Eric Brown - The Serene Invasion

And then, Morwell thought, oblivion…

He stared across the café at the group, at Kat Kemp who was laughing and smiling at something a tall, grey-haired man was saying… Morwell recalled making love to her, all those years ago, and he felt absolutely nothing at the recollection. You are the enemy, he thought, and felt anger welling at her betrayal. No, not her — he reminded himself — but its .

Five minutes later they made their move. The grey-haired man took the hand of a tall, thin old woman and led the way from the café bar, followed by a younger Indian couple, and then Kat Kemp, a handsome dark woman and a tiny blonde.

Go , said the voice in his head.

Smiling to himself, heart thudding at the thought that everything in his life had led up to this moment, James Morwell stood and followed them from the café.

GEOFF ALLEN PAUSED in the shadow of the obelisk and turned to Sally. He stroked her cheek. “Strange to think that we’ve no longer any need to be using the obelisks.”

Sally shook her head. “It’s impossible to imagine, Geoff. I still can’t take it all in.”

“To go anywhere, anywhere at all… No, I still can’t get my head around the idea. It’ll certainly make holidays that much easier!”

“Where should we go first?”

“Oh… How about back to the Three Horseshoes at opening time, to celebrate with a bottle of Leffe?”

She made to punch his ribs. “Where’s your sense of adventure, Geoff!”

Kath called to them. “It’s all very well for you people…” she indicated the obelisk, “but I’ve still got to use this old, outmoded form of transportation.”

Nina Ricci asked, “Where are you going?”

Kath looked at her softscreen. “I have a meeting on Venus this afternoon.”

“Give me the co-ordinates,” Nina said, “and I’ll whisk you there.”

Kath smiled. “Very kind of you, Nina. But my transit is already booked, and I have things to do within the takrea . I’d better be getting on my way.”

Things to do … Allen thought in wonder.

He said, “How about a party at our place next week, to celebrate?” He looked around the group. “Everyone can make it?”

Ana and Kapil consulted and nodded; Nina and Natascha too.

Kath Kemp smiled across at him, and he was struck by the sudden fact of how lovely she was. “Try keeping me away,” she said.

Sally said, “That’s a date then. Bye, Kath.”

Kath Kemp waved, then turned and strode towards the sable face of the obelisk.

ALLEN WAS ABOUT to ask Sally where in the solar system she would like to go now when a sudden movement beyond Kath caught his eye. A tall, fair-haired young man was approaching the obelisk as if to pass through its surface, but at the very last second his course veered and he moved towards Kath Kemp.

She stepped backwards, exclaiming in surprise at his proximity, and the smiling young man kept on walking as if intent on knocking Kath from her feet.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the man vanished and in his place was a blue figure — an Obterek — and a split-second after that the Obterek slammed into and merged with Kath Kemp.

Geoff stared at the grotesque amalgam that the blue man and Kath Kemp had become; they flickered — like the visually fleeting images on a spinning coin — as one attempted to gain mastery of the other.

Allen looked around him at his friends, a frozen tableau of shock as they watched the conflict taking place before their eyes.

Then Kath Kemp/Obterek moved like a jerking marionette, step by painful step, towards the surface of the obelisk.

And in his head Allen heard Kath’s tiny, desperate voice, “ Help me …”

Sally cried, “What’s happening, Geoff?”

“ It’s taking me over…” Kath’s words were desperate within his head. “ I… I cannot let it enter the takrea!”

Kath was putting up a terrible fight. The amalgamated figure before them fluctuated between Kath and the Obterek, its forward progress impeded when it became Kath; when the Obterek gained mastery, however, it staggered forward as if leaning into a headwind.

Allen heard screams in his head, a tortured moan from Kath and an even more horrific, bestial cry from the alien creature. He held his head in his hands, mentally deafened by the psychic fallout of the fight talking place before him.

As he watched, horrified, Kath seemed to gain the upper hand. She managed to turn away from the takrea and take laboured steps back towards the café, stopped each time the Obterek gained control of her body but progressing when she gained ascendance.

“What can we do?” Ana yelled at him.

“Just…” he began, not really knowing what he was about to say. Then it came to him. “Ana, Nina… all we can do is put ourselves between… between it and the takrea .”

Nina stared at him. “And then?”

“Then we do our best to stop the Obterek.”

The hybrid figure was perhaps ten metres from the takrea now, a visually discordant, ever-shifting optical illusion — one second the bent, tortured image of Kath Kemp, and the next the straining, far larger figure of the Obterek.

Allen stepped forward. He felt a restraining hand on his arm. “Geoff.”

He turned. Sally stared at him, her features contorted with fright, eyes pleading. “Geoff, please…”

“Sal, I’ve got to…” he began, choking on a sob.

He pulled away, moved hesitantly towards the Kath/Obterek figure. Ana was to his right, perhaps three metres away, Nina to his left.

“ It’s… winning,” Kath called out mentally. “ It’s much stronger… There’s little I can do, the pain…”

As he watched, the figure flickered and the instances of its appearing as Kath Kemp became less and less frequent. The Obterek was gaining mastery.

He glanced at Ana, reassured by her expression of determination.

“ Kath! ” he called out the thought, “ how can we stop it?”

The Obterek remained for long seconds. Then briefly Kath appeared, and a fraction of a second later vanished. The Obterek seemed to expand, to become visually larger as it dominated, sensing victory.

Slowly, step by step, Allen approached the terrible figure. Beside him, Ana and Nina kept pace.

The Obterek faced them, something almost arrogant in its stance. It was without facial features, so Allen was unable to apprehend the victorious expression he was sure it would have worn. But its body language, its swagger as it drew itself to its full height, convinced him that it was relishing the end game of its conflict with the self-aware entity.

For a fraction of a section a bowed, shrunken Kath Kemp appeared, and in that instant her small voice uttered a string of numbers. Beside him, Nina Ricci repeated them as if in triumph.

“What?” Ana Devi asked.

Allen knew full well what Kath Kemp had given them, knew full well what he might in seconds be called upon to do.

But, he asked himself, would he be equal to the challenge; would he be able to sacrifice himself, and everything he had gained, in order to stop the Obterek?

But what, he asked himself, was the alternative?

On the concourse of the plaza in the shadow of the rearing Serene obelisk, in Saturn’s bright ring-light, three tiny humans confronted the pulsing blue figure.

And the Obterek made its move.

It lowered its head and mighty shoulders and charged like a bull towards the takrea .

The confrontation was over in a matter of seconds, but even so Allen had time to wish that the alien would head towards Nina or Ana rather than towards himself… a treacherous, terrible thought that he banished as soon as it appeared.