Enemy (37 page)

     She wrestled the body from the elevator.

     She stepped on.

     It ascended.

     (float-placement dock achieved. we’ve arrived.)

     “Good. Let’s get this over with.”

     the battle chamber.

     Sapphire grimaced at the grisly scene before her and sobbed with desperation. In some part of her mind, she knew that time was running out for the warriors blinded outside, and that she was their only hope.

     (…static?…)

     Mara.

     She had never been in an actual battle chamber, only simulators, but she knew what to expect. The interface webs...

     The gauntlets.

     With a deep breath, she thrust her hands into the interface gauntlets, and she plunged into an unknown world of the purest light, disorienting.

     Voices. Faint voices.

     The Judas.

     She understood now.

     The pilots of the Judas had been flashblinded by the sudden explosion of light, and the phase energy burst had been powerful enough to knock them temporarily from the tethers that bound them to the primary pattern of the Stream. Lost in the innate rapture that was the kill mode of the battle chamber, the pilots had been mentally torn apart by an unknown force. They were all incapacitated, most dead already.

     Ready prey for the Enemy.

     Sapphire sifted her memory for those vital emergency command codes...

     She found them.

     “Judas Golgotha Mara emergency command structure reweb!”

     It began.

     pain ecstasy bliss hell

     She became one with the sentience that was the Mara and in the rapture she saw the lives of millions flow through her. Sapphire’s body became the physical flux through which the mind and power of Mara was expressed in human form.

     She became Judas, and in her terror, she found solace.

     The interface webs engulfed her, and she...

     (sapphire.)

     ...she was...

     (begin.)

     ...she was...

     MARA SHE WAS MARA SHE SHE SAW THROUGH THE LIGHT AT THE SKULKING FORMS SHAPES SHADOWS FLYING HUNTING KILLING THE JUDAS AND HER ARMS BECAME THE WEAPONS NACELLES AND SHE BEGAN THE SOMEHOW BEAUTIFUL KILLING SEARCH FOR THE THE LIGHT KILL ENEMY UNSUSPECTING ENEMY FELL FELL FELL IN HER TERRIBLE WAKE AND THE LIGHT FADED AND BLACK FORMS STRUGGLED TO RETREAT AND SHE STRUCK STRUCK THEM DOWN AND SHE WAS DRAINED EXHAUSTED EMPTY AND SHE FADED TO BLACK—

     She slumped back into the webs, beyond exhausted, agony in her mind, and heard a voice, hers yet not hers, giving orders to the able-bodied droptroops floating outside to return to their vessels and assess the situation before another wave came. Others were dispatched to capture the numerous disabled Enemy.

     She fell into the blackness.

     (longboat away. we’ll reach command momentarily.)

     “Let’s do this.”

     When she arose from the coma that was interface shock, Jade stood over her, smiling. She had a scar across her chin that hadn’t been there before.

     Sapphire tried to speak but was unable.

     “Shh, ’Phire. You shouldn’t try talking yet. Your body’s still too wasted from your interface with Mara. You really showed some balls out there, kid.”

     Sapphire smiled weakly.

     “They’re making you Mara’s captain.”

     Her eyebrows furrowed in disbelief.

     “Yeah, I guess Command was pretty impressed with what you did, taking charge of the situation and all. Plus, why waste a good Reweb, huh?”

     Sapphire laughed weakly.

     “You saved millions of lives out there, ’Phire. Even mine. But I can’t let you have all the spotlight. They promoted me to commander of Mara’s droptroops. We seized an Enemy vessel. We attempted viral upload, but the bastards had already severed the link-up.”

     Sapphire’s eyes widened. Jade saw the unspoken question within them.

     “Yeah. It was intact. There was an entire hive of Enemy inside, and we had to fight the bastards for every last inch, but in the end, we won. We’ve sent the vessel back to the Stream so they can take it apart and find out what that phase weapon was. We sure as hell haven’t seen anything like that in the Stream yet. Hopefully, we won’t. We’re staying here to make sure these Enemy don’t break into the Whenstream.

     “You’re the new fleet commander, Sapphire.”

     The twins embraced, each terrified of the future.

     This memory faded from her mind as Sapphire disembarked her longboat with her fellow Golgotha captains. She wiped a tear from her eye.

     Oh, Jade, forgive me. Please, please, forgive me.

     An unspoken communication flickered between the Golgotha captains. So this was it. Command.

     They would find the truth.

     They were escorted to the First Circle Chamber to be briefed. Sapphire led the procession, a mere child, a young woman among so many adults. Yet she was more, her years of combat giving her a presence that transcended her age. As the Chamber doors opened, countless delegates turned, shocked to find the famed child warrior before them.

     The pain in her eyes. The loss she had seen.

     “Kilbourne.”

     The First Circle Judas Commander gazed down upon her.

     The eyes. Sapphire’s silver eyes, the faint glittery lines of web that emerged from them in almost a spider’s web across her skin…

     “Nice of you to join us, Judas Sapphire.”

     “Get on with it, Hannah.”

     Sapphire was swept once again into the eternal war.

And in those the end times, Judas Simon raced toward an uncertain end.

     The present was a blur, the past was agony, the future was terror.

     They chased.

     He had placed the refugees into hibernatory stasis, not knowing the duration of this particular jump. Michael had chosen to join them. Something had happened down there when Zero-Four and Jennings took the longboat to investigate the Shadow... Michael’s eyes... He had looked like he had just seen a ghost. Simon would ask him what had happened when the jump was over.

     So now Simon was alone.

     What hell was he falling to?

     Simon’s thoughts drifted to...

     Magdalene.

     no.

     He forced the image, the memory, from his mind.

     She was dead

     ((that’s not true. they don’t kill you, they upload you into the pattern.))

     and there was nothing he could do about it. Nothing at all.

     ((except—))

     Stop it. Maggie’s gone. Forever. Let her rest.

     I’ll find her again someday.

     He wished he had something to believe in. He wished he was not alone.

     He wished time would end.

     black

     in the pure hell, something took pleasure in the opportunity of the kill

     plans were being set into motion

     final plans

     laughter

     Simon performed a systems analysis.

     The abnormal stress of the unusually-long Shadow jump did not yet exceed reasonable safety parameters. There had not been any significant signal degradation in the tether, but he would have to closely monitor the forces acting upon him.

     He activated the external visual systems and watched the intricate patterns of nothingness swirl around him and the smaller vessel flying slightly ahead of him.

     Shiva.

     Simon studied the sleek features of his gunship counterpart, so unlike any other Judas in capability.

     Where had Command gotten that level of wartech? In proportion to their size, the new gunships surpassed even the mighty Golgotha in firepower. Simon had been horrified when he viewed the fury of Shiva and Malachi unleashed for the first time upon the Enemy. That impossible explosion of light. How could they—

     Simon knew he should feel more confident with these new Judas, but why was he so uneasy?

     He did not trust them. He did not trust Command.

     He fell backward through time.

     Michael Zero-Four.

     He spun in his sleep, troubled by the faces of the future.

     His mind raced with forgotten memories, painful visages of pasts long dead, images he had struggled to bury deep within him. He cried out.

     How could it be?

     In what tragic cycle was he ensnared? Would he ever be free of the Judas stigma? Would his pattern ever dissolve into the black between the stars and times and let him cease?

     So many thoughts. Past future became present.

     He slept but did not sleep.

     His unconscious leapt from him, sought release. Lines of zeros and ones filtered through Simon’s pattern.

     She sent the signal into the past.

     They would eliminate the final weak link.

     West.

     An icy presence crawled over his sleeping mind. He became aware of it, and the dreams ((visions)) began.

     Terror.

     Blind terror.

     There was no other word to express the emotion West experienced as the dreams flowed through him, tearing at his physical body and mentality as they seared their images upon him.

     Another soul touched his, and he saw

     the black between the stars, an infinity of light, an impossible cold. the convergence of machines, the flickering of life held for so long in the vital metallic minds.