An Obsidian Sky Part 11

I looked back at the infected and noticed something. They had been totally drained of life. No brilliant light shined from them as it did us. But I knew that they were all connected, I could feel the ripples of energy emanating from them as it coursed its way across my skin.

Aeniah let go with one of her hands, I thought she had gone mad until I saw her pull out her small pistol and begin firing at the infected that were blocking our landing.

'A little help,' she cried as she let pulses of blue light fly from the gun's muzzle.

I reached for the lancer that I had placed on my back for the decent but I saw Aeniah shaking her head out of the corner of my eye. I realized what she wanted, I realized that she wanted me to use the Promethean Layer.

I drew the energy that I could feel all around me towards me, I felt it flow into me, as though a dam had collapsed. I threw my free hand out towards the growing mult.i.tudes beneath us. A column of energy ripped its way out of my arms and arced its way along the ground. There was the sight of an awesome explosion as everything the beam hit detonated with a tremendous fury. A terrific bang crashed across the city, the percussive force of which threw the other infected onto the stone floor. I continued to move the beam across the infected decimating their numbers with ease.

We hit the ground with a thud and I stopped the column of energy in fear that we might get caught up in its devastation. From the right, the centre, the left, heck from every direction they came. They growled and hissed as they rushed towards us.

'Pick your fights,' Aeniah urged and began to run with an incredible speed towards the primary highway that led into the centre of the Commercial District. I pushed my right leg backwards and began to lurch forwards. This quickly changed into a run and before I knew it I was gaining on Aeniah. It seemed as though the energy of the Promethean Layer rushing through me had given me a strength and vitality that I had never known in my entire life. I remembered that we had forgotten the food, but this did not seem to matter, because the Promethean Layer had restored the sustenance my body needed.

We ran with a speed that quickly outstripped our pursuers. They were very soon left in the background. The huge buildings ahead of us seemed almost to draw us towards them. As if the very magnitude of their size drew us in with a force of gravity.

Soon we were in amongst these structures. The light from the suns barely made its way down to the ground level of the city. We took a right turn and onto an immense bridge that lead across the water and cut the city in half. With the city on either side of this incredible bridge I spotted a building ahead.

The huge building that looked like an arch swept over the top of the bridge that we were travelling. In tall letters atop its mighty stature were the letters ASTI. I of course knew what they meant. It was the Ascension Social Transport Initiative for the Commercial District. We were nearly there. In fact considering the speed with which we were running, we would be there in a matter of seconds.

The highway or bridge, whatever it was supposed to be, ran right through the centre of the arch. On either side of the bridge was water, the city was visible in the distance. It's two supporting feet seemed to fall into the water on either side, there was no entrance. I could not see a way up there.

This was an obvious problem. The ASTI building suspended as it was above the bridge that we were on had no obvious way in, there were no elevators, no ladders. There was nothing but air between us and it. The buildings that were around us were only accessible by hopper. The highway went through the air beneath the arch of the ASTI and there seemed no way of jumping across to either side of the arches legs. In fact the legs seemed to penetrate like needles into the water around them.

I was just about to ask Aeniah or Sean for a solution when I guessed their intentions. Aeniah had hoisted herself up and onto the railings of the highway. In a moment she was gone, plummeting into the water beneath. I braced myself whilst running and threw myself up and onto the rails. Without taking the time to do the dangerous thing of thinking, I felt my body relax and fall into the water.

The fall took seconds but it felt like hours. With the effects of the Promethean Layer running through me it seemed that I could individually pick apart and recognize each centimetre of my descent. After exactly three seconds were up and I had fallen exactly two hundred feet and nine inches a buffet of water slammed itself against me.

I instantly lost my connection to the Eye of Orion. The star was slammed out of existence in much the same way as the air in my lungs. I coughed as water started to enter my throat. Flailing around in the water I soon remembered how to float and how to swim. It was funny the things that you could forget in a crisis. Although, I thought, a lot of people seem to respond better in a crisis than me, but I didn't let these thoughts affect me too much right now.

I looked up and away from the imploding water at the bridge. The infected had begun to gather along the sides of the highway and were looking down. I laughed despite myself at their inability to comprehend a way down. I figured that they might not be able to swim.

I was soon proved wrong. After just a second they began to dive in. I watched as each of them crashed into the water. Maybe they can't swim I reasoned. But I was soon proved wrong again. Though they might not have won any awards for style they certainly moved through the water quickly.

I spun onto my front and began to move my arms as if my life depended on it, which it did. I could see the small outline of Sean racing towards the arch's legs and swam even faster to attempt to make up the difference. Without the Promethean Layer's energy coursing through me I had lost all of my energy. A tremendous headache was breaking out and I felt as though I could see blood in my eyes.

I felt a hand catching upon my leg as it kicked the water away. They were getting close but I was nearly at the end. I heard over the splashing of the water 'DIVE!.' It was Aeniah. I scanned the horizon whilst swimming through the water and saw her head just as it bobbed beneath the surface.

I reached the spot where she had disappeared and swam into the deep to find her. Everywhere there was darkness. My lungs were beginning to burst, I was sure that they would not withstand this pressure. I hated this, drowning was most certainly the worst way to die. Most of all I hated Carvelle for starting this whole thing in the first place.

It was whilst undergoing these moments of hatred that my hand caught on something in its downwards stroke. Yes, there was light coming from it. Not the psychedelic kind of light witnessed when touching that energy but the kind of light that came from a bulb. The water distorted its exact position but I made a beeline.

I became aware of entering an enclosed s.p.a.ce. With blurry vision I could make out a red light. I pressed my hand on top of it and lifted it away. I was going to pa.s.s out, my vision was tunnelling. The light switched to green and I heard the sound of metal being dropped on metal behind me. I groggily turned my head and saw that I had been sealed in. Well, I thought, I am definitely dead now.

My salvation was found in that always welcome hissing noise of air being pumped into an airlock. Idiot I thought. I was in an airlock. No need to panic it will only be a few more seconds.

The water slowly dropped its grip of the roof and a huge bubble of air presented itself. I raised my head as best I could in what little room there was at the moment and gasped the entire bubble in in one go. The water dropped a little further and my head became completely free of water. It dropped a little further still and my feet began to be drawn back to the ground as the water lost its buoyancy and my weight increased.

The door to the interior of the ASTI opened and I was finally free. I half expected some monster to be waiting to eviscerate me on the other side of the door, but the only monster was a rather bedraggled looking Aeniah. Amazingly she was smiling.

'Forgot to mention,' she said, 'the ASTI was designed only to be accessible from the air. We had to use the emergency escapes.' It was at that point that I almost felt like killing her.

We were in front of yet another AI desperately arguing our need of a vehicle.

'Mother f.u.c.ker, I'm your general. United World Security Forces. Under order of the president I command you to provide me with a vehicle.' Aeniah had lost her temper quite a while ago and had even tried to punch out the holo of the AI. The AI, if that was possible, seemed coyly amused at the effort to punch something made entirely out of light.

'I am sorry Madame Corinthia but vehicle loan cannot be obtained by United World citizens. Only citizens of Ascension may freely use this service. You can obtain a rental permit from the nearest attendant.' The AI's arm gestured towards row after row of empty terminals.

Aeniah turned to Sean. 'Sean darling, why don't go and get me one of those permits.' Her voice played dangerously upon the word.

Sean bolted away and disappeared down some corridors for a while. After a period of about half an hour, in which the AI took more abuse than I thought it was possible for one person to give, Sean returned.

'About b.l.o.o.d.y time.' Aeniah then put on her nicest possible smile and cutest accent. 'If it wouldn't be too much trouble could you kindly give me some transport.'

After looking over the doc.u.mentation that Sean had retrieved the AI transformed her expression to one of absolute joviality. 'Of course general, I see your doc.u.mentation is indeed valid. My apologies for the delay. What kind of vehicle were you after?'

'The fastest one you have,' said Aeniah and then after a second of thought, 'probably make it the st.u.r.diest one too.'

'Okay let's see what we have for you...ah, it seems as though the closest match to your criteria is a Muldune California. The vehicle is made of reinforced Tordan armour and its effective highest speed is mach one.'

'Mach one?' I queried.

'Mach one is a measurement of speed and was created in order to reflect man's need for an uncomplicated way of measuring their velocity relative to the speed of sound. Does this vehicle sound acceptable?'

'I would have preferred it hypersonic, but I guess that will have to do.' Aeniah said as she folded her arms.

The AI walked over to a terminal and pretended to be reading some information off the screen, but we could all see that the screen was blank and probably hadn't been turned on in decades. It seemed that Carvelle had intended a certain level of service should be carried out by the AI to give the consumer a valued feel. Of course in the aftermath of the population's extinction it just seemed plain stupid.

'Okay then. Your vehicle is ready and waiting in the dispatch area. Today is a great day for driving. Traffic is abnormally low for this time of year and traffic cameras indicate no congestion.'

A platform raised itself in amongst the empty lots and we stepped onto it. The platform moved silently and descended through floor after floor of still and silent vehicles. It was in this moment that it hit me, Ascension was truly dead, and its population just hadn't been given enough time to rest silently in their graves. Everything in Ascension seemed a little ridiculous without its population. AI's were waiting to take care of their clients every need. Systems had been waiting for decades to perform the functions that they would never be asked to fulfil again. The city was built like an impressive work of art, but with no one to view it, it should have been t.i.tled 'An Ode to Frivolity.' Even the traffic control updates were broadcasting information to the mult.i.tudes of computer terminals that no one would ever read. It seemed at this moment as though the entire station had been made entirely for us. It seemed as though every walkway and every shop and every house had been constructed with us in mind. And it had been a wasted effort; for there was no way that we could fill the void. I thought of Blue Dawn and realized just how she must feel. It wasn't so much that she had to continue with project Ascension, but that there was nothing else she could do. I understood that if she could not continue with her project then the only thing that was left for her to do would be to wait silently for death, as the last broken remains of her civilization corroded into ruins.

The platform stopped at the dispatch area which was identified by a very helpful sign. Our vehicle was on another descent platform and the AI had not been kidding, it certainly looked rugged. It was all bold lines and flat shining surfaces. The colour was a green so dark and shiny that it almost appeared black. It reminded me of a stealth plane in design, only somehow s.e.xier and with four large wheels.

Aeniah got into the driver's side and I got into the pa.s.sengers. Even the b.l.o.o.d.y car began to lecture us on safe driving. 'And please remember you can only exceed the speed of sound whilst on the freeways and not the highways, this is because only the freeways are designed to support the shock waves.'

Aeniah, rather than grunting and groaning, flicked around in the systems menu and the endless stream of narrative was silenced. We both let out our breath in relief. There was a tapping noise on the window of the car. Sean was banging his head against it, I laughed when I remember that we had left him outside without any hands to open the door. I opened the door and let Sean inside. He settled down in the back.

The platform began its decent out of the arch. We were being lowered onto the highway. It suddenly hit me as to why the building had been constructed in this manner. It was sufficiently separated from the highway that it would not have any effect on traffic flow, and by suspending the bulk of its body in the air over the highway a vehicle could be lowered onto every lane of the highway at once. It still seemed a little excessive.

The seething ma.s.s of bodies were waiting in their multidides beneath us on the highway. 'How are we going to get past them?'

Aeniah just laughed in response and pressed her foot to the floor. I was pushed back into my seat with the force of the acceleration. The car launched off the platform and fell the twelve foot onto the ground, impacting heavily. I was thrown forward and then pinned backwards again as the wheels gained traction on the road surface. My eyes felt as though they were going to explode out through the back of my head. Aeniah was screaming with the sheer thrill of the cars performance and after my initial worry wore off I joined in to form a chorus.

The buildings hurtled past us. Unsuspecting members of the infected population were cut in half by the car as we drove through them without a care. Even Sean appeared to be enjoying himself more than usual. His musical humming increased in pitch and speed. We banked right and rose like G.o.ds up an elevation and into the Commercial District's skyline. Here we soared above the heights of the smaller buildings and joined the tallest structures in the world.

The road changed as we rose from a familiar black surface into a clear gla.s.sy one. The car's screen flashed the words Mach Capable Freeway. Aeniah moved a lever until a short beep was heard, lifted her foot and then hammered it back down on the throttle. The skyline began to blur. We were moving so fast I could no longer see the gla.s.sy road. As far as I could tell we were driving on thin air.

We were now reaching the edge of the sky. The final sun hung above us, but the cars climate control was keeping us at a comfortable temperature. The blue of the sky melted into a grey of metal and I saw at last the city limits. We pa.s.sed through a hole in the wall and left the Commercial District behind.

14.

Crystal Starlight The car finally came to a stop after a long journey to the Centre for Administration, High Procurator's office. Blue Dawn was waiting inside. This avatar was wearing a different set of clothing to the one that we had left behind in the docks. It was styled like a long dress but this time as white as snow. Along the surface of the dress were sequins of jasper that seemed to fall like teardrops onto the floor.

'I see your numbers are less than when you left. Am I to a.s.sume that they have been killed?' Blue Dawn seemed in no mood for pleasantries.

Aeniah just scowled and so I replied, 'one went mad, the other two were lost on the way here.'

'Then they will be destroyed along with the rest of the Commercial District.'

'What!' Aeniah and I shouted in unison.

Blue Dawn smiled, a thick killer's smile. 'The Commercial District has been a dangerous place over the course of these many years. I needed to keep it alive until my design was completed, but could not allow it to continue beyond that point. I needed it to remain operational so as to connect the docks to where you are now. If I hadn't done so you wouldn't have arrived here. Thus the Commercial District has acted as a reliable bridge for that purpose. Now I believe it too dangerous for the facility to continue to exist.'

Aeniah screamed at Blue Dawn, 'for G.o.d's sake Dawn, these people might be able to be cured. We might find the solution on Hercula. Don't do this!'

Dawn smiled a smile that had no emotion. 'It is rather too late for your sentiments. The Commercial District, rather accidentally, had a built in failsafe. The suns are basically fusion bombs. You might have noticed that they were quite a lot darker than they should have been. This is because I have used Ascension's environmental systems to drain them of enough fuel to continue to sustain fusion. The bombs went nuclear fourteen minutes after I had confirmed your arrival into the Ascension Centre for Administration.'

'You b.i.t.c.h, you b.i.t.c.h,' Aeniah screamed at the top of her voice. 'You killed them all! For the love of G.o.d you murdered eight million people.'

Blue Dawn looked at Aeniah curiously and smiled again, this time the smile was wicked. 'Oh don't be so dramatic. After over a century with very few resources about half of that population would have died. Infinite Longevity is a pain, but even that would have been overwhelmed by the effects of the Eye of Orion. Or had you not figured that into your equation Corinthia.'

Aeniah no longer seemed the strong figure she had before. She backed away from Blue Dawn with pure terror in her eyes. 'You mean you know.' She pulled out her gun and aim it squarely at Blue Dawn. But then her eyes widened. I saw what she was looking at. There were now twenty Blue Dawns entering the room, all dressed identically, except for the fact that these Blue Dawn's had the very fashionable accessory of a lancer point right at us.

'Yes, I figured that one out a little while ago. Actually it was when I finally managed to hack Sean. He rather unwittingly supplied me with a copy of your conversation with George.' Blue Dawn waved her hand across the desk that she was now casually leaning on and a holo recording of our conversation appeared and began to resolve.

'You think me such a demon Aeniah, but you fail to see the bigger picture. I remember when you were much younger, you understood Ascension. You understood the need for Ascension.

'Without Ascension the world tore itself apart. It started when your two great nations began to resent the bilateral nature of the colonies. "Owned by all and for the people" they said. But you mighty giants could not understand this. Their greed drew them to war and the weapons they built to ensure their own protection ensured their very destruction. Ascension would have changed all of that. Ascension knows no borders, no divides, it is the very manifestation of equality. Angels and G.o.ds working in perfect symbiosis. We were going to make the perfect world.'

'Your world went wrong Dawn, you f.u.c.ked up,' Aeniah roared.

'I have to say Cornithia that I very much dislike this new att.i.tude of yours. You used to be so polite, so courteous, the youngest general in the world, all green and fresh faced. And yes you are right of course, Ascension went very wrong. But you cannot blame me for that. The Equinox project was the perfect delivery system, we could always have engineered new angels. There was no limit to their production once we gained the capability to clone them. But Carvelle made a mistake. He took the easy option and so did you. If you really wanted a cure you would have let me continue my work. I could have taken back control of everything on Ascension and with the angels at my disposal I could have rebuilt our society. We could have found a way of shutting down the Eye of Orion network years ago. We could have finished our society.'

Aeniah was a ball of fury. 'I shut you down Dawn because you went mad. Your ambition and your ruthlessness meant that Ascension's citizens turned to the Eye of Orion more and more to sustain them. You were a poor ruler and so when it was all about to come crashing down, and I feared for what remained of the rest of the world, I shut you down. I had to contain the infection. I planned to return, to right the wrongs that we made. But it took so long for them to regain FTL capable technology. When they finally took their first steps into the stars their world had already ended and so few of the colonies were left. The Eye of Orion is killing them and I will take George to shut them down.

'I won't interfere with you again. I wash my hands of Ascension. But if I take George to shut it down, you must promise me that if you continue your goal of the perfect world, you leave the colonies out of it. And Dawn, you need to tell him everything, no more lies.'

The Dawns looked towards one another. They seemed to be communicating in some way. I wanted to know how but they finished before I could ask them and all turned back towards us.

'Very well. As we understand it, you are the only remaining competent and immunised member of the crew remaining. Therefore it appears that we have no choice.

'And now for the truth George. The truth is that we found a way of immunising the population of Ascension from the effects of the Eye of Orion a long time ago. Aeniah for example is one of the very few people who chose to take the vaccine which is why, rather ironically, she remains sane. I needed the additional time, and your DNA, in order to fashion a subject capable of interfacing with the alien technology.

'You see I have been deliberately divulging false information to ensure the completion of my plan. The reason that you are needed is not for some fantastical show of G.o.dlike force to the alien technology. Instead your DNA is now sufficiently similar to that found in the artefacts that you will be able to interface with them and so shut them down, and good riddance to them. Now that we are done would you kindly take the command unit from the desk and get over to Hercula to rid me of this pest.'

I waited for her to say more. She seemed the sort of person that needed to gloat about her successes. But I was in no mood for it and so I said, 'No! I know that you are going to continue with project Ascenion, but there are no people left to experiment on. The angels were freed by dissidents and I want to know why. I also want to know where you are getting new subjects from before I do anything that you want me to.'

All of the Blue Dawns smiled again. 'Well now, that sounds perfectly reasonable. The Equinox subjects were freed by a group of people who renounced the Promethan Layer and its bad effects. They used a genetic modification contained within a syringe in order to shut down our command and control over the subjects. Their reasoning was that if they disrupted the flow of the Promethean Layer through the citizens by neutralising their supply chain, then the population would undergo a forceful detox. Carvelle of course had them all killed.'

Blue Dawn's smile grew even more dangerous now. 'And in response to your question as to where I am going to get more subjects for a second wave of Project Ascension, the answer is quite simple. I have already got them and I got them the same way that we got all of our other citizens: promise them Ascension. Two thousand Xenith cla.s.s vessels are en route from the colonies. They will not be permitted to board Ascension until you have taken out the Eye of Orion network. You might consider my destruction of the Commercial District spring cleaning. The infected have now been ninety eight percent disposed of and I am already beginning reconstruction.

'Oh and one more thing. You might remember your little friend Adrian. Well according to my present security feeds the remainder of the crew has gone insane and he doesn't have much time left. I am keeping him secure but my avatar has already taken fatal damage. I would run if I were you.'

That was about all the convincing I needed. Blue Dawn had seemed to antic.i.p.ate my moves and had already produced a command module from the desk. She handed it to me and with an unusual level of mirth stated 'and since there are so few of you left I can ma.s.s transport you to the Xenith vessels interior. Ma.s.s transport in three, two, one.'

15.

The Course of True Love We emerged inside the vessel. Another AI greeted us. 'Good morning citizens. The time is two fifteen a.m. You are cleared for departure to the Docks of Ascension. Travel time is one minute fifty seconds. We have cleared the launch tubes.'

There was a rumbling as the vessels real-s.p.a.ce drives kicked in. I realised that, like so many things recently, this knowledge was not my own, but the knowledge Ascension had given me.

The vessel itself was quite small. We were standing in the vessel's Command Centre. There was just enough room for three people to be comfortable in here. A large holo had been placed in the centre of the room. It was surrounded by a ringed handrail. There was a seat at the front, presumably where the helm would sit, and another at the back. Aside from this the Command Centre was bare. The holo showed us emerging from Ascension. The stations ma.s.sive bulk began to make itself known. I could see those many sculptures rising from the stations skin. There were the horses galloping, there were birds taking flight and there were angels holding swords and pointing upwards. I realised just how little of Ascension that we had really seen. I thought on all the wonders that might have been. But these were marvels that I would never see.

We were moving at a colossal speed. This was made apparent simply from glancing at the holo as huge sections of Ascension blurred past us. It was magnificent. I wondered for a moment what the Xenith cla.s.s vessel might look like from the outside. Whether it would be the sleek artistic shape that so much of Ascension seemed to take on. But my thoughts were interrupted as the familiar shape of the docks became clear on the farthest side of the holo.

Aeniah appeared to be all action stations. She sat down besides a console which had an array of screens banking at sharp angles on either side. Her hands moved so rapidly upon the touch and gesture response surfaces that I could barely make them out. She seemed at home in this environment. I supposed that weapons and tactics were sort of her speciality.

'Sean, focal imaging detects four remaining crew members. The rest must have been killed by Dawn's avatar. I am unable to get an image on Dawn. I want you to run a locale search for Adrian, try and find him.' Sean responded to her commands without hesitation. Aeniah opened her mouth again to bark more orders. 'Xenith cla.s.s, activate defensive batteries and antipersonnel weapons systems.'

The AI responded with a neutral voice. 'My apologies Madame Corinithia, but the Xenith cla.s.s vessel is a high speed civilian transport vessel only. As a result this vessel is not licensed to carry offensive armaments. There is a weapons locker in an armoury vault at the back.'

'That's not going to be any use.' Aeniah looked like she was thinking quickly. 'George I need you to connect to the Promethean Layer, I am getting a lot of sub-quantum activity from those docks.'

I tried to focus on that star but to no avail. I had drawn upon so much of the Promethean Layer that any attempt to connect just brought an incredible amount of pain into my head. 'I can't. It hurts too much. I don't think that I can do it.'

Aeniah flew out of her seat, raised her hand, and slapped me across my cheeks. 'I have had enough of you right now George. All the way around Ascension I have had to listen to all your complaints, and believe me it took all the self control that I posses not to kill you.

'You have been given a valuable a.s.set. We are still in range of the Eye of Orion, and if you don't connect Adrian is going to die. Now you have just ten seconds to get your f.u.c.king a.s.s in gear before we dock. If those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds cast an explosive inside our vessel we are all f.u.c.ked and you can kiss goodbye to our species. Now f.u.c.king well connect or I will have your guts for garters.'

Her screaming pierced straight through my headache and made me feel a little dizzy. But I tried again. The pain was truly something. The stars brightness felt like it might sear my eyes of all vision. Contrary to my belief the star exploded into a full connection. Feeling the raw restorative power of the Promethean Layer course through me, my headache immediately dissipated.

In this connection I could really see everything. I could even see the Layer itself. It wafting tendrils penetrated everything. It pulsed in straight lines or folded in exact curves. It was every colour imaginable. It was the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen. At last I breathed, 'Connected.'

'Good timing because we are about to dock.' Sean was staring into the helm cosole, conversing with it in some way. Aeniah pointed towards the door and I realised that she wanted me to man the airlock.