Drew Karpyshyn: Retribution

Academy down to a crawl.

“Organic life lives, dies, and is forgotten. You cannot fully comprehend anything beyond this. Yet there is a realm of existence beyond your understanding.”

There was something odd about the things Grayson was saying. She knew he was speaking on behalf of the Reapers, but it seemed like he — or they — actually wanted her to understand their position. It was like they were trying to persuade her to agree with them, but they didn’t know how to frame their arguments in a way she could relate to. Or maybe there simply was no way for organic beings to relate to hyperintelligent machines.

“We are the pinnacle of evolution,” they continued. “Yet we see potential in your species. You can be elevated. The weakness of organic flesh can be cast aside. You can transcend yourselves.”

The words didn’t really make any kind of compelling argument, but she felt as if there was some deeper meaning to them.

“Your understanding is limited by genetics. You cannot see beyond the brief instant of your own existence. Yet our knowledge is infinite, as are we.”

The more Grayson spoke, the more his words seemed to make sense on a deep, almost subconscious level.

“The laws of this universe are inviolate. Immutable. Your resistance will only lead to your extinction.

What are — what we do — is inevitable.”

Kahlee was so far under the Reapers’s spell, she wasn’t even aware she was nodding along in agreement.

Kai Leng heard the voices coming from down the hall. They were faint, still too distant to decipher what was being said, but he recognized the tone of Grayson’s voice.

He reached out and put a hand on Nick’s shoulder, signaling him to stop. The boy hadn’t noticed the voices, and he turned and looked back up at Kai Leng with an inquiring stare. To his credit, he knew enough to keep quiet.

The assassin continued to listen, focusing on the distant voices until he was certain they were drawing closer. Then he pointed in the direction of a nearby dark office with an open door. The two went inside, and Kai Leng promptly closed the door and flicked on the light.

In a careful whisper he said, “I heard something down the hall. The kidnappers are coming this way.”

“What are we going to do?” Nick asked, his adolescent voice cracking with a mixture of fear and excitement.

“I think they’re heading back to the docking bays. They’re going to go right past us.”

Nick nodded to show he was following along so far.

“I don’t have a weapon, but you do,” Kai Leng continued. “If we wait here for them to pass by, will that let you build up enough energy to hit them with a blast powerful enough to take them out?”

“You mean kill them?” Nick asked in wonder.

“These are dangerous men,” Kai Leng warned him. “If we don’t kill them, they’ll kill us.”

“I’ve … I’ve never killed anybody before.”

Kai Leng nodded sympathetically. “That’s okay. I understand. It’s a lot to ask from someone your age. Maybe we should just hide and let them go by.”

“No,” Nick answered hastily. “I don’t want to hide. I can do this.”

“Are you sure you’re up to it? It’s not going to be easy.”

“I can do it,” Nick swore.

“Good. Here’s the plan. We wait in here with the door closed and the lights off until they pass by.

Then I hit the panel and you jump out into the hall and hit them with everything you’ve got before they can turn around.”

“Isn’t that like stabbing them in the back or something?”

“This isn’t a game, Nick. There’s no such thing as playing fair.”

“Yeah. Okay. Right.”

“I’m going to turn out the light now. You ready for this?”

Nick nodded, and Kai Leng cast the room into darkness. At first it seemed there was no light at all,

but after a few seconds their eyes began to pick up on the subtle illuminations from various sources around the room: the blinking message light on the office’s extranet terminal; illuminated power buttons on the computer console and video display screen; the ghostly green glow of the wall panel that indicated the door was unlocked. It wasn’t much, but it gave them just enough light to make out their own silhouettes in the gloom.

Kai Leng pressed his ear to the door and listened carefully. He could hear Grayson speaking; occasionally Kahlee’s voice would interject. He wouldn’t tell Nick about Kahlee — it might make him reluctant to launch his attack, and Kai Leng was more than willing to sacrifice her if it meant they had a chance to eliminate Grayson.

He looked over at Nick, and was surprised to see a tiny spark run the length of the young man’s neck.

As he watched the teenager gather his power, the sparks became more plentiful as his body began to discharge the dark energy in tiny bursts.

It took them a long time to finally reach the door; they were moving far slower than Kai Leng would have imagined. Once they were past, he waited a few more seconds to let them get a few meters down the hall, then he hit the panel and jumped back out of the way.

Nick sprang into action, rushing out into the hall with a shrill scream of youthful rage.

The buildup of stored biotic charge was causing Nick actual physical discomfort. His teeth felt like they were chewing on tinfoil, his eyes itched, and he could hear a high-pitched hum in his ears. But it was worth it if it meant he had a chance to help stop the kidnappers and impress Miss Sanders.

When the door to the office opened, he charged through, unleashing all his pent-up energy against his enemies. Too late he realized that Kahlee was one of the two people he was about to crush with the most powerful biotic display of his young life.

The barely contained power was already pouring out of him in an uncontrollable flood, and he didn’t have the mental discipline or control to simply shut it off. The best he could manage was to try to refocus it. Instead of a concentrated beam of deadly force, he pushed out with his mind, distorting it into a swooping wave so the impact would be dispersed across a much wider area.

His yell had caused both Kahlee and the man beside her to turn in his direction. He saw their faces clearly, their eyes going wide in surprise as they were lifted from their feet and thrown sideways against opposite walls before falling hard to the floor.

“Hit them again!” the tattooed man who called himself Steve shouted from inside the office door.

“Finish them!”

Confused and overwhelmed, Nick could only stand there, staring in horror at the bizarre-looking half-man/half-machine rising to its feet and turning toward him.

Nick’s scream had given Kahlee just enough time to realize what was happening and brace herself for the impact. Nevertheless, the biotic wave hit her so hard, the pistol in her belt was jarred loose and sent skittering across the floor.

Fortunately, she hit the wall with her shoulder rather than her head, and she managed to keep her senses about her. She didn’t know how Nick had found them; she knew only that by attacking Grayson he had marked himself as a threat in the Reapers’s eyes.

Reacting rather than thinking, she got off the floor and threw herself across the hall toward Grayson, slamming into him as he raised his pistol and fired at his young assailant. She was able to knock him off balance, but as the pair tumbled to the ground, she heard the explosion of the gun and the sharp grunt of surprise from Nick.

Grayson sprang to his feet and grasped the back of her belt with his free hand. He hauled her up by the belt, holding her suspended horizontally like a sack of flour before heaving her aside.

The throw sent her helicoptering through the air, her arms and legs flailing wildly. Caught off guard by the sudden move, she didn’t have time to brace herself for impact this time, and slammed face-first into the floor.