Terry Neale - Jo-el

Then the explosion happened and I was dragged very quickly into the reality of where I was and what I was doing. The explosion came from behind us, from the station. The noise was deafening, like a giant whomph of a helicopter rotor-blade. Within a second a wave of hot air raced past us and heat followed with dust and debris. The air became unbreathable for a moment and the visibility disappeared to nothing. I shut my eyes tightly and wondered if my life would end soon. But the dust cleared and the air became breathable once more. Visibility was still almost none. I wondered what had happened and concluded that Verminov must have known we had entered the tunnel and had sealed it off. My death was paramount to him; no other result would be acceptable. The death of every one of his men down here was irrelevant as long as I went with them.

A minute passed and Sally was now an outline against the left wall.

“No going back.” I said.

Her silence was disconcerting.

“Give the air a minute or so to clear, then we’re going in fast, guns blazing. His men must know what just happened. I wonder what they are thinking?”

Sally didn’t reply, she didn’t even acknowledge me.

The dust began to settle, I raised my guns up and saw that Sally was doing the same.

I took off toward where the light had been, flying fast, at a speed like I’d never experienced before. It was incredible. I was going into battle; my fear immediately subsided. It must be like this for every soldier when he finally goes over the top and into the unknown. This is what he wanted to do from the first second, the waiting was excruciating. This is the action that the warrior craves.

The wall was racing past now, a blur. The air was clearing as I flew away from the blast. I glanced over and saw Sally matching my speed on the other wall. We were a team now. We could conquer the world.

It seemed like a long time, but in reality it was just seconds when I saw the men ahead of us, their backs against the wall. They appeared disorientated. I heard a shout and I saw them turn in our direction, guns raising, pointing in our direction. Now I could see fear in their faces. What was flying at them? I couldn’t imagine the thoughts that must be bouncing around in their heads at that moment. It didn’t matter. I didn’t care. I fired. Both hands.

The noise in the tunnel was deafening. There was no other sound, just the ear-piercing thunder of the rounds leaving the weapons. It was a mess. I saw men thrown backwards as if they’d been hit by a giant bat. I was past them in a split second and turned quickly. The men who hadn’t fallen had swung around toward me and were firing again. But I hadn’t felt anything. The shield was working. My invincibility was intact. I fired again and the men fell. All of them. I passed them again and turned once more. I couldn’t see Sally she must have turned sooner. Smoke filled the air. The resonance of the sound still hung in my ears. I came down and rested my feet on the ground, my weapons still at the ready, but there was little movement from the men that were now laying, strewn across the tunnel, haphazardly, as if they’d fallen exactly where they had stood and gone to sleep. Now I saw blood, dark red in the cold, dusty air. It was running in every direction. I traced the source of each trickle back to the man whose life was either gone or ebbing away. I saw a face turn in my direction, eyes of hate, wide and alive but fading. A last look at the strange being who’d ended their life. A last look of shear bewilderment.

I looked around for Sally but didn’t see her, I was at a fork in the tunnel. Another tunnel was at right-angles to the one we’d traversed. As the dust settled a little more I could see a chair tipped over on its side a short distance along the adjacent tunnel. Someone was tied to the chair. Someone different. Whoever it was they weren’t moving. A white, thin blouse came into focus and in that moment I knew who it was lying motionless, tied to the chair. I gasped and ran toward it. A line of blood, thicker and darker and not moving emanated from Adrianne’s head, resting very still against the ground. As I reached the chair I saw the hole in her temple, darkened and bloody, pointing up to the ceiling of the tunnel. Her face grimaced in death. The loveliness of her skin was still there. Her mouth, crushed against the ground, distorted by the ungainly position of her head, was still beautiful. I knelt at her side and carefully pulled a few strands of hair from her face, which was covered in dirt and dust. Tears were now streaming down my face. I had failed her. I knew she’d been dead for some time. It had all been a waste.

Then I heard a gun fire, loud and alone, disturbing the quiet that had begun to return to my head. I turned to the main tunnel and I could see the man, lying on his side with his eyes of hate. His mouth had pulled into an evil smile. There was a devil’s glint in his eyes, a discerning sign of satisfaction. A last thought of revenge. I didn’t understand. Until.

It had taken a while; I don’t know why. Maybe seeing Adrianne, my sense of failure. I don’t know. It didn’t matter. My right hand had dropped the weapon I’d held, but I don’t remember when. It was clasped to my right side above my hip. I looked down and saw the fresh blood ooze between my fingers. Sally had left me. I didn’t understand why.

On the planet Cirion.

“Eve, what’s up?”

“It didn’t work!”

“What?”

“My project.”

“What are you talking about?”

Eve turned to her father and frowned. What is it with grown-ups? Why do I have to tell them everything? I’m old enough now to have my own life. Her shoulders sank as she realized she would have to explain; you couldn’t hide your actions on Cirion. Her father could just as easily review what she’d been working on later, in his own time. But that might not be good, she wanted to spin it her way. She crossed the patio and slumped down in her usual place, opposite the viewing window, her face fell forward and she folded her arms. Her father came over and sat close by, he didn’t say anything, he just waited. She knew he would do that, she hated it, but that’s what he always did. Thought it was proper parenting or something, let the child tell it in their own way. What crap!

How could she get through this quickly and leave? Rach was going to the Zone and she wanted to go too. Now!

“I rebooted the computers on Earth.”

Her father twisted his head toward her, his eyebrows raised just enough. She knew the next word out of his mouth.

“Why?” Typical.

Eve struggled in her mind how to explain in the simplest terms so that he would just nod once or twice, which would indicate acceptance of her actions and she could get away. She knew the project had failed and she’d have to either pass it over or rework it. It had been almost two months of time wasted. She couldn’t turn in a report that left no further action required. The stupid planet was doomed and she had thought her idea to save it was brilliant.

She enjoyed Social Engineering as a subject and was excited to move onto a real-life situation. She’d picked a doozy. I mean the planet was outside of the vector, way outside and about to be wiped out by a Galactic Storm. So far away that probably no one alive on Cirion today would have even heard of it. A lost cause. Another do-gooders project of millions of years past, just forgotten. And she was going to rescue the billions of humans living there and find them a new home. What a challenge? They were so backwards. It was all set up. Her plan was so simple, give them the technology to leave before the storm hit and find them somewhere to go. They had almost sixty years. All she had to do was set the thing in motion and write it up and she would ace Social Engineering and tick that one off her list. Now she had to find another project or rework the Earth project. Her plan had failed and that wouldn’t earn her a pass mark. She ran the problem around in her head. She realized the software of yesteryear had issues, even with the update thirty million years ago. But she couldn’t fathom why the stupid computer had diverted so much power to creating its own mass. In some way it amused Eve that a computer would even want to be human, how ridiculous. It must have been because of that Earth male she’d picked, his deep sexual needs. How was she to know? Weird. Adults were such jerks. Well it got you killed, or I think it did. She didn’t really know; she’d hit re-boot and lost contact.