, and that’s all there is to it.”

Chase rose to his
feet and healed himself as well.

“Don’t push your
luck, Argos. You will tell me why you need Aphroditis or
. . .”

 “Or what,
brother? Say goodbye to Sarah and your unborn son?”

Chase swore. “I
. . . I want proof of life.”

Argos smiled,
searched one of his pockets and took out a small, spherical device. He pressed
something on it and threw it into the air, where it floated. It projected a
holo-video stream.

“This is live,” he
said, pointing at the floating hologram.

Chase looked at
it and his heart grew heavier; but at the same time hope rose from the inner
depth of his broken soul.

There she was,
exactly like in his dream, standing in a pod filled with green liquid. Her eyes
where closed but he could see she was breathing. A Zarlack guard stood on either
side of the pod, each armed with a rifle.

“How do I know
this isn’t a deception? You could have recorded this beforehand.”

“Ah, ye of little
faith.” Argos shook his head from side to side. He approached the video stream
and waved his right palm in front of it. An interface overlaid itself on top of
the video. He entered a couple of touch commands.

“Guards! Take
aim!”

Both Zarlacks
took a firing stance and aimed their rifles towards the pod in which Sarah
stood.

Chase’s blood
froze. “What are you doing? Stop this at once!”

Argos smiled sadistically.
“So, do you want to see her die in front of your eyes now or should we get
Aphroditis?”

Chase’s eyes
flashed brightly for a moment, rage again coming to the surface, and the entire
city of Tokyo started to tremble.

“Easy, brother.” He
touched the video stream again and added, “At ease.”

Both Zarlacks
lowered their weapons and resumed their guard position on either side of the
pod.

Chase let a deep breath
of relief escape.

“Look, Laiyos,
while I admit I want to kill Aphroditis for her actions, right now I need her
for the next part of my plan. Alive.”

“She won’t comply
with anything we ask of her. You know that?”

“Who said she had
to be compliant? She just needs to come with us, by force if necessary; but I’ll
let you handle this any way you like, as long as she comes along.”

“Alright, I’ll do
as you say,” said Chase, resigned.

That’s when he
heard Ares’ voice in his head.
No, Chase! You promised. You can’t obey Argos.
He will kill her!

Chase answered
telepathically. “I won’t let him, but for the time being, I have no choice. I’m
sorry, Ares. You’re going to have to trust me on this.”

Chase heard a
growl of discontent within his mind but Ares didn’t push the issue any further.

“What are we
waiting for?” inquired Argos, losing patience.

“You have a ship
in orbit I suppose?”

“The
Dark Star
is in the
Iron Fire
’s docking bay, but let’s take the
Iron Fire
with
us.”

“Why?”

“It’s less likely
to be fired upon than mine these days.”

“I thought you
could cloak?”

“My ship’s
cloaking abilities are limited, just like yours.”

“Very well. Let’s
go find Aphroditis, then.”

“Yes, let’s.”

*  
*   *

Spiros Malayianis
exited his quarters and went towards the nearest lift. When the doors split
open he entered and pressed the touch controls that would bring him to the
nineteenth floor. He didn’t like being summoned in the middle of the night like
this.

But he wasn’t
about to complain. His time aboard Damocles-3 during its occupation by Argos’
forces had been very stressful, as well as painful near the end. So he
appreciated the fact that he could now sleep soundly. Most of the time anyway.

When the lift
opened he stepped out and soon entered General Adams’ office.

“You asked for me,
General?”

“Yes. Thank you
for coming. Please have a seat.”

 “What can I do
for you, General?”

“I suppose you’ve
heard of the latest Zarlack attack?”

Spiros nodded. Of
course he had. Millions of people had lost their lives again. It seemed that
Earth was cursed. Every few months a new attack scarred the planet.

“All these lives
. . .”

“I know. Nothing we
can do about this now, but I want you to start working on a new project soon.
We can’t let this happen again. Ever.” The general’s tone was heavy and filled
with a mix of determination and sorrow.

“I understand,
General. What do you want me to work on?”

“A planetary
shield.”

“I’ve been
thinking about that, actually, in my spare time.”

“And? Is it
doable?”

“I believe so. There
are two ways of achieving it in my opinion.”

“Which are?” said
Adams, raising an eyebrow.

“We can leverage
the satellites already in orbit and create an interlink shield between them
that would extend all around the planet; or we can build a specific shield, distinct
from the satellites.”

“Many satellites
have been destroyed during the attack.”

“I know, but not
all of them, right?”

“Correct. Those
orbiting above the American continent mostly. Which of the two solutions do you
recommend?”

“Depends on your
timeframe, really.”

“How so?”

“Well, if you
want it sooner rather than later, then we need to leverage the technology we
already have. So the satellite link shield would be the fastest to build.”

“I see. Any
advantage in building a dedicated shield from scratch?”

“Many, actually. We
would have more freedom regarding what could be done.”

“What about doing
both?”

“What do you
mean?”

“Well, first we
build the linked shields, replacing the destroyed satellites in the process,
then, later on, we can worry about making a custom shield around the Earth.
Heck, both could be used. If one fails, we activate the other.”

“The power
requirement will be off the scales.”

“Whatever it
takes. What happened on Earth today can never happen again. We can’t lose
millions of lives every time the enemy shows at our doorstep.”

“This is the
nature of war
. . .”

“Please don’t
lecture me about war!” said the general swiftly.

“I’m sorry, I
didn’t mean to offend, but understand our people suffered even more losses.”

“And you brought
the enemy to our doorstep. Perhaps they would have come anyway, but humans are
really wondering if this Alliance wasn’t a mistake. Before we met you, we were
safe.”

“I wasn’t here
when my colleagues made first contact with Earth, but I can tell you that Argos
and his forces would have found you eventually.”

“Perhaps. It’s no
longer important. What is, however, is that we do all we can to protect
ourselves now. Argos’ new move, sacrificing his entire fleet, was
unpredictable, but I want us to be prepared the next time he thinks of
something new.”

“While I
wholeheartedly agree that we need to be prepared, we can’t possibly imagine
what his next move would be. Perhaps his next crazy idea will work even with both
shields.”

“We have to do
something!” said the general, hitting his desk with his fist.

“Easy, General. I
understand how you feel.”

“Do you?”

“I lost my entire
family to the initial Obsidian-Zarlack attack, so yes, General, I know.”

“I’m sorry. I
apologize for losing my temper. It’s been a very long, hard day.”

“No need to
apologize. I will start working on the shield projects immediately.”

“Actually, I need
you to do something else first.”

“More important
than the shields?”

“We don’t know
yet, but it could be. Please report to Cedric in the engineering lab on the
seventh floor. He and Yanis Tixichos are working on an AI interface device, and
they could use your help.”

“An AI? What’s
going on, General?”

“They believe an
Artificial Intelligence might have penetrated all our systems on Earth through
the Internet. So for us to create the shields, we actually need to make sure we
will be able to use our systems.”

Spiros rubbed his
three-day-old beard.

“And before you
ask me more, please don’t. This AI thing makes no sense to me. All I know is
it’s a potential threat and I want it dealt with. When we discussed this with Admiral
Thassos she suggested you participate in the project.”

“I understand,
General. I do indeed have experience with AIs. I’ve created those that run most
of the Alliance ships.”

“Good, that will
certainly be helpful. Thank you for coming and sorry for the late call.”

“Understandable,
General.”

“You’re
dismissed.”

Spiros got up, nodded,
left the general’s office and headed back towards the lift. Time to see what
Cedric and Yanis were up to. He didn’t like the idea of an AI being in control
of Earth’s system and sure hoped the general misunderstood the finer details.
He would know soon enough.

On board the
Destiny
,
commodore Saroudis sat on his chair pensively, while waiting for the first
jumpgate travel to take place in Earth space.

Soon the admiral
and the reinforcements from the
Cronos
fleet would be here. Too late
unfortunately; the damage to Earth had been done. Saroudis still couldn’t
fathom that yet again millions of lives had been lost on Earth.

He felt like
destroying something to exorcise his frustration. He wondered if this would
have played out similarly if Chase had arrived earlier or if he had never left
in the first place. Of course, it was pointless now; it had happened.

They needed to
make sure such an atrocity never happened again. But could they? No matter what
they did, could they anticipate the enemy’s next move? That thought alone triggered
a very depressing train of thought.

He needed to
shake it off for now, and turned to his communications officer.

“Open a channel
to the DC bunker.”

“Channel opened,
Commodore.”

Fillio answered
the call. “What can I do for you, Commodore?”

“How’s Aphroditis
doing?”

She briefly
looked to the side and lowered her voice. “She’s not doing so well. I think
being in proximity to all these deaths has impacted her strongly. She cried a
lot. When she started shivering I put her to bed. She’s sleeping it off now.”

Saroudis scowled.
“Any news of Chase? The
Iron Fire
isn’t answering hails.”

“As a matter of
fact, yes. He called a few minutes ago, inquiring about Aphroditis. He’s on his
way here. So are Daniel, Ryonna, Tar’Lock and someone called Keera.”

“Who’s that?”

“I’m not sure,
but it’s her ship that asked for authorization to land. The
Valken
, I
believe. Ring a bell?”

“That’s the ship
Chase came to Earth in, so she’s probably one of his friends.”

“Roger that, Commodore.
Do you want me to pass a message to him when he arrives?”

“Yes please. Tell
him perhaps he and Aphroditis should come on board the
Destiny
for a
debrief and dinner afterwards. All of you, in fact.”

“Thanks for the
invite, Commodore. I’ll pass it along to everyone,” said Fillio with a warm
smile.

The commodore nodded.

“Aright, see you
later I guess.”

“Absolutely. And Fillio?”

“Yes?”

“Thanks for
taking such good care of Aphroditis.”

“Sure thing,
boss.”

Saroudis terminated
the communication, and, as if on cue, lightning appeared around Earth’s jumpgate.
It was a thing of beauty. Soon the lightning disappeared and at the center of
the gate a hyperspace exit window formed. Many ships emerged from it: the
Cronos
and its entire Earth Alliance escort, but also many Droxian ships, including
quadrinium cargo ships. Soon the
Destiny
received a hail from the
Cronos
.

“Hello, Admiral,”
said Saroudis gravely.

“Adonis, we’re
too late are we?”

“Yes, the battle
ended sooner than we could ever anticipate.”

“Status report?”

“Three cities
leveled on Earth, many destroyed battleships, satellites. It’s not pretty.”

The admiral
cringed. “What is that Obsidian fleet doing here?”

“They came to
help at a critical moment in the battle.”

“Surely a way for
the emperor to bolster his request to join the Earth Alliance.”

“I thought so too;
but still, they helped us greatly today.”

“Not from the
looks of things.”

“Nobody could
have predicted that the enemy would just sacrifice their fleet to inflict this
damage.”

“So that’s what
they did?”

The commodore
nodded.

“I shouldn’t have
gone to Droxia with the
Cronos
battle group.”

“We can’t second
guess ourselves now. It won’t change anything.”

“I guess not.
Well, at least the jumpgate is now operational and working well, as you can
see.”

The commodore
forced a smile. “Sure looks like it does. Anything to report from the trip?”

“No, everything
went exactly as planned.”

“I’ve invited a
few people to dinner on the
Destiny
in a few hours. Would you like to
join us?”

“Define a few
people?”

“Well, the wing
commanders, Ryonna, Tar’Lock, Aphroditis, Chase and an acquaintance of his.”

The admiral’s
eyes grew wide. “What? Aphroditis? And Chase? You can’t be serious!”

“I am. It’s a long
story.”

“Looking forward
to hearing that one. Sure, count me in. I never thought I’d see a living,
breathing Olympian in my lifetime, so even though I’m not one for big social
gatherings, I wouldn’t miss this one. You may want to invite the emperor as
well while you’re at it?”

Saroudis smiled. “You’re
serious?”

“Why not? He did
help us in a time of need. At least, that’s what you just told me.”

“True.”

“Then it doesn’t
cost anything. I think we have no choice but to accept their entry into the Earth
Alliance anyway. Today is one more proof that we’re outnumbered and outgunned. Every
new ally counts.”

“I still have
trouble considering someone we fought for decades an ally.”

“I understand how
you feel, believe me. But things are what they are. We need to think of the
future, not linger in the past.”

“Understood. See
you in, say
. . . two
hours?”

“Absolutely. Looking
forward to it. Thassos out.”

 The next call
the commodore placed was to the Obsidian flagship.

*  
*   *

When Chase
arrived at the bunker he felt a strange sensation in his chest. He had no idea
how this was about to play out. He knew he would probably have to go against
his own friends. He bit his lip and tried to focus on what to say.

His elevator ride
to the lowest level of the compound ended, and soon the lift’s doors split
open.

Chase entered the
room and Fillio walked to meet him. Before he could say anything she jumped into
his arms, taking him by surprise.

“Hey you.” And then
she kissed him on the cheek, took a step back and hit him on the shoulder.

“Where were you?”
she added with a mixture of sadness and anger in her eyes.

“Hello, Fillio,”
answered Chase, lowering his gaze. “Long story. I
. . . I’m sorry.”

“Look,” she said,
tilting his chin up so he would look her in the eyes. “I understand what you’re
going through, but we’re your friends. We could have helped.”

Chase simply
didn’t know what to answer. In his heart he knew she was right. The knowledge
that Sarah was still alive made the comments sting even more. His eyes filled
with tears.

“I
. . .
I’m really sorry. I simply
didn’t know how to deal with all of this
. . . If I could have done things differently
. . .” But he let the words hang.

“Well, at least
there’s that,” said Fillio in a sweeter tone.

“How’s
Aphroditis?”

“She’s sleeping.
I don’t know how or why but I get the feeling that being in close proximity
when millions were killed has impacted her very soul.”

“Yeah and my
coldness towards her after
. . .
after what happened didn’t help, I’m sure.”

“I suppose she
understands, like we all do. You were hurt, and justifiably so.”

This also stung
Chase’s heart.
Not so justifiably now,
he thought.

Chase wanted
nothing more than to tell his old friend that Sarah and their unborn child were
still alive, but he couldn’t take the chance. They’d try to convince him not to
help Argos. He could never go through losing Sarah a second time. He knew very
well that his soul would die if that happened, for good this time.

“Can I see her?”

“I don’t think
you need my permission,” she said with a smile.

“That’s not what
I meant.”

“I know. She’s in
the room over there. However, before you do Commodore Saroudis called not long
ago. He’d like us all to go on board
Destiny
soon. We’re invited to
dinner.”

“Alright, sure,” said
Chase, knowing that would not happen.

“Daniel is on his
way as well. The
Valken
just landed on the surface.”

Chase nodded but
stayed pensive. He would have preferred not to have to deal with his other
friends, given what came next.

And Keera. How was
he to explain that killing Argos, at least for the time being, was no longer an
option? His head started to spin. His mind told him one thing but his heart
another. That conflict really put a dent in his concentration and elevated his
stress levels.

Fillio
interrupted his train of thought. “Everything okay, Chase? You seemed
concerned.”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry,
I was just thinking.”

“Right. Want to
talk about it?”

“Not right now,
but thanks.” Chase tried for an honest smile.

She frowned.
“Well if you need to, you know you can always come to me.”

“Thank you,
Fillio.”

“Anytime, buddy,”
she said, yawning.

“Perhaps you
should also rest a little?”

“I wanted to
greet the others, but sure. We’re all going to dinner anyway, so just make sure
you guys don’t board
Destiny
without me.”

“Will do. Now go
sleep a little. Looks like you really need it.”

“I do,” she added
with another big yawn.

She opened the
door of the room next to the one Aphroditis was sleeping in and crashed on the
first bunk without a second thought.

*  
*   *

When Spiros
arrived in Cedric’s engineering lab, he and Yanis were fiddling with some device.

“Hello, everyone,
reporting for duty.”

“Hello, Spiros,”
said Yanis with a big smile.

“Hey,” said
Cedric casually.

“What’s this
about an Artificial Intelligence?”

“Well, here’s the
thing: an AI infested the Internet when Cedric tried to save the world by
beaming quadrinium bombs to a ship in orbit.”

“Huh, succeeded
in saving the world,” corrected Cedric, beaming with pride.

“Right, my bad.
Nevertheless, in the process he was forced to interface our systems with those
on Earth, and somehow parts of our AI were injected into the Internet. It’s
been growing at a tremendous pace and is already five times more complex than
our own.”

Spiros frowned.
“How is that even possible?”

“We don’t know. We
can only surmise it’s because of the astronomical amount of information freely
available on the Internet. It might still be learning at this point.”

“And what is it
you’re building? Is it the communication device the general spoke of?”

Cedric took a
step back and pointed towards the contraption. “Yes it is. Meet the holographic
communications device.”

“So you want to
talk with it?”

“Well, we thought
it best to gauge its intentions.”

“Do you think it
could be aggressive?”

“We don’t know. That’s
what we need to determine.”

“Can’t you just
flush it?”

“Huh, that’s the
kind of talk we’ll need to avoid!”

“Why?”

“Well, if it’s
sentient, and all evidence seems to point towards that, then if we talk about
flushing or shutting it down, it might become aggressive, even if it wasn’t in
the first place. You know, survival instinct and all.”

“I know about
survival, believe me. I just think it might manipulate us and do what it wants
anyway.”

“Yeah, that’s a
chance we’re gonna have to take. Shutting down the Internet is not only nearly
impossible, but it would plunge Earth into chaos, especially now. People need
their communication lines, power and other infrastructure more than ever now.”

“True. It could
hinder the help and rescue efforts as well.”

“Yeah, yesterday
it was a bad idea, but today it’s inconceivable.”

“Alright then, where
are you with your efforts to communicate with
. . . What do we call this AI?”

“Good question. What
about ‘entity’?”

“As good a name
as any, I guess,” said Spiros with a smile.