Chapter 125 The Sky Ark
It was not a landing, but a judgment of the ship.
It was a drooping ball of smooth polished silver, which despite gravity silently floated ten feet high above the smashed glass ceiling of the Spire. Rivets, exhaust ports, no trace of the rugged industry welding that held our world together were there. It was clean. Painfully, impossibly clean.
The displacement field wind blow blew my hair on my face. I strained my eyes in the light of its pure white running-lights.
"Who are they?" Vane called in the drive of the ship. "Coalition? Off-worlders?"
they are not of the Deadlands, said Ryker, to cover his eyes. "Look at the hull. No scorch marks. No Rot stains. They are not in touch with the ground in years.
An extension in the form of a ramp was projected out of the belly of the ship. It was not staged, but like molten mercury, it oozed forward, and became a pathway that connected the floating ship and the maintenance deck of the Spire.
The airlock was coming to pass through steam hissing.
Three figures stepped out.
They resembled death angels. They dressed in smooth white exosuits, which were all-over. These were opaque glass helmets, which reflected the grey sky. They held arms--long, thin rifles which throbbed of a blue energy like the Origin Stone, only colder. Clinical.
The leader stepped forward. His helmet was drawn in with shh-click.
The gentleman below was... flawless. His color was pale and untainted, his hair was a short blond, and his eyes were a piercing, icy blue. He looked healthy. Not only not starving, but alive. He had a physique that indicated that he had never missed any meal, never inhaled smog, never engaged in a fight with a wolf.
He gazed at us in pity and disgust.
I am commander Valerius of the Orbital Station Aether, he said. His suit speakers gave his voice an amplification that was clear and without any statical sound. "We received the Origin pulse. We were to recover the Asset.
He looked directly at me.
"The Asset?" Ryker stood up in front of me, and his hand was against the hilt of his sword. "She has a name. Queen Elara."
Valerius looked at Ryker. He examined the mutilated armor, the sooty meat, the Wolf-Alpha anatomy. He sneered.
We are not to accept titles on mutants, said Valerius coldly. Genetic viability is known to us. And she..." A gloved hand, which he pointed at me.
You are an alien, you are in space, Dr. Sato came to understand, and stepped forward, holding her scanner. "The old Exodus Project. You didn't die in the launch."
We ascended, Valerius said in correction. The surface did rot but we maintained the purity of the human genome in space. We have been awaiting the signal that the planet was prepared to receive reclamation.
He stared out on the decaying Spire, on the violet light of the Rot in the distance.
Well, it seems we wait still, Valerius said. The Origin Stone is however a priority resource. We have a right to remove the Carrier and any Class-A personnel.
"Class-A?" His hand closed on his shotgun and Baron growled. "What about the rest of us?"
Valerius said, We have a transport capacity of two hundred. Capacity is not the limitation though. Contamination is."
He drew out of his belt a small gadget--a scanner of the hand.
The Ark is a sterile place. We cannot admit the Rot to violate our quarantine. Only fitters pass the Genetic Purity Screen may board it.
"Purity?" I demanded, and a knot knot to my stomach.
Valerius said, 0% Void infection. "No mutations. No intake of psychoactive spores. Pure human DNA."
The quietness on the roof was tyrannical.
No one, That is no one, laughed Vane, a rough jagged fell. Buddy, we have been feeding on radioactive corn seven days. We breathe the spores. Half of us are wolves. The other half are becoming trees.
Then you have no right to be rescued, said Valerius.
He gestured to the ramp.
"The Asset will come with us. We will scan the rest. In case somebody dies, they can board. The rest... will remain."
"Remain where?" Ryker asked, his voice low. "The building is collapsing."
Nature is efficient, Valerius answered. You will, as long as you are strong enough to live. If not... you are waste data."
"We aren't data!" I screamed and came out behind Ryker. "We are people! We fought the Queen! We saved this city!"
You have taken too much time, said Valerius. And in effecting that, you sold your biology. Look at them, Elara."
He pointed to Baron.
"Canine hybrid. Unstable aggression levels. Probably will become feral in 48 hours.
He pointed to Sato.
"Radiation exposure. Cellular degradation. Life expectancy: two years."
He pointed to Ryker.
"And him. The Alpha. A chimera of human and Void. He is not a man. He carries the disease you are struggling with on his feet.
Valerius extended his hand.
"Come with us. We have medical bays. We have clean water. We have a future. The dead to bury the dead.
I stared at the polished silver vessel. It was safety. It was escape. It was all that we had prayed.
Then I looked at Ryker.
He was looking at me. He didn't look angry. He looked... resigned.
"Elara," Ryker said softly. "You should go."
"What?" I grabbed his arm. "No!"
Look at the Spire, said Ryker. "It's falling, Elara. I can't fly. I can't save you from gravity. If you stay, you die."
I go, and leave you, I said, with them tears in my eyes. "I leave everyone."
You steal the Origin, Ryker said. "You keep it safe. That's the mission."
"No," I said.
I turned to Valerius.
"Your test is flawed," I said.
There is nothing wrong with science, Valerius answered in a smooth manner.
You define purity by means of DNA, I said, shaking my ring. The broken blue rock throbbed feebly. "But the Origin isn't about DNA. It's about adaptation. Life isn't pure, Commander. Life is messy. It changes. It evolves."
I pointed to Baron.
"He fought a god for me."
I pointed to Sato.
She is the creator of the machine that saved the world.
I pointed to Ryker.
And he... he is more a human than you ever will be.
I moved aside, and connected my arm with that of Ryker.
"We are a pack," I said. We go or we do not go at all.
Valerius sighed. It was an expression of very real disappointment.
He said it was emotional attachment. Another symptom of contamination.
He tapped his helmet.
"Secure the Asset. It was authorized to use lethal force against the hostiles.
Two men in the rear of his body lifted their rifles.
"Get down!" Ryker roared.
He hit me at the same time that the energy rays tore through the air above where my head had been.
ZZZT-CRACK.
The beams struck the maintenance console and it shattered into sparks.
"Baron! Vane! Fire!" Ryker screamed, and sprang to his feet and lifted his sword.
Baron didn't hesitate. He discharged his shotgun at the soldiers.
BOOM-BOOM.
They were shot with the buckshot in their white armor. It did not enter, but the kinetic weight struck one of the soldiers with a blow backwards.
"They have shields!" Vane cried out, but uselessly shot Valerius with his pistol. The bullets tore through an undulating energy field a few inches of the suit of the Commander.
"We can't fight them!" With a scream Sato huddled behind a vent. "They're Tech-Level 5! Their armor cannot be shot through!
"Then we get creative!" Ryker growled.
He charged Valerius.
Valerius did not even draw a weapon. He simply raised his hand. There came a burst of gravity-wave energy striking Ryker in the chest.
WHAM.
Ryker shot backward and hit the maintenance deck railing. He collapsed, gasping for air.
"Primitive," Valerius sneered.
He walked toward me.
"You are coming with us, Elara. We may cleanse your mind of these animals. In time, you will thank us."
He reached for me.
I supported myself upon the roof. A thousand feet down to the plaza where it had been ruined was beneath me.
"Don't touch me!" I screamed.
I tried to use the ring. I tried to summon the wind. And the crack in the rock flashed scalding through my flesh. It sputtered and died.
The rock is spoilt, said Valerius. "We will repair it."
He grabbed my wrist. His grip was like a steel vice.
"Ryker!" I screamed.
Ryker looked up. He was cut and bloodied, and outwitted. He watched the faultless Commander haul me out to the ship.
And the Wolf took over.
With a roar Ryker lifted the glass on which we stood. It wasn't human. It was the cry of an Alpha who had his mate captured.
His eyes did not shine gold, but flamed.
He didn't use his sword. He picked up a jagged bit of rebar of the broken railing.
He threw it.
Not at Valerius.
At the ship's engine intake.
CLANG-SHRED.
The rebar crashed into the screaming blades of the flying Ark. The fan blades shattered.
BOOM.
The engine exploded. Black smoke came streaming out of the smooth silver hull. The ship was going violently to the right, dipping down to the roof.
"Stabilizers failing!" one of the soldiers screamed.
The deck leaned over and Valerius dropped me.
"You fool!" Valerius shouted at Ryker. "You've doomed us all!"
Were we not going to fly, Ryker snarled, as he stood up: nobody flies.
The ship lurched again. The ramp broke loose, skating back and over the roof.
"Retreat!" Valerius ordered. "Emergency liftoff!"
He scramled up to the ramp, with cover fire on his soldiers.
"We will return!" Valerius vowed, and gave me a trembling finger. When you become starving... when you become monsters... keep in mind you have done it yourself!
The ramp retracted. The smouldering vessel tottered at the air, with smoke pouring out of its port engine. It rose quickly and was hidden in the grey clouds.
They were gone.
We were alone on the roof.
The Spire groaned beneath us. In the glass floor a huge crack was formed.
We must go, Vane said, examining the damage to the structure. "Now. Before the roof caves in."
"Go where?" Wiping his snout with his blood, Baron asked. "We just blew up our ride."
Ryker went to the verge of the roof. He looked down at the city.
"We go down," Ryker said. We make our escape out of the lobby. We take the Beast. And we find a new home."
"Where?" I asked, joining him.
Ryker pointed North. Past the ruins. Past the Deadlands.
The Purists were sneaking round in orbit; That, Ryker said. But they need to have a ground station. A place to refuel. Should they fall, somewhere there is a base.
We are going to hunt the spaceships? Vane asked, incredulous.
We shall live, Ryker said.
He looked at me.
You picked us, he said, massaging my cheek. "Why?"
I leaned over to his hand, and said, Because you are real. And I would rather have monsters than machines.
The Spire shuddered again.
"Let's move," Ryker ordered. "Before the floor drops out."
We dashed off to the stairs, abandoning the sky, and stumbling down into the rot and the wreck to struggle another day.