Interphase (19 page)

"Your Holiness!" Varlath jumped up and moved in front of Analara.

Totarakh stepped back, shocked. "Has the taint claimed you as well? Do you defend this betrayer against the will of Siath?" he challenged.

"My lord, she is but a child. She meant no harm to this city!"

A vicious smile spread across Totarakh's face. "But harm she has wrought. Clearly you are too consumed by familial duty to see the spread of darkness. You must have time apart to repent your evil." He nodded to a nearby soldier and twitched his hand. "Remove this man from my presence."

Varlath stared at him with disbelief, trying vainly to shake loose from the guards' grip. "No! This is madness. I will not have my child subjected to this," he shouted.

Totarakh addressed the guards directly. "Silence the heretic."

Varlath's protests were cut off as one of the guards raised the haft of his spear and struck the old man in the head. He slumped between their grasp and was dragged from the square.

Totarakh glanced back at Analara. Her tears flowed silently, but her back was stiff with defiance. Sneering, he turned to Halathas. "Thanks to the actions of this unholy devkana, your city is fallen. It will take the might of the Holy Army to purge the evil from your streets." He paused in thought. "Place her under house arrest along with the heretic. Perhaps her demon lover will reveal himself to us and be given the chance to join them."

Halathas nodded and took Analara away.

Regarding the city with a cold stare, Totarakh summoned his captain. "Sarolkh, have the hostlers prepare my personal guard for a morning departure. The rest of the soldiers shall garrison here under your command. Control the city and its people. I shall return in six days with enough of our brethren to cleanse this taint from the land."

Totarakh turned toward the temple, then paused. "Were all of the tamed animals afflicted by the madness?"

"No, Holiness," Sarolkh replied. "Only half fell prey."

"Teach these commoners a lesson. Have the remaining animals rounded up and destroyed. In Siath's name."

***

David logged into the VERAsign Finishing Center the next morning at 9 AM on the dot. The automated voice welcoming him to work grated on his nerves more than usual. He reached his station and watched as the day's assignments were displayed. Struck by a sudden urge, he started making faces at the screen as the text rolled by. His first task: full material stress test on next year's V-Sports stadium. He groaned.

It's too early in the morning to be this early in the morning.

David activated the holo-imager and braced himself. Outside his work window, massive field manipulator arms powered to life, linking themselves to the imager's signal and ready to respond to his slightest touch. A blank space formed in V-Net outside, and he could feel the shift as the network converted the area to real-time physics. An energy pulse rolled over the mobile office.

Frame structures appeared on the imager's assembly line, moving toward the construction site. David glanced out the window and noted that their solid counterparts were moving in sync. Oddly enough, they looked remarkably similar to the stadium pieces he'd assembled for last year's season. The design team really needed some new blood, or just a hint of originality. He thought of an Ion-Ball court with disappearing platforms and gravity traps.

David sighed and rubbed his eyes. A lack of sleep over the last couple weeks was taking its toll. He wasn't sure if traveling to another planet through a virtual network could mess up his sleep cycle, but it certainly had started feeling like it. He couldn't get his mind to shut off at night. And since the discovery that the woman he loved was, well, an alien, he'd had plenty to think about.

The rest of the code framework scrolled into the imager, and David began manipulating it, piecing the frame together like a jigsaw puzzle, his movements honed from practice. The arms outside mirrored his directions, effortlessly lifting the titanic structures into place. He remembered the first time he'd used the assembler and how incomprehensible the jumble of code pieces had looked. The trick was to ignore the extraneous stuff and focus on the foundation nodes. The connection points.

Connection points… between a virtual universe and a new planet. How could I possibly have gone from a digital plane to a physical one? How can I load objects from V-Net while on another world? What happens to my body in reality while I'm in Analath? What would happen to me if I died there?

David's mind trailed off in unanswered questions. Setting those aside, he finished assembling the stadium frame just as the texture coding arrived, appearing in sheets that he could paste around the framework like wallpaper. Outside the arms shifted their energy fields to sculpt and layer the external appearance in time with his alterations.

There has to be a primary connection. Maybe it begins with the Crash Storms? They can alter code and change the base reality of the network. Perhaps they can somehow bridge space and time. I don't know. There has to be an explanation though. I
will
find it. And meanwhile…

Meanwhile, he had a beautiful and adventurous woman who cared about him. After so many years of pining futilely for Jessica, his joy in knowing that Analara returned his affections was indescribable. More than anything, he wanted his shift to be over right now, so that he could go see her again.

A blaring alarm filled the small office. The assembly queue had clogged. Internal junction nodes poured off of the data conveyor, sending energy pulses ricocheting across the physical space outside. All around him, the system began to buckle, threatening to shut down.

"Damn it!" David opened a soft-save link directly into the imager. He tried to snatch up his unfinished project and dump the entire thing into memory, but it was too late. The tangled applications overloaded the queue, and a grinding noise tore through the air. The stabilizer fields around the structure collapsed from the strain, and with an ear-splitting crash the entire stadium fell in upon itself, detonating the scattered connector nodes.

David stared at the pile of rubble outside his window as the office systems failed and went silent.

Oh hell.

Light flashed out of the corner of David's eye, and he found his supervisor hovering over his shoulder. The drone had no movable facial features, but it gave off a clear air of disapproval. Mercy would not be forthcoming.

"David Harris," it intoned. "Action: you are given a mark 3 reprimand. The events that necessitated this outcome are as follows: failure to perform assigned duties resulting in critical system error and departure from scheduled orders."

"I'm very sorry, BOB. It won't happen again."

"Sidenote: I have repeatedly stated that my full designation is Building Oversight Bot serial number zero two seven. Please use this address when speaking to me."

"Yes, sir."

"Response: your faulty memory aside, this is a serious matter. Your recent absences and poor work performance have become unacceptable. Result: you are hereby placed on probation. Any further aberrations in work performance will result in termination."

David swallowed hard and nodded. BOB-27 began to hover toward the exit, then paused and turned back to him. "Observation: my sensors indicate a high level of frustration. This leads to poor work performance. I will attempt to alleviate this frustration with my humor subroutines."

Inwardly, David groaned.

"Query: why did the winged fowl cross the utility corridor?"

David forced himself to keep a straight face. "Why?"

"Response: because it had been programmed to. Ha. Ha. Ha."

"Thank you for that…"

The drone turned to leave.

"…BOB."

If the drone could have glared at David, it would have. With a sound like a humph, it floated out of the office.

Sighing, David leaned back in his chair. His thoughts churned. He couldn't afford to be fired, since he would lose access to the tools he needed to study the Crash Storms. Just working from home, he'd never be able to resolve their threat, or uncover the mysteries of Analath. That meant he could afford no more mistakes.

He stared blankly at the mess he had made and sighed.

No time like the present to get started.

Chapter 17

Leading the column of Siathrak warriors, Totarakh kept his mount at a brisk lope. It was the evening of the third day of their march from Ilinar, and they drew near to the Holy City. Once the rest of his soldiers were assembled, they would return to Ilinar and purge whatever taint had seeped into the city. For too long Shalaron's reputation had grown unchecked. That he was not a spiritually devout Sage had always been bothersome. Finally, Totarakh had an opportunity to supplant the upstart.

He had left orders with his guards to be on the watch for Shalaron's return. If the Sage showed his face within the city walls again, Totarakh would see to it that he was publicly disgraced for his failures. Removing him from his post and replacing him with a loyal temple sage would help solidify Totarakh's control over that region.

The shadows lengthened as the contingent neared the last rise. The chill of evening had long ago settled, but the air around them began to swelter. A loud roar shattered the calm, and a great column of fire blazed down from above the Holy City. Their mounts trembled and hissed with terror. "What foul evil is this?" Totarakh called out. "Soldiers of Siath, ride now! We must defend the Temple."

They crested the hill and watched in horror as another burning lance of flame descended upon the Holy City. A fierce cry went up from the ranks of the warriors, and they tried to control their frantic mounts. Several soldiers were thrown to the ground.

The fires spread with unholy speed as if guided by a terrible will, until the whole of the city was aflame. A massive explosion rocked the ground, and a column of fire billowed up, the flame coalescing into the head and upper torso of a man. Two blazing white eyes opened, and the figure advanced toward the Grand Temple, laying waste to everything in its path.

"High Priest," one of Totarakh's bodyguards cried out. "My lord, we must get you away from here. This demon is consuming everything."

"Coward!" Totarakh sneered. "We shall not abandon the halls of Siath to this evil." His voice rose above the roar of the flames to reach the entire contingent. "Siath favors his chosen warriors. This fiend must be destroyed. Ride out now, and defend the Holy City!"

Two soldiers remained with Totarakh, and the rest charged down the hill to battle the menacing flames. They swept across the open plain like a flood and poured through the city gates. The towering elemental turned to regard them, drew a deep breath, and blew a gust of fire that consumed the first ranks. Battle sages launched globes of frigid water and waves of ice at the figure, but with little effect. It turned back toward the temple and waved its arm at the remaining soldiers. A solid wall of flame rippled across the ground, consuming the attackers to the last man.

"You must fight," Totarakh commanded his remaining guards.

"My lord, no! Your safety is paramount."

"Do you fear to defend your own city? You will do as I command. The Holy City must not fall!"

The guards hesitated, but obeyed their orders. They rode toward the city, leaving Totarakh alone on the hill.

Their defiance against the living flame was short lived. It grabbed each of the soldiers in a burning hand and lifted them high into the air, exulting as their flesh charred into ash. The figure spoke strange words of power, and a thunderous explosion tore the Grand Temple apart. Huge chunks of blackened stone fell to the ground outside the city walls. A smoking fragment nearly crushed Totarakh as he watched in horror from the ridge.

The elemental slowly turned, its gaze moving up the hillside. The burning eyes lit upon the stricken Totarakh, and he trembled, for the figure was aware of his presence.

A burning rumble resounded across the valley below, and Totarakh's eyes widened as he realized the unholy flame was laughing. A blazing arm lifted and pointed directly at him as a terrible voice tore into his ears: "In Siath's name."

Fear overwhelmed Totarakh's senses. He kicked his mount wildly, and the reptile hissed as it fled from the burning ruins. The roaring sound of the elemental's laughter echoed through the night air.

Totarakh's mind nearly broke from the terror. He lost all sense of time as he wandered aimlessly through the wilderness, the sun rising and setting unnoticed around him. His consciousness returned at a sudden jolt of pain, and he found himself on the ground. Behind him, his mount, ridden to exhaustion, hissed its final breath and lay still.

Wandering further across grassy plains, he grappled with the horror of the events he had witnessed. Why? Why was this foul creature allowed to destroy the oldest testament of Siath's power? The Holy City had been the center of the Siathrak order. Warriors, sages and priests beyond number had dwelt there in the heart of Anrathian civilization. Now that heart was stilled under the charred remains of its people.