Chris Randolph - Stars Rain Down

“Not at all,” Jack said, “but it’s a little too late to change my mind.”

He wiped the pilots green blood from the cradle, then hunkered down into it and pressed his arms into the gaping orifices. The apparatus tightened around him, and his world disappeared.

The reactor control room was full of workers when Kai arrived, but the sight of him riddled with bullet-holes and covered in blood was enough to send them running. He sealed the door behind them and went to work.

He reached behind a terminal and grabbed hold of a shielded cable. He scraped its insulation away to reveal the bare wire within, then lifted a tiny probe from his wrist computer and placed it on the metal.

“Alright, I’m analyzing the network traffic,” the mission computer said. “This will take a moment, Sinit.”

“That’s fine,” he said, “no rush or anything.”

While the AI did its work, Kai slumped down against the wall and tried to catch his breath. His body was on fire and he couldn’t focus his eyes.

“Got it. I’m simulating the client interface and probing their network architecture. How interesting. There are nodes here that were definitely not designed by humans. No matter. I’ve finished mapping the network topology and have acquired root access. Shall I initiate self-destruct, Sinit?”

“Yes,” he said. “Set it for twenty minutes, and revoke all client credentials except your own.”

Emergency klaxons rang throughout the Ark. The computer went on, “Done and done, Sinit. I feel as though I should mention that I’ve calculated Jack Hernandez’s probability of success, and it is vanishingly small. Yet I notice you’re not moving.”

Kai laughed. “Good observation.”

“The foreign hardware has substantially increased their thermonuclear device’s yield. My estimates show that the detonation will annihilate everything inside of this base and for some distance beyond.”

“And?”

“Ahem. That includes you, Sinit.”

“It does.”

“So, you intend to die here?”

“I believe so.”

“You swore to fight the Nefrem to the last drop of your blood, did you not?”

“I did, but look where that got me. I’m responsible for the death of eight billion humans. I’ve done the Nefrem’s work for them.”

“And I will be destroyed as well. The sum of Somari knowledge will be lost and gone forever. Your people will be dead and forgotten, Kai.”

“Maybe it’s time.”

“Perhaps it is at that,” the AI said with resignation. After a pregnant pause, it added, “This has been a very long and strange journey, hasn’t it?”

“It has, but don’t worry,” Kai said to his computer, “it’ll be over soon.”

With that, Kai closed his eyes and tried to relax while the end approached.

Jack mysteriously found himself alone, standing in a circular room ringed with windows, revealing nothing but whiteness beyond. The floor and ceiling were perfectly reflective, creating a vertical hall of mirrors with Jack trapped in the middle.

He was confused, and getting a little tired of it.

“Hello,” he called out, and his voice echoed back at him. “Is anyone here?”

He walked, but after a few steps, he was pretty sure he hadn’t gone anywhere. He felt like he was moving, but the windows were no closer than before. He ran but with the same result.

He cupped his hands to his mouth and called out, “Hello!?”

There was no response.

His imagination flared. Maybe he never escaped the prison. Maybe they’d been inside his head all along, and the past couple weeks were nothing but an illusion. They showed him the door, and he happily led them straight back to the Ark.

He needed to get a grip. One way or another, the world he was in had to be an illusion. It was a false veneer, hiding something important. What was it?

He tried to recall the past couple hours, but the memories were slick and difficult to get a hold of. They were loose, and came apart like over-boiled meat.

If he could only concentrate, he might be able to figure it out. He closed his eyes, metered his breathing and tried to focus on a single point. His inner voice ran non-stop, full of panic and distress, but he focused and tried to let go. Just let it go.

He breathed in and out, and perfect silence came to him for just an instant. There was peace, and he felt the other there with him. The other was massive and powerful beyond belief.

He opened his eyes and the room was gone, replaced by the simultaneous view from ten thousand eyes, stitched together into a bewildering panorama. A battle raged all around, and flying objects wove complex patterns through the air. Jack felt and saw them all at once, and it was too much. Pain clawed into his head like a hot dagger.

He screamed.

The circular room returned, with its windows looking out on nothingness. It was filled with silence, as a glass overflowing with water. He was alone again, even though he knew the other was there.

He heard another voice in the distance that just barely crept above the silence. “Jack?” the voice said full of worry, “are you okay?”

“I think so,” he said, or maybe he didn’t. He was so confused. “I don’t know.”

He was in some kind of cell, but he wasn’t sure whether it was for the other’s safety, or his own. Maybe both.

“We don’t have much time,” the distant voice said.

Images flashed by so quickly he couldn’t make any of them out, like someone fanned a photo album in front of his face. When the images were gone, he was left with a dull, metallic taste in his mouth.

None of it added up.

He closed his eyes and said, “Again.”

The images flashed by, still too quickly for him to make sense of.

“Slower,” he said. “I can’t keep up.”

They came again, but this time he caught sight of a few. Vessels like sea-shells, being torn apart in space by invaders. The images flew through his head again and again, until they finished with a roar that knocked Jack off his feet.

When he opened his eyes, he was still standing. The other had shown him an invasion. It was a war against an unstoppable enemy who ate the dead.

Jack could feel the other’s anger. It was all around him, a giant set of jaws that were slowly closing. He was on trial.

He closed his eyes again and concentrated, but this time had a different focus. His thoughts were still slippery, but he reached down into them and dragged out every memory he could find. He brought to mind the face of every man, woman and child he’d helped during his career with the Corps. Every sad refugee and bleeding wound. Every last one. It got easier as he went, and soon the images came on their own.

Then he changed course, veering into the wastes of China where the aliens built piles of the dead and left them to rot. He remembered the family he found in the cellar, and all the refugees who joined his pilgrimage to the West. He remembered his first glimpse of blue sky after months traveling through the dust, and the pain he felt when he learned his whole world had been smashed apart.

Finally, he remembered standing in the alien city, willing to kill his own rather than let the enemy’s innocent children die.

Then he was back in that damn silence filled room. At least he knew why he was there, now.

“You’ve done to us what they did to you. Are you satisfied now?”

His voice didn’t echo this time. It stopped dead.

“Are you listening to me?”

He closed his eyes and sought out the silence, and just like last time, the ten thousand eyes all over the creature flooded into him, but this time he was ready. The pain struck, and he felt like white water rapids were trying to sweep him away, but he clung on and focused. Focused.