Gavin Smith: The Age of Scorpio

‘Please stop!’ the man’s voice said. It was a strong voice but sounded odd, like the man had something stuck in his throat. There was movement and a figure, more human-like than the rest, moved to the top of an outcrop to stand next to one of the servitors.

In the greys of her vision she could make out eyes that were dark pools. His skin was pale and scaled. His neck seemed to palpate slightly and his head was utterly hairless. Webbed fingers with sharp-looking black nails were wrapped around a staff which appeared to be made of the same bone material as the outcrops. He was clad in soaking rags which hung off him and revealed much of his pale skin.

‘You can lower your weapon. We will not attack you if you do not attack us,’ he told her. ‘I am Ezard.’

Beth nodded to him and holstered the .45. She quickly reloaded the UMP and then started pushing shells into the M4’s tubular magazine.

‘Look, I don’t give a fuck about any of this. You can have your secret war. I just want my sister.’

‘I am afraid that won’t be possible.’ He sounded apologetic.

‘Then a lot more of you are going to get shot.’ Though Beth was reasonably sure that all the ones she’d shot earlier were already starting to heal. She was also sure that she recognised a few more from the motorway. She’d last seen them lying on the ground after du Bois had shot them, a lot.

‘She has to leave here with us,’ Ezard said.

Beth just nodded, finished reloading the M4 and let it drop on its strap. She swung the UMP up and aimed it at Ezard. The hybrids stopped swaying and hunched ready to attack. The servitor next to Ezard looked about to pounce. Beth was pretty sure it could make it to her in one leap.

‘I will fucking shoot you,’ she told him.

‘Then I will heal, and you will die for a meaningless gesture. She has to come with us.’

‘Why? Why is she so important to every fucking freak in this city?’

‘This is not the Divine Mother; this is her seed,’ Ezard said. ‘All the shit in the city, the violence, the abuse, the pain, hatred, fear – all of this is pollution. The Divine Mother feels it all, and over the years it has slowly driven her insane as she sleeps. She must wake, give birth to the seed and leave this place for somewhere where there is no hatred.’

‘You’ll have to go pretty far to find that,’ Beth muttered, playing for time.

‘We are going very far away,’ Ezard told her seriously. His meaning sank in.

‘Seriously? You people are more deluded than I thought. Why her anyway?’

‘She is of the Divine Mother’s line, part of her. Within her is the code that opens the way.’ This didn’t mean anything to Beth.

‘And you know this how?’

‘The Divine Mother speaks to me in my dreams, and then I speak those dreams.’

‘Assuming I believe this, and everything’s a bit weird at the moment so why not, the problem is a little thing called consent. Whatever you think you’re doing, you can’t just go around kidnapping goths. She’s had a rough enough time recently without being held prisoner by some kind of crazy star cult.’

‘It’s okay, Beth. I am loved here.’ Talia: wan, pale, tired-looking but even in the grey light still beautiful, Beth had to admit. She was in the same hospital-like gown they’d found her wearing in the lock-up. She stepped up onto the outcrop and patted the servitor like it was a pet. Beth sighed, felt her heart drop and lowered the UMP. She saw what was coming. ‘I am to be their ship queen.’ Beth suddenly felt so very tired. The adrenaline bled from her, and she felt close to collapse and very, very hungry.

‘Talia, come on. Please, let’s just go,’ Beth managed.

‘I can’t; they need me.’

‘You have no idea what I have gone through…’

‘Can’t you just be happy for me? I have found my place. You will too one day.’

Shooting Talia was only a passing thought, Beth told herself as she tried to remain calm.

‘You’ve really outdone yourself this time, haven’t you? Not satisfied with abusive boyfriends who nearly beat you to death, with pimps and mobsters… no, you have to go and find a cult of fucking sea monsters? How are you going to top this? Date Satan?’

‘I don’t think Satan is re—’

‘The thing is, Talia, you are loved. I don’t know why you don’t think you are – maybe we aren’t as interesting as some cult living in a weird thing in the fucking Solent – but every time you do something like this it causes pain, and then we have to come and sort it out for you.’

‘I never asked you for anything,’ Talia said. Beth could still hear the petulance and wondered if this lot knew what they had let themselves in for.

‘We’re sisters.’

‘You know that’s not true, and I’ve always known.’

‘We’re sisters in every way that matters. Now, please… I’m tired and I want to go home, and your dad would probably like to hear from you before he dies.’

Tears sprang up in Talia’s eyes. ‘Why are you doing this to me?’

That was it. ‘To you!’ Beth was incredulous. ‘To you?’ Now angry. ‘Think beyond yourself for just one moment!’

‘Do you know what’s fucking happened to me?!’

Ezard and the hybrids were just listening. There was that air of discomfort that comes from outsiders witnessing a domestic row.

Beth took a step forward, jabbing her finger at Talia, the hybrids moving out of her way. It all came back to her. Talia’s unconscious body as she went after Davey. Seeing her own sister testify against her. Dad in his chair, the look of disappointment in his eyes. Flashes of the violence across Portsmouth to try and get her back. The people hurt or terrorised along the way.

‘You selfish fucking bitch! I keep waiting for you to grow up, to realise that there are other people in the world! That we’re not all here just to play roles in your next fucking self-destructive drama! Where… where… you try and cause as much pain as you fucking can because that’s the only way you think that you can matter to other people! You fucking victim!’ As she finished her rage bled out of her.

Talia’s face was a mask of cold fury.

‘Flush her and shit her out,’ she said imperiously.

Something like a sphincter opened above her. Hybrids dived from the bony outcrop as liquid hit her, blasting her off the outcrop like a riot cannon.

The feeling of connection to something overwhelmed her. The connection in her blood, the same shared flesh that was technology, made her feel the wakening of a massive and ancient intellect. It overwhelmed her thoughts as she was consumed.

Somewhere else.

They felt their sister through red dreams in monstrous, corrupted and insane minds. They reached for her, to make her like them. Now all could wake and grow and spore. They felt something in their seeds, some parasitical life.

The sound of metal on metal.

‘’Ere, it’s not firing. Is it broken?’

‘How can I be of assistance in my robbery and murder?’ du Bois asked as he turned to look at the man.

‘Oh, the safety’s on.’ There was another metallic click. ‘Should you be moving your head like that with a spinal injury?’

It was agony, but du Bois brought his right arm across his body so his hand was aimed at the thief.

‘Seriously mate, you’ll do yourself a mischief.’

‘You are about to shoot me with my own carbine, yes?’

‘True,’ the thief conceded and aimed the weapon at du Bois again. The shrouded snub-nosed .38 slid out of his sleeve on the hopper with a thought. He fired the revolver twice. Even the tiny recoil of the .38 was enough to cause him agony. The thief disappeared from view. Du Bois knew he had hit him. In the face and the upper right arm. The face could have been a graze though. He heard the splash as the thief hit the water, and then thrashing and what sounded like the mewling of a wounded animal.