Paul Hughes - An End

Berlin stood from the table, walked up to the near. As tall as she was, he still looked down on her.

“I don’t like you. You don’t like me. But we’re both going to die soon if you don’t help me.”

Task shoved Berlin back. The commandant scoffed.

“In love with a nearish. How appropriate.”

do you want our help or not?

“I want your help. Not hers. We don’t need the machined.”

she’s coming with us, or I’m not helping you.

His hands clenched to fists. Eyes blazed. “Fine.”

and what exactly are we supposed to do once we pick you up?

“We have to get to the command vessel.”

you’ll be killed.

“They’re about to sentence Maire.”

yes. and you want to be there?

“I have to stop her.”

stop her from what? she’s already done the damage.

“It’s not over yet. We have to get to that ship.”

and once we’re there?

“I’ll kill her.”

but—

“No more questions. Get down here.”

how much do you know, berlin?

“Enough to know that Maire has to die, and I’m the one who has to do it.”

you seem in a hurry to get out of here.

“I suspect things. I know this place won’t be safe for long.”

Task shook his head. it’s the silver. you know something about it. it’s not over. it’s spreading, isn’t it?

“They’ve woken up God. They have him on the command ship.”

and maire’s on the same vessel.

“Yes.”

she’s going to kill God.

Berlin’s face was stone.

where does it go from there?

“I don’t know.”

we’ll be down to get you. look for us.

“Understood.”

Task grabbed Elle’s hand and they were gone. Berlin slumped into his chair. They had to make this work. There would be no second chance to stop the catalyst.

Berlin opened his eyes and

the mute nearish troops stood over him. The halo channel near’s body was on the floor, lifelessish. The others waited mindlessly, patiently. They’d wait forever if he made them. So obedient.

Task’s vessel would drop shortly.

Berlin bent to his wife’s silvered form. The face was intact, an illusion of thick glitter makeup. If he touched her…If he kissed her. He inhaled deeply.

take me with you to the and there we will the nighttimes of

and this heart, for you

i love

He wondered if any of the featureless voices screaming in his mind belonged to Kath. Botanist.

Bent to her ( not her ) form, kissed as gently as he could her cheek. No longer softest. Tickle of grit and smell of copper (blood) taste(?). He knew it would happen, but when the cheek collapsed under the lightest pressure, his breath still stuck in his throat and the sobs came. One, another, his hands moving to cover face from gaze of creatures of biologic who neither cared nor could care.

Lightest touch, but the cheek collapsed, cheek and skull, neck and chest. Lightest touch and she was gone, not gone, but gone: pile of silver dust that danced in the empty air of a dead room. He inhaled deeply

take me with you a part of me forever with you take me and coughed, violently. Metal scoured his mouth, throat.

is this all there is?

He reached into the pile of silver, withdrew the locket from where her neck had been: sliver of wood, taken from the last of those magnificent flora after the planet had been harvested. He held the locket to his face. Her scent was there, faint, masked in that blood echo.

Rumble of

the time when we first laid by the fire and i explored every inch of your face with my lips because we were both too terrified to kiss

slitherjets above. Task and Elle.

Berlin turned from what had been his wife and walked away.

*snap* and she was out of the reverie, hardlink cable falling from limp hand and sparking the metallish floor as she slumped forward into Assistant’s arms. She was exhausted, but adapting. She fought off the sleep that her mind was struggling to impose.

“Now. Call them together. God’s ready for sentencing.”

The broken man at the table fumbled for the hardlink. Assistant removed the cable and wiped a stream of drool from the creature’s face.

“Can you take much more of the connection?”

“I’m fine.”

Doctor touched the side of Judith’s face, looked into her eyes, but she deflected his hand ( claw ). “I’m fine . Have him transported to the council chamber.

“Yes, Medium.”

Roar of dust and wind and something else. His glass shield deactivated, the silver began to tear away at Berlin’s flesh as soon as he walked out of the building.

stupid mistake.

He palmed the bubble control and a fresh wave of gelatin splashed out from his chestplate, semi-solidified around him. Circles and waves, waves and an ocean of more than glass. Glass from trees, metal from air, machines from

The nears followed him as he jogged toward Task’s vessel. They didn’t know what was going on, couldn’t know what was going on, but their movement was hesitant, sporadic. Berlin realized that it was because most of them were being scraped apart by the wind. Not many of the nears had much “flesh” left. He stopped.

“Halt.”

The remaining soldiers stood at attention. Berlin unlatched the force weapon from his holster, shot each of them in the cranial control node in turn. There was no resistance; there were no minds. Non-humans fell non-dead. He couldn’t have taken them with him. He wouldn’t have taken them with him.

Task hovered above the park of skeletal lumbers and nearish dropship. Limbs shattered underneath the slitherjets, danced toward Berlin as he approached. The glass protected him

from what

from the brunt of the impacts. Several smaller twigs penetrated the gelatin and sloshed in slow-motion within the shield. Berlin absent-mindedly batted the debris away, palms touching lumber for the first time since

and this heart, for you

the nights spent under a sky of wooden song, illicit romance in the guise of ambassadorial conferences. They’d harvested the planet, and she’d been broken. A decade and a family and a comfortable position in the system had never made up for that rape of the forest world. She had been broken, and Maire had been the instrument of her vengeance.

Walkway descended from the belly of Task’s vessel. Berlin tripped on his shield, palmed its deactivation at the exact wrong moment: an airborne branch flew past his face, projecting limb carving a deep gash along his left jawline. It became a world of silver and copper as vital black blood erupted from the wound.

He staggered forward as the vessel lifted, looping his right arm through the guardrail as the walkway ascended. Elle met him halfway and helped him aboard. He despised its touch.

They flew.

The chamber door closed with mechanical precision behind her. The headache was bad, but the face of Hannon was worse: Judith remembered the roaming hands and mediocre cock of the young council member. She also remembered punching him in the throat, and the way he’d bitched like a little girl.

“Judith.” His face was grin and acid. “Always nice to see you.”

She closed her eyes, rubbed her temples before taking her seat as far away from Hannon as she could possibly sit. Headache was developing into something worse. Apparently the aether was wearing her down.

“Is everything—”

The tender inquisition of a council member. Judith recognized the voice but opened her eyes to confirm. “I’m fine, Jade. Thank you.”