Requiem (70 page)

'If you time it
right, a bug on a windshield can still be useful. And since we have
it, and it won't take up any space, we may as well take it with
us.'

Seline accepted
the upload into her optics. 'I'm still not sure what we're going to
do if we even manage to find Icarus's control centre. Are we just
hoping that there's some giant off switch?'

Therin finished
uploading the virus into her own optics. 'The best case scenario,
the one we're all hoping for is that whatever caused the sentinel
to short out and drop dead when you spoke to it will happen with
Icarus or that at least we might get some kind of understanding of
how Icarus works; enough of an idea to damage it in some way.'

Athene held up
a thin metal plate about twenty by fifteen centimetres. 'We also
have these,' she said. 'While we couldn't find a way to directly
replicate the shield technology the sentinels use, we still found a
way to absorb at least some of the blasts from their cannons.'

Athene held the
plate in front of her and, using a command in her optics, the piece
of metal expanded until it was roughly the width and height of
Seline. The metal looked like it was stretched almost to the point
of translucency. Like a metallic sand the shield's face shifted and
changed. The molecules jostled for space, constantly readjusting
with one another.

Athene reduced
the shield back into its handheld size. 'These things will only be
good for two, maybe three shots from a sentinel but it's better
than nothing.' She handed the shield around the group to let them
get a feel for its weight. 'They're magnetised on the back,' she
said, 'so you can attach one or two of them to the back of your
suits and pull them off when you need them.' She pointed to the
counter that ran along the wall of the lab. 'We've only been able
to manufacture nine so far, so someone will be short-handed.

'I'll only have
room for one since I'll be taking the plasma cutter,' said
Therin.

'Alright,' said
Sear, 'it's time we ran through the drill for getting into the
sentinel. Grab your rifles and put your helmets on. We want to make
sure we can get everything in there easily enough.'

The chains
holding the sentinel became taught. They lifted it from the
launching platform and brought it down to the floor in the centre
of the lab. The crew equipped their helmets and took their rifles
from the locker. They stood before the sentinel. Seline held her
arms across her chest and looked at her feet as she shuffled them
on the floor. Belameir walked towards the space where the panel had
been removed. He held his head inside.

'Five people?'
said Belameir. 'Unless you're made of rubber that's a bit
optimistic don't you think?'

'Not as
optimistic as stopping Icarus with only four people,' said
Sear.

'Maybe,' he
said, 'but I'm glad I'm not squeezing myself in there.' He pulled
his head out. 'Are we sure this thing can even lift five
people?'

'What are you
trying to say?' said Seline.

'I'm saying
you're fat. I thought it was obvious.'

'It will handle
the weight just fine,' said Therin. 'The anti-matter cannon we
removed would've weighed as much if not more than all of us.'

'Alright,' said
Sear, 'who's in first?'

Therin jumped
in, followed by Seline, Mercer, Carex, and then Sear. After
jostling around and shifting arms, legs, heads, and rifles into
place, they managed an uncomfortable but acceptable fit. Sear made
sure the panel would close and that he would be able to seal it
from the inside before everyone emptied out of the machine.

'It's just like
playing Tetris,' said Belameir.

Sear looked
over the others. 'When the Atlas Gate is almost open, we're going
to have to be inside that sentinel with the signal activated,
waiting for Icarus to call it back.'

'How long until
Icarus is here?' asked Seline.

'Less than an
hour until the gate is open. We'll run through the drills again and
run tests on the equipment until then.'

Seline was
checking over the virus in her optics. Belameir was loading the
rifles and checking over one of the shields. Less than thirty
minutes until the Atlas Gate was expected to open.

'What are you
going to be doing while we're up there?' Seline asked Belameir.

'I'm going to
be helping Athene. She's with the team that's co-ordinating the
planetary defence systems. Giant shields and giant guns,
basically.'

'I hope they're
not letting you pull any triggers.'

'Yeah, it'd be
pretty anti-climactic if I hit Icarus right in the bull's-eye with
my first shot. Wouldn't want to make things too easy, eh?'

'I just don't
want you to shoot our ass off before we even get out of orbit.'

Belameir
scoffed. 'Your ass is what makes the orbit around here. It'd be
hard
not
to hit it next to something as small as
Icarus.'

'When I find
Icarus I'm gonna give it your exact co-ordinates and have it land
right on your fat, moon sized head.'

'Do you two
have to keep arguing?!' shouted Carex from the workbench.

Sear looked up
from the simulator. 'I'm confused... so do we orbit Seline's ass or
Belameir's head?'

'It's a binary
system,' said Mercer. 'Or... trinary if you count both ass
cheeks.'

'Wouldn't it be
quaternary since Belameir's head is actually two ass cheeks as
well?' added Therin.

Carex looked at
the others, trying to understand what exactly they were talking
about and if they were serious or not. The two humans smiled at his
confusion while Sear, Therin, Athene, and Mercer continued with
their calibrations and tests as if nothing had happened. Carex set
his eyes back on the shield generator.

'You've all
gone insane,' he muttered.

The blaring,
planetary siren broke the odd sense of calm that had graced the
laboratory for the last few minutes. It wailed petulantly above
them until Carex switched it off.

'It's time,' he
said. 'Ten minutes until the Gate opens. Icarus is almost
here.'

The siren was
off but Seline could feel it inside her chest, wrapped around her
heart, squeezing the life from it. She looked up from the display,
the others were already shuffling away from whatever distractions
they'd found to pass the time. Seline stood up. She realised she
hadn't moved her feet for at least twenty minutes. She was worried
they wouldn't move, that they'd been frozen to the floor. She
swallowed hard, stepped to the side then walked towards the others
to collect her helmet and rifle and attach the portable shields.
She joined the others at the hydraulic platform at the back of the
sentinel which had been lifted back onto its launching
platform.

Sear was
standing apart from the group. His voice was calm and measured.
'Once the signal is activated there'll be no contact from comms;
internal or external. I don't want to potentially interfere with
the distress signal and tip Icarus off that something's up. So that
means comms off at least until we're inside Icarus.'

Seline turned
away from Sear to see Tialus and Athene standing next to
Belameir.

'Is this the
farewell party?' said Mercer.

'I've come to
wish you luck and to remind Belameir that there's work to do,' said
Tialus. 'The Doctor sends his regards as well. I only wish there
were room in that thing for another.'

'Maybe next
time,' said Sear.

Athene
approached them and placed her forearm against each of the others'.
A gesture Seline hadn't seen before. When Athene came to Seline she
held out her right hand and grabbed onto Seline's firmly. She shook
it and looked directly into her eyes. There was no smile but Seline
didn't feel like there should be.

Tialus spoke in
the same indefatigable tone she'd favoured for the entire time
Seline had known her. Whether in ceremony or in private
consultation, Tialus spoke and moved, unwavering and undaunted.
'The council,' she began, 'regrets that it can't be here to send
you all off-'

'You don't have
to feed us that line,' said Mercer. 'We know why they aren't here.
They think we're wasting our time. And maybe they're right but at
least we're not wasting it with as much certainty as they are.'

'Counsellor
Calir still believes that we should destroy the gate but he is the
only one. Most of the others have tacitly given their support for
your efforts... after much debate. They have since returned to the
front lines of the defences.'

The roaring of
a nearby ship could be felt through the floor and heard overhead. A
gun emplacement vessel, moving to the outer edge of the city, to
the crest of the valley walls for a better vantage point.

'Myself, the
council, and all of Saranture wish you luck. This may be the last
we see of each other but your actions will speak for you, for
better or worse, should you not return.' Tialus then said something
to them in a dialect that Seline's translator could not
decipher.

Irth gahram ty
polus ert yurran.

Each syllable
had a weight of its own, like a hot stone sinking into the earth.
Seline didn't ask what the words meant. She was staring at Tialus
and Tialus at her until Belameir approached Seline. He said
nothing, just wrapped his arms around her. She did the same.

'If she comes
back with another missing limb I'm holding you responsible,' he
said to Sear over Seline's shoulder.

Sear almost
smiled. Belameir let go of Seline and pulled back, he looked into
her eyes for a moment but still said nothing. He tapped the side of
her helmet with his hand and stepped away from the platform.
'You're all coming back so I won't say goodbye,' he said, 'just
good luck. I'll see you on the other side.'

Seline joined
the others on the hydraulic platform and ascended to the opening in
the sentinel. Therin was first. She gripped the top edge of the
hole and swung her legs inside. Seline was next in line. She stood
at the threshold, glanced down to the floor where Belameir was
still waiting, looking up. His expression remained soft as it
always did, mischief wrapped in a feigned innocence but even behind
that ghost's complexion he couldn't hide the fear and the graveness
that weighed down the edges of his smile. Seline smiled back. She
knew it looked exactly the same.

She stepped
into the sentinel. The others followed behind. Sear pulled the
hatch door closed while everyone jostled for space and what little
comfort they could find within the sentinel. Seline's helmet was
wedged between Therin's ribs and what could have been Mercer's or
Carex's leg. Her shoulders were squeezed together so she was forced
to cross her arms over her stomach. It felt more like a coffin than
anything else but she kept the thought to herself.

'If it's this
uncomfortable now...' mumbled Mercer.

'You can get
out and walk if you want,' said Sear.

'If anyone says
“are we there yet?” at any point during this, I'm going to hit
them,' said Therin.

Seline closed
her eyes and focused on her breathing while Sear applied the
sealant to the edges of the hatch.

Therin looked
at the display on her forearm. 'The dock is clear, blast doors
open,' she dabbed the screen with her fingers, swiped across, 'and
the signal is activated. All we do now is sit and wait.'

'… And hope,'
said Seline.

No sound
penetrated from the outside world.

'What did
Tialus say back there?' Seline asked, whispering the words to no
one in particular. 'Was she speaking in Yurrick?'

Therin was the
one who answered. 'She said, “From stardust you were born and so
you return”. She used an old Yurrick dialect. Only a handful of
Yurrick still use it. We were all taught the phrase when we joined
the first contact team.'

'That sounds...
kind of final... like she doesn't have much hope for us.'

'Those words
were said to the first Yurrick astronauts before their first
mission, but I think they have a different meaning for us. It's not
so much a message of hope or despair but more as a reminder.'

'A reminder of
what?'

'Of where we
came from and where we will go. That death is only another
step.'

The stowaways
sat and waited and hoped in anticipation. Seconds weighed heavy as
minutes, minutes weighed as hours. Each of them was lost in the
maze of their own thoughts, trying to find a way to dull the sharp
edge of their uncertainty. Seline couldn't help but think of her
mother. She knew she heard her voice when the sentinel attacked
her. The very sentinel she was now waiting inside of.

'I found you.
My god, I finally found you.'

There was such
a sense of relief in the voice when she heard those words. She
didn't know what they meant but she knew that her only chance to
find out was to break into Icarus. Sear knew of the connection
between herself and Icarus. That gave her confidence that what
she'd heard was more than memories bubbling to the surface. But
what was the connection? What was the-

There was a
jolt inside the ship. A collective gasp by those inside. They
looked around uneasily. Another jolt. A strange buzzing and
whirring surrounded them. One more jolt and the sentinel was
airborne, out of the lab and heading straight up. Every limb and
every thought was pinned in place to the inside of the sentinel,
held there by the force of the acceleration.

It wasn't long
before the sentinel was shaking and heating up on the ceiling side.
They were passing through Saranture's atmosphere, through the layer
of ozone. Within seconds, the shaking decreased then stopped
completely. They were clear of the planet now, they'd broken orbit
and were heading straight to the Atlas Gate.