The Company Man (14)

Nic, Mika, and Bagon hurried everyone back into the tunnel as Odessa initiated her armour and turned to face the entrance.

‘Everyone turn and close your eyes,’ Nic yelled, yet he couldn’t help but ignore his own advice. He was the last man into the tunnel, and he turned back at the last moment to watch as the svelte chrome figure stood tall with her back to him, legs apart and fists clenched by her sides. Nic became transfixed on the orange glow emanating from her abdomen as her armour charged. The colour was so bright that it almost extended from her body to his eyes. Their enhanced capabilities captured the magic in its entirety. After a few seconds, she emitted a piercing sonic wave and Nic managed to glimpse the intense flash of oranges and golds and yellows that exploded from her chest and through the wall in front of her, before he was forced to avert his eyes. When he looked back, Odessa’s energy blast had vaporised the entire wall and about half the canopy. Where the wall had stood, there was now a pathway, about five meters wide, leading out of the mines and up to the surface at an angle of about forty degrees.

Nic wondered if anyone had been standing on the other side as the blast tore through the rockface.

Odessa turned and beckoned Nic to follow her outside, and a trail of rebels followed after him.

When Nic reached Odessa, she seemed taller and much more alien. With her visor down, her head was slightly elongated and raised into a point on top. He could see his own face staring back at him in his reflection.

Her voice was electronically distorted when she finally spoke, adding to Nic’s sense of unfamiliarity. ‘When we reach the top of the ramp, Bagon will lead everyone to the underground passage. Nic, you wait here and make sure everyone follows.’

Unbeknownst to Nic, Bagon and Mika had both approached and were standing behind him.

‘Roger that, my lady,’ they both chimed in unison.

‘Mika, keep an eye on the prisoners,’ she ordered.

‘Understood,’ came the keen reply.

‘How far is the sensor net?’ Nic asked.

Odessa waved an arm to her right. ‘It’s about 20 metres to the left of the entrance. Bagon knows where. Good luck my friends.’

Odessa began to turn to leave, but Nic grabbed her cold metallic shoulder.

‘Odessa, wait! Please, don’t slaughter those men,’ he urged.

‘Nic,’ she replied impatiently, ‘we don’t have time to lose, I have to go.’

‘Incapacitate them, distract them,’ he begged, ‘but please don’t kill them.

Nic searched her visor for any hint of acquiescence, but the featureless metallic ovoid returned nothing.

She touched his face with a cold metallic palm and said flatly,

‘Step aside, Nic, I have to project my shields.’

She brushed his hand from her shoulder, turned, and held out her arms perpendicular to her sides. She slowly levitated in front of them, and as her head breached the line of sight of their foes, an endless volley of blaster fire fizzed into her armour, unable to penetrate the metal. The sheer volume of fire pushed her back at first, but when her whole body had risen above ground level, she began edging forward, her body angled at about twenty five degrees, pushing against the endless barrage of blaster fire. When she reached the end of the ramp, she pointed her palms downwards and projected her energy matrix. A screen of pale blue energy extended out from her body and fanned out down towards the ground. She flew higher until she was at a height of about 10 metres and the energy shield stretched all the way down to the ground, extending about ten metres either side of her. Nic and the others watched in awe as the energy shield was peppered with blaster fire, like bright orange rain crashing into the surface of a perfectly calm lake. Nic glanced at Bagon, who had been mesmerised by the patterns. He was smiling and staring at the screen, his pupils almost swimming in his irises.

‘Bagon!’ Nic yelled and he gave him a nudge.

Bagon’s pupils slowly found their center and he turned at looked at Nic, still grinning.

‘Hadn’t we better move?’ Nic asked.

Having clearly regained his enthusiasm for the cause, Bagon winked and said, ‘You betcha, sunshine.’ Then, he turned and looked at the crowd that had gathered behind them to witness Odessa’s awesome spectacle. ‘Come on then, let’s do this!’

He motioned for everyone to follow him and he ran towards Odessa. He was so eager that It looked as if he might run straight into her shields and vaporise himself, but at the last moment he banked sharply to the left and headed out of view.

Nic walked to the top of the ramp and waited. He watched as man after man and woman after woman filed past, behind Odessa and back to the rockface. As they approached the side of the cliff and Odessa’s secondary sensor net, they suddenly vanished under its protection.

Nic looked through the shield at the so-called army on the other side. He couldn’t see much through the shield, thanks to the endless volleys that continually fizzed into it, but he could make out the scale. It was vast. There must have been a thousand men about four hundred meters in front of them, spread across the arid field that lay between the cliff and the city. He wondered if he had known any of them in his past life, how they came to be troopers, and if they were truly already lost to the Visigoth’s great search. He knew he hadn’t taken the truth easily, but he had taken it.

Drevo shuffled past him with Mika following closely behind.

Nic looked at his face and recognised the uncertainty seeping through his pores.

There’s hope for the man yet, he thought.

Only a few hours earlier Drevo had been spitting in Odessa’s face and trying to kill Nic. Now he looked like a lost puppy, desperately searching for its master.

If we can reach Drevo, Nic thought, then we can reach anyone.

He turned back to face the army and noticed it was marching forwards, the fuzzy images were getting closer and becoming clearer. As the last of the rebels hurried past him, the final woman who reached him waved him on to join them, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave. He waved her on, mouthed the words, ‘I’ll catch up,’ and turned back again. He looked up in awe at Odessa, her statue like figure absorbing blast after blast with no ill-effect.

‘You don’t have to fight these people,’ he yelled, ‘just cover our rear and join us in the tunnel.’

He had no idea if she could hear him or not, but she started moving forwards to meet to encroaching army. He couldn’t bring himself to leave and followed her.

Will she protect me if I stay here? He wondered.

He approached the shield but for the first time felt resistance, as though he was being pushed back. He found himself unable to move any closer to it, as if an invisible barrier had been erected between them. He closed his eyes and tried to push himself forward even harder, but now it seemed as though the sounds of the blasters and the heat of the shield were getting further and further away from him. Eventually, he found himself yelling, unsure if the words were even escaping his own mouth, and pushing so hard inside his own mind until he felt something warm and electrically charged pushing back. He pushed harder and closer until his head was burning. As the pain increased, he tried to resist. He gave one last almighty thrust and he managed to breach the barrier, only he didn’t end up on the other side of the shield. He opened his eyes and was confronted with the same barren wasteland as before. He had entered the sub-conscious realm.

 

Odessa was standing with her back to Nic a few hundred metres in front of him. She was armour-less but in the same position, legs spread and fists clenched by her sides. Nic began running towards her, screaming and yelling but she showed no awareness of him. As he got closer, he saw her eyes were glowing that familiar golden-orange colour that had transfixed him so easily in the past. When he reached her, he screamed into her face, slapped her cheeks and shook her shoulders, but she was completely oblivious to him.

The brightness in her eyes slowly intensified, and she clenched her fists, her face becoming more and more twisted with rage.

Nic panicked as the brightness began to envelope her whole body. He let go of her shoulders and focussed his mind. He concentrated on reaching her. He called her name in his mind and he urged her to stop, to show restraint, and to come with him. He tried to pass everything he felt in his mind to her. Energy began building in his temples, and suddenly he could almost feel the Troopers in front of him. He saw their faces twisted in fury, charging Odessa’s impenetrable line.

Then, they just disappeared.

He found himself sitting in the void again, blackness on all sides.

The soft, unfamiliar voice from his vision returned.

‘In the blackness of the void, we bring light.’

A flash brighter than the sun itself exploded in front of him, and he immediately found himself floating in the sky.

‘You have to leave, Nic,’ the voice said, and it seemed somewhat more familiar.

But Nic resisted, focusing his mind even harder.

Odessa appeared again, this time beneath him, and she was engaging the army of Troopers in a mighty battle.

He watched in horror as, in one fell swoop, Odessa cut a swath though the lines of Troopers below, their blasters no match for her shields, and their armour woefully inadequate against her powerful orange beams. There was nothing left of them but scorched ground and smouldering ash.

Nic tried to scream and yell but it was no use. He focused his mind again and tried to catch her, but he was jolted out of his vision and back to the void again.

The same soft voice urged him again.

‘Nic, you must join the others. They need you now more than you know.’

Nic wanted to yell, to ask who was beckoning him to leave, but again his power of speech left him. He opened his mouth but was unable to speak, and instead, the voice boomed once more,

‘In infinite sorrow, we bring joy!’

In a flash, Nic immediately found himself back at Company headquarters, standing on the edge of the Visigoth’s tunnel and staring down into the pit. He looked up and almost fell into the tunnel, so shocked was he at what he saw in front of him.

The Visigoth was there in all his fury, hovering above the huge chasm, his form enlarged to that of a behemoth. He must have been a hundred feet high, and his whole body radiated an intense turquoise glow that fazed with the light from the sun as it shone through him. He was holding a giant whip, whose handle glowed in the same shades of blue and green as his body, but whose tail was shrouded in a bright blue flame like dragon’s breath that almost mesmerized Nic as it licked the air around him.

The Visigoth’s booming cackle snapped Nic out of his daze as he cracked the whip down into the tunnel.

The screams of those deep inside reverberated inside his mind, and suddenly he was there at ground zero. He witnessed the agony of the Privates deep inside the tunnel, both desperate to finish the tunnel and reach the core and terrified of the Visigoth’s retribution if they failed in their task in equal measure. Their sweat-soaked and earth-caked bodies toiled, almost sticking together, so crammed were they in the earth’s sweltering underbelly. A few stopped for breath, and the Visigoth’s metaphysical whip cracked down onto them as if from nowhere, and they were instantly vaporized to dust. Almost just as immediately, more privates were hurried out of the anti-grav lifts and ushered into their place. Nic saw fear burned into each one of their faces, as their toil never stopped.

He blinked and was instantly out of the tunnel again and floating high above. He saw Bagon and a group of rebels charging the tunnel in what could only be described as a kamikaze advance on the Visgoth’s position. Nic watched helplessly as the Grand Visigoth noticed them, nonchalantly flicked his wrist, and incinerated them all in a heartbeat with his fiery whip.

Before Nic could open his mouth to scream, he found himself back in the sub-conscious realm, Odessa standing in front of him, her face contorted in agony, and her eyes and fists radiating such an intense white light that Nic could barely stand it.

He heard the, by now familiar, voice in his mind a final time,

‘Concentrate, Nic. Focus your mind on what you most desire.’

Nic closed his eyes and forced all of his energy towards Odessa. He mentally pleaded with her to stop her attack and to join him and the others in their assault on the tunnel, on their true enemy. He felt an intense surge of energy passing through him from the soles of his feet, through his abdomen, to his head. He begged Odessa in his thoughts to stop. The energy continued to build throughout his body and spread to the very tips of all his extremities and he, too, clenched his fists. He gritted his teeth and held his eyes shut. It felt like he was clenching his whole body so tightly that he was about to implode within himself. When the pressures became too much, he had to let go. Before he finally opened his eyes, he was compelled to say in unison with the strange voice,

‘In the limitless bounds of death, we bring life!’

Immediately his eyes opened, he felt them emit a sharp blast of energy which engulfed himself, Odessa, and everything that surrounded them in the sub-conscious realm.

 

Meanwhile, at precisely the moment Nic had opened his eyes, an enormous blue tear had ripped through the sky above them and separated, leaving a giant gash in the stars, from which a solitary shooting star fell from the heavens and appeared to send a colossal shockwave hurtling in front of it towards the Earth.

Almost immediately, Nic sat up and stared open-mouthed at the extraordinary blue tear, the same exact phenomenon as he had seen in his previous vision. He noted the shockwave hurtling directly towards them, but had no time to even process it as the onrushing horde of Troopers were now almost on top of them, their numbers seemingly unaffected by the assaults of his vision.

He thought of Bagon and the others, I hope they’re safe.

Odesssa was lying beside him, unconscious or not, he couldn’t tell with her armour shielding her face. He turned and faced the onrushing horde, who appeared to be unaware of the extraordinary events happening in the sky above them. The shockwave reached the Visigoth’s energy shield and passed through it as though it wasn’t even there. It illuminated the entire sky in a wonderfully vivid shade of red that reminded Nic of his days working into the night tilling the fields in his youth. He looked up at the endless lines of Troopers and saw their faces glow with a tinge of orange under the beautifully vivid red skies. They were no more than twenty metres away when he remembered an old saying.

Red sky at night, humanity’s delight.

Mere milliseconds later, the shockwave hit the ground directly where the Troopers had reached, causing it to shake violently. It was quite a sight to behold as every single Trooper dropped to the ground faster than a house of cards on a windy day.

The moment the horde collapsed, Odessa jolted upright and her helmet folded back inside her armour.

‘What the..’ she rubbed her head.

‘Are you ok,’ Nic asked also rubbing his temples, ‘that was some vision, huh?’

‘What the hell happened,’ she muttered, ‘the last thing I remember I was about to attack the Troopers.’

‘But you didn’t?’ Nic asked hopefully.

‘No, I was held back by someone.’ She rubbed her head. ‘You were there, too.’

‘I was trying to stop you from making any more mistakes.’

‘Mistakes?’ She scoffed. ‘I’ve saved you more times than I care to count.’

‘You were going to slaughter those men, so I did everything in my power to stop you.’ Then, without much conviction, he added. ‘It would appear your nanoids have given me more power than you anticipated?’

Odessa looked incredulous. ‘Impossible. It has taken me thousands of years to hone my skills. One nanoid transplant cannot produce this kind of power.’

‘How about that thing up there?’ He pointed at the sky.

Odessa looked up and her mouth dropped.

‘It can’t be…’ she trailed off and stared at the enormous blue gash that was now slowly closing in the sky above them, before finally managing, ‘it’s… it’s… a quantum rift.’

‘And what about that shooting star?’ Nic motioned to the comet that had been descending and growing in size, as well as appearing to follow the same path as the shockwave, and was hurtling directly towards them. ‘It came out of the rift.’

Odessa closed her helmet and held her hand to her temple, appearing to change the constitution of her visor. The chrome screen changed to a digital display and she appeared to zoom into the object and identify it.

‘That’s no comet,’ Odessa said with a wry smile, ‘it’s my sister.’

The Company Man (13)

Nic relaxed, and his mind went blank. He allowed Odessa to enter his memories freely. The coldness of the stone beneath him vanished as her beams penetrated deep into his cerebellum. He began to visualise what he wanted her to see and guided her through his memories. He saw the destruction of Odessa’s home planet at the hands of his once revered General; he saw that same General transform again into the Visigoth as he revealed his true nature; he saw his vision of the Visigoth on Earth before the bombs fell; and, finally, he saw the cataclysmic beauty of the exploding star.

At the moment the star engulfed him, he felt weightless. His psyche floated upwards, away from its shell. He turned and witnessed his lifeless body sprawled on the rocks beneath him, just one piece in Odessa’s glittering mosaic. Each body was connected to her central point in the psychic web, their limbs splayed in every direction. The shining strands of energy that connected them pulsated as she channelled all of Nic’s experiences through herself and into the rest.

Nic focussed on Odessa. He had seen her magnificent power before, but this was something else.

Is this another vision? Or a fabrication of my own mind?

He focussed on Odessa and felt himself pulled to her. However, with each step he encroached, she didn’t appear to move any closer. He tried running but lost all sense of depth; the walls of the cave became more distant, not as though he was moving, but shrinking. The bodies strewn on the cave floor merged with the walls, their colours melting together before they gradually disappeared.

Meanwhile, Odessa never moved. She was always there in front of him, the same relative size and distance, her eyes radiating intense orange beams into the infinite void of time and space.

Suddenly, there was an explosion of light, and Nic was surrounded by a glittering array of stars and nebulae. He saw constellations glowing in the distance that flew closer until they zipped past both him and Odessa. The stars flashed in front of Nic’s eyes for what felt like an eternity. The speed of galaxies whizzing by made Nic’s head spin, and just as he felt his stomach begin to turn inside out, he again found himself sitting back in the void across from Odessa.

Nic heard an unfamiliar voice in the unending darkness.

‘Odessa,’ it whispered, ‘in the blackness of the void, we bring light. In infinite sorrow, we bring joy, and in the limitless bounds of death, we bring life.’

And with that, an extraordinary blue tear tore through the space between them and enveloped the infinite void. The bright light it emitted tore through Nic’s optic nerve, and before he could open his mouth to scream, he was silenced by the intense surge of energy that passed through his brain.

 

Nic jerked awake to the feeling of a cold metallic hand slapping him across the cheek.

‘Nic, wake up!’ Odessa yelled.

It took him a moment to realise where he was.

‘Peculiar,’ he managed, as he shook his head and regained a modicum of control of his senses.

‘Are you with me?’ Odessa asked, her cold, armoured hands cupped his face and searched his eyes.

‘Just about,’ he mumbled, rubbing his temples, ‘whose voice was that?’

‘What voice? My voice?’ She asked, wrinkling her nose.

‘I heard a voice… in the darkness… different,’ he paused, ‘but somewhat soothing.’

‘I’m not sure what you heard, Nic. It took everything I had to pass on your experiences to the others.’

Nic frowned. ‘Did it work, at least?’

‘Take a look for yourself.’ She said, motioning towards the chaos that surrounded them.

The cave was as it was before. Rocks and debris were everywhere, and the rebels were slowly peeling their sweat-drenched bodies from the floor. The majority of the prisoners, however, looked rather worse for wear. Many remained unconscious and some were writhing on the floor, foam seeping from the corners of their mouths. Drevo was convulsing violently as three rebels held him crouched over a rock, vomiting with each convulsion.

‘I’m not really sure what to make of it,’ Nic said.

‘Neither am I,’ Odessa chuckled, ‘I had to dump all of your memories into theirs. It’s now up to them what they make of it all.’

‘Will they all survive?’ Nic asked.

‘You know…’ she paused and dodged the question. ‘I saw your visions of the Visigoth on Earth and the exploding Anacreonian star.’

Nic smiled. ‘That’s not what I asked..’

‘I know, I know.’ She replied, wringing her hands. But it’s very peculiar. I wasn’t at those events.’

‘The nanoids?’ Nic asked. ‘They must have done something.’

Odessa grabbed Nic’s chin and inspected his eyes again. ‘Even now, you look fine considering what we just did.’

‘What do you mean?’ He rubbed his head. ‘My brain is throbbing.’

‘Look at the rest of them,’ Odessa sighed, pointing towards the prisoners still sprawled across the cave floor. ‘Some of them are too far gone and their mind won’t allow them to process it. It doesn’t matter now, though. We have officially run out of time.’

Nic had momentarily forgotten about the aerial bombardment and their imminent death.

‘The Troopers!’ he panicked.

‘The Troopers, indeed.’ Odessa laughed. ‘We have to move.’

Odessa hurried across the cavern towards Mika and Delfin, who were both visibly shaken but on their feet.

As Nic followed, he heard Delfin muttering to herself over and over again.

‘The planet is dead; the planet is dying.’

Nic looked in her eyes, and he couldn’t help but notice the glazed milky sheen across them.

Curious, he thought, and he remembered the fat bureaucrat’s eyes and their hypnotic marbling. He wondered what he would see in them now Odessa’s nanoids had enhanced his vision. He glanced behind Delfin towards Mika, whose beady eyes showed no hint of uncertainty.

‘Delfin,’ Mika barked, ‘are you with us or not, you crazy waif?’ She clipped Delfin across the back of her head, trying to snap her out of it.

‘But…, the planet…’ Delfin began, before Odessa cut her off.

‘Yes, it’s dying,’ Odessa chirped,’ ‘but it’s not quite dead yet. I need you to help me in the med bay. Can you manage it?’

Delfin massaged both her temples, looked up at Odessa, and Nic watched the glaze slowly clear as her pupils enlarged and focussed on Odessa’s.

‘My head is killing me,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘But I should be able to manage.’

Mika, who had stepped away from them, was assisting a prisoner up from the ground.

‘So, are you with us now, Lieutenant?’ She asked as she aggressively brushed some debris from his shoulder.

The Lieutenant looked up at her, his eyes heavily bloodshot, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

‘My ears are ringin’ like the Sundy mornin’ bells,’ he managed.

‘And are you with us?’ Mika barked again.

‘Give him a moment, Mika,’ Odessa said calmly. ‘That was one heck of a psychic episode. Look at the people around you. Even those who had already seen the truth struggled to take it all in.’

‘I figured we don’t have time to waste, my lady.’ Mika said and nodded towards Nic. ‘Especially if what’s in his head is true.’

The officer continued massaging his temples. ‘I dunno what to make of all this.’ He looked directly at Odessa. ‘Will you keep your word? Are we free to go?’

‘We’re all leaving, my friend. Go with Nic and Mika. They’ll take you all to the entrance. I’ll be right behind you.’

The prisoner rubbed the back of his head and nodded.

‘Where are you going?’ Nic asked Odessa.

‘Delfin and I will check on the wounded and fetch some equipment.’

‘Nanoids?’ Nic asked, raising an eyebrow.

Odessa laughed. ‘Among other things… You and Mika need to round up everyone here and head to the entrance. I’ll be right behind you.’ She paused a moment and added gravely, ‘whatever you do, don’t step outside without me.’

‘How do you know they won’t hit us again?’ Mika asked. ‘We can’t take a volley like that in the tunnels.’

‘If they wanted to bury us in the mines,’ Odessa reassured her, ‘they wouldn’t have stopped when they found the entrance.’

‘Something tells me the Visigoth wants his prize back,’ Nic added.

Odessa smiled again. ‘Indeed.’

Nic approached a prisoner lying unconscious on the ground. ‘What about the unconscious and wounded here?’ He asked.

‘Gather those that are able to walk,’ she replied, ‘we will all leave the caves together as free citizens of this city. If the rest come to their senses, they can follow us outside into the light and see where their destiny lies.’

 

Having brought up the rear of the group, which contained about a hundred rebels and twenty prisoners, Nic arrived at the cave entrance about thirty minutes later. It had been as nervous a walk as he had imagined. The thick, dank air and humidity didn’t help, either. The condensation made the ground slippery. The sounds of people tripping and slipping echoed through the caves, driving people to duck for cover in fear of a cave-in that would end the rebellion in one swift downfall of crumbling rocks.

As the entrance neared, the claustrophobic tunnels opened up into a series of marginally less cramped caverns, which were lined with rebels standing shoulder to shoulder and waiting patiently for Odessa to lead them back into the light of day.

When Nic finally reached the entrance cavern itself, he marvelled at the high canopy and unique formation of rocks that provided the cover they needed. It wasn’t an entrance in the conventional sense, but a large cavern. There was an almost vertical rock face that extended about three metres high and ten metres wide, above which the overhanging rock canopy shielded them from the elements, and the eyes of any observers. The canopy didn’t quite meet the wall; there was a gap of about one metre, which anyone leaving or entering would have to crawl through.

There was a commotion about ten metres in front of the wall as several rebels had formed a chain barrier to prevent a small group of prisoners from reaching it and leaving. Just in front of the melee, Mika was standing toe to toe with Drevo.

‘That freak said we were free to go, didn’t she?’ Drevo hissed, as Mika easily blocked him from passing.

‘You’re free to go as soon as our Lady arrives,’ Mika said, smirking.

‘I think we’ll be leaving now,’ Drevo said, his voice cracking slightly. He gently brushed the dust and vomit specks from the front of his uniform and gave a sorry glance to the rest of the prisoners, half of whom had already sat their weary-looking selves along the wall beside him, and managed a half-hearted, ‘who’s with me?’

Nic almost admired the man’s fortitude. The psychic experience had clearly taken a severe toll. Even just standing upright, he was visibly shaking, and the taller he tried to make himself, the frailer he looked. The remaining twenty or so prisoners behind him had faces so sickly and frames so emaciated that they looked in no condition to fight anyone.

Mika held out an authoritative palm and gently pushed him back.

‘If it were up to me,’ she said, ‘I’d let you walk right out of here. Those Troopers out there will mow you down before you get ten feet.’

Even in his condition, Drevo still managed a derisive snort. ‘No Company Trooper would lay but a finger on a loyal citizen.’

‘Listen to her, Drevo,’ Nic yelled from the back of the cavern. ‘It’s not safe for you or your men.’

‘I’ll not take heed from the likes of you, boy,’ he sneered. Then, he made one final push to round Mika, who feebly held out a hand to stop him.

As Drevo pushed his weight into her, she stepped aside. He lost his balance completely, and his momentum carried him into the melee in front, his bulky frame easily  collapsing a small section and allowing two pale-faced Lieutenants to break through the line as the rest of them fell into a heap.

‘Wait!’ Nic screamed and started running, but Mika grabbed him as he reached her. ‘Let them go,’ she said. ‘Then, the others can see what’s in store for them.’

Nic pushed her away, but it was too late.

The two Lieutenants had already reached the rocks and were scrambling up to the thin sliver of light that stretched across the top of the wall. By the time Nic had reached the bottom, they were already crawling through.

Nic stopped and pleaded one last time.

‘Please, they’re going to…’

Before he could finish, rapid bursts of blaster energy echoed around the cavern and ever so briefly illuminated the slitted entrance in marvellous shades of orange and gold, as the rocks below, and Nic’s face, were spattered with claret. Nic felt the unmistakeable taste of iron on his tongue.

The ashen faces of the prisoners seemed to grow a shade paler, their yelps barely audible among gasps from rebels, as the reality of their situation, too, began to sink in. They began to crowd the entrance to the cave.

‘There must be an army out there,’ yelled one.

‘What the bleedin’ ‘eck are we ‘sposed to do now, then,’ another yelled to no-one in particular.

Nic turned, wiping specks of blood from his face, and faced the encroaching crowd.

‘We wait for Odessa,’ he said plainly, before turning to face Drevo and adding desperately, ‘do you see now?’

Drevo shakily rose to his feet and brushed the dust from his thighs. He stared for a moment, open-mouthed and aghast, at the claret streaks weaving their way down the slanted rock face in front of them.

‘I… I…’ He stammered, before Mika sarcastically cut him off.

‘Lovely bunch, your lot,’ she said, almost laughing. ‘Well, what are you waiting for?’

Drevo stared at her blankly, still searching for words.

‘Off you go. No-one will stop you here,’ Mika added with glee.

Drevo hesitated and looked desperately at Nic, before adding feebly, ‘they must have thought they were rebels.’

‘If it helps you sleep at night,’ Mika scoffed. ‘I’m sure they’ll never mistake the mighty Drevo for us rebel scum. Why don’t you head on outside and give them a second chance?’

Nic could almost see the wheels turning in his mind. Everything he’d been conditioned to know and believe was slowly turning on its head.

The Company is infallible. It does everything only for the benefit of its citizens. It would never arbitrarily kill citizens for merely being taken prisoner.

How could such a noble organisation behave with such wanton disregard for the very people who were its lifeblood?

Nic knew the confusion only too well. When what you see in front of you contrasts so markedly with ingrained ideals, the mind starts to look for any justification.

‘They must be positioned too far away to see, or… or… maybe you removed the commissions from their uniforms.’ His face momentarily brightened. ‘Yes, that’s it. You stripped their Officer’s commissions from their chest and sent them out there to their deaths, knowing they would be summarily shot on sight. Typical. Rebel. scum.’

Nic bowed his head in exasperation.

‘Do you remember us stripping all your Officer’s badges?’ Nic asked as he strode towards Drevo. ‘What about your own Commissions?’ He asked, flicking one of the bronze Captain strips that surrounded his Officer’s badge. ‘Or those of your comrades sitting right freaking there next to you.’ He motioned to the row of Prisoners slumped along the wall, various shining commissions clearly glistening above the right breast pocket of anyone who was facing them, before stabbing a finger towards the blood-stained rock face in front of them. ‘Or did we just strip those two poor souls, whose brains are splattered all over the rock?’

Drevo’s eyes moved from his chest to his men and back to Nic three times. His newly fabricated interpretation of the world crumbled before it had even had the chance to properly form itself.

‘What if…’ he began, before his voice trailed off. He began pacing and muttering under his breath. ‘It could have been…’ but his voice trailed off again and again, before he quietly sat at the end of the row of prisoners, his head gently rocking as his mind ran round in circles.

‘Well, I guess that’s that,’ laughed Mika.

Nic scolded her. ‘We’ve all been there, Mika.’

‘Fortunately, Lieutenant, us Privates weren’t worth the bother of deep conditioning.’ Then , she added smugly. ‘When our Lady showed us the truth, we were with her from the start. Even with what you’ve shown us today, Nic, things were a lot simpler before you came along.’

‘What are you saying,’ he shot back, ‘it’s better not to know?’

I’m saying that before you came along, the Visigoth had barely scratched the surface of our rebellion, and our numbers were in the thousands and growing exponentially. In no time at all we’d have been ready for an uprising. Instead, Odessa gambled it all on you, the shortcut to Company headquarters and a direct line to the General or the Visigoth, or whatever you bloody well want to call him. And look where we are now, we number barely a hundred, and we’re still trying to bring these sorry sacks of Company propaganda round to our cause. She pointed at Drevo and the rest. These men and women have essentially become cannon fodder. We’re going to lead them out, they’ll run, and they’ll die. Half of the prisoners back in the cavern died after Odessa’d shown ‘em what’s in that head of yours. Their minds would rather give up than face reality. Tell me again, Nic, what the hell do these people bring to our cause?’

‘Everyone has a right to know the truth, Mika,’ Nic responded defiantly. ‘Even if it’s difficult sometimes.’

Mika snorted and waved a dismissive hand towards the prisoners. ‘Difficult ain’t the word I’d use.’

Before Nic had the chance to protest further, a familiar voice boomed from within the caves and limped out of the darkness. ‘What’s all this ‘ere, then?’

‘Bagon!’ Nic and Mika called in unison and hurried towards him.

Mika clapped him on the back, almost knocking him over. ‘Good to see you up and about,’ she grinned.

‘Easy, Mika, bleedin heck.’ Bagon winced and held out a protective palm. ‘I may be up, but I ain’t properly about just yet,’ he laughed.

‘How… how is it possible? Nic stammered. ‘You were at death’s door not too long ago.’

‘You’ll ‘ave to ask our ladies ‘ere,’ he said, nodding to Odessa and Delfin, who had entered behind him carrying several bags.

‘We tried an experimental approach with the nanoids,’ Odessa said curtly, dropping her baggage on the floor, ‘and, somehow, it worked.’

‘Experimental?’ Nic raised an eyebrow.

‘It’s too complicated to get into now, but suffice it to say, I gave him a supercharged dose of nanoids then extracted them almost immediately. He’s not at a hundred percent, not even seventy, but we need Bagon, even if he’s only at fifty.’

‘Well, regardless of how you got here, it’s good to have you back, Bagon. Nic looked at Odessa. ‘What about Honza?’

She frowned. ‘I only had time for one.’ She looked past Nic and Mika at the blood-stained rock face in front of them. ‘I thought I told you to wait for me.’

‘They thought they knew better,’ Mika said, nodding towards the prisoners. ‘Nothing like a demonstration to prove a point.’

Odessa turned back to Nic and Mika. ‘I’m going to blast the canopy and uncover our position.’

This time Nic and Mika both raised an eyebrow.

‘Don’t worry, I’ve not gone mad,’ she said with a smile. ‘Everyone needs to back up into the tunnel and stay behind me. I’m going to project an energy shield that’ll protect you all from the long range blaster fire that is sure to follow. When I move forward and engage the Troopers, Bagon will lead the majority of you approximately a hundred metres to the left, hugging the cliff at all times. There is a secondary sensor net set up along the walls outside which should cloak your movements. You will find an access tunnel that leads back into the city. Bagon knows it well.’ She pointed at the bags beside her. ‘These bags are full of explosives. There’s no time for discretion now. We must do everything we can to slow the Visigoth’s progress. Head to the tunnel, talk to your friends, disrupt their work, do everything you can. Destroy as much tunnelling equipment as you can manage.’

‘Hasn’t the Visigoth got everyone working in the tunnel now?’ Mika asked.

‘No time to worry about that now. He’s mere days away from reaching the core. Anyone who’s not with us must be considered against us. Remember what’s at stake here. If the tunnel is finished, we all die anyway.’

Suddenly, Nic remembered the vision.

In the limitless bounds of death, we bring life.

‘Hang on a minute,’ he exclaimed. We can’t just sacrifice those citizens.’

‘What do you suggest, Nic? We have to stop the Visigoth at all costs. The planet is the priority.’

Nic gave a frustrated laugh. ‘What use is the bloody planet if there’s no-one left to live on it?’

Odessa stared back at him blankly.

Nic’s mind began turning over options. His capacity for logical thought was expanding every minute. ‘Where’s the Visigoth, now?’ He asked.

‘Last report,’ Mika commented, ‘he was at the tunnel, cracking a very literal whip.’

‘And outside? Is it just Troopers?’

‘No idea, Mika nodded to the entrance slit. ‘I’d say ask those two out there, but I doubt their corpses would have much to say even if you could reach them.’

Odessa waved a dismissive hand. ‘His goal is the core. It always was. He will run every single one of those Troopers into my blasters if it’ll keep me from stopping him.’

‘He doesn’t care about his own people?’ Mika asked.

The wheels continued turning in Nic’s head. He remembered his vision of the Anacreonian star. The bright flares it emitted ignited the fires of his mind.

‘That’s it!’ He announced, clicking his fingers. ‘They’re not his people.’

‘What do you mean?’ Mika asked

Nic turned to face Odessa. ‘Odessa, you said that, in orbit, he has three small vessels capable of transporting at most two hundred men. And that’s if they’re at capacity, yes?’

‘Yes, that’s right.’

‘But before coming to Earth, the Visigoth’s fleet was decimated and presumably most of his loyal minions were also lost.’

Odessa nodded.

‘So,’ Nic continued, ‘these three small vessels managed to escape and spent the next hundred years or so searching the galaxy for their master.’

‘Precisely.’

‘And tell me, are the Visigoth’s men similarly-abled as he is?’

Odessa paused for a moment, unsure of the direction of Nic’s line of questioning. ‘No,’ she said eventually, ‘his men are mostly recruits from the numerous worlds he has devastated. A similarly-abled being would be a threat to his authority and power. The first world he destroyed was his own, and the first people he eliminated were those with the power and knowledge to stop him.’

‘So,’ Nic said, wagging a finger and cracking a proud smile, ‘these vessels which escaped had no means with which to recruit other men.’

Odessa frowned. ‘I see where you’re going with this, but…’

Nic cut her off. ‘Those Troopers are our people.’ He smiled. ‘They’re from Earth, like the rest of us.’

‘I can’t fault your logic,’ Odessa admitted. ‘These Troopers were likely created and conditioned here.’

‘Then,’ his face paled and his smile disappeared, ‘the Troopers you killed in the bunker when you first rescued me, all eighty of them, were our people.’

‘What would you have suggested, Nic?’ She pleaded. ‘They were armed to the teeth and intent on killing you.’

‘If they’re our people, they can be saved,’ he announced proudly.

‘Look around you, Nic,’ she begged. ‘These Officers have less conditioning than the Troopers. Half the prisoners died when I showed them the truth, so unwilling were their minds to accept it. And just look at the rest.’ She motioned to the sorry looking row of weary prisoners lining the wall behind them.

Nic looked at them and remembered his vision.

‘In the limitless bounds of death, we bring life,’ he announced.

Odessa’s face reddened. ‘Where did you hear that?’ She blurted.

‘I heard it…’ his voice trailed off and he scratched his head. ‘It just came to me.’

Odessa was incredulous. ‘It just came to you.’ She laughed. ‘That was the final line of the Alphanian Science Corps motto, of which my father was President.’

He paused for a moment, and this time it was his turn to change the subject. ‘We don’t have time for this,’ he finally managed, and he turned to face the prisoners.

‘So, ladies and gents, what say you? Are you with us or not?’

A row of empty, weary faces silently stared back, before Drevo finally managed to muster some words.

‘Are we free to go?’ He asked.

‘Certainly,’ Odessa chirped. ‘You’re free to go with them back to the city.’ She motioned a hand to Bagon, Nic and Mika. ‘Or with me to meet your comrades.’

‘But they’ll think we’re with you,’ Drevo snorted. ‘They’ll fire on us immediately.’

‘With me or without me, Captain. It’s all the same. You can even go first, if you like?’

Drevo straightened his back and stood as tall as his weary legs would allow.

‘A Trooper will never fire on a loyal man of the Company,’ he announced defiantly.

Odessa chuckled and Nic’s head dropped.

Suddenly, a red-haired Lieutenant piped up from behind Drevo and said sarcastically, ‘Like those two poor sods up there?’

‘Silence!’ Drevo spat. He spun and marched down the line of Prisoners, his cheeks reddening.

‘I ain’t going anywhere near those Troopers,’ chimed another from behind him.

Drevo gritted his teeth. ‘I said. Shut. Your. Filth…’ he began, before yet another prisoner found his courage,

‘Are you mad, Captain?’

Drevo’s cheeks were so red by now that he looked ready to explode. Little flecks of spittle began forming in the corners of his mouth, and he was practically hyperventilating.

The red-haired Officer repeated the question.

‘He asked if you were mad, Captain? I mean, we all saw Gibbons and Gleck get their brains splattered all over the cave entrance not ten frickin’ minutes ago.’ He looked at the prisoners to his sides. ‘I ain’t going out there.’

Drevo was stunned into silence, and before he had the chance to unleash his fury, the rest of the prisoners stood.

‘Nor I,’ they said in unison.

Nic smiled. ‘It seems your men have lost a little vigour for the cause, Captain.’ He turned and searched Odessa’s face for a sliver of empathy but found none forthcoming.

In the split second that Nic’s head was turned, Drevo lunged at him in a mad panic and wrapped both his hands around his throat.

‘I’m going to wring your rebel…’

But before Drevo could finish his sentence, the red-haired prisoner picked up a rock from the ground and cracked it across the back of Drevo’s head, knocking him to the floor unconscious.

‘That’s enough of that, now,’ he said and looked at Nic. ‘We’ll bring him around.’

Nic looked back to Odessa. ‘Do you see?’ He pleaded. ‘We have to try and save them all.’

She pointed at Drevo. ‘This guy will be a cakewalk compared to those Troopers outside.’

‘Don’t worry about him,’ the prisoner said, dropping the rock, ‘we’ll watch him and try and bring him around. If he causes trouble, we’ll silence him too.’

With the help of another prisoner, he lifted Drevo from the ground, one arm draped over each of their shoulders.

‘Where are we going, then?’ He nodded towards the entrance. ‘Them lot ain’t gonna wait forever, and this cavern ain’t gonna withstand a volley from their artillery cannons.’

Nic looked at Odessa’s blank face and turned back to the prisoner.

‘What’s your name, Officer?’

‘Lieutenant Stollen, you?’

‘Call me, Nic.’

‘Alright Nic,’ he panted, clearly struggling with Drevo’s weight on his shoulders, ‘where do you want us?’

Nic turned and gave Odessa another searching look.

‘Everybody back into the tunnel,’ she boomed, finally. ‘I’d suggest closing your eyes for this.’ She smiled at Nic. ‘It’s going to get a little bright in here.’

 

 

 

The Company Man (12)

As Nic and Odessa ran through the network of caves, Nic felt his mind racing alongside them. His mind had been liberated from the Grand Visigoth’s powerful hold, but he had not accepted the fact easily. It had taken several extraordinary experiences to reveal the truth over the space of several weeks.

Odessa had searched his mind and, rather abstractedly, shown him the truth in the sub-conscious realm. From Hallogen’s highest point, he had seen the Visigoth’s energy shield that encircled the entire city, and the electromagnetic storms raging beyond it had piqued his interest. His experience atop the tower of Company Headquarters had all but confirmed it. Now he had to somehow relate those experiences to his former peers, who would not have the capacity to accept it, let alone the desire. He remembered his own stoicism in the face of Odessa’s probing, and the confrontational demeanour he espoused in the face of her heresy.

Another blast rocked the cave and Nic stumbled to the ground, mercifully interrupting his train of thought.

Sounds like they’re getting closer, he mused.

Odessa stopped and jogged back.

‘They’re searching for the entrance,’ she said, as she helped Nic up from the ground.

‘How long do we have?’

‘No way to know,’ she shrugged. ‘One lucky hit will destroy the cloak. Then they’ll know exactly where to find us.’

‘Do you think they’ll march right in?’

She grinned, and said, ‘Remember what happened the last time he sent his men to find you in that bunker?’

Corpses littering darkened corridors flashed through Nic’s mind.

‘That didn’t end so well for the Troopers,’ he said grimly.

‘Indeed,’ she nodded. Then gravely, ‘but he has other means at his disposal. And while my armour will protect me, the other two hundred or so citizens down here won’t be so lucky.’

‘No time to lose, then,’ Nic muttered. He ripped the sling from his arm and threw it on the ground. ‘I’ll move faster without it.’ He glanced mournfully at the stump where his right hand used to be, and then back to Odessa. ‘Well?’ He growled. ‘What the hell are you waiting for?’

Odessa let out a soft chuckle and said nothing as she turned and picked up the pace.

Nic followed closely behind her, and, in spite of his bravado, he felt a weight on his shoulders like never before.

 

After a few minutes, Nic heard a rabbling noise coming from ahead. The sound of panicked arguments being made and a general hubbub of disorder echoed along the corridor. When they reached the small clearing, Nic thought that, from the entrance, the glistening stalactites hanging above the small crowd of about fifty or so that had assembled there resembled the jagged teeth of a giant beast just waiting for the right amount of food to run into its mouth before its jaws snapped shut and gobbled it up.

As they entered the room, the crowd was silenced and the sense of panic seemed momentarily diverted, but almost immediately, another great BOOM! shook the cave.

Everyone braced themselves on the rocky walls, the limestone columns that were scattered all over the place, and each other, before the murmured discontent resumed.

Nic followed Odessa to the side as she climbed atop a boulder and addressed the crowd.

‘My friends,’ she began, ‘I know you are scared, but there is hope for us yet.’

Mika pushed her way to the front of the crowd.

‘What bloody hope?’ She heckled. ‘There are barely two hundred of us left in these bloody caves. And half of those here still think we’re the bleeding enemy,’ she exaggerated.

‘We have to keep the Officers, conscious or bloody not, under guard.’

Another, rather untimely, explosion rocked the cavern just as the crowd was beginning to settle.

‘Yes, what hope?’ Delfin cried from behind Mika. ‘Our last stand is here. We are waiting to die.’

Odessa held out her palms and appealed for calm. ‘It’s true that the Grand Visigoth’s men are searching for us,’ she said seriously. Then, to audible gasps, she announced,

‘And they will kill you all if they breach our defences. That is why we must go, meet them head on, and destroy their work in the tunnel.’

The crowd became unruly as people cried to one another in shock.

‘And why,’ Mika hissed, ‘should we embark on such a foolish endeavour.’ She looked around and appealed to the crowd herself. ‘We’ve seen his power first hand now; we don’t stand a chance.’

The crowd descended into chaos as people jeered and yelled from every corner of the cave.

‘He may be powerful, Mika,’ said Odessa, raising her voice, ‘but he only has four small ships in orbit, which can hold, at most, 400 hundred Troopers. We cannot allow him to reach the Earth’s core at any cost.’

‘Let him have it and he’ll leave on his God forsaken search,’ someone yelled from the back.

‘Yeah let him go,’ several others shouted in agreement.

‘If we let him go,’ she pleaded, ‘he will harvest your core until there is nothing left. Forgetting for a moment that everyone left on Earth will be razed to dust by solar flares when the magnetic field that surrounds your planet disappears. Or perhaps they will just suffocate when your atmosphere floats off into space. He will then use transmogrification technology to turn the seven hundred and fifty million tonnes of iron in your core into a fleet of ships, and his crusade to locate the supposed creators of all life in the universe will continue unimpeded. Any race, any system, even, that stands in his way will be obliterated. I…, no…, we have to stop him here and now.’

‘But he’s too strong,’ someone cried from their midst.

‘The beast atop the tower can never be stopped,’ they all chorused.

‘The beast atop the tower is no beast at all,’ Odessa shrugged. ‘Strong? Yes, absolutely. But what you saw was a mere projection of mental energy. You see what he wants you to see. Our attack led to this. He has exposed himself for the charlatan that he is. Nic, step forward.’

Nic hesitantly stepped up on to the rock and looked at the desperate faces that stood before him.

‘Ahh Lieutenant Nic,’ said Mika sarcastically. ‘The Officer who started it all.’

Nic looked desperately at Odessa and whispered,

‘How am I supposed to convince the Officers if the Privates who are supposed to be on our side don’t believe you?’

Odessa ignored his question and turned back to the crowd.

‘Nic has seen the truth,’ she announced confidently. ‘Bring in the Officers,’ she roared.

From a tunnel on the opposite side of the cave, the thirty-three officers were led in at gunpoint, their hands tied. The people in the room parted and allowed the group to be led into the middle, where they looked up at Nic and Odessa standing on their podium, burning hatred in every one of their eyes.

‘My friends,’ she began, in her most magnanimous tone, but she was interrupted almost immediately.

‘We ain’t no friends to traitors,’ yelled a voice from their midst.

‘The General is the only friend I need,’ screamed another.

‘You may all feel this way now,’ Odessa soothed, ‘but I’d like you to hear what we have to say.’

A tall, broad-shouldered man barged his way to the front and authoritatively said,

‘We won’t listen to the words of a charlatan. Your mind games won’t work on us, traitor.’ He accusingly pointed to the crowd of rebels and added, ‘you should all be ashamed of yourselves,’ he stabbed his finger in the direction of Odessa as a bead of sweat trickled down his face, ‘falling for the parlour tricks of this jezebel.’

Nic noted that his square jaw and hard features gave the impression of a man more used to giving orders than receiving them. Then, he noticed his bronze Officer’s commission gleaming under the torchlight of the cave. It was surrounded by three further shining strips of bronze, signifying the rank of Captain.

‘And do you speak for all your fellow Officers here?’ Odessa asked, with more than a hint of sarcasm.

‘I am the ranking Officer here, Madam,’ he barked. ‘And my name is Captain Drevo. I will speak for all of us out of the duty that befits my rank. I have no doubt that each of us would rather die a thousand deaths in the name of the General than give one ounce of credence to you, your ridiculous rebellion, or your shameful lies.’

Nic frowned and almost groaned out loud. He glanced at Odessa, whose confident air had been somewhat betrayed by an ever so slight furrowing of her brow.

        Of all the people they could have rescued, Nic thought, and they managed to bring back Drevo! His exploits and conduct were famed throughout the city, and he was known, by name at least, to just about every Officer in commission. He leant towards Odessa, but before he could speak, Mika yelled incredulously,

‘Ahh, the famous Drevo, clearly here to lead us on a merry goose chase, and even more clearly a spy. He’s even more a Company Man than the snivelling Lieutenant standing….’

‘Mika, please,’ Odessa cut her off, ‘Lest you forget that Nic was also a spy, and he’s also the reason I’m standing here right now, not rotting in stasis at the boots of the Visigoth.’

‘And how do we know that he isn’t also still a spy? No-one saw how he lost his hand. Bagon and Honza are at death’s door, along with God-knows how many others. Not forgetting the hundreds who died when you brought him to us. Now the mighty Drevo is here too. Who next? Are you going to wheel out the General maybe, or the Visigoth himself and serve us to him on a platter?’

There were rumblings of discontent among the rebels now, too, as Mika appealed to their fears.

Nic wasn’t worried about Odessa holding those same fears. She had seen inside his soul and opened his mind. He tried to ignore the eyes, from friend and foe alike, that were now trained firmly on him. He leaned in towards Odessa again and whispered,

‘Odessa, she’s right about Drevo. Words will be no use. I’ve heard of this Captain, too. His loyalty and dedication are things of legend. If he’s been exerting his influence since their capture, the challenge of bringing them in just increased tenfold. He can’t be here by accident.’ He paused briefly, before pleading, ‘they have to see with their own eyes.’

She let out half a sigh and addressed Drevo directly.

‘Captain,’ she began seriously, ‘as we don’t have much time…’

‘Given the discord in your ranks, it seems your reckoning will be coming even sooner than I could’ve hoped,’ he scoffed, ‘it’ll be the Truth Chamber for the lot of you.’

The on-looking crowd of rebels began to murmur as they intently watched the scene unfolding.

‘As we don’t have much time,’ she began again, this time through gritted teeth, ‘I’ll make this simple. Hear what we have to say, and if you don’t like what we show you, you are free to go. Are we in agreement?’

‘You expect us to believe that?’ Drevo asked incredulously.

‘She thinks we’re morons, Captain,’ chimed an unnamed Officer standing beside him.

Drevo flashed a reprimanding glare, and the Officer sheepishly backed down. He turned back to face Odessa.

‘It sounds like a desperate plea from a desperate woman. I stand by my previous statement. We will not treat with traitors.’ He spat on the ground in front of him.

‘Well,’ said Odessa with a smirk, ‘we do have other ways.’

‘My men have spoken of your mind games, woman,’ he shot back. ‘The beast with the fire in her eyes, my foot.’ He looked her up and down disapprovingly and sneered, ‘you don’t look like much to me, just an uppity drillpod bitch who doesn’t know her place.’

The crowd began to get restless.

‘Unfortunately, we don’t have time for that. But maybe you’d care to hear from one of your own?’ She motioned to Nic beside her.

‘Ah, so this is the Officer I’ve heard so much about,’ he said with a smile. ‘What was it she said,’ he glanced at Mika, ‘the snivelling Lieutenant, by your own people’s admission.’ He laughed hard and continued. ‘The only thing worse than a traitor,’ he paused, ‘is a traitor with a commission.’ He spat on the floor even more fiercely than before and then circled the room pointing at everyone.

‘I hope that the general cleanses you all from this great city, but this man here,’ he turned and jabbed his finger at Nic, ‘I truly hope that before this day is out, I will get to cleanse him myself.’ He then addressed Nic directly. ‘I want to watch the life drain from your eyes as I rid our glorious Company of the stain of your existence.’

As Drevo’s eyes burned into him, Nic diverted his eyes toward the rest of the prisoners. He saw the same contempt in every snarl and grimace that looked back.

The crowd of rebels became more restless, and Nic wasn’t sure their faces looked much better than those of the prisoners.

It really was a fool’s errand, Nic thought, as he glanced mournfully at his stump.

‘Nic, step forward,’ Odessa ordered.

He hesitated.

‘Step forward, Nic,’ she said again. ‘Please do enlighten the Captain.’

He hesitated again.

‘Ha, looks like the cat’s got the craven’s tongue,’ chided Drevo gleefully.

He theatrically shrugged his shoulders and appealed to the surrounding crowd.

‘Does he know that a truly loyal Officer would never accept these purposely vague half-truths and outright lies?’

As he watched Drevo mindlessly spouting Company propaganda and playing to the gallery, he was reminded of himself just weeks earlier. After sharing in Odessa’s visions, he’d been the same obstinate block determined to spit in the face of any who dared question the most noble goals of an even nobler Company. After a few moments he finally managed to blurt,

‘It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not.’

‘So, it speaks,’ Drevo boomed, ‘what do you have to say for yourself, Lieutenant?’

Before Nic had the chance to speak, a distant explosion echoed through the tunnels, and a minor tremor caused powdered limestone to lightly dust the crowds in front of him. The intensity of the blast was not enough knock anyone onto their backsides this time, and the guards kept their blasters firmly trained on Officers.

        Are they heading away from us? Nic thought mercifully. He looked back at Drevo, whose sinister smirk chilled him.

‘Your reckoning is almost upon you,’ he roared, before letting out a booming laugh that echoed through the caves.

The mood among the prisoners visibly elevated, and they jeered and hurled obscenities at Nic.

He appealed to Odessa with his eyes, but her expression was blank. She was facing the crowd and appeared to be watching intently, but something in her eyes seemed vacant, and her head was very gently twitching. It was unnoticeable to the crowds, but standing right beside her, it was clear to Nic something was not right.

Meanwhile, Drevo was standing tall in front of the prisoners, his palms outstretched and urging them on. He dragged his finger across his neck in a slicing motion, and silence resumed.

Drevo turned back to face Nic, and as Nic looked into his eyes, he saw Drevo’s smirk blossom into a full-blooded grin. He looked past him and tried to address the pack behind him.

‘It doesn’t matter what you believe,’ Nic finally managed, ‘when you walk out of these caves and meet the Visigoth’s men in the open air. You will all meet your end anyway.’

‘Piffle,’ yelled one woman.

‘Codswallop,’ yelled another.

‘Your words have no weight among us, Lieutenant.’ The Captain laughed.

Nic again searched Odessa’s blank face for help but found none forthcoming. Rather confusingly, she just smiled and nodded. Nic pressed on.

‘Under orders from the General himself,’ he began, his voice shaky. ‘I was sent to infiltrate these very rebels you see around you, and to bring this woman,’ he motioned toward Odessa, ‘to face the General’s justice.’

‘It looks like you did a marvellous job,’ spat Drevo, ‘is she always this chatty? Seems like something’s got her tongue, too.’

The prisoners sniggered, but Nic continued.

‘And when I delivered her, do you know what happened?’

‘Why, please tell us, noble patriot,’ Drevo sneered, ‘did you piss your pants at the sight of her fiery red locks?’

Nic tried to ignore him but felt his blood beginning to boil.

‘I delivered her into his arms,’ he said confidently, ‘and he repaid me with torture…’

‘Lies! Heresy!’ came the cries of the crowd.

Nic tried to speak over them.

‘…And unimaginable pain.’

‘How could we believe such a flagrant lie?’ Drevo boomed. He then addressed his followers. ‘Even a fool knows the General would repay such loyalty with honours galore.’

The prisoners grew unrulier and heckled.

‘Hear, hear! Bless the General and long live the search!’

‘The search, the search, the search!’

Nic looked desperately at Odessa’s blank expression, and suddenly, she twitched into action and roared,

‘Your planet is dying!’ But before she could continue, a mighty blast struck directly above them and sent everyone flying to the ground.

Without warning, Drevo shouted, ‘NOW!’

Several captives had somehow managed to slip from their restraints, and they sprung on top of their guards, some wresting their blasters from their hands. Shots were fired into the air, stalactites dropped from the ceiling and smashed on people’s head’s, and Drevo lunged forward at Nic.

He didn’t get far.

As he sprung up towards the rock that had become Nic and Odessa’s makeshift podium, Odessa caught him by the neck in mid-air and held him out in front of her, so his legs were dangling a full metre off the ground.

Nic, meanwhile, had slipped off the rock and crashed into the floor beside them.

‘Enough!’ She roared, as Drevo’s face began to turn blue.

She sighed loudly, and as Drevo’s eyes began to close under the pressure of her grip, another blast, closer again, rocked the cave, sending everyone sprawling. Odessa dropped Drevo, and he thudded into the ground beneath them, gasping deeply.

The melee continued as rebels piled on top of the prisoners, attempting to wrest back control of the weapons.

Nic picked himself up and saw severals bodies strewn on the ground, their blood staining the grey stone floor. He saw Mika in the pile, holding a prisoner in a headlock as another yanked at the blaster he was carrying. Without thinking, he charged forward towards the nearest Officer, and swung a non-existent fist in his direction.

The prisoner dodged his stump easily and started towards him, his thin-lipped smirk left Nic feeling helpless.

The next blast was like an earthquake that caused the whole cavern to shudder violently.

Then another.

After the third blast, the shelling stopped.

 

Odessa was the first to pick herself up and dust herself off. She surveyed the carnage in front of her, and saw Nic just two meters away covered in debris. She yanked him to his feet.

‘I guess they found us,’ Nic managed, as he coughed up a healthy amount of dust.

Drevo also stirred, alongside prisoners and rebels alike. As they dusted themselves off and remembered they were enemies, they began to wrestle once more.

Drevo stumbled to his feet and spluttered,

‘You’ll… regret… that, …woman, the Troopers will be here to kill you in no time.’

‘I wouldn’t count on it,’ she said proudly, ‘why don’t you ask the lieutenant what happened the last time they came for me at close-quarters.’

He didn’t bother asking. His snarl returned with his senses, and he motioned to charge Odessa again.

‘I said, ENOUGH!’ She boomed.

With a flash of her arm, her armour instantaneously unfolded from within her skin. It enveloped her entire body, save her head. She crossed her arms and then fired them outwards, sending bright orange energy beams across the cavern above everyone’s heads. The hanging stalactites and columns that they crossed were vaporised instantly, lightly sprinkling everyone with yet more dust.

The prisoners who’d managed to hold onto their weapons dropped them along with their jaws. One managed to fire on her, but the blaster beam was deflected by her armour into the walls of the cavern, again spraying limestone residue onto anyone who was standing beneath it.

With a flick of her wrist, she fired a light blue pulse into the attacker, rendering him unconscious immediately.

She looked down at Drevo.

‘Are you ready to listen, yet, Captain?’

Drevo looked up, aghast.

‘It’s the beast atop the tower!’ He screamed. ‘She’s here to slay us all!’

Almost hysterically, he charged, but Odessa effortlessly grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, lifted him up, and stared deeply into eyes.

‘That’s enough words,’ she said, ‘it’s time for you to see.’

Odessa’s eyes blazed that familiar orange and gold, and the crowd was captivated by the extraordinary scene unfolding before their eyes.

Nic, perplexed at the charade he had been made to perform earlier, wondered why it had taken so long for Odessa to use her formidable power. Instead, she had made him flounder in front of Drevo. She must have known he would never be able to reach one whose ideals had been so ingrained, so conditioned, into him. He felt his blood boiling again, and he focussed. He stared intently at Odessa, and he felt a heat burning in his retinae. Eventually, the cave scene in front of him melted into an artist’s palette, colours melting and merging together, into that which he had already seen. Again, he saw the electromagnetic storms thrashing into the barren wasteland that extended beyond the pulsating shield that encircled the city. Again, he watched as the General transformed into the Visigoth and crushed Bagon and Honza to within a millimetre of their lives. Again, he watched as Odessa cut through reams of the Visigoth’s men in the cliffside bunker. Finally, again, he saw the images of his dreams. He watched as the star went nova and the surrounding planets were incinerated to dust.

As the flames enveloped him, he was jolted free of Odessa’s psychic hold.

He turned and examined the room. Not only had Odessa transfixed Drevo, but she was radiating an intense orange glow that had transfixed everyone in the room. He scoured the cave and saw the awesome power which Odessa possessed. Everyone was transfixed. Prisoners and rebels alike. As his eyes moved across the room, he finally came back to Odessa. Only now she was not staring into Drevo’s eyes, but intently at him, aware that he had broken contact.

Her appearance had become almost as monstrous as the Visigoth himself. Her hair extended away from her head, as though it was charged with a thousand volts, and the golden aura that surrounded it resembled a shining corona. Golden-orange beams emanated from her eyes and hypnotically stalked down towards Nic as he lay helpless on the hard cave floor. As they pierced his eyes and entered his neo-cortex, he heard her say,

‘Show me what you have seen, Nic, and I’ll show them all.’

Although her lips didn’t move at all.

The Company Man (11)

Nic thudded into the ground face-first and felt fine grains of dirt blow into his mouth and nose. He opened his eyes and a bright white light painlessly pierced his neo-cortex. A swirling pattern of orange, gold, and brown, slowly caramelised into a clay desert vista that stretched around him for miles. The hazy red hue of the sky kissed the horizon and merged with it seamlessly.

Nic floated effortlessly to his feet and wiped the dust from his lips, tasting the earthy grains. He instinctively held his right hand in front of him and examined it, front and back. He extended his fingers and clenched his fist, but nothing appeared to be amiss. He scanned his surroundings and noticed several large boulders about twenty metres in front of him. He intuitively approached and rested his palm on one of the cold slabs. The sensation jolted the image of a woman lying on the rock. Her porcelain face was half covered with long red hair, and her one visible eye emanated a faint orange glow, as tears of blood streaked down her cheek.

          Odessa, he thought, and a memory returned. The sub-conscious realm.

As her eye radiated orange and gold, Nic saw planets burn. He watched as a star silently went nova. It flashed a brilliant white and its shockwave consumed everything in its path. Planets and moons were incinerated instantly, and so intense were the flares that Nic could feel the heat on his face. Still, they burned brighter, and through the flames Nic saw bodies scorched to ash as their faces twisted into agonised contortions.

A bright orange beam dazzled Nic and snapped him back to the desert. He looked past the rock and located the source. Orange and turquoise lights blazed in the distance, accompanied by the soft sound of crashing metal and shattering glass. He felt irrevocably drawn to the light, yet he sensed pain. He hesitated, but an innate curiosity pushed him forward. A mental symphony of ecstasy and agony, and bondage and liberation pulled him in. As he teetered on the edge of an invisible precipice, a hazy turquoise flash engulfed him, and he fell into another realm and awoke in a different skin.

Nic was in a bustling square. A single bright yellow sun shone from a clear blue sky. Humans thronged the sidewalks beneath huge skyscrapers. Automobiles aggressively weaved through the streets in a cacophony of roaring engines and honking horns. They pumped thick smoke into the air that Nic felt clogging his nostrils. People pushed him left and right.

‘Hey buddy, people are trying to walk here!’ One irate pedestrian yelled as she barged past.

Nic stumbled forward and saw the scene from above. The people and automobiles were nothing but dots and lines whizzing along the streets. The lights in the buildings sporadically flashed on and off and on again in a haze of greens and pinks, blues and purples, and warm whites. He watched days pass in seconds, as the sun ascended and descended across the horizon. He knew it was Earth, but not as he had seen it.

He blinked and was in a large room with a great domed ceiling and even greater din. There were curved rows of seats arranged in divided semi-circles in front of a podium. They were full to the brim with people wearing strange clothes and headphones, who were constantly speaking over one another. One man, whose booming voice echoed around the whole room, stood at the podium gesticulating wildly while others either nodded their heads in agreement or threw their hands in the air in frustration. Behind him was a golden drape that stretched the entire height of the room, and on it was a large picture of what looked like a map surrounded by a large wreath. There were two huge monitors on either side that bore an unusual phrase; United Nations Summit.

He pondered what the words could mean. He looked down and examined the transparent glass desk in front of him. Then, he caught his reflection in the desktop and froze.

          The Grand Visigoth!

Nic recoiled, but the image began to encroach. Gradually, the people and room disappeared, and the eyes that stared back at him blazed green-blue. Nic panicked when he felt them searing into his own, and a crippling pain shot through his right hand. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out. In his reflection, his mouth opened wider than his whole body, and a deafening, high-pitched scream rang through his ears as the gaping chasm enveloped him.

Nic jolted awake in the med-bay disoriented and sweating. It was the second time he had had the dream and the memory sent a shiver down his spine. His vision was blurry and his right wrist was tingling. He managed to gather himself and focus on two hazy silhouettes that were hurrying towards him.

‘He’s awake.’ He heard a familiar soft voice say. Then, he felt a warm hand on his chest slowly ease him back onto his bed. ‘Rest, Nic.’

‘W-w-where. A-am. I-I?’ He croaked.

‘You’re in the mines, Nic. Last stand, remember?’

‘Delfin, I-is that you?’ He managed.

‘Yes, Nic, It’s me. How are you feeling?’

‘I can’t see the features of your face,’ he whinnied. ‘Everything is a blur.’

‘It means the nanoids are working, Nic,’ she reassured. She turned towards the featureless blur beside her and said, ‘he seems lucid.’

‘Can you see me, Nic?’ He recognised Odessa’s voice. ‘How many fingers?’

Nic could just about see three blurry digits extended in front of him and he managed to mutter, ‘th-th-three.’

‘Perfect, Nic. In a few more hours I think your vision will have returned completely.’

The memories of his dreams began to resurface, and he started to panic.

‘The fire,’ he mumbled. ‘The fire,’ he said again and began to try and get up from the bed.

‘No, Nic, relax,’ Odessa soothed.

‘The fire will burn us all,’ he said as he suddenly became animated. ‘He was here!’ He yelled, ‘the Visigoth was here!’

‘He’s not here Nic. He’s ordered everyone in the city to report to the tunnel. He’ll reach the core whatever the cost now.’

‘Not now,’ he cried, ‘before! I’ve seen it in my dreams.’

He began flailing his arms as Odessa held him down.

‘Delfin, give him a sedative.’ She ordered

As he writhed on the bed, he felt a sharp prick in his left arm, and he gently drifted off to the faint sound of Delfin and Odessa muttering as the ventilator whirred softly beside him.

It had been about ten hours since they escaped the roof of Company headquarters, and the Grand Visigoth’s almighty rage, and made their way through the cavernous underbelly of Hallogen. Nic stood on a small cliff-edge inside the cave and watched moisture slowly form into a droplet and begin to snake its way down the glistening white stalactite hanging in front of him.

The old mines snaked into the depths, and it wasn’t unusual during the pre-Grand Visigoth days for mining duties to be disrupted when the ground beneath them crumbled away after they had axed their way through a stubborn slab of granite. The ensuing cave-ins were always at the cost of a squad or two of noble Privates, gallantly sacrificing themselves in the hunt for the precious minerals the General so desperately needed. Nic had been involved in several himself. The network of caves that they sometimes stumbled upon were summarily resealed, fallen comrades were left to rot in their tombs, and the miners were relocated elsewhere. The work never ceased. The fact that Odessa’s rebels had chosen such a place as their final haven was not surprising, as well hidden as they were.

As Odessa had tended his wounds, she had informed him of her first days on Earth. Her painstaking search to find a secure location outside the grasp of her mighty foe had lasted months. She had scouted hundreds of tunnels alone in the cold, dark depths, and finally she had settled on this place. With only one way in, space enough to house several hundred people in its expansive network of tunnels and clearings, and a source of, if not exactly drinkable water, at least that which could be purified. And here they now were, shielded and hidden, for the time being at least.

He marvelled as another droplet coursed its way down the well-worn limestone crevasses. He saw every nook and cranny to the most minute detail. As it dripped into the cloudy turquoise water streaming gently beneath him, Nic felt like he could see every shade of blue and green as the ripples undulated away. He felt that if he concentrated hard enough, he could even differentiate between the molecules themselves, the hydrogen and oxygen, and the array of heavy metals that lurked in the water and blessed it with such vibrant colour.

His eyes weren’t sore any more. Odessa’s nanoids had taken care of that. The microscopic robots she had injected into his eyeball had worked their magic and now his vision had not only returned, but he could see each and every detail with even greater clarity and purpose than before. He slowly rubbed his left palm along the wall next to him and he could see the subtle differences in the shades of rock as his hand passed over them. The calcium-carbonate, granite, and iron ore were all within his field of vision. In a mere six hours, he had gone from being completely blind to seeing more clearly than ever. He glanced down at the sling, and the stump resting in it, and frowned. It hadn’t fully healed yet, although the wound was scabbing over nicely; he was pretty confident the nanoids would leave him with barely a hint of scar tissue when they were done. He only wished they had enough time to regenerate the whole hand. Repairing the cell-receptors in his retina was no trouble at all, it seemed.

The med-bay behind him was filled with bodies laid out on makeshift gurneys, unwitting victims of the Grand Visigoths almighty vengeance. He walked over to Honza and Bagon, and watched as the stolen ventilators, no doubt spoils of Odessa’s insurrection, pumped simultaneously and kept them alive. Their broken bodies proved a bigger obstacle to the nanoids workmanlike perseverance. Every bone had been shattered, their organs crushed under the weight of the Grand Visigoth’s rage.

‘Just one nanoid can repair as many broken bones as you put in front of it…’ Odessa had said matter-of factly, as she held the syringe and examined the volume closely. ‘0.01ml of nanite solution contains over one million nanoids,’ she said proudly, but then she frowned. ‘All they need is time.’ Such a small amount meant their recovery would take far longer than the thirty-six hours Odessa had predicted it would take the Grand Visigoth’s men to locate their hideaway.

 

As Nic watched Bagon’s chest slowly rise and fall in time with the ventilator, he wondered if it hadn’t all been in vain. Delfin had just explained how she, and a smattering of other rebels, had been scattered in the crowds at the foot of Company headquarters as Nic and Odessa had made their attack. They returned bearing the bodies of the wounded, who had wailed and moaned as they were sedated, speaking almost in tongues of the hellish vision they had witnessed atop the tower. They mumbled of the enormous hundred-foot-high beast that had exploded through the giant dome, showering the unsuspecting masses with glass and concrete. Hundreds were crushed, lacerated, and trampled. Those who made it back spoke of the blue-green aura that had surrounded its fists as they had slammed into the roof of the tower like giant wrecking balls, and of the explosion of orange and red and gold that had ended the maelstrom. It wasn’t over for long, though. Within hours everyone left in Hallogen, the entire population, had been ordered to emergency work detail. The drill crews would work non-stop until they had achieved the Visigoth’s goal of reaching and extracting the Earth’s core.

So lost was he in his grief that he hadn’t noticed Odessa enter through the passageway behind him.

‘Glad to see you’re up and about,’ she chirped. ‘How are my heroes doing?’

‘No idea,’ he replied, startled. ‘They look almost dead.’

‘The nanoids will take care of them,’ she said as she swanned around the beds, examining several patients and smiling broadly.

‘What do you have to be so happy about?’ Nic growled and glanced at the mass of bodies that surrounded them. ‘We lost, didn’t we?’

‘Depends what you mean by lost. We escaped the tower, and you’re alive, aren’t you? You look better than I’ve ever seen you, in fact.’

Nic frowned and walked slowly back to the edge of the med-bay and focussed again on the water beneath him.

‘I find great peace in the water, but it disturbs me. When you saved us from the tower, I was blind. Yet, now I can see things in the water as well as my mind.’

‘The dreams again,’ she said and rolled her eyes. ‘I told you earlier, Nic. It’s the nanoids. They don’t only repair damaged tissue, they enhance it. I programmed them to restore the cells in your retina to optimal functionality.’

‘And what if they find other damaged tissue, outside of their programming?’ He probed.

‘They will ignore it unless they deem it to be life threatening.’

‘So, is it outside the realm of possibility,’ he asked, ‘that the Visigoth’s conditioning program, as well as your own invasion of my mind, didn’t leave some rather more serious damage than you expected.’

‘What are you getting at, Nic?’ She asked in mild frustration.

‘Is it not possible,’ he asked, this time in a rather more hostile tone, ‘that the nanoids could have enhanced my mind too?’ He paused, before becoming more agitated. ‘I’m telling you, I entered the sub-conscious realm!’

‘It’s just not possible Nic.’ She insisted, as she continued to examine the wounded. ‘It took many hundreds of millennia for humans to develop these skills. My own people only honed them after the technological intervention of the Terran pioneers in our evolution. It takes many centuries to master these skills as I have. To accidentally fall into the sub-conscious realm is unheard of.’

Nic moved quickly around the bed so he was facing her.

‘And what of your battle?’ He challenged. ‘The power that was witnessed by everyone at the foot of the tower. Couldn’t that have pushed me over the edge?’

‘I gave you the nanoids after that Nic. After I brought you here, and anyway, the battle people witnessed was merely a mental projection. The Grand Visigoth is a powerful telepath. People see whatever he wants them to see. It seems that now he’s reverted to the way of fear, given our recent success.’

‘I saw you on the rock,’ Nic insisted, ‘where you guided me from your prison, and I felt your battle. I saw planets explode and burn and I saw the Visigoth on Earth, but not my Hallogen, it was Earth, before!’

Odessa sighed in exasperation and turned away.

‘Maybe your nanoids just reactivated the same parts of my brain? Maybe that’s why I keep having the visions.’

‘I guess it’s possible Nic,’ she sighed, ‘the nanoids are quite remarkable little things. They enable me to host all of my cybernetic implants. They constantly manage the fine balance between my natural organic self, and the upgrades I’ve added on my journey.’

‘Your armour?’

‘You asked me once how it was possible for it to unfold from within my own skin, do you remember?’

Nic nodded.

‘Well, now you have it, Nic. Nanoids. And unfortunately I need them back.’

He looked down at his stump and frowned again.

Before he could speak, she continued. ‘We don’t have long Nic.’ She sighed and walked back towards the bodies behind them. ‘I must keep a surplus of nanite solution in my system at all times. Otherwise, I can’t deploy my armour or utilise many of the mechanical components of my body.’

‘How are you able to give them to us at all?’

‘Like blood, I have more than I need in case I lose some. I can donate some to help others, but ultimately I need them back. I can’t survive without them.’

‘Can’t you make more?’ He asked earnestly.

‘If we were on my old ship, I could show you the medical bay. We had a terminal to create nanoids but it was resource intensive. It required astronomical energy to create just one millilitre of the solution. My body contains about five hundred. We had a full-body nanoid saturation chamber too. It took us over three hundred years to build.’ She looked at his stump. ‘It would’ve made light work of that injury. It could’ve regenerated your whole hand in minutes.’

‘What happenend to it?’

She removed a syringe from her pocket and manoeuvred herself between two unconscious patients.

‘We almost succeeded in defeating the Grand Visigoth a century ago.’ She began, as she started checking the patient’s vitals. ‘He tried to convert an entire star system to his cause. The Andromicronian star had three planets and about twenty colonised moons within its habitable zone. The human civilisation that developed there was advanced in its own right. It had yet to develop interstellar travel, but they had colonised the outer reaches of their own system.’

She inserted the needle into the neck of one patient and extracted a miniscule amount of her nanite solution.

‘Will he die?’ Nic enquired morosely.

She gave a wan smile and muttered, ‘he’s out of the woods for now.’ Her sombre tone returned as she continued her story.

‘The Visigoth wanted their fleet to join him; his mental trickery and gifts of technology had already swayed the rulers on Andromicron Prime, but the people of the outer colonies resisted. The concept of religion was long forgotten on their worlds. The idea that a master alien race had seeded the universe was downright offensive to many. They had advanced so far on their own ingenuity and technological development that they possessed a certain arrogance that comes with such technological prowess. Even the presence of the Visigoth and his gift of interstellar travel couldn’t assuage their doubts, so they formed a ramshackle alliance dedicated to halting the Grand Visigoth’s recruitment of their sister worlds to his intergalactic search.

‘The last of the Alphanians, myself included, arrived as their rebellion was in its infancy. We forged an alliance with the rebels, given our common enemy, and together, we almost defeated his entire fleet.’ She paused and continued grimly. ‘But his rage was fierce and his retribution unprecedented. As his ships were destroyed and his followers vanquished, he sprung his trap. Our allied fleet made its final advance on Andromicron Prime, and we offered our terms for his surrender. His response was quite simple. He detonated the Andromicronian star.’

She bowed her head as a tear streaked down her cheeks.

‘He sacrificed his own fleet?’ Nic asked, incredulous.

‘Aside from the four ships in orbit of your planet, yes.’

‘How did you escape?’

‘The Visigoth opened a quantum rift,’ she said in a manner that appeared as if she expected Nic to know what she was talking about, but he just looked at her blankly.

‘It’s a form of unstable wormhole that can propel you across vast distances. The technology is incredibly advanced and there are few in the galaxy that possess it. The only downside is that you don’t always know where you will end up.’ She let out a soft chuckle and bowed her head. ‘I saw his plan too late, and I alone managed to follow them through. We were scattered into a distant quadrant of the galaxy, and I spent the best part of a century tracking them here.’

‘So he destroyed an entire system, rather than concede it you?’

‘We’d been a thorn in his side for too long, Nic. He sacrificed a star system of twenty billion people to destroy us. What few Alphanians remained tried to scramble the fleet and escape the supernova, but after I entered the Rift, all contact was lost.’

As Nic processed the information, he could almost feel the neural pathways in his brain firing and all manner of permutations began to crystalise in his mind. He’d never experienced such a thing before and the sensation was unnerving, but it left him in no doubt as to the effectiveness of Odessa’s nanoids.

‘Don’t you see, Odessa,’ he blurted. ‘It all makes sense.’

‘I know,’ she retorted quickly. ‘He left no such chance for rebellion here. Your devastated planet and small population was perfect. He enthralled what was left of your people and set up The Company to maintain control until he could get at your core…’

‘No, no, no,’ he interrupted. ‘I see it clearly now. I saw the Andromicronian star go nova in my vision…’

‘Nic,’ she cut him off. ‘Not the dreams again.’

‘I saw a star explode and engulf three planets in flame,’ he insisted, ‘and through the fire I saw scores of people incinerated to dust…’

‘Nic…’ She tried to interject, but Nic continued,

‘Then I saw an unfamiliar looking Earth through the eyes of the Visigoth. I’m sure of it.’

‘Nic!’ She cut him off again. ‘It can’t be. Neither myself nor the Visigoth saw the destruction. We flew into the quantum rift almost immediately the star detonated. Through whose eyes do you suppose you saw such events?’

‘You said there were others, no?’ He said, smiling.

‘Yes, Nic, but…’

Now it was Nic’s turn to interrupt.

‘Is it not possible that one of your compatriots, another Alphanian, witnessed the destruction?’

‘Well, yes. Technically speaking, but…’

‘Then couldn’t I have witnessed it through their eyes?’

‘I guess it falls within the realms of possibility, but Nic, I don’t see how it could even be possible in the first place. And without a brain scanner, we have no way of knowing for sure. Although given the logical deductions you are making right now, I am rather curious as to the state of your mind.’

‘And why may I ask is that? Aren’t you the very person who enabled me to think in such a way? When you freed me of my mental shackles and allowed me to follow my own wishes and desires, is this not what you had imagined?’

‘Well, Nic, of course. But for someone to go from a lifetime of conditioning and mental enslavement to the level of cognitive function you are now displaying is perhaps more the mystery. Ok, let’s say, hypothetically, I believe you. What do you suppose it all means?’

‘Well–

Before Nic was able to begin his summation, the entire cavern was rocked by a thunderous BOOM, which shook the walls and almost knocked both Nic and Odessa to the ground.

‘Damn, they’ve found us already, Nic,’ she panicked and hurried to the next patient and quickly extracted her nanoids.

‘I thought you said we had at least thirty-six hours?’ Nic yelled.

‘A most optimistic estimate, it seems. But we still have some time; the entrance is cloaked. But we have to go. Now! Your deductions will have to wait.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘You remember Delfin said that they had brought the wounded here to the caves.’

‘Yes, of course.’

‘What she didn’t mention was that among their number were thirty-three Officers, and I need you to come with me and enlighten them.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘As you’ve seen with your own eyes, Nic, I can enlighten the Private class reasonably easily. They’re just about all with us now. But the Officers, as it was with you, my friend, are not so easily drawn to our cause. We are currently holding them under guard.’

‘What am I supposed to do about that?’ He scoffed.

‘Well, isn’t that obvious?’ She paused, and Nic stared back at her blankly. ‘I need you to convince them to join us!’

Nic didn’t have any time to panic at the request, as another almighty BOOM shook the cave’s walls and knocked him onto his backside.

Odessa retained her balance and towered over him. She extended her hand and said with a sly grin,

‘Come on, Nic, we haven’t got all day. I guess you can keep the nanoids for now.’

The Company Man (10)

The elevator announced their arrival in a robotic monotone drone.

‘Level ninety-six, prepare for identification.’

Nic and the fat bureaucrat waited as a camera positioned above the shining steel doors directed a blue ray of light slowly across the fat bureaucrat’s face from top to bottom. The fat bureaucrat’s bulbous eyes reflected the light and Nic watched as he didn’t even blink. His face looked empty, like one machine was scanning another.

‘Level ten clearance, accepted,’ the computer confirmed, ‘access granted.’

The camera flicked sideways towards Nic and the blue light flashed across his eyes. He did everything could to maintain his composure. He’d never experienced such a scan before and was determined to hold his veneer of indifference. In the days before his awakening, the old Nic wouldn’t have flinched an inch. He would have done whatever he had been ordered to do, especially if his reward was a meeting with The General. The blue light wasn’t invasive as such, but it was strain to hold his eyes open. He couldn’t be sure if the fat bureaucrat was aware of his discomfort.

‘Clearance rejected, access denied,’ the robotic monotone deepened and became more aggressive, ‘stay in position and await judgement.’ Two mini-turrets emerged from the upper corners of the lift and trained in on Nic’s position. The red dots of their laser sights converged over his heart, which Nic felt jump into his throat. He stood tall, regardless, stiffened his pose, and focussed all his energies into maintaining the calm expression on his face. Nic could feel the stare of the fat bureaucrat burning through his façade. Then, without warning, a different voice rolled out of the speakers.

‘Override, clearance alpha one,’ the soft honeyed voice echoed around the lift and each syllable was enunciated slowly and deliberately, ‘welcome gentlemen, you may proceed.’

The turrets whirred back into their slots and the doors slowly opened.

‘At ease, Lieutenant,’ the fat bureaucrat said as he stepped out of the elevator, ‘follow me.’

 

The top floor of Company headquarters was certainly a spectacle unto itself. Nic looked up and saw that the entire ceiling was a magnificent dome composed of glass. Giant hexagonal panels curved across the whole roof. It was thirty meters high at its peak and Nic could see the faint red hue of the energy shield glistening in the night sky above. He struggled to keep his mouth from the floor. There were two drop ships, the same drop ships he had seen on top of the hill, sat atop launch pads to the left of them. He scanned the room as he marched closely behind the fat bureaucrat. Mind-boggling technology was scattered everywhere. There were any number of indiscriminate machines and computer panels that dazzled Nic with their flashing lights and buttons of all shapes and sizes, yet there was not one person on the floor. The humming of the machines seemed to echo off the glass dome in eerie silence. They walked passed a giant control centre that consisted of an array of monitors two meters high and arranged into a U shape atop a set of panels whose buttons flickered in an array of oranges and reds and yellows. The screens were blank and the cushioned chair that sat in the centre was empty.

The fat bureaucrat strode past it, and as they rounded yet another unrecognisable piece of technology, they came to a viewing area that appeared to be at the front of the building. There were no walls as such, just rectangular glass panels that extended about three meters straight up at the edges, before transforming into the magnificent geodesic dome above. From the outside it was nothing but a dull grey speck a hundred storeys high, but through this one-way glass there was a panoramic three hundred and sixty-degree view of the entire city.

Nic suddenly felt his heart-rate increase as he saw the man himself just a few meters in front of him. The General was standing with his back to Nic beside two ornate leather armchairs and a small table between them; his arms were crossed behind him, and golden insignia on each shoulder gleamed under the starlight. He was staring out of the window at the scene unfolding below. Beside him, emanating iridescent blue light, was his great prize. The ovoid energy case that contained Odessa.

                  The fat bureaucrat stopped abruptly. Nic stopped behind him and stood to attention. He gripped the EMP ever more tightly.

‘General, Sir, I have here the Lieutenant whom you wished to meet,’ the fat bureaucrat said in his most obsequious tone.

‘Yes, yes, comrade. I’m aware of our guest.’ He didn’t turn around.

‘General, Sir, he informed me that the Doctor is dead, Sir…’

‘Pity,’ he interjected, ‘he was a loyal servant.’ He paused, and then under his breath, ‘and most effective.’

‘… and that he has crucial information regarding the insurrection. Are we still to proceed with our arrangements?’ The fat bureaucrat sounded nervous.

‘Why, yes of course, comrade.’ The General turned and grinned. ‘Inform the others that the Grand Visigoth himself will be joining us.’

‘The Grand Visigoth, General, Sir,’ the fat bureaucrat’s eyes widened at the prospect, ‘of course, Sir.’ He bowed his head.

‘Now, leave us,’ The General turned and looked at Nic, as the fat bureaucrat briskly tottered towards the lift. ‘Welcome, Lieutenant, you’ve had quite the week, I hear.’ His silky voice oozed charisma.

‘General, Sir,’ he saluted and stomped his foot on the ground, maintaining his rigid stance. Fortunately, he hadn’t forgotten the rigmarole involved in a formal greeting along with his conditioning. ‘It is my great honour to be granted such an audience, General, Sir. It is the dream of all loyal servants to be in the grace of your presence.’

‘Yes, yes, thank you, I appreciate your service, Lieutenant.’ His voice was as smooth as fresh honey; he waved away Nic’s fawning comments and approached him. He was taller than Nic, yet sleight in his build. His swarthy complexion, pointed features, and shining blue eyes gave off a familiar appeal. Nic almost felt at ease just being in his presence. ‘Please sit.’ He motioned towards the two armchairs and sat down.

‘It would be my honour, Sir,’ Nic fawned, as he followed his lead. The leather creaked as he sat and the soft cushions absorbed his weight. Nic almost gasped as the supple material moulded to the curves of his body. A mere Lieutenant could never know such luxury.

They both sat at an angle to the window so they could see one another and admire the majestic view at the same time.

Nic saw the black void of the tunnel stretching far into the distance. From their elevated position, they were at least four hundred meters high, the mountains of rock that were piled high on the other side looked magnificent, their great peaks a testament to the labour of the masses. The smashed corpses of the comrades that littered them momentarily slipped from his mind as he turned and looked into The General’s eyes. He saw shades of blue and green swirling together under their shiny glazed shells. It reminded him of images he had seen in his youth. The once turquoise seas of the world before had slowly darkened into the irradiated oceans of the present day. Nic broke eye contact and suddenly remembered Odessa and her power to transfix him.

Careful, now, he thought. Remember your mission, not the conditioning. He clenched the EMP and focussed.

‘Now what of this dreadful news, Comrade?’ The General leant forward and lifted a patterned china teapot from the table and poured two cups of steaming yellow-green liquid. ‘Please, drink.’ He took a cup for himself, leant back into his chair, and crossed his legs as he silently sipped. Nic remembered the conditioning serum, but he couldn’t risk not following his lead. He took a cup. The herbal fragrance was light and fresh, unlike anything Nic had ever smelled, it was a world apart from the sludgy brown liquid served in the mess hall.

‘The rebels are manoeuvring into position, Sir. They are planning an attack imminently.’ Nic said as he sipped the divine liquid. He felt its sweet warmth flow over his tongue and descend all the way down his gullet.

‘Green tea.’ The General said, grinning from ear to ear. ‘Delightful, isn’t it?’ He seemed to ignore the news.

‘It truly is, General, Sir. I feel unworthy of such a drink.’ He tried to sound as servile as possible.

‘Nonsense, comrade,’ he reassured, ‘and what of the Doctor?’

Focus, Nic! How could I forget my own ruse. Nic could feel himself losing control. His memory of his own mission was becoming hazy, and he felt an overwhelming urge to drop to his knees and beg forgiveness. An image flashed through his mind. It was a picture of three red suns setting over the smouldering skyline of Odessa’s home planet.

Odessa! He concentrated and remembered. Come on, Bagon, bring on the show. Nic wasn’t sure how long he could keep up his facade. It was already beginning to crack.

‘Dead, Sir. I awoke in the chair to a filthy rebel standing over his corpse. He was spouting nonsense of liberation and revolt. He was under the impression I had betrayed the Company, Sir.’ Nic shook his head a spat on the floor in disgust. ‘I played along with his charade in the hope he would reveal their plans, Sir. There were hundreds of them, heading down into the depths of the building. He brought me to the elevator, Sir, and told me it was time for me to play my part. Luckily, the Troopers intercepted us there and I made my escape…’

‘But, why didn’t you inform the Troopers, Lieutenant?’ The General interrupted gently.

‘General, Sir, as mighty as your forces are, they were just two men. No match for the legions I saw flooding the stairwells.’ Nic looked directly into the General’s glazed blue eyes. ‘I would never betray the Company, Sir. Since we apprehended that devil woman,’ he nodded towards the ovoid case behind them. ‘I had hoped we could get back on track with the search. Having my recovery interrupted by such beastly creatures engendered an opportunity to learn yet more about what they were planning. An Officer is forever at his post, Sir.’

‘Of course, Lieutenant,’ The General soothed, ‘please do continue.’

‘The rebels revealed themselves to me with great candour, Sir. They are deluded. They spoke in riddles of the end of the world and a great conspiracy to destroy our very planet. They mocked the search. It was all I could do not to vomit, Sir. Such sacrilege should be punished with death. They revealed a plan to attack this very evening. Your audience with the masses. I think it would be prudent to cancel, Sir.’

‘Nonsense!’ He exclaimed. ‘We have nothing to fear, Lieutenant. See for yourself.’ He stood and walked to the window. ‘Let us marvel in the wonder of our cosmic friends and the gifts they have bestowed, just for a moment.’

Nic followed and positioned himself between the General and Odessa’s glowing tomb. It was just two meters away now. He held his hands behind his back and awaited his chance.

The General removed a communicator from his pocket. ‘Frontal display formation,’ he barked, and he peered upwards.

Nic looked up, and to his horror, he saw through the soundproof glass dome that four of the Grand Visigoth’s warships were silently descending to the front of the building. The blue flames that scorched from their jet boosters were practically licking the windows. They positioned themselves so their noses were pointing towards the crowds below, and the contours of their angular jet-black fuselages reflected light in shades of red and silver. Nic saw the reflection of the building looking back at him, a dull gray dome that hid the technological wonders within it.

‘Fully automated, Lieutenant.’ The General sounded gleeful. ‘And voice controlled.’

Nic gulped. He knew whatever Bagon and his friends had organised, they’d be no match for one of these attack ships, let alone four of them. Nic had seen what they could do in Odessa’s visions. ‘A truly wondrous gift, Sir,’ he finally managed, ‘I’ve never seen such a craft.’ His voice had almost dropped to a whisper, the lie barely concealed.

 

Dejected at the sudden drop in their fortunes, Nic glanced westward and noticed the jagged form of the rocks that indicated the entrance to the mines.

We’ll put our backs to the rocks and make our stand there, Delfin’s words in his head brought a sense of urgency. Maybe it was a fool’s errand. He thought of the last remnants of their resistance huddling in the abandoned caves as they awaited their fates. From the corner of his eye he glimpsed a speck rising from the void. He looked again and he saw another, and another. After a few seconds there were a small group of maybe ten of them coming closer and closer. Drillpods! The utter dread he felt as they slowly ascended and increased in size was compounded as the General turned and saw them too.

‘What’s this?’ He said sarcastically. It seems your information was accurate, Lieutenant.’ He raised his communicator again. ‘Destroy those pods.’ He pressed his hands onto the glass and watched with glee as the warships did his bidding. They barely had to move. Their blasters extended and silent flashes of orange streaked down through the sky. One by one, the drillpods were vaporized in flashes of orange and red. The last flaming embers slowly turned to dust as they floated down towards the unsuspecting crowds below. The General was practically drooling on the glass.

Some show, Nic thought as his heart sank. Bagon and the others blasted to dust before they even fired a shot. The crowds probably think it’s just fireworks. He firmly pressed the button on the EMP. Let’s give them a real show. He spun around desperately and dived towards the tomb beside him, but he froze in mid-air, his outstretched fist barely a centimetre from the red hot energy of the tomb. From behind him, he heard an unfamiliar voice, dark and ominous.

‘My loyal comrade, indeed,’ it cackled. The General’s voice had changed from honeyed wine to a guttural boom. ‘Tell me Lieutenant. Do you take me for a fool?’

Nic felt himself gradually begin to lift and rotate. He was as rigid as a block of lumber on the factory floor. As he slowly moved upright and into the view of The General, Nic watched, terrified, as his form slowly shifted and changed in front of his eyes. The blue-green swirls in his eyes were gone and the colours began radiating fiercely out his sockets, like the flames from the jets of his ships. He stood with his legs apart and fists by his sides. He unfurled his hands to reveal jagged circular stones buried in his palms. They were glowing the same vibrant shades of green and blue. He seemed to grow two feet taller and his face slowly shifted. His dark complexion became grey and his face contorted and stretched into a long, gaunt horror. The General was no more and the looming presence of the Grand Visigoth drove utter terror into Nic’s soul. He knew now without a doubt, too late of course; Odessa’s visions had been real. The General was nothing but a tool of The Grand Visigoth’s box of wicked designs.

Created to manipulate an entire world, Nic fretted, hell, even the galaxy itself. He tried to recoil but couldn’t. The Grand Visigoth’s demonic thrall made a mockery of Nic’s own machinations to get close to Odessa. The stones in his palms grew brighter and brighter; Nic felt their light burning into his retina. How he wished he could just close his eyes and stop the searing pain. His floating body remained upright as his arms and legs spread from his body. He was now floating like a human star enveloped in a cloud of green-blue cosmic dust a metre from the ground. He felt his limbs straining apart from his torso; his very skin felt as if it was being stripped from his body. The pain was excruciating, but he couldn’t so much as scream.

‘Do you really think you can presume to lie to me with such gall?’ The Grand Visigoth boomed. His face was a picture of twisted malevolence. ‘Why would I need to spike your tea? I am a destroyer of star systems! I enthralled your whole planet in a mere heartbeat.’ He smiled wickedly. ‘So they’re in the mines, are they. I thank you, Lieutenant. I will ensure that every last one of them dies in excruciating agony. You will watch as I strip the skin from their bones, knowing that their fate awaits you.’ He looked at Nic’s extended right arm. ‘So, you wish to free the Alphanian monstrosity,’ he sneered, ‘even she is no match for me. She failed at Andromicron Prime, and she has failed again today.’

Nic listened to his diatribe, powerless to move and despondent at his failure. The Grand Visigoth’s words became meaningless. It was an endless stream of insults about the human’s of Earth’s lack of evolution, and the boundless might of his own galactic order. At the moment when Nic had all but given up, he saw something in the distance outside slowly rise over The Grand Visigoth’s right shoulder. A second wave of drillpods! He marvelled in frozen silence. In The Grand Visigoth’s distraction, they had ascended the entire height of the building and were manoeuvring into position. As he ranted and raved, Nic watched as they silently moved in front of the warships. No firepower, Nic pondered, and no match for blasters, but they’re damn near indestructible when it comes to mining. Nic could do nothing to brace himself for what he realised must be coming, he just watched and hoped.

The Grand Visigoth’s haughty snarl was finally silenced with a thunderous roar, as the pods charged the warships and smashed them into the outside of the dome. As ships and pods exploded, the whole room shuddered violently in a hail of fire and broken glass.

Nic hit the floor with a violent thud, as the Grand Visigoth spun around at the deafening sound. The EMP rolled out of Nic’s hand, along the floor, and bumped into the side of Odessa’s tomb, before rattling to a stop on the ground.

Nic looked up, heavily winded, and watched as two drillpods smashed through the glass directly into the Grand Visigoth. They careened across the room leaving a trail of destruction in their wake before crashing into the lifts on the far side of the room and coming to rest.

Nic limped to his feet as fast as he could and dragged himself to the tomb, holding his stomach all the way. He looked at the wall where the ships had come to rest. That won’t hold him for long, he thought as he saw the two pilots clambering from wrecks, Bagon and Honza! He grabbed the EMP, its green activation light was still flashing, and tried to push it into the pulsating blue energy of the tomb. He could get his hand within about half a centimetre of its surface, but as he tried to get closer, he felt his skin begin to burn. In a panic, he looked up again and saw Bagon and Honza running towards him. Behind them, the wrecks of their drillpods slowly began edging outwards and the sounds of metal grating on metal and the tile floor echoed around the room.

‘Do it now, Nic!’ Bagon screamed from across the hall as he vaulted a burning control panel.

‘Now Nic,’ Honza yelled, ‘what are you waiting for?’

Nic looked at the EMP and back at the shield. ‘A fool’s errand, indeed,’ he muttered, before clasping the EMP in his fist and punching with all the force he could muster into the sea of blue fire. The smell of burning flesh, instantly cauterized, seared into his nostrils as he screamed in sheer agony.

As Nic’s fist disintegrated into the shield, the EMP made contact and emitted a violent screeching sound as the pulse was emitted. It knocked Bagon and Honza from their feet and enshrouded the entire room in darkness.

There was a light thud as a body hit the floor beside Nic, but he was too preoccupied writhing on the ground and clasping at his burned stump in excruciating pain to notice.

The creaking metal scraping along the ground slowly became louder. Eventually, there was an almighty din as the Grand Visigoth freed himself, and the remains of the drillpods were thrust to the sides of the room. The radiance of his eyes and palms glowed in the distance in a soft blue-green hue, and gently lit the room. The ambience it created, combined with the starlight and soft breeze coming through the smashed dome, belied the wrath he exuded. He bounded quickly across the room in a blind rage. He smashed everything in his path with a wave of his hands. Burning chunks of metal and pieces of heavy machinery were flung into the sides of the dome and through the gaping holes onto unsuspecting masses hundreds of metres below.

‘Insolent swine,’ he boomed, and he thrust his hands into the air.

Nic watched as Bagon and Honza flew into the air and were held in turquoise clouds of energy. ‘You will die in agony!’ He screamed in fury, and Nic watched as their throats began to constrict and they started choking, their hands and feet slowly crunching into broken contortions and unnatural angles, followed by their arms and legs. The Grand Visigoth’s face was a wrinkled picture of evil as he slowly crushed their fragile bodies. As Nic watched in terror, he held the arm of his dissolved fist in agony and awaited his own fate, but from beside him, a familiar voice resonated through the darkness.

‘Release them!’ Odessa screamed, her once soft voice projecting a booming authority.

Nic saw the orange light from her eyes slowly glow brighter and raise from the ground as she stood. Her demand unanswered, she thrust her fists forward and a powerful beam of orange light blasted across the room. When it made contact with The Grand Visigoth, the bodies of Honza and Bagon fell to the floor with a sickening crunch of shattered bone. The Grand Visigoth’s blue-green emanation merged with the orange brilliance of Odessa’s laser blast. Such was the brightness of the flash that Nic momentarily forgot about the pain in his hand. He was instead consumed by a piercing pain in his eyes, as his retinae were finally burnt out.

The Company Man (9)

Mika and Honza picked Nic up from his knees, and Delfin brought him a bucket of water. He drank it heartily from the palms of his hands, spilling plenty onto the front of his fresh Officer’s uniform.

‘Careful,’ she said softly, ‘we need you looking your best now.’ She splashed water onto his face and used an old, semi-clean rag to wipe some of the grime from his ashen cheeks.

Mika swiped a second rag from the table, dipped it in the water, and rather aggressively started rubbing at a splotch of sick that had somehow found its way onto his shoulder.

‘It wasn’t easy to find a bloody fresh Officer’s uniform,’ she huffed, as she brushed away some detritus and pressed her knuckles into his shoulder.

Nic composed himself and backed away slightly.

‘Give it here,’ he said and held out his hand. ‘I’ll do it myself.’ He glared at Mika. ‘You’ll put a hole in it at that rate.’

Mika slapped the rag into his palm, then turned and grabbed the manila folder from the table and thrust it into his chest with such force that it almost winded him.

‘You’ll be needing this, now,’ she hissed and began hurrying Nic and Honza towards the door with both her hands. ‘Honza, you know what to do. Don’t let him out of your sight for a second.’ She nodded towards Nic and stared.

‘We won’t fail,’ Honza said confidently. ‘We can’t.’

Mika immediately followed, alongside Bagon and Delfin, and they headed into the dark cave towards their drillpods, blasters in hand and desperation etched into their sorry faces. Except Bagon, of course. He flashed one last toothy smile as he said,

‘Just wait for the show to start, Lieutenant. Then, unleash the fire-eyed beast!’

Nic could still hear Bagon’s chuckles echoing as he disappeared into the darkness.

 

Presently, Nic and Honza stood in front of the elevator twenty floors up, where Nic had been interrogated by the sadistic Doctor. They waited for what felt like an eternity. The soft drone of the lift’s mechanism was almost hypnotic as Nic pondered the lead weight inside his chest.

Unleash the fire-eyed beast, he thought. Fat chance. I’ll probably be summarily executed the moment I hand over my folder. Then, he thought of Odessa. He looked at the small disc he was holding in the palm of his hand and the tiny dot in it’s centre. Just press it once, he reassured himself, slip it into her tomb’s energy field, and the EMP will do the rest.

He gripped it tightly in his right hand and looked at himself and Honza in the reflective steel doors in front of them. Honza was standing with his hands behind his back, his face expressionless and his white orderly’s uniform pristine. He looked quietly confident, and Nic wished he felt the same. Nic’s beige Officer’s uniform still felt slightly damp, but the stains weren’t noticeable. These rebels had even managed to find some promotion medals that were now glistening in the cloudy reflection above his left breast pocket. He looked down at them and noticed the engravings that signified his progression from Private to Lieutenant over the past fifteen years.

Fifteen years! He considered that for a moment and the thought depressed him immeasurably, and for what?

On the left was the brass Corporal’s badge. It was engraved with a shovel and pickaxe crossed at the centre, the most basic tools of their labour. In the middle was a metallic silver Sergeant’s badge engraved with two hands locked together in brotherhood, the forearms bulging as the hands gripped each other tightly. Loyalty was key to the success of their struggle. On the right was his bronze commission. It was a shiny golden brown and engraved with a raised clenched fist beaming lines of light in all directions. Power, authority, and an iron fist were needed to lead the masses into the light of a new beginning.

Labour, loyalty, and deference, Nic thought. That’s some motto. He allowed himself to chuckle.

‘Something funny?’ Honza asked.

‘Not at all,’ he said, dejected. ‘You have to laugh,’ he added sombrely, ‘otherwise you’ll cry.’ His voice was almost trembling. ‘Labour… Loyalty… Deference… was something I lived by…’

‘Best not to think about what was before, Lieutenant,’ Honza reassured, ‘otherwise you’ll go mad. I was a cleaning tech, Private class myself, before I met Odessa, that is. A wasted life scrubbing toxic chemicals from toilet bowls in the habitat zone, and I couldn’t’ve been happier…’

‘Oh yeah,’ Nic cut in sarcastically, ‘how many men did you send to be tortured by that dreadful sadist?’

The ensuing awkward silence was broken when the magnetic lock on the elevator crunched open. The doors slid apart to reveal two Troopers in full combat gear poised to march. They clearly hadn’t expected to find anyone standing in front of the elevator.

‘Identify yourselves!’ They barked in unison.

Nic and Honza both stood bolt upright and froze.

The Troopers stepped forward and raised their assault blasters. They were so close that the barrels were almost poking them in the chest.

‘Identify yourselves!’ They threatened once more, this time louder. ‘We won’t ask again.’

The sight of his own reflection in the Trooper’s visor, and the medals on his chest, stirred him. He clenched his fists and thought of Odessa.

‘Lieutenant Nic Horshmire, Trooper,’ he snapped suddenly, ‘and who the hell are you to talk to an Officer in that manner. Name,’ he glanced at the insignia on his shoulder, ‘sergeant,’ he ordered.

The Troopers paused for a moment and noted the folder in Nic’s hand.

‘May I see your paper’s, Sir?’ The Trooper’s tone weakened.

Nic handed the folder to the Trooper, who inspected its contents closely, before closing it again and handing it back. Nic could feel his heart beating so hard he thought his shirt might be moving with it. Now we’ll see if the dead Doctor’s stamp was worth a damn.

‘Apologies, Sir,’ the Troopers lowered their blasters and stood at ease, ‘may I ask who this man is?’ He pointed at Honza.

‘Are you blind?’ Nic chided. ‘He’s an orderly, Private class. I have just finished with the Doctor, and, as is written in the folder I just handed to you, he is escorting me to the eighty-seventh floor as ordered by the General himself. Now, can you read, Trooper? Or would you like me to keep explaining? I can inform the General that my tardiness is due to the imbecilic questions of a pea-brained Trooper named…’ Nic paused and glanced at Honza, and the beads of sweat that were dripping over his temple, and then back to the Trooper. ‘I believe I asked your name, sergeant.’

‘Apologies, Sir. Sergeant Drake, Zeta squadron.’ Both Troopers saluted, and the one in front of Nic continued. ‘We were ordered to check your progress, Sir, and escort you to the tenth floor if you were deemed ready.’

‘Very well, Sergeant,’ Nic replied authoritatively, realising the advantages of a military escort. ‘You may proceed. I have crucial information that must be reported immediately. The very future of the search depends on it,’ he urged before turning to face Honza, who was too stunned to move. ‘Report back to the Doctor and continue with your duties, Private. I’m sure you have more important places to be.’

The Troopers backed into the elevator and Nic followed. He turned about face and subtly winked at Honza as the doors slid shut between them. The anti-grav thrusters blasted Nic to the eighty-seventh floor, before Honza had had time to turn around.

 

Nic marched out of the elevator ahead of the Troopers, who followed closely behind. The thud of their boots hit the floor in time to the pounding of his heart. His clenched fists felt moist and clammy, and the small metallic disc inside his right one felt like it would slide out if he he unclenched them even a little. They rounded the corner and Nic saw the door for meeting room 78242 straight ahead. He maintained a constant pace and remembered Bagon’s words.

The plebs have no idea, he had said, just hail the greatness of The Company, The General, and and everything they’ve been conditioned to believe, ‘and they salute themselves in a fit o’ smugness right up their own arse.’

He strode through the door and turned to face the low-level bureaucrat sitting at the desk beside the door. He stood bolt upright, thrust out his chest, and saluted in the stiffest pose he could hold. He could practically feel the breath of the two Troopers as they straddled directly behind him.

‘In the name of the Company,’ he began, ‘I, Lieutenant Nic Horshmire, formally request an audience with the General.’ He slapped the folder on the desk, trying desperately to ignore the chaos that was unfolding in the room.

‘You can’t meet the General,’ the bureaucrat scoffed, not looking up from the papers in front of him ‘he’s due to greet the masses in less than an hour.’

‘I have been awarded the honour, comrade.’ Nic stood his ground and tried to stiffen his pose even more. ‘Valiance in the line of duty. Check the folder.’

The bureaucrat sighed and looked up at Nic with disdain. The sight of the two Troopers imposing themselves either side of him jolted the desk-jockey into action, and he hurriedly opened the folder and began reading it closely.

Nic stood firmly at attention and waited patiently. His adrenalin was pumping and his hands and head felt wet, but the folder had worked on the Troopers, and he had no reason to believe it wouldn’t pass this next test. Odessa had opened his eyes and he’d be damned if a low ranked pencil-pusher would stand in his way now. He glanced around the room and noticed other low-ranking officials frantically rushing to and fro, ferrying papers to none other than the fat bureaucrat, who was sitting behind the very same oak desk where Nic had first met him just two weeks before, and wildly signing form after form, whilst breaking every few seconds to remonstrate with whoever had handed them to him. There was a heavy Trooper presence as well, at least an entire platoon, and they were loading and unloading unrecognisably advanced heavy machinery and arms to the security lifts located on the far side of the room.

What the hell are they planning? He worried about Bagon and his show. He hadn’t seen that kind of tech since Odessa had blasted her way through the corridors of their cave hideout. The rebels were no match at all, he panicked, but Odessa? She had cut through them like a pickaxe through chalk. I have to wake her!

‘Impossible, Sir,’ the bureaucrat finally said, ‘The General will greet the masses in less than hour. There is too much to prepare.’

‘’Unacceptable, comrade,’ Nic blurted, his voice almost trembling with anger, ‘I have crucial information, unfit for your ears.’ He leant forward and smashed a fist onto the table. ‘I demand to speak to your superior,’ he roared.

The bureaucrat stared into Nic’s eyes, and then glanced at the two Troopers. His eyes met Nic’s again, and he held them for a full ten seconds, before the bureaucrat turned and pushed the button on the microphone that was on the table next to him.

‘Code 14. Assistance, please.’

At the sound, the fat bureaucrat looked up from his table and noticed Nic. He immediately threw aside whatever it was he was signing, slid his chair back, and rolled out of it. He tried to hurry across the room, but his burdensome load meant he waddled in an ungainly fashion towards Nic.

Here we go again, Nic thought, as the fat bureaucrat approached. But not this time.

‘It’s a pleasure to see you looking so well, Lieutenant.’ The fat bureaucrat rolled his head to the side. The surprise in his voice was noticeable, and his eyes were still as glazed as before. ‘It appears your trip to see the Doctor was an unexpected success.’

Nic saluted and stiffened to attention again.

‘Lieutenant Nic Horshmire, reporting as ordered, Sir.’ He spoke firmly and with an authority he didn’t know he still had within him. ‘It is my great honour to serve The Company and The General in pursuit of our noble goals. The search for the creators of all life in the galaxy is the most noble cause that can exist in all lifetimes.’ He leant forward and whispered in his ear. ‘The Doctor is dead, Sir. Murdered by rebel scum. They’re everywhere, Sir, and no-one can be trusted. The alliance with the Grand Visigoth, our intergalactic comrades, and our great search itself is at stake.’ He stood back and raised his voice again. ‘If my personal audience is still warranted, Sir, it would be my greatest honour to deliver the news to the General himself. I presume this information is too sensitive to be delivered here. May we at least step into the back room for debriefing?’ It wasn’t hard to give the fat bureaucrat his most convincing look of desperation.

The fat bureaucrat’s muddled brown eyes searched Nic’s for the truth. After what felt like an aeon, he pulled a communicator from his pocket and turned. He mumbled into the receiver too low to be heard, and turned back to face Nic.

‘Follow me, Lieutenant,’ he said seriously, ‘The General will see you now.’ He turned and hurried towards the security elevators at the back of the room, the clumsy momentum of his waddle seemed to make it easier to barge past any Trooper who happened to step in his way. Nic followed confidently, his hand firmly gripping the EMP.

Here we go, he reckoned, now’s the time to live or to die.

The Company Man (8)

Bagon unfastened Nic’s restraints, and he slid out of the chair onto the cold concrete floor of the Truth Chamber. He lifted himself onto all fours and spluttered sorrowfully. His shaking limbs could barely support his weight, and his head was thumping. Odessa’s words were ringing in his ears.

How in the hell can I open her eyes? He wondered. I can barely open my own.

‘Come on, Lieutenant,’ Bagon chimed, ‘we ain’t got all bleedin’ day!’

Blood slowly seeped from Nic’s wounds and began matting on the ground around his hands, knees, and toes. He looked up sluggishly and gave Bagon a look of the most desperate anguish, as though the requirement to move went against every instinct in his bones. He just wanted to curl into a ball and sleep. He noticed the worn features of Bagon’s face. His nose was still crooked from the elbow smash Nic had given him about a week before, at a time when they could only be described as foes.

How times have changed, he thought, somewhat ironically.

‘I guess I owe you one, now.’

Bagon’s grin revealed stumpy black teeth, before he roared with laughter.

‘Ha! Who would of thought it? The mighty Lieutenant on his knees, and now he owes me one! How blinkin’ rich is that!’ He continued chuckling softly, as he crouched down and placed his blaster on the ground. Then, he looked Nic in the eyes and soothed, ‘we been on our knees for too long, Lieutenant.’ He placed a hand on Nic’s shoulder. ‘Now’s the time for us to stand.’ He stood up straight and thrust out his chest. He reached an open palm towards Nic.

Nic paused for a moment before reaching a weary hand and clasping Bagon’s wrist. Nic’s legs wobbled as he stood, and Bagon pulled him up and held on until he was sure Nic could stand.

‘That’s the spirit,’ Bagon cheered, as he released his grip and slapped Nic heartily on the back, almost knocking him down again, ‘now we gotta get the ‘eck out of ‘ere.’

‘But where? Nic croaked. ‘And what of Odessa?’

‘Later, later,’ Bagon reassured, and he handed Nic a robe from the bottom shelf of the trolley. Then, he hurried towards the Doctor’s broken corpse at the back of the room and began rummaging through the pockets in his formerly pristine white lab coat.

‘There it is,’ he muttered, as he pulled a small object from the Doctor’s inside pocket. He looked at Nic and grinned. ‘You got a bleedin’ important meetin’ to keep!’

‘You can’t mean…’ Nic paused in shock as the realisation sunk in. ‘Is it the General?’ He asked. ‘Or Grand Visigoth? I don’t…’

‘That’s still the General to you, sunshine.’ Bagon interjected seriously, as he walked back towards the trolley with the object in hand.

‘But he will know, surely…’

‘That your eyes ‘ave been opened?’ Bagon interrupted. ‘Maybe,’ his tone became sombre, ‘but we just need to get you up there.’ He nodded towards the ceiling, and Nic knew exactly where he meant. Bagon took the fat bureaucrat’s manila folder from the tray and opened it to the front page. There was an identity sheet with a photo of Nic and a list of his actions, or so-called crimes, of the past week. He took the object in his hand, adjusted a few small switches on the side, and stamped the page with authority. He handed the folder to Nic.

‘Let’s move!’ He ordered. He flicked on the monitor and turned up the volume, before picking up his assault blaster and heading out of the door.

Nic opened the folder and saw stamped in bold green letters across the picture of his face: ‘RECONDITIONED’, and in small type underneath: ‘Ready for active duty.’

Nic gulped. There’s no way I’m ready for this. He slipped into the robe and sheepishly followed Bagon into the corridor.

 

After they had left the Truth Chamber, Bagon closed the door behind them, and Nic noticed that there was a sign on the door that read: Do not Disturb – Reconditioning in Progress. The sounds of the monitor, the people screaming and grinding of metal on bone sounded tinny and distant through the closed door. It only hinted at the horror of what was supposed to be transpiring inside.

How long will that fool them? Nic pondered, as he stared at the steel door.

‘We ain’t got much time,’ Bagon said, seemingly aware of Nic’s thoughts, ‘and we still have to meet the others.’

‘Others? But…’ Nic tried to interject, but Bagon cut him off.

‘No time for blinkin’ chit chat, Lieutenant.’ He cracked a smile. ‘All will be revealed shortly. Follow me and keep up.’
They hurried through the empty corridors turning left and right and then left again, Bagon checking and double checking at each stage if the way was clear. The brightness of the ceiling lights reflecting off the pristine white walls hurt Nic’s tired eyes. It was a relief when they made their way into a dank stairwell and began descending into the bowels of the labyrinthine Company Headquarters.

As Bagon bounded down the stairs, Nic followed closely behind, one hand clasping his robe shut, the other tightly gripping the fat bureaucrat’s manila folder. Even though his adrenanlin had kicked in, he was barely able to keep up, yet for the first time in his life his head felt oddly clear. His thoughts were finally his own. Every inch of his being had been focused on the Company, his duties, or the tunnel. He had never realised how much these ideas had dominated his thoughts. He felt grateful for his liberation but abject horror at his years of belief in a system that inflicted such torture onto its own citizens. His time spent in the care of the sadistic Doctor had revealed the lengths his superiors would go if they needed to crush dissent. He felt as if he had been living in darkness, blind to the world around him.

As he followed Bagon down the dark and musky staircase, for the first time, he truly registered the sorry state of his appearance. While squat and stocky, he was malnourished and absolutely filthy. He was missing teeth and looked far older than his forty years suggested. Decades in the mines, and then the tunnel, had clearly taken its toll.

He remembered the same sorry state of all the Privates he had led into the depths. He’d never blinked an eye at their gaunt features and tatty uniforms, as he sent them to blindly chip away at rocks until they slowly became useless. Then, they just disappeared, to be replaced by a fresh batch whenever necessary.

Did they die of malnutrition? Exhaustion, perhaps? Or did they simply fall into the tunnel to be ground to pieces by the drilling pods? His momentary joy at his capacity for free thought quickly turned to despair; he thought of his comrades smashed corpses littering the mountains of the dumping grounds, which loomed in the distance as gargantuan monuments to their life in bondage.

The lower they descended, the more horrified Nic became. His complicity in such a regime was apparent. His position as Lieutenant had engendered him all sorts of benefits. Better food rations, better living quarters, more rest, and better healthcare. He had risen through the ranks, and he could now see the glaring difference in his life and that of his subordinates. Yet the Privates, unflinching in their belief, their conditioning, never wavered from their goals and welcomed the drudgery that was inflicted upon them.

Nic began to question his position in this great revolution he was now unwittingly a part of. A personal audience with the General. He remembered how it had been his greatest dream. When the fat bureaucrat had told him, he felt drunk on ecstasy. All Odessa’s revelations, and the imminent doom they were facing, had shot out his mind and left him basking in his own imagined glory. Yet now, only questions flooded his head. What will I say? What will I do? How can I even dream of facing this monster, this butcher General, this Grand Visigoth who has slaughtered how many? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions? There were so many questions that he began to feel dizzy.

And what about these Others?

As he bounded down the stairs in Bagons wake, his robe flailing behind him, barely covering his modesty, he pondered who they were going to meet, and what they would make of him. Yet somehow he knew that the only person who could truly help him now was Odessa. She was the one who could define his place in this new order of things. The visions she had shown him were so vivid and real. He remembered the suns of her world and the sight of them being extinguished. Then, with a sense of urgency, he remembered her appearance in the subconscious realm. Her skin, the whitest shade of pale, had made her look like an apparition, her life force slowly fading away.

She can’t have long left, he thought. He knew he had to wake her. But how?

So lost was he in his thoughts that he crashed into Bagon.

‘Woah! Slow down, Lieutenant, we’re here.’

They were standing in front of a door that read, ‘level -219 – Drill-Pod Maintenance’.

Bagon pushed the door open and entered.

 

The level was in marked contrast to the surgical sterility of the floor from which they had come. The lights flickered, and the walls were stained with blood. Upturned furniture was scattered all over the place.

As they made their way along the corridors, Nic saw that the furniture had been used as barricades at every every corner but had been unceremoniously blasted through. Among the detritus on the ground, small white rocks glistened as they protruded from puddles of congealed blood. Nic supposed they were pieces of shattered bone.

‘What happened here?’ He asked solemnly.

‘Purge.’ Came Bagon’s reply. ‘They took no prisoners ‘ere. The Troopers came through, guns blazin’ a couple days ago’

‘So, why are we here, Bagon? Seems risky,’ Nic muttered.

‘Seein’ as it’s already been purged, be a bit silly of ‘em to come through and purge it again.’ Bagon chuckled. ‘It’s much easier to hide in plain sight, Lieutenant. The plebs don’t have any idea we’re even at war, so it’s easy enough to blend in. Just hail the greatness of the General, The Company and the greatest search the galaxy has bla bla bla, and they salute themselves in a fit o’ smugness right up their own arse.’

Nic allowed himself to chuckle. ‘Just like I did,’ he murmured.

Bagon nodded and stopped. ‘We’re here.’ He said.

They were standing in front of a non-descript brown door that was directly opposite a large hole that had been drilled into the wall. It was approximately two metres in diameter and looked oddly out of place, like a giant cave built into the building.

Nic looked at Bagon and nodded towards the hole.

‘It leads directly to the tunnel. Drill-Pod Maintenance, remember?’ Bagon chuckled, ‘the repair zone is at the other end.’

He motioned to open the door, before pausing.

‘Brace yourself Lieutenant.’ Bagon’s tone became serious.

‘For what?’ Nic asked, quizzically.

‘There’s a few things you still don’t know, and behind this door are some people who don’t like you so much.’ Bagon let out a nervous laugh. ‘Some of us don’t think it was so smart of our lady to go after you, an Officer. And since she did, ‘undreds ‘ave been killed. We was building our little revolt for four years before you showed up…’

‘Four years!’ Nic blurted, ‘that’s when the Grand Visigoth supposedly first arrived!’

‘A lot you don’t know, Lieutenant,’ Bagon added matter-of-factly, as he pulled down the handle and pushed the door open. ‘It’s been four years, almost to the bleedin’ day, since I first met Odessa.’

 

Nic hadn’t had time to react, before he was bundled through the door. He stumbled onto his knees and looked up to see three people, two women and a man, speaking in hushed tones around a small circular table in the corner of a dark and hazy office. The air was thick and acrid. Silence descended as Nic fell through the door and they all looked up. A broad-shouldered woman with a long gaunt face and matted brown hair extinguished her hand-rolled cigarette and stood up.

‘You’re late,’ she said, as she exhaled her final draw. She approached Nic confidently with her hands behind her back, looking him up and down as he rose from the ground. Her voice was deep and authoritative. ‘So, this is the famous Lieutenant, is it? He don’t look like much.’

‘I could say the same.’ Nic retorted, slightly offended. He saw that her face was stained with black smudges and her uniform was ripped and worn. The other woman looked in similar dire straits, but the man was fresh faced and wearing an immaculate, white orderly’s uniform.

‘Well, some of us have been building a revolution, Lieutenant,’ she snapped back. What’ve you been doing? I mean, aside from blowing our cover?’

‘I… I…,’ Nic stammered, before Bagon interrupted.

‘I was as fast as I could be.’ He said, quickly changing the subject. He pushed past Nic and grabbed a beige Lieutenant’s uniform, which had been carefully folded and placed on the table, and thrust it into Nic’s chest. ‘Get dressed,’ he ordered and looked back at the woman. ‘We’ve no bloody time for this, Mika’ he said mournfully.

‘No thanks to that lunatic, Odessa,’ she snorted, ‘what was she thinking, Bagon? Exposing us like that. And all for this.’ She nodded derisively back to Nic, who was busy pulling on his trousers.

‘We needed someone who could get us close to him, Mika.’ Bagon nodded upwards. ‘Lieutenant Nic ‘ere give us the perfect chance. And when he falls, we’ll need Officers to ‘elp deprogram the masses…’

‘But we weren’t ready, Bagon,’ the second woman interrupted, her voice was softer than Mika’s, and filled with sorrow, ‘and now there are fewer than a hundred of us.’ She shook her head in desperation. ‘For four years, we’ve been slowly building our numbers, yet in a day they slew entire divisions, loyal to us or not. The Troopers rolled through any unit suspected of the slightest deviation, and they purged the lot. What’s left of us has retreated to the mines. We’ll put our backs to the rock and make our last stand there.’ She paused. ‘If this fool’s errand doesn’t end us all right now.’

‘A fool’s errand indeed!’ Mika hissed, ‘are we supposed to put all our hope in him.’ She looked at Nic with daggers. ‘Just yesterday he was upstairs in the fat bureaucrat’s office spilling his guts to anyone who’d listen, all for the glory of the Company.’ She spat on the floor in disgust.

‘But he’s finally seen, hasn’t he, Bagon?’ The white robed man piped up from the table, ‘Odessa said he would probably have to give us up, if she couldn’t break his programming in time.’

‘He’s seen it all,’ Bagon enthused, ‘Odessa’s plan worked perfectly. An’ after the Doc tried to turn ‘is brain to mush, I don’t fink ‘e’ll be up for ‘eadin’ back any time time soon.’ Bagon let out a brief chuckle. ‘What do you say, Lieutenant?’ He looked at Nic earnestly.

As Nic buttoned up his freshly starched shirt, he looked around the table at the two unfamiliar faces and the hostile figure of Mika, who was now standing with her back to him in the corner and muttering to herself, apparently too disgusted to even look at him. His mind was racing. Something within him yearned for Odessa.  Their last connection had been so intimate that he felt as if he had known her his whole life. Bagon was staring hopefully into his eyes and the other two just sat there, their faces swollen with a look of defeat.

‘Who the hell are you guys?’ He asked. ‘And what plan?’

‘Ha!’ Bagon slapped him on the back, and bared his teeth in that all too familiar grin. ‘That’s Mika in the corner, don’t mind her, she don’t trust no-one. This fella in the white coat is Honza, and that’s Delfin. We were the first to meet Odessa.’ He grinned. ‘It’s been a blinkin’ long road, but we’re almost there…’

‘And the plan, Bagon?’ Nic interjected, ‘what is it?’

‘Well, Odessa realised, after she first joined with you, that it’d take too flamin’ long to break the programmin’ without the serum? And…’

‘The what?’ Nic interrupted, already confused.

‘The serum. The Doc must’ve given it ya. It relaxes your mind, and allows them to fill your ‘ead with whatever mumbo jumbo they fancy. A bleedin’ ‘andy tool, if you ask me.’

‘I remember,’ Nic mused. ‘It was almost euphoric. A stark contrast to the torture…’

‘It was the final step to breaking your will,’ Honza interrupted, ‘to relieve you of your pain and imprint the Company values of brotherhood, and backbreaking labour, as the answer to all your doubts and worries.’

‘So, what happened?’ Nic asked. ‘How am I here?’

‘Odessa’s body may be encased in energy,’ Honza explained, ‘but her mental implants are still active. She can exist in the sub-conscious realm, neither here nor there, as it were. During your previous telepathic episodes with her, she planted a seed. When you lost consciousness, she was able to hijack your reconditioning and project her own memories. What did you see?’ His tone became curious.

‘I saw the Grand Visigoth raze her home planet.’

‘Anything else?’ He prodded.

‘The Grand Visigoth’s face became the face of the General. I saw that the people of the great free city of Hallogen have been living a lie for a hundred years.’

‘Hmph.’ Mika guffawed and rolled her eyes sarcastically. ‘And now judgement day is upon us Lieutenant,’ she condescended, ‘the tunnel will be finished in less than a month, and we’ll be left to rot. When the ore is gone from the core, our planet’s magnetic field will destabilise, and we will have handed over our lives and home, as a blind paean to a megalomaniacal zealot.’

‘It ain’t over yet, Mika,’ Bagon chimed, ‘we still got one card left to play.’

‘So you’ve said, Bagon,’ she sneered, ‘we have this pathetic Officer, this Company man, in whose hands we must place our fate.’ She turned away and spat on the floor again.

Presently, Nic remembered that fateful day on the hill when Odessa had given her prophecy of impending doom. ‘I’ve seen the shield surrounding our city,’ he blurted. ‘And the electromagnetic storms raging beyond it. I know what’s at stake here…’

‘You’ve seen the storms?’ Delfin interjected, as she sat bolt upright in her chair, a fresh wave of panic stretched over her pale white face.

‘How severe were they, Lieutenant?’ Honza asked abrubtly. ‘Were they truly raging, as you said?’ His tone was urgent.

‘Who gives a damn what he’s seen!’ Mika yelled. ‘Our numbers are a tenth of what they…’

‘Oh shut up, Mika,’ Honza blurted, his wiry frame and calm demeanour belied his authority now. ‘Let the man speak. Don’t forget, Mika, not one of us have laid eyes on this phenomenon. We have only Odessa’s word. I, for one, am very curious what he has to say.’

Mika backed down and huffed as she sat at the table and crossed her arms. Her eyes never wavered from Nic’s.

‘Before she allowed herself to be captured,’ Nic began, ‘she flew us both to the top of the Southern hill and showed me. I saw the soft red glow of the shield glistening in the sky and violent lightening strikes crashing into the earth beyond it. They covered the horizon in seeming perpetual motion. One, then another, then another, spewing dust into the air that seemed to blend with the clouds in the sky. The red hue of the shield made it look quite beautiful, actually. It reminded me of the old oil paintings we saw in the school conditioning sessions.

‘Fascinating.’ Honza muttered.

‘The future of our planet will be decided today.’ Delfin said solemnly.

Even Mika began to thaw. ‘So, today really is judgement day.’ She said with a sigh as she shook her head.

‘Judgement day?’ Nic looked at Honza.

‘Your personal audience, Lieutenant,’ he answered. ‘Odessa was adamant the Grand Visigoth would never let her out of his sight when he captured her, so we need you to get up to the top floor, free her, and get out of the way, so she can finally end his reign of terror.’

‘Oh just get up there and free her!’ Nic was incredulous. ‘What if the Grand Visigoth’s already figured all this out? He’s been two steps ahead, every step of the way.’

‘It’s a possibility I’m afraid, but we have no choice.’ Honza said solemnly.

‘And how exactly am I supposed to free her?’ Nic asked, despondent.

‘She gave us this.’ Honza handed Nic a small metal disc, one centimetre in diameter. ‘It contains a device that will emit an electromagnetic pulse,’ he explained. ‘You must activate it and somehow insert it into the energy shield that encases Odessa. The pulse should deactivate the shield and release her.’

‘Our fate is in your hands, Lieutenant,’ Delfin added desperately. ‘A plan four years in the making. If you fail, we all die.’

‘So, no pressure, then.’ Nic’s heart was almost beating out of his chest. ‘Do I have any backup?’ He asked meekly.

‘We got it all figured out, pal,’ Bagon slapped him on the back and he jerked forward and almost fell to his knees again. ‘Honza ‘ere will escort you up to the hundred and eightieth floor, hand over your bleedin’ folder and await your audience. Given that you were never expected to survive the reconditioning, we’re gamblin’ that ‘e’ll be very curious to see ya.’

‘Gambling!’ You’ve got to be kidding, Bagon?’

‘The rest of us’ll make our ways to the tunnel.’ He ignored him. ‘We ‘ave drillpods we’ve kitted out to put on a bit of show.

‘What do you mean?’ Nic asked nervously. ‘What the hell kind of a plan is this?’

‘The General has announced there will be a grand display of victory this evening,’ Honza explained, ‘where he will announce the capture and execution of our lady. The masses are already forming at the podium in anticipation of the announcement. Most people have no idea about the insurgency, but there have been so many purges and so much upheaval that now they have to answer it publicly.’

‘It’s happening now!’ Nic exclaimed, and he felt his knees begin to tremble as if his adrenalin had finally run out.

‘It’s scheduled two hours from now,’ Honza added matter-of-factly, ‘we’d really better get moving.’

Nic’s head was swimming. His guilt and fear compounded an overwhelming sense of impending doom. He started to feel light-headed and felt his knees begin to buckle. He dropped to the floor and vomited.

Mika let out an ironic laugh. ‘Ha! Humanity’s last hope, my friends. Why don’t you bring that sick up there too, maybe the Grand Visigoth will be scared of the smell!’

The Company Man (7)

Nic sat alone and half-naked in the Truth Chamber. Unable to move in his chair, his mind ran wild as the reality of his situation began to sink in.

I shouldn’t be here! He fretted, I told them everything! I’m a good Officer. What blasted truth do they want? 

He gripped the arms of the chair and tried to wriggle free, but it was useless. The thick metal clasps around his wrists and ankles felt cold on his bare skin, yet the leather of the seat felt warm and clammy. A leather strap across his forehead pinned him back, and he was sweating profusely.

There was an old monitor hanging from the ceiling in front of him, a steel door behind that, and black walls loomed close to the sides.

He tried to scream, but his mouth was stuffed with a clench guard. It was held tightly in place by metal wires that felt like icy razorblades wrapped around his cheeks.

 

After a few minutes, a skinny old man in a long white coat entered and shuffled to Nic’s side. He was wearing a stethoscope around his neck and carrying the fat bureaucrat’s manila folder. His eyes were like black pits, and his long prune-like face looked serious as he thumbed through the pages.

Nic had never seen a man so old. He was sixty at least.

Then, the Doctor raised his eyebrows and let out a soft chuckle, before turning to face Nic.

‘Well, well, we can’t have this now, can we?’ His gravelly voice quavered, and he pulled a small flashlight out of his pocket and shone it into Nic’s eyes,

‘You have quite the imagination, my boy.’ He grinned and softly tapped Nic’s cheek. ‘We’re going to set you right.’

Nick grunted and squirmed.

‘OK, OK, Calm down,’ the Doctor said, almost mockingly, ‘do you have something to say?’

Nic’s muffled attempts at speaking became more desperate, and the Doctor’s grin became wider.

‘I think you’ve said quite enough already, Lieutenant!’ He chirped, ‘but don’t worry, you’ll have your chance to tell me something more appropriate soon enough.’

An orderly entered pushing a small trolley and placed it beside the chair.

Nic saw an array of shiny needles, scalpels, and miscellaneous metal objects that glistened under the white light. His body stiffened, and he tried to recoil, but it was no use.

The Doctor became gleeful at Nic’s reaction, and he reached for an instrument from the tray.

‘Don’t worry,’ he said menacingly, ‘hopefully, we won’t need them all.’

He held out a thin silver instrument about the size of a matchstick and made sure Nic could see it. Then, with the thumb and forefinger of his free hand, he forced Nic’s left eye wide open, before wedging the small implement between his upper and lower eyelid. There was a strange buzzing sound, and Nic felt a transparent screen stretch across his whole eye that blurred his vision for a brief moment.

He winced, and when he tried to blink, a searing pain shot through his eyelid and rocked into the back of his head. He tried to wail, but his screams only came out as a muffled yelp.

‘There, there,’ the Doctor said softly, ‘thank the General that we can use this marvellous technology nowadays,’ he paused and stared at Nic earnestly, ‘we used to just slice off the eyelids and switch on the monitor.’ He laughed wickedly and inserted a second device into Nic’s other eye.

 

For what felt like hours, Nic watched video after video on the micro screens, his unblinking eyes unable to avoid their glare.

Footage of Privates working in the tunnel, Officers commanding their squads, the epic scenes of the Grand Visigoth’s arrival, and the baying crowds, as he landed in his shining blue orb. The General was there too. His image flashed between the scenes, almost subliminally, although his face was always unclear or blurred. He was standing proudly at the podium, and medals adorned his chest. The videos highlighted the wondrous progress the Company had made over the last century. According to the montage, it had grown from a seed of despair at the end of the world into a blooming technological marvel, and its citizens were almost ready for its metamorphosis. The transition into an intergalactic society and the Grand Visigoth’s most noble crusade were waiting just around the corner.

Nic was dizzy from the onslaught. Moreover, every time he slowly felt his weary eyes beginning to close, searing pain shot through his head and jolted him awake. He could feel the saliva leaking from his mouth, running down his chin, and dripping in soft splashes onto his chest. His body was limp and only held in its place by his restraints.

Eventually, the Doctor reappeared beside him and switched off the screens.

‘Hmmm,’ he said, as he inspected Nic’s eyes once more, ‘I think that should do it.’

Nic could barely muster a grunt, and he sat there broken, his unblinking eyes unable to meet the Doctor’s. He wondered how a man who looked so frail could strike such terror into his heart.

The Doctor turned to the tray beside him and picked up a syringe containing a murky brown substance. He very slowly attached a six-inch needle that he held, very deliberately, in front of Nic’s eyes. Then, he flicked it gently, and a single droplet glistened under the fluorescence of the room and fell onto Nic’s chest. The Doctor didn’t break eye contact as he jabbed the needle into Nic’s arm and pressed the plunger. He looked almost giddy as Nic’s eyes began to roll back into his head.

Nic didn’t wonder any longer, as the murky liquid began coursing through his veins. He knew him for a sadist. The same joy the Privates felt at digging the tunnel was the same joy the Doctor felt now. The more agony Nic felt, the more the Doctor’s face beamed.

‘That should loosen up that mind of yours,’ the Doctor muttered, ‘now let’s see what you have to say, shall we?’

Nic felt light-headed and the pain in his eyelids was gone. He still couldn’t blink but it didn’t seem to be a problem any more. He felt a rush of euphoria. His mind felt open, like a long-closed door had been opened and light was flooding a room once enshrouded in darkness. He tensed in his chair and focused his eyes on the Doctor.

The Doctor unclipped the wires around his cheeks and removed the clench guard from his mouth.

‘What… do ….you ….want …from …me?’ He gasped as air filled his lungs.

‘We want the truth, Lieutenant,’ he said sarcastically, ‘this is the truth chamber, after all.’

He picked up two small metallic discs about the size of a small coin and attached them to each of Nic’s temples. They were adhesive and remained firmly in place. He then picked up a small rectangular controller that had a circular dial on the front of it and held it in front of Nic.

‘This will help you see sense, my boy.’ He said matter-of-factly, before pressing a button on the controller. An image appeared that Nic recognised. It was security footage from the mess hall several days before, when he had first met Odessa. He watched again as she casually strolled across the hall and killed the two guards in the doorway.

‘You see!’ He yelled, ‘that’s her, that’s the Alphan-’

Without warning, the Doctor twisted the dial on his controller ever so slightly. Electricity surged through Nic’s temples, and he squirmed in pain at the unpleasant sensation. He dug his fingernails into the arm rest.

‘What’s that Lieutenant?’ The Doctor held his hand to his ear. ‘Did you say something?’ He was practically licking his lips as he spoke. His brittle voice belied the venom behind his words.

‘It’s… the …girl–’

The Doctor didn’t let him finish.

Nic heard the Doctor grit his teeth together as he turned the dial a little further this time.

So painful was the shock that Nic wailed. His arms and legs twisted. They were red raw from the clasps, and he could feel the warm wetness of his own blood running over his hands and feet as he desperately tried to free himself.

The Doctor laughed wickedly as he turned the dial back to zero.

‘Now Lieutenant. What do you see?’

This time Nic could see images from the tunnel. A Trooper’s perspective. Out of nowhere, a flash of bright white light and a shielded Odessa blasted from the shadows. The Trooper fell, and with the camera askew, Nic saw an upside down image of Odessa blasting through Troopers with orange energy beams that came out of her fists.

The image cleared, and Nic looked at the Doctor. He was smiling and waiting patiently.

‘Her… name… is… Odessa,’ he panted, ‘and she–’

‘She is no-one!’ The Doctor screamed, ‘how utterly ridiculous that such a creature could exist in our world! She’s a Private,’ he sneered, ‘and a drillpod pilot. Her fate will be the same as yours.’ He turned the dial three quarters of the way and held it for what felt like the longest twenty seconds of Nic’s life. Nic shuddered violently in his chair and writhed in pain. His hands and feet were soaked in blood.

‘Let’s try that again, Lieutenant,’ he patronised. ‘Tell me what you see.’ He played the same video and then looked at Nic.

Nic lifted his head and met the Doctor’s eyes.

‘I… see… nothing,’ he panted, ‘nothing at all.’

The Doctor stood up straight and beamed.

‘You see, lieutenant,’ he chirped, ‘it’s not that hard, is it?’ He chuckled softly. ‘There’s just one problem though.’ He paused, leaned in close, and whispered in a soft staccato, ‘I just don’t believe you.’ He spun the dial to maximum and cackled as Nic writhed in unimaginable pain and lost consciousness.

 

Nic felt like he was floating. In a dream-like state, he was surrounded by a white light that slowly faded, and the land in front of him came into focus. He was standing in the middle of a barren field of earth that spread out in front of him for hundreds of metres in every direction. There were Privates all around him ploughing the field, and they were sweating under the heat of the midday sun. Nic wiped his arm across his brow and the moisture of a day’s labour wet his sleeve. He crouched, scooped up a handful of coarse earth, and watched as it slowly slipped through his fingers and vanished into thin air.

The brown earth, the blue sky, and the yellow sun in his vision slowly melted in front of his eyes and the colours merged together in swirling psychedelic patterns. The colours blurred together and after a few seconds a sea of red sand emerged from the colour palette.

He saw a lone rocky outcrop jutting out of the sand about twenty metres in front of him. Odessa was sitting on the grey stones with her back to him, and Nic could see that she was leaning forward, cradling her face, and gently rocking to and fro. Beyond her, Nic could see the skyline of a great city far in the distance. Skyscrapers stretched along the horizon, and the three red suns of Odessa’s home planet lurked above. They slowly descended and kissed the glistening skyline.

Nic approached the rock. As he reached Odessa, he gently placed his hand on her shoulder and she turned. Her long red hair whipped through the air to reveal that her eyes appeared almost empty. The vibrant shades of orange and gold they had once held had diminished into insignificant specks. Her sunken eyes were bleeding, blood stained her lower eyelids, and claret teardrops streamed down her gaunt face.

‘Finally,’ she croaked. Her voice was a hoarse whisper.

‘What is this place?’ He asked.

‘The subconscious realm is…’ she paused, ‘…interesting. If you have the means to use it.’

She reached a hand toward Nic’s face, and she strained her eyes open as wide as she could.

Nic leant forward, but instead of bumping into her, a void opened in front of him. He fell forward. He fell toward the tiny orange specks that he had seen in the pit of Odessa’s pupils. They grew. Slowly at first, into swirling concentric circles, and then faster and faster as he approached, until he could almost feel the scorching flames on his face. As he was consumed by the orange and yellow, the red and golden rings of the fire, he woke in a city, familiar but not.

He was surrounded by throngs of people looking up at the sky. A great vessel hovered to a slow stop above them. The base of its navy blue hull stretched for hundreds of metres in every direction.

They were standing in a massive central square five hundred metres across. At the back of the square stood a giant palace. Its ornate facade was draped in flags of orange and gold.

The people chattered together in wonder at the sight.

‘The Pioneers have returned!’ They cheered.

‘It’s been a century since they went home!’ Said another, gobsmacked.

‘Oh, how wonderful! Our Terran cousins!’ Enthused a genteel old lady beside him, ‘I was but a child when they left.’

From the centre of the vessel’s underside, a giant hologram was beamed in front of the palace to audible gasps from the crowd. The image was so clear and defined that it could have been real, had it not been for the fact it was a hundred feet high.

The Grand Visigoth looked fresh-faced and youthful. His cheeks had a rosiness that was absent in Nic’s own memories. It was unmistakably him, though. The hook of his nose and the vibrancy of his eyes, those familiar shades of green and blue, left Nic in no doubt.

There was something in his face that bothered Nic, though. Something was not quite right, and it bothered him that he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

The Grand Visigoth was standing tall and proud, his chest thrust forward, his authority unquestionable.

‘People of Alphania!’ He bellowed and held out both his hands.

The crowds waited in awe.

‘A thousand years ago,’ he began in a friendly tone, ‘a group of scientists known as ‘the Pioneers’…’

The crowd roared at the mention of the name.

The Grand Visigoth motioned for calm and continued.

‘These Pioneers came here on a mission of peace. They bestowed gifts of technology and knowledge, and your primitive society thrived and grew!’

The crowds cheered again.

‘In just one millennium, your world achieved what took us on Terra five hundred!’

They roared in delight.

‘While, in the face of such a breakthrough, our great Order, the Order of the Search, was mocked and pilloried.’

The cheering became muted as the people looked at each other in confusion.

‘Outdated, they called us. Irrelevant.’ His tone had become sombre.

‘Your Pioneers,’ his tone changed, and he spat the name, ‘had forsaken our great quest – The quest to find the creators of all life in the galaxy. Instead they committed our greatest sin…’

The people, confused, began to panic, and worried murmurs swept through the crowds.

‘…For they had decided to become Gods themselves. When they returned to us a century ago with news of their achievements. We knew we must put an end to their heresy.’

Outright panic had taken over the crowds as people began hurrying away and leaving the square.

‘Now, our great war has ended,’ he raised his hands, ‘your Pioneers and their supporters have been wiped from the face of our planet, and our noble Order has emerged victorious.’ He clenched his fists and cheered. ‘Our great struggle has finally been rewarded…’

Our struggle has been rewarded…

Nic had heard it before. He froze as the memory resurfaced. The day at the podium.

The General? He thought, and he scoured his memory for the General’s image, his face. But he couldn’t. It was always clouded or blurry or something was in the way. He focused and concentrated.

The day at the podium. 

He focused his mind, not on the Grand Visigoth, but on the General, and slowly it came into focus. The snarling grin, the hooked nose, and the eyes, a thousand shades of green and blue.

That’s not the General!

The revelation hit him with such force that he reeled inside his vision. That’s the Grand Visigoth standing behind a projection! He couldn’t understand it. He had no idea how it was possible, but it was unmistakable.

That shield has been operating for a century! Odessa’s words on the hill came back to haunt him.

Chaos had broken out among the crowd, and people were running in every direction now.

Nic looked up at the hologram, which was still in full flow.

‘…For a thousand years, you,’ he pointed an accusing finger towards the palace and crowds, ‘have leeched our planets resources to develop into the gleaming monstrosity you have become. No More!’ He hissed, ‘our planet suffered while you thrived. Our people died while you lived. Their Project Alpha.’ He spat it with pure hatred. ‘This place you call home. This stain on the galaxy must be cleansed from the very fabric of space. We must end this ridiculous charade you call existence.’

He brought his hands down to his sides in a chopping motion, and a great red rift streaked across the sky. It slowly separated to reveal the emptiness of space. An armada of giant battleships emerged and descended towards the planet.

‘Now prostrate yourselves before me and beg forgiveness,’ he ended with a flourish, ‘for this day…,’ he paused, ‘is the day you die!’

The hologram vanished, and a single blue bolt of energy screeched from the belly of the ship and exploded into the palace. Nic watched as the flames engulfed the crowd and advanced towards him, and he could almost feel the heat, as everyone around him turned to smouldering ash.

 

Nic came to on the rock and found Odessa lying face down beside him. He crouched beside her and turned her over.

Her skin was ghostly, yet her eyes were jet-black and shining like obsidian. She lifted a feeble searching hand towards Nic. She was blind.

Nic took her hand in his and touched it to his face.

‘Do you see?’ She whispered.

‘What does it all mean?’ Nic held his head in his hands.

‘It’s time to wake up, Nic,’ her voice was barely audible, and as her eyes closed, she muttered, ‘I’ve opened your eyes, Lieutenant. Now I need you to come and open mine.’

 

Nic jolted up in his chair to the sight of the Doctor. He was standing directly in front of Nic and slapping his face. He had removed the devices from Nic’s eyes, and Nic blinked several times as he gathered himself. He had never before thought that having the ability to blink was something for which he could feel such joy.

‘Excellent,’ the Doctor said, his voice brittle, ‘I thought we’d lost you there. You were out for a good ten minutes.’

Nic’s head felt heavy, but he could feel a sense of liberation in his mind.

‘Let me out of this blasted chair,’ he yelled. Adrenalin was pumping through his veins now, and he wriggled and squirmed, but nothing had changed. He still couldn’t move.

The Doctor laughed and moved towards the tray. He lifted a six-inch serrated blade and held it under the lights.

‘I guess we’ll have to try some more traditional methods.’ He said, and a broad grin stretched across his face.

He pressed the blade into Nic’s left cheek and sliced slowly downwards. Nic could feel the blood running down his face as the Doctor held the blade in place and looked him in the eyes.

Suddenly, the door swung open and cracked loudly into the wall.

The Doctor jumped at the sound dropped the blade. It clattered off the chair and hit the floor.

It took Nic a moment to focus on the image in the doorway, and as the shadowy figure stepped forward, Nic could have almost cried. Bagon’s rugged face and beaming grin came into view, his assault blaster poised and ready.

‘ello Doc’, it’s a pleasure to see you again!’ His unmistakable baritone echoed around the room.

‘What’s the meaning of this!’ The Doctor demanded.

‘I’d love to stay and chat, Doc,’ he chimed, ‘but we got ourselves a rebellion to foment!’

Nic watched as the Doctor’s face turned from a sadistic grin to utter bewilderment, before the orange bolt of energy smashed into his chest and thrust him backwards. Nic was almost reduced to tears of joys at the bone-crunching thud, as the Doctor hit the wall behind him.

The Company Man (6)

Back on the 87th floor of Company headquarters, Lieutenant Commander Nic Horshmire sat in an airless, claustrophobic grey office and waited for the fat bureaucrat. It contained nothing but a large mahogany desk, which took up most of the room, and two chairs. Nic stared across the desk, bare but for an empty ashtray in its centre, and clasped his filthy hands together to prevent them from trembling.

Mission accomplished, he reassured himself. Usual procedure. He fidgeted and scratched his head. His soiled Private’s uniform weighed on him, and his eyes felt heavy. He postured himself in preparation and contemplated his story.

Alphanian super-humans? The Grand Visigoth’s betrayal? He shook his head and wondered what the fat bureaucrat would make of it all. He tried to process the events of the last two days, but he found his usual steadfastness had left him. His thoughts were scattered like a freshly tipped puzzle, and the pieces lay strewn across his mind. They embodied everything he’d just seen, and what he thought he’d always known.

How could that energy shield have been operating for nearly a century? He asked himself.

The Company’s education system taught that almost a century ago, after the atom-blasts had all but annihilated life on Earth, General Novak used the limited infrastructure at his disposal to gather the last survivors of the human race. Together, they built the great free city of Hallogen.

The propaganda machine was relentless, and stories of Privates wresting life from the dirt were hardwired into every citizen. Obedience was instilled through the intensity of the conditioning matrix. Rote memorization drilled the Company’s founding ideals of loyalty, deference, and discipline into the heads of the youngest children. The horrors of the truth chamber awaited the most minor infraction, and to question one’s orders was a cardinal sin. The daily video blitz, six hours a day until 13 years old, compounded the fact. The flashing images of poverty, famine, hardship, violence, and war from the world before were interposed with the beaming smiles of pick-swinging Privates serving their General, who inspired them to greatness. As the children matured, their loyalty was unquestionable. They were honoured to join the ranks at the turn of their thirteenth birthday. They scavenged, they mined, and they toiled until humanity could flourish again.

Their whole belief system was based on uniting to face the struggles of a civilization without advanced technology. Nic knew that to suggest the opposite would be as good as signing his own death warrant. It was heresy of the highest order.

The arrival of the Grand Visigoth and his intergalactic search four years ago changed everything. In no time at all, they had integrated significant technological gifts into their daily lives, and they vastly improved food production and healthcare. Company headquarters and the tunnel followed. Since the Grand Visigoth’s arrival, and his majestic display at the podium, the bonds of unity had never felt stronger.

A stream of questions flowed forth. But what of the storms? Was Odessa’s stark warning true? Was the General leading us into oblivion? He rested his elbows on the table and held his head.

A final question nagged him. Why would she let herself be caught? She must know I will tell them… …I have to tell them!

 

A swarm of Troopers had dropped from their ships like locusts and surrounded them. Immediately, two Troopers hustled past Nic and straightened the unconscious Odessa on the ground. They encircled her with a thin metal strip, and at the flick of a switch, they entombed her in an ovoid case of pure energy. It emanated iridescent blue light as it enshrouded her and hovered in front of them. Before the blessed arrival of the Grand Visigoth, he might have cried witchcraft at such a display. Yet after bearing witness to so many unimaginable feats over the past two days, the appearance of more was almost banal.

‘What’s that?’ Nic asked, exhausted.

‘Stasis chamber.’ The Trooper said without looking.

‘Where are you taking her?’ Nic asked.

‘Mind your place, Private,’ the Trooper replied sternly, ‘the fire-eyed beast is on ice.’ He chuckled and moved away alongside Odessa’s floating tomb.

Presently, another Trooper grabbed Nic’s arm and led him away, muttering orders for debriefing. As they walked towards a rectangular silver transport ship, Nic looked over his shoulder and watched. Odessa was loaded into a similar ship’s backside and blasted off towards Company Headquarters.

 

Nic bolted up as the door swung open behind him. The fat bureaucrat shuffled through flanked by two Troopers.

‘Greetings Lieutenant,’ he wheezed, as he waddled around the table.

‘Greetings, Sir,’ he croaked.

The fat bureaucrat’s chair creaked as he leant back and wiped the sweat from his brow. Then, very deliberately, he stuffed his brown patterned handkerchief into the right breast pocket of his perfectly starched jet-black shirt.

‘It’s been a rather strange day,’ he said, as he opened a stuffed manila folder onto the desk.

Meanwhile, the two Troopers imposed themselves either side of Nic.

Unusual procedure, he thought, and the room felt even smaller.

 

Nic spent the next several hours debriefing the fat bureaucrat, who watched him intently, but whose expression never wavered from benign indifference. Nic tried to mirror his disposition, lest he be found uncharacteristically emotional, but it wasn’t easy. His body felt heavy, and his head was thumping.

The fat bureaucrat chain-smoked cigars, so an unfamiliar cloud lingered in the room. The acrid smell made Nic nauseous, and the ashtray overflowed into an untidy mess on the table. The fat bureaucrat nodded and hmm-hmmed while Nic relayed the events in the Section 98392 mess hall and the tunnel with Bagon. The rolls in his neck were almost hypnotic, as they wobbled with each nod of his head.

Nic thought he noticed a furrowing brow when he mentioned some of Odessa’s more extraordinary physical abilities, and perhaps the fat bureaucrat made his notes slightly more furiously during the tales of the flight and his visions, but he couldn’t be sure. Regardless, Nic remained stoic throughout, even as he reached Odessa’s tale of the Grand Visigoth’s betrayal and imminent doom.

‘Preposterous!’ The fat bureaucrat bellowed, as he lost his composure and rocked back on his chair. It groaned in despair at the load it was forced to bear. ‘The General would never lead us so astray,’ he hissed, as he stubbed out his cigar with utter disdain.

‘My thoughts exactly, Sir.’ Nic nodded and tried hard to maintain his veneer of indifference.

‘Though, we are aware of Section 98392,’ the fat bureaucrat said solemnly. ‘The whole lot have been fried, unfortunately.’

‘A terrible loss of manpower,’ Nic sympathized. ‘Including the Private who escaped the tunnel? Bagon was his name.’

‘The whole lot,’ he stressed, ‘but we can’t have this kind of strife among the Privates, Lieutenant.’ He shook his head and banged a fist on the table. ‘No, no, no, we really must meet our targets. The search can’t wait forever!’

Nic was taken aback by the turn in conversation. The fat bureaucrat seemed unperturbed by his tale. Moreover, Odessa’s super-human feats had just glided off the surface.

‘Hopefully, we can get back on schedule now that troublemaker has been contained.’ He said.

‘Are you sure she’s contained?’ Nic asked, ‘in that thing?’

The fat bureaucrat stared at him for a few seconds before answering, and his round pink face reddened under the artificial light. For the first time, Nic noticed his bulbous eyes. His irises were consumed with small white tadpoles swimming in a sea the darkest shade of brown, and they were glazed like mirrors. Nic almost glimpsed his own reflection.

He diverted his gaze. Too curious, he thought.

‘That’s not for you to worry about any more.’ The fat bureaucrat said seriously. He shuffled the papers in front of him and asked the question Nic had most feared.

‘Now, Lieutenant,’ the fat bureaucrat cleared his throat. ‘I’m a little unclear about the manner in which you apprehended such an extraordinary villain?’

Nic briefly paused. ‘She allowed herself to be caught,’ he said, maintaining his composure. ‘She took the cattle prod in my hand and shocked herself in the neck.’ He stared at the fat bureaucrat for a moment, but no response came. ‘I can only presume that she wanted to get close to our beloved Gener—‘

‘Ridiculous!’ He cut him off and let out a great belly laugh. He rocked back in his chair. ‘Such folly! The General would crush the very will from her bones!’

He scribbled something in the manila folder and slapped it shut.

‘You’ve done a marvelous job Lieutenant,’ he said proudly, ‘you have been awarded the Company Cross for valour.’ He was grinning ear to ear now. ‘And you have been awarded a personal audience with the General this very evening.’

‘With the General!’ Nic spluttered.

‘And followed by a public medal ceremony,’ the fat bureaucrat chirped, and Nic beamed.

A momentary wave of pride swept over him. It was a rare honour to be granted an audience. And a public medal ceremony! Nic knew of none in his lifetime. As a young Private, he’d watch grainy videos that glorified the achievements of the Company’s original heroes, who were venerated by crowds of millions. Every child dreamed of the same fate. Their love and devotion to the company was etched in folklore.

He felt his mind contract, and talk of revolt and betrayal vanished. He was blinded by the image now rushing through his head. He saw himself standing on the podium, and he could hear the cheers of the crowd, as the General pinned the medal to his chest. Maybe, it would be another promotion, he hoped, and he envisioned an even bigger role for himself in the great galactic search to follow.

The fat bureaucrat got up from his seat and tottered around the table. ‘You’re an exemplary Officer, Lieutenant. It’s the first award in fifty years!’ He patted Nic on the back and handed the file to the Trooper standing just behind him. ‘We’ve never had such a rebellion as this, and you executed our plan perfectly.’

He moved back round the table, burdened his chair once more, and looked up, seriously, at the Troopers.

‘Take him to the Truth Chamber.’ He ordered.

‘What?’ Nic choked, ‘but you said I… I… ‘

‘Yes, yes, you will meet the General, Lieutenant,’ he laughed, ‘but first we need to have a little look in there.’ He nodded towards the top of Nic’s head. ‘A flying woman…’ he snorted, ‘a… what did you call her?’ He asked derisively, ‘…an Alphniom? Harumph! With telepathic powers and a shining exoskeleton. By the General, what a tale! The top brass will be rolling when I tell them,’ he chuckled.

‘It’s true, Sir!’ Nic’s voice was tremulous, and he leant forward and slapped the desk with both hands. ‘She’s an Alphanian, Sir,’ he pleaded, ‘I first heard the word on a dead Trooper’s radio,’ he agitated, ‘I swear it!’

The two Troopers encroached.

‘Yes, yes,’ the fat bureaucrat was incredulous now, ‘and you watched as she cut down 75 of our best men… singlehandedly! …in a cave!’

Nic became irate. He lunged across the desk, but the iron grip of the Trooper’s arm enclosed around his neck. The chair clattered to the ground, as he pulled Nic towards the door.

‘Now, Lieutenant, you’re only making this worse for yourself.’ The fat bureaucrat said sternly.

‘It’s the truth!’ Nic screamed.

The Trooper paused in the doorway.

‘Your truth…,’ the fat bureaucrat pronounced matter-of-factly, as he stood and calmly removed a fresh cigar from his trouser pocket, ‘…is un-acceptable.’ He lit his cigar and drew deeply. He exhaled in Nic’s direction and approached through the cloud. ‘We need to get to the real truth of this matter, Lieutenant, and if you’re unable to tell me,’ he paused and added malevolently, ‘…we have our ways.’

He looked at the Trooper.

‘Tell the Doctor we’d like this one back,’ he cracked a sinister smile, ‘so try not to make a mess in there.’ He shuffled closer until Nic could feel his breath on his face, tapped him gently on the head with his index finger, and with mock seriousness added, ‘we need to get to the bottom of this.’

The last thing Nic did, before the Trooper dragged him kicking and screaming from the room, was finally see his reflection in the fat bureaucrat’s marbled eyes, and never before had he seen himself look so wretched.

The Company Man (5)

Nic, still dazed, stumbled as he followed Bagon into the narrow corridor outside his cell. Only two metres wide and two and a half high, it weaved ahead in semi-darkness. The fluorescent wall lights in Nic’s old cell lit behind them, and the flickering of an LED ceiling panel just around the corner lit ahead. They waited for a brief moment and listened.
Thump, thump, thump. Thump, thump, thump. Odessa stood, back to the wall, and waited about ten metres ahead of them. Her armour shimmered, and she vanished into the shadows.
What in the hell is that creature? Nic thought, as he stared at the space she had left.
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP! THUMP, THUMP, THUMP! The Troopers rounded the bend and approached.
‘Two bogies ahead!’ One said into his radio.
‘FREEZE! In the na—‘
In a flash of bright white light, Odessa smashed to the centre of the group, three men wide and 5 men deep, and their bodies crunched into the walls like bowling pins. A remaining Trooper engaged her, but her armour rendered his cattle-prod useless. She feinted left, flashed an arm, and despatched him with ease.
‘Come on!’ She yelled and motioned for Bagon and Nic to follow.
The Troopers were strewn along the corridor, and puddles of blood slowly ebbed towards Nic. He followed Bagon closely, stepping and tripping over bodies. In his fugue state, he couldn’t distinguish dream from reality as layers of conditioning flaked away.
He heard the fuzzy sound of a radio among the carcasses on the ground.
‘Come in, Unit Leader, Come in. Have you engaged the enemy? Over.’
Again.
‘I repeat, Come in, Unit Leader. Have you located the Alphanian? Over.
Nic focused on the man as he stepped over him, and reached down to lift his visor.
‘Keep bleedin’ movin’!’ Bagon prodded him in the shoulder with his blaster.
Unfazed by the carnage, Nic shuffled forward. The image of the dead troopers blended with the dead of his vision and turned to dust in his mind.
Odessa had disappeared around the bend and a loud explosion shook the walls. Then, before they reached the corner, an orange burst of energy, three inches thick, hissed in front of them and exploded into the wall. It threw them onto the pile of bodies behind, and Nic cracked his head on the armour of a fallen Trooper.
‘Take cover!’ Bagon yelled as he scurried off the ground. He darted to the wall just before the corner as blasters zapped and sizzled against the shards of metal that once lined the wall.
Nic rubbed his head and motioned to get up, yet he couldn’t but look at the expressionless face of the dead man beside him. He stalled and instinctively slipped the dead man’s cattle-prod into his back pocket. An eerie silence descended, and he fell in behind Bagon.
‘You first,’ he said, ‘wouldn’t want you runnin’ off now, would I?’ He turned towards Nic and motioned with the blaster for him to round the bend.
As they followed Odessa’s trail of destruction, Nic retched at the sight of such wounds. Several bodies had holes through their abdomens and chests that Nic could see clear through. Others were missing limbs and even heads. Their cauterized wounds had reduced the stream of blood to a trickle, and body parts littered the shadows.

They waited three more times for Odessa to clear the way, and three more times they followed. As they progressed, Nic slowly regained his senses and was appalled. His feet were heavy as he lifted them over body after body. He thought of the General, and the day of rejoicing when their cosmic brethren blessed them with wonder.
‘Our struggle has been rewarded!’ The General had announced it, four years earlier, to a baying crowd of millions. The people stood in front of his podium, in front of the old Company building. He stood tall with his chest thrust out, his uniform impeccable. Nic tried to remember his face, but light reflected from the array of medals on his chest, and his features were blurred. Nic turned and looked at the corpses on the ground.
These are real Company men! He thought. You can’t save them by killing them!
He remembered the Grand Visigoth landing in front of Company Headquarters. A human-sized shining blue orb floated slowly towards the General’s Podium and landed. The crowd gasped as the outer shell retracted within itself to reveal the robed figure of the Grand Visigoth. His face glistened a ghostly white as he faced them.
‘My Brothers!’ His smooth voice boomed. ‘Your struggle has inspired me from across the galaxy, for I too, am human!’
A deafening roar exploded from the crowds.
‘Your unity, your resilience, and your fortitude have brought you far!’
The crowd roared again.
‘Your bravery, your loyalty, and your strength are a blessing that deserve more than this burden, this wretched wasteland of a planet.’ He spoke faster, ‘I come today bearing a holy gift, my brothers!’ He paused.
The crowd waited with baited breath.
‘Help us mine your core, and we will build you a ship the size of a city!’ He paused again. ‘So you can join us… …on the greatest search the galaxy has ever known!’
The crowd were delirious. They stamped their feet and began to chant, Nic included.
‘The search, the search, the search! The search, the search, the search!’
‘Millions of years ago,’ the Grand Visigoth continued, ‘a master alien race sowed the seeds of humanity throughout the cosmos. Join us, for we must find them. They created a universe filled with life. And only they can truly answer the question…’
The crowd were drooling in anticipation.
‘…Of what it is …to be a God!’ He exclaimed it with venom, and the crowd erupted into throes of ecstasy.
Lost in the memory, Nic tripped over a corpse. As he hit the ground, Odessa’s vision flashed through his head again. The seared memories of children’s corpses, and the smell of charred flesh burned in his nostrils. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.
Blasted tricks and parlour games, he convinced himself. That freak can’t have me!
Bagon grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and dragged him to his feet.
‘We ain’t got all blinkin’ day!’ he hissed.
Nic rose and silently continued. He knew better than to plead for Bagon to see sense. He’d already succumbed to her whim.

When they turned the final corner, the corridor widened, and a soft light flooded in through a large circular hole two metres in diameter. It had been cut through steel blast doors ten inches thick. Odessa was crouching beside it. She glanced from cover as pale moonlight glimmered off the smooth contours of her suit.
‘They’ve retreated!’ She gasped and turned to face Nic and Bagon. As they approached, her helmet retracted into the neck of her suit. ‘Not a bad fighting bunch,’ she grinned and stepped outside. Nic followed Bagon and waited for his chance to strike.
He surveyed the battleground. The surrounding streets were pockmarked with tiny fires, and holes smouldered in the buildings in front of them. He turned to face Odessa.
‘You sure do kill a lot of people,’ he said, ‘…for a savior.’
‘The Troopers are past saving.’ She said, gravely. ‘There’s much more at stake than you know.’ She turned to face Bagon, her voice serious. ‘Bagon, section 98392 is done. Purged. Find any stragglers you can. You know what you have to do. Understand?’
‘Yes, m’lady.’ He nodded and motioned to leave.
‘Bagon,’ she held him back and spoke in an ominous tone. ‘Tread carefully my friend.’
He nodded again and disappeared into the shadows.
Nic, meanwhile, noticed that his hiding place had been an old bunker set in the Southern cliff face of the Eastern habitation sector. Company headquarters dwarfed the sky in front of them.
A cunning place to hide, Nic thought. In light’s shadow.
After Bagon had left, Odessa turned and faced Nic.
‘We need to go, too!’ She nodded her head and pulled Nic close. ‘Hold on!’ Before he could speak, her helmet re-enveloped her head, and she blasted off with him in her arms. The metal of her suit felt cold, yet it was strangely soft, and it fit perfectly over her figure. She shot to the top of the cliff to reveal an unnatural red sky arcing towards the horizon.
In his shock, Nic barely registered the warm electric glow, as they careened above barren land to a hill covered with the skeletons of spindly grey trees. Less than a minute after they left the ground, she had landed on the highest point in the new free city of Hallogen, on the Southernmost point of the radiation-free zone.

Odessa landed on the top of the hill and released Nic. He stumbled to the ground and looked up at her in frightened awe. She retracted her armour and stood in front of him. Again, she was dressed in the beige overalls of the Drilling Corps.
‘Are you human?’ He asked.
‘Of course!’ She said. ‘Are you?’ She rocked her head back and laughed.
‘That armour came out of your own skin.’ He warily placed his hand on his back pocket.
‘Let’s just say I’m a little more…’ she chose her words carefully ‘…evolved.’
‘Nic, I want to show you something.’ She led him to the edge of a viewpoint overlooking the entire free city of Hallogen. The city was illuminated under the moonlit sky, and the corrugated iron roofs of the habitation quarters to the West and East were clearly visible and stretched for miles. To the North, Company headquarters loomed large directly in front of the tunnel. The giant void stretched far into the distance, and Nic marveled at the height of the mountains that peaked in the dumping grounds beyond. To the Northwest, he saw the old farms and the mines. He felt pride at the achievements of The Company in building such a city, so soon after the bombs had fallen.
‘Nic, follow me.’ She said softly and turned to face South.
With her back facing him, he gripped the cattle-prod and prepared to attack. But something stayed his hand. A lightning strike flared in the distance, over her shoulder. He strained his eyes and could see thousands of them flashing into the ground. Black clouds filled the skies, and powerful electrical storms raged. He blinked and slowly relaxed his grip.
‘Can you see it?’ She pointed at the sky above them.
‘The red glow?’ He nodded and took his hand from his back pocket. The colour was not as vibrant as before, but it still rippled faintly through the sky. ‘What is it?’ He asked.
‘It’s an energy shield. Hardly visible from the surface.’
‘The radiation?’ He said, perplexed.
‘It can’t penetrate it.’ She spoke seriously. ‘And beyond the red? Can you see the storms?’
He said nothing.
‘The drilling is depolarizing the Earth’s magnetic field,’ she said solemnly. ‘The entire planet is not only experiencing a nuclear winter, but also some of the most violent electrical storms this planet has ever seen.’
‘So our comrades …protect us?’ Something made him hesitate.
‘They protect themselves.’ She shook her head. ‘When they get the iron ore from your core,’ she explained, ‘the planet’s magnetic field will destabilize. Then, the mantle will rise and every volcano on this rock will erupt simultaneously. If anyone manages to survive that, solar winds will raze the unprotected surface to dust and ash.’ She paused. ‘Unless they decide to put you out of your misery first, that is, with an atom-blast to the empty core.’ She laughed. ‘They’ll call it ‘poetic justice.’’
‘We don’t need the planet.’ Nic said flatly. ‘They’re going to build us a ship.’
‘They’ll leave you to rot like everyone else,’ she shook her head.
‘Is that what happened to your planet?’ He asked sarcastically.
‘Not exactly.’ She said sadly. ‘I’d love to show you, but we just don’t have time. I haven’t disengaged the tracking implant in your wrist.’
‘But–‘
She interrupted him. ‘Nic, take that cattle-prod from your pocket.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘I know you have it.’
He held it and looked at Odessa. ‘But we have to join the search!’ His voice was proud. ‘The most noble cause in the entire galaxy!’
‘The Grand Visigoth has been searching for five thousand fricken’ years!’ She blurted in frustration. ‘Nic. We’ve no time for this now. Your mind is almost clear.’ She held his shoulders tightly. ‘We were so close. I know you question the world around you. It’s not quite… right.’
‘My loyalty is to the the company and the General,’ he proclaimed and pulled back. ‘He’d never agree to–’
‘Nic!’ she cut him off, ‘the residual energy on that shield tells me it’s been operating for nearly a century!’
He paused, shocked. ‘Lies!’ He yelled. He knew what that meant. It couldn’t be!
‘I’m sorry, Nic, but we have to move fast. We only have a minute!’
Nic struggled to process the information, as his head was flooded with questions. One pressed to the front of his mind.
‘What’s an Alphanian?’ He blurted.
‘An ancient race of humans,’ she smiled, ‘all but lost to the depths of the galaxy.’
‘So not all, then?’ He asked.
‘Absolutely not!’ She winked. Suddenly, she grabbed his hand, thrust it into her own neck, and ten thousand volts floored her. She lay unconscious at Nic’s feet in the pink-red hue of the moonlight, and he towered over her, cattle-prod still in hand. Almost immediately, twenty jet-black light aircraft with familiar angular wings hovered over the crest of the hill and surrounded Nic, their lasers firmly locked on their target.