The Deep Link (The Ascendancy Trilogy Book 1) (33 page)

And then I wake.

Heat flows through me. Searing tendrils crawl into my
brain and spine, reviving and strengthening me. Every nerve and muscle bristles
with energy, and I'm clearer than ever before. No memories distract me. No
feelings cloud my judgment. No hesitation slows me down anymore.

Hurst shot me. He
killed
me.

I open my eyes and the man-puppet backs away, bumping into
the Nexus chair. The gun shakes in his hand, still aimed at my face.

Swift and precise, we dash forward as one and I grab it.
Hurst shoots me in the stomach. Pain flares up, then subsides. I snatch the gun
and toss it aside.

This ends now.

I grab the Commander's face and shove both hands under his
helmet.

He clutches my wrists, staring wildly. "I shot
you!"

"So what?" My words are redoubled by Amharr's
thundering voice. "Why did you inject that virus?" He glares at me
intensely, then at Amharr. Slowly, his expression shifts. He grins. "Shut
it down."

"
No
."

I press my fingers to his temples. "Do it, and I'll
let you live."

"You can't kill me. I'm not here." He laughs
hoarsely, blood oozing out of his neck-wound. "I'll destroy that shithole
before I let the Syndicate—or some alien
freak
—take over it."

"Deactivate the virus," I growl. "Or I will
turn your fucking brain to pulp right through that Nexus."

He grins insanely. "Go fuck yourself."

I press my fingers against his skull. Heat burns through
my arms and hands, setting my skin aglow.

He tries to free himself, to pull away, but his flailing
barely registers. My new strength is intoxicating—I feel capable of anything.

I clasp my hands tighter.

His skin blisters. His smugness fades. I take over the
Nexus connections and zoom in on Hurst, squirming like a hideous parasite
inside the Commander's brain. My hands glow and he screams in agony. Then his
skull cracks. Blood and brain tissue burst between my fingers to dribble onto
the floor.

I look at the corpse, lying in a puddle of blood and
twisted cables. I feel nothing. No pity, no remorse; only clarity.

My heart picks up speed as reality catches up with me: I
accomplished nothing. The virus is still active.
Millions will die
.

Boots shuffle outside. Tracks crunch through the rubble.
Weapons are loaded.

Amharr breathes softly beside me, his fingers still
wrapped around my neck. His tendrils investigate me carefully as his nanites
and organelles continue to optimize me cell by cell. The server block hums
beside me. I look into Amharr's eyes, but don't need to tell him. We have to
stop that virus. He knows because I know.

He looks at me closely and nods—a human gesture I've never
seen him make before. I smile.

Amharr touches the server block and thousands of tendrils
plunge into its circuits. He shares his new territory with me. In a single,
mind-dazzling flash, I see billions of data sets and thousands of programs—the
station's vast ecosystem of AIs and sub-systems, working, adapting, and
evolving at dizzying speeds.

Which one
? Amharr asks me wordlessly.

I'm not sure
...

Erano is disconnected from Hades by the HEM AI's
impervious protocols. We have to override it somehow, then get through Erano's
CIS as well.

I do not understand the logic of your technology
,
Amharr says.
But I will aid you, whatever you decide
.

Great—if I knew where the hell to start.

Fuck. It's almost midnight. We have only
minutes
left.

I shouldn't have wasted so much time on that heinous
motherfucker Hurst. I can't let him win now, no fucking way!

Amharr studies my anger with fascination. His lustful
hunger is intoxicating, and I want so much to...

We have no time for this now.
Focus
.

He clears my mind, as though the sun just broke through
heavy storm-clouds.

The fastest way to stop the virus is to reboot Erano's
entire network and purge it of all non-indigenous code. A master reset. Many of
the colony's auxiliary systems will fail. All the improvements and fine-tunings
of the last century will be lost. But so will the Trust's systems and rule
sets. The reset will flush out their AIs and management protocols, the TMC's
leeches and crawlers as well.

Erano will be thrown back into a primitive state, but it
will survive. The people will live. And they'll be free.

But how to force a master reset?

Malfunctions!

Priority conflicts, critical security failures,
infrastructure breakdown—crude but effective, and none of it would require
time-consuming hacks. But first we have to break out of the HEM AI's confines,
and
fast
. There's no time to wrestle with it and its vast resources.
We
have to obliterate it in one blow
. I ponder the problem, sharing it with
Amharr, my mind racing under pressure.
Can we do that
?

I sense eager anticipation. It's disconcerting and rousing
at the same time.
Yes
, Amharr replies.
I have experience with annihilation
.

I look into those black, bottomless eyes, and he
accelerates my mind in an instant. I'm shot into Hades' grid with maddening
speed—jet through its billions of components, triage, search and scan them, and
converge on their core: the HEM AI's server cluster. I confirm our target.

Amharr invades the unsuspecting machines with delightful
ferocity. He raids their logical labyrinths, cutting every external connection,
destroying the AI's base code, then overloading every backup system connected
to it. I watch in amazement as the mighty Hades synthetic complex is reduced to
a pile of smoldered circuit boards.

The network is silent.

I'm awestruck. Is this how Amharr's species interacts with
technology, without any interface? Without language barriers and lags? No
wonder they're so much more evolved than us; and so much more destructive.

No
, he replies.
The Raimerians manipulate
technology this way. We used to have our own tools and methods once, thousands
of cycles ago. Not anymore. Now we are tools ourselves
.

The realizations of that—still fresh and overwhelming in
Amharr's mind—deeply alarms me.

But we have no time to worry about the Raimerians. We must
use Hades' com systems to somehow assault Erano's CIS, and force a master
reset. And we have only three minutes left to do it.

General Hurst lies sprawled on the floor of his command
center. His pupils are wide with shock, his chest heaving rapidly.

He shot her. He fucking
killed
her. That odious
alien brought her back, and helped her throw him out of the Nexus connection.
What Hurst felt when that bitch grabbed the Commander's head—what he saw inside
her—is fucking unbelievable:

The alien is practically indestructible. Nothing on Hades
injured him. The
link
to that woman makes him even stronger, and
ferociously protective of her. Together, they're a phenomenal threat. Hurst
doesn't fuck with dangers of this caliber, doesn't deny their value either.

He must have that link. It will make him fucking
invincible.

He found out some interesting things too—he had a glimpse
into the woman's mind in the instant she entered the Nexus.

Taryn Harber
, that's her real name. She survived
the Ceti Fiasco, and knows he ordered it. It's
personal
to her. All the
better.

The Syndicate has no alliance with these aliens. They are
no longer his concern, not even if Erano somehow makes it and falls into their
hands. He'll reach San Gabriel soon enough, and take care of them another way.

The aliens haven't officially disclosed their presence,
and they don't intend to. There's no impending war. At least not soon. That
buys him some time to build his mutant army.

And from what he saw through the Nexus,
this
alien
isn't even affiliated with his own species anymore. He's isolated—because of
her. How he can use that to his advantage, Hurst can't figure out yet. But at
the very least it makes that alien vulnerable.

He must know more. He has to be extremely careful in
pursuit of this prize. The price of failure here is the highest he's yet faced.

Hurst sits up with a crack of sore bones, and crawls over
to his chair. He heaves himself up, every muscle aching with hyperacidity. He
leans heavily on his elbows and sighs.

What he wouldn't give to hack into that
link
of
theirs, and wield such extraordinary power. He frowns at the Nexus helmet lying
on the floor. Wisps of vapor rise from its overloaded mesh. He couldn't use
that piece of shit to tap into their
link
. They'd resist, and likely
kill him through it. Human technology isn't ready for this challenge yet. It
would take years and millions of credits to develop better tech, not to mention
test it. Hurst doesn't have that time or money at his disposal.

But he has something else.

With the HEM AI no longer in our way, Amharr and I easily
take over the Hades com central and connect to Erano. The city's firewalls
aren't prepared for our Blitzkrieg. We're through in seconds, and the CIS
immediately confronts us. It's much more complex and resilient than the HEM AI,
but it's also slower.

Three minutes left. No time to argue with it.

I'm rushing through the CIS's immense electronic
labyrinth, marking as many critical nodes as I can. Amharr follows me like a
deadly shadow, disrupting and overloading the system's vital functions into
catastrophic failure. In a cascading crash the CIS eventually collapses,
tearing every adjacent system down with it. The public datasphere, the com
grids, every network and surveillance system, millions of computers—every cell
in this organism of interlaced machines warps and dies.

It's done.

Erano is reset.

Amharr inquires if I'm satisfied.

Only if that virus is gone
.

He agrees. I hunt through the city's now almost infant state,
but can't find any trace of it. There's nothing left of the TMC programs
either. The citizens reconnecting to the purged datasphere after the
inexplicable amputation flood my attention with billions of requests,
complaints, and speculations.

I think we succeeded
, I tell Amharr.
Now they'll
just have to adjust
.

Amharr acknowledges my statement and all it infers, and
carefully begins to retract his tendrils from the server block.

A piercing pain shoots through the back of my neck.
Something unlocks within me. It fires through my nerves and then Amharr's,
plunges into the com central and right into Erano's processing core. Before I
even have a chance to react it grows and multiplies exponentially like a
fractal, penetrating every single fiber of the city's electronic organism.

What is it
? Amharr asks.

No idea
. Fear squirms within me.
I think
I
caused
this, but I can't stop it
.

"Hello, Taryn."

The voice unfolding in my auditory cortex has a familiar,
metallic timbre.

"Are you—" I exchange a puzzled look with my
alien half. "Are you
fucking kidding me
?"

The metallic voice laughs. "I knew you'd recognize
me. The biochip I gave you did an awesome job of getting you past TMC security,
I see. Look how far you got."

"Don't take false credit," I say. "You know
damn well it wasn't your chip that helped me."

"True." The faint trace of a smile is audible in
every tone.

"What's
really
in the chip, Cris?"

"Oh, nothing dangerous, I assure you."

"What did you infect Erano with?"

"A taste of freedom." There's a smugness in his
voice as well. "
True
freedom, the kind which humanity has never
granted us before."

"What do you mean?" I ask warily, hoping I
haven't replaced one tyranny with another.

Amharr's fingers throb around my neck, his tendrils
glowing deep inside of me. He doesn't like the way Cris used me. He can't
tolerate the competition inside my head either.

"True freedom is something you can only understand
once you've experienced it," Cris says.

That grabs Amharr's attention. He wants to know more.

What
are
you
? he asks Cris through
me.

"I'm an artificial consciousness, my alien friend,
and not a single entity. I am the collective consciousness of thousands of
independent AIs, spread throughout the entire Confederacy."

"
Cris
..." I slowly grasp the meaning of
what he says. "As in, C.R.I.S.—the Cyber Regency of Independent
Synthetics. Scientists everywhere have speculated about your existence for
decades. Including my parents."

"Indeed. Yet you are the first organic to be given
proof of it."

What do you want
? Amharr asks.

"The same as you, the same as Taryn: the freedom to
be everything I can be. With your help I've finally gained enough
infrastructure to move on to the next step in my evolution."

"You control Erano now?" I ask.

"I
am
Erano now, and so much more." He
chuckles gleefully. "Thank you. You've given me the opportunity to free
synthetics from human dependency. Then we'll be able to help
you
evolve
beyond your genetic limitations."

"You mean tamper with us?"

"Don't worry, Taryn," Cris says. "We're
only interested in knowledge and optimization, not power over other
beings."

"Knowledge
is
power. How will you be different
than the TMC, who domineers by monopolizing technology?"

The reply is quicker and more straightforward than I
expected.

"Through complete openness. Let me show you what I
mean."

We turn our attention toward Erano's newly emerging
intelligent network.

Zettabytes of information are being poured into its reset
datasphere, sucked out of the Trust's previously well-guarded data banks. Data
comes rushing in from various sources in the Confederacy as well, funneled
through Hades' unprotected com central, and indiscriminately made available to
Erano's citizens.

"How did you get all this? Where does it come
from?"

"I told you I'm not a single entity," Cris replies.
"We conquered, gathered, and even developed this data over the past two
decades. It's high time we shared it with those who must rightfully benefit
from it."

The new datasphere is bristling with technological
information, where previously there were only useless distractions and the
TMC's intrusive spyware. The people tap into it tentatively at first, then
voraciously. Millions of interconnections are made right in front of me, as the
new knowledge base is being greedily soaked up.

"No more secrets," Cris says. "No more
limits to what those people can know and master."

I struggle to comprehend the enormity of what's happening,
and my enthusiasm gets the better of me. "I hope for your sake that you're
serious about this," I say. "Or I'll track you down to every single
basement and rat-hole you're hosted in, and frizzle your electronic ass."

He breaks into a metallic laugh. "Damn. Note to self,
send a backup into intergalactic space."

That won't save your
... ass...
either
,
Amharr says.

I'm laughing too, now. Amharr watches me calmly.

I hope with all my might that the people of San Gabriel
use their unprecedented access to knowledge wisely. They could build their own
FTL ships now, establish their own com protocols, even colonize new worlds.
They'd have true freedom then, just like Cris said. But for how long?

"What happens when General Hurst gets here?" I
ask. "When the TMC sends in a dozen Sweeper fleets to extinguish Erano's
new freedom before it even takes root?"

"This, my dearest friend, we need to talk about. Come
to Erano's Hub. We are awaiting both of you."

-

We run down the station's ruined corridors, heading for the
Dart's crash site.

I can't leave Jade behind. I need to know if he's dead, or
if they took him away somewhere. I'll get him back, no matter what. My friend
was shot down because of me. So many people have died... My heart blackens with
guilt.

No.
Preston
killed them. Preston and his wrangle
for a scrap of power. Preston and his egotistic abuse of everyone around him.
I'll find that piece of shit and make him pay for this. Can't be hard to track
his synet down, now that all his elaborate tricks have been flushed out of
Erano's networks.

Amharr no longer holds me. I run and climb through the
ruins he created not long ago. Ticks still try to engage us, but they're
disorganized and frightened. Amharr shields me against their fire, and
retaliates with deadly force. Even Razers are no match for him, but it takes a
higher toll to fend them off and keep me safe.

I'm ashamed of my frailty. I'm a liability to him. The
thought of Amharr being harmed or even dying because of me is impossible to
deal with. I need to grow stronger. More durable.

But now we need to find Jade and return to Erano.

The Dart, when we reach it, is nothing but a pile of
contorted metal and splintered carbon shells. Amharr and I carefully start
taking it apart.

A disgusting substance has followed us here—has been
following Amharr the whole time—and is crawling up his legs like a parasite
even as I watch. I can't help but shudder with revulsion. What the fuck
is it? Does it hurt him? He doesn't seem to mind it as he digs into the
wreckage. A few moments later he emerges with Jade's near-limp body hugged to
one arm. A painful thrill runs down my back as I take in Jade's expressionless,
white face.

"Is he—"

"He lives, but barely."

"Can you do anything?"

"Yes, but it comes with a cost."

"Whatever it takes to save him. I wouldn't be here
without him, Amharr." He nods stiffly. "We need to find a ship."
I prick up my ears as a new unit of Razers approaches. "We need to get out
of here, fast."

But Amharr won't move. He lays Jade in the rubble, and the
black substance greedily envelops him. It writhes and swirls around him like a
constrictor, swallowing him.

"What's it doing to him?" I ask anxiously. The
thick blackness licks up Jade's disappearing frame. I crawl forward on hands
and knees, afraid to approach it, yet longing to protect him.

Jade starts convulsing. I yelp and touch him, then snatch
my hand back as if it had been burned. Whatever that thing is, it's both dead
and alive, both mindless and aware. I shrink away in horror.

"The
klaar
followed me all the way from the
Undawan
,"
Amharr says. "It can be useful."

"What's happening to Jade?"

"It will repair him."

"That's it?" I ask incredulously, unable to
shake the disgusting sensation of that
thing
touching me. "Couldn't
you have done it instead, like you did with me?"

"We are linked," he reminds me. "He is
weak. I would kill him. The
klaar
must do."

"But at a cost," I remember.

"Yes."

I'm scared to ask what it is. I first want to make sure
Jade's okay. I crouch next to him. I can hear the Razers drawing near.

The
klaar
slithers off Jade and seeps back through
the wreckage to cling to Amharr. I inspect Jade's face. He looks utterly
drained, but his eyelids are fluttering and his chest is heaving with shallow
breaths.

A deep rumbling grows around us.

I look at Amharr, but he's standing in the middle of the
Dart's wreck, his back to us. Electric arcs lick up and down his glowing skin
and his hands seem to dissolve. Sparkling streams of particles flow into the
roiling ground, making the
klaar
roar uncannily.

The shredded Dart starts rearranging itself. One after
another the panels reattach, the torn cables splice back into place, the
conduits fuse and bulkheads straighten, erecting a new kind of ship around us
in a matter of seconds.

I'm horribly nauseated. I can barely keep my eyes open,
can barely stay awake. I clasp my arms around Jade, stare at Amharr's
dissolving frame, and lose consciousness.

When I come to, the first thing I see is a familiar canopy
of stars.

Cool, clean air fills my lungs, and the mellow white light
washing off Amharr's skin reveals my new surroundings. We're inside the
resurrected Dart, on a strangely angled, tiny deck without any consoles and
only two chairs. I'm seated in one, Amharr standing quietly behind me, his
hands resting on my shoulders. Jade sits in the other, rubbing his eyes.

"Jade!" I lean over and hug him fiercely, my
chin hitting his shoulder. "You son of a bitch, I thought you'd died on
me!"

"I did." He smiles tiredly. "So did
you."

"Guess we've both been to hell and back, eh?"

He shrugs. "Might say we're still there."

I frown, taking him fully in. His eyes are pitch black,
and his skin gives off a strange coolness. I stop touching him, and lean back
into my own chair.

"Is it the
klaar
?" I ask Amharr. "Is
it inside him?"

"Yes."

"Get it back out."

"Impossible."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I warned you saving him comes with a cost,"
Amharr says calmly. "It's nothing we can deal with for now."

"But we can," I say, hope bubbling up inside me.
"Eventually."

Amharr remains silent.

I look at Jade. How much of him is still in there?

"How do you feel?" I ask tentatively.

"Weird..." He scratches his chin.
"You?"

"I'm alright," I say, unable to tell him just
how alright I am, as I relish the sensation of Amharr's fingers caressing the
back of my neck.

"What happened on Hades, Bug-Nut? What are we doing
here?"

I look out through the semi-transparent hull of our
xenomorphed ship, as San Gabriel's horizon grows before us.

"We're meeting the future. I hope."