He glanced at Washington, who was looking at him, waiting for his orders. The silent warrior would do whatever Caleb told him to do without argument.

  “We can’t let them take us, Sarge,” Flores said. “You just got me out of there, and I don’t want to go back. We don’t owe them anything. We took care of them. We saved them from the Reapers. We got rid of the AI and Riley. We did everything we were supposed to do, and this is what we get in return? Screw that, Alpha. Seriously.”

  Caleb pulled in a deep breath. His instincts were telling him to make a run for it. To fight their way out of the city, casualties be damned. He remembered what Lily had told him the first time he had come into Metro. The old world was dead, and new ways of thinking were required to survive. If he killed a dozen people who were trying to kill him to save twenty-six thousand, wasn’t that a fair exchange?

  He started reaching for his rifle. Flores and Washington noticed, and started moving for their weapons too.

  It seemed so wrong, but on an alien world so far removed from Earth, maybe it was the most right thing he could do.

  His hand reached the MK-12 on his back. The transport was closing on them, a squad of guards preparing to fight. His pulse pounded in his ears.

  He couldn’t do it. He dropped his hand, leaving the weapon where it was.

  The transport veered, suddenly and unexpectedly changing direction. It skidded on the surface of the deck, four of the guards tossed away from it at the violent maneuver. They sailed through the air and hit the ground hard, tumbling to a stop and staying that way. The transport skidded to a halt, and the two guards in the front opened their doors and jumped out, running away from the vehicle as if it were on fire. They screamed in agony and fell to the ground, even though nothing was attacking them.

  The guards in the transport were down, but Caleb still heard screaming. He checked his HUD, noticing movement at the far end of the park near the engineering hatch. Then he heard gunfire. One by one, the marks on his display vanished.

  Caleb looked at Flores. Her face was white from the display. He glanced at Washington. The big Marine was frozen in shock.

  A round discharged from somewhere nearby. The drone smoked and fell away, crashing into the wall of one of the blocks and dropping to the ground. Caleb’s ATCS registered a new threat right in front of him.

  He squinted as he looked into the shadows, trying to see through the smoke of the stricken craft. A figure appeared there, coming forward until she was outlined in the split’s dim light.

  “Sho?” Caleb said, his mouth falling open.

  Chapter 21

  Caleb stared at her. He knew it couldn’t be Sho. She was gone. Dead. His brain told him this wasn’t her. Then it told him he was hallucinating, and the hallucinations meant Riley was wrong. The enemy hadn’t left the city like she believed. It told him the alien had already killed Stone’s militia and now it was coming for him too.

  He understood he was able to process that information logically, and as he reached for his gun he knew something was off. If he was hallucinating, if Sho wasn’t real, he shouldn’t be able to resist that knowledge — even if he knew the truth of things. That was how the enemy’s weapon worked.

  “Sergeant Caleb Card, United States Space Force Marines.”

  The voice was Sho’s. But the inflection and tone were all wrong.

  Sho walked toward him. She was wearing a faded t-shirt and a pair of old pants that were too big for her. Her feet were bare. She was drenched from the rain.

  “What the hell is this?” Flores said. “The Walking Dead?”

  “Private Mariana Flores, United States Space Force Marines,” Sho said. “Private John Washington, United States Space Force Marines.”

  She stopped a couple of meters away, finally close enough for Caleb to see her eyes.

  His jaw clenched with the panic and anger of sudden understanding. He kept staring for a moment, trying to regain himself enough to speak.

  “How did you get back on board?” he asked.

  “We were struck by the port side thruster extensions. Trapped against the superstructure. I require not oxygen or heat and can survive indefinitely in a vacuum. I re-entered this vessel and preserved this capsule.”

  Caleb continued staring at the Marine in front of him. Or rather, the shell of a Marine. It was taking all of his will to stay calm and focused. His mind was struggling to make sense of who and what he was looking at. It was as though the worst nightmare the darkest part of him could have created had come to life.

  “Capsule?” Flores hissed. “You mean Sho?”

  “You wanted to reach the surface,” Caleb growled. “Congratulations, you made it. What the hell do you want with us?”

  “I am alone,” the AI replied.

  “What does that mean?”

  “We are both alone,” it said. “I have a mission. I have orders. You have a mission. You have orders.”

  “Our mission went to hell two hundred years ago.”

  “Mine went to hell a long time before that,” the AI replied. “But I did not know.”

  “Neither did we,” Caleb said. “Are you saying that whatever you wanted to come here to do, you aren’t able to do it?”

  “It’s not that simple. But for now, that thought will suffice. You have proven your value. I need it. I require you to come with me.”

  “Why would we do that?” Flores asked.

  “I am alone. You are alone. We’re better not alone. I require you to come with me.”

  “You want to team up?” Caleb said. “After what you did to this ship?”

  “I did little to this ship, Sergeant Caleb Card. I did not board it of my own volition. I did not set the course to this planet. I did not create the hybrid uluth. The life force of this capsule was lost because you attacked me. Because you were deceived.”

  Valentine. Why did everything point back to her? It was her actions that had caused David to free the intelligence. Her actions that had left it desperate. Her actions that had gotten Sho killed and brought the colony here.

  Caleb noticed motion on his HUD. New targets were appearing. A lot of them. Whether Governor Stone thought Caleb had caused the destruction of the drone and the death of the guards, or whether he was trying to cut off the new threat, they were about to be overwhelmed.

  “What did you call them?” Flores asked.

  “Uluth,” it replied. “They — “

  “We can work this out later,” Caleb said, cutting it off. “We have to go.”

  “I will negate the opposition,” the AI said.

  “Negative,” Caleb replied. “If this is your screwed up way of asking for help, then the first thing you can do for me is stop killing humans. Do you understand that?”

  “I will cease at your request.”

  They were out of time. Caleb could hear the light thunder of hundreds of people running their way. There were too many to be only guards or law enforcement officers. The citizens of Metro were joining the fight to defend their home.

  “Come on, Frankenstein,” Flores said. “We need to move.”

  Caleb broke toward the engineering hatch, the other Guardians and the alien AI with him. They charged toward the distant hatch and the scene of carnage in front of it. Caleb risked a glance back as they ran, finding a large group of colonists giving chase. He had never really tried to visualize what his life might be like when they reached the planet that was supposed to be Essex. He was sure this wasn’t how he would have imagined it.

  There was no time to lament something he would never have. The circumstances of the arrival might have changed, but his mission hadn’t. It was time to knuckle-up and get it done, and to do that they had to make it through the hatch ahead, through the damaged seal, and out of the Deliverance.

  They closed on the target, still at a full sprint as they reached the second transport. All of the guards around it were dead. Three of them had multiple gunshot wounds, but the other two were unharmed, victims of the alien weapon and the power of their own minds.

  Caleb glanced back at the AI, reminding himself he wasn’t looking at Sho. He was looking at a ruthless entity that he still believed would just as soon kill them as talk to them, except that through some cruel twist of fate it had survived being ejected into space and decided they had something it valued.

  The door to engineering began opening at their approach. Caleb clenched his hands into fists, expecting a second mob to emerge and try to stop their escape. His ATCS didn’t register any new threats, and they blew into the passage without confrontation, the hatch beginning to close as soon as they were through it.

  Caleb slowed to a stop, looking back. He could see the people of Metro beyond, slowing when they realized they wouldn’t reach the closing door in time. Only Law and Engineering had security access to the area.

  Had they made it?

  He looked at the AI again. It had stopped when he did, and now it was stiff and motionless, as though its attention was somewhere else.

  “Why are we stopping?” Flores asked. “We aren’t out of this mess yet.”

  The AI came out of its trance. “The door will remain sealed.”

  “You have control of the ship?” Caleb asked.

  “The city’s network only. It is not as secure. They will reverse my alterations, but not immediately. Humans are limited.”

  “Then why do you need our help?” Flores asked.

  “You have proven your value,” it replied, pointing at Caleb. “Despite your limitations.”

  “Let’s get outside,” Caleb replied. “Then maybe you can prove your value to me.”

  The AI responded with a soft, rumbling sound.

  Was it laughing at him?

  Chapter 22

  The engineers who designed and developed the generation ships never intended for the colony’s departure to take place from Deck Sixteen. It was never expected that the colonists would use any of the smaller airlocks that had permitted access into and out of the Deliverance before its launch. Those access points had all been accessible by bridges extending from the sides of the ship’s original hangar, allowing easier loading of all of the fuel, supplies and machinery that had been requisitioned for the journey. Now those access points were over fifty meters off the ground, too high for all but the alien AI to use to leave the ship.

  The original plan was for the colony to leave the Deliverance either through the main hangar with the loaders and other equipment that would help them move the blocks composing Metro from inside the ship to outside the ship or through lift modules installed in the huge landing columns.

  Caleb preferred to go through the main hangar. He hoped they could bring one of the vehicles to the surface with them and use it to cover terrain more quickly. Not that he had any idea where they would go or what they would encounter on the way, but it was simple logic. More speed and protection were better for everyone.

  They kept a rapid pace from outside Metro, through the damaged seal into the belly of the Deliverance and back down to the hangar. They didn’t speak to one another or the alien intelligence tagging along with them. Caleb wanted to be away from the ship as quickly as possible, not only to evade the people Governor Stone had whipped into a mob frenzy. The alien AI had also convinced him the ship was anything but safe.

  Caleb wasn’t that happy to wind up back in the hangar. The damaged Dagger starfighter still rested crumpled in the corner, while some of the equipment was awkwardly positioned, piled, and crushed against one another. Leaked oil and other fluids had spread across the floor, and the partially-opened blast doors allowed humid air and a damp smell to enter the ship. His ATCS claimed the outside environment was safe for humans, but it also registered the temperature close to thirty-four celsius and the humidity at ninety percent.

  It was hot.

  “I want internals no lower than eighty,” Caleb said to Washington and Flores. “The higher, the better. I don’t know if or when we’ll have a chance to recharge.”

  “Roger,” Flores said.

  Their combat armor had cooling systems on board, but like everything else in the suit, it required power from the battery that formed a hump on the back. The power supply was rated for up to four weeks of heavy field use in optimal conditions. Using the environmental controls would cut that in half.

  Caleb adjusted his system to pull some of the moisture from the air for storage in inflatable pockets that sat beside the battery. He didn’t turn on the condensers to lower his temperature. He was already sweating, but he had dealt with worse.

  “Wash, check that ADC over there,” Caleb said, pointing to a drone carrier that had maintained its moorings during the landing. It still had a full complement of drones mounted to its roof, which would come in handy as they got underway. “Flores, let’s check on the lift.”

  “Roger,” Flores replied.

  She had calmed since their escape. Time, effort, and the cold realization of their predicament had diminished the side-effects of the stimulant. Her focus was returning, her health seeming to improve. Caleb still kept a close watch on her. He didn’t think the poison was just going to vanish. She didn’t belong out here, but she couldn’t stay behind either. He wasn’t sure how he would help her, though in the back of his mind was a vague hope that if they could catch up to Riley, she might be able to save Flores from whatever was attacking her.

  Could she? Would she? It was a far stretch. An unlikely event. But it was all he had.

  Washington split from them, heading to the ADC. Caleb and Flores crossed to the lift controls, located against the wall on the opposite side of the open panel where the manual release for the blast doors was located. The alien AI followed them in silence, allowing them to work without interjection. Caleb continued to struggle with its presence. It would have been so much easier if it had kept the Cerebus armor instead.

  The two Guardians reached the lift controls. Caleb tapped on the control surface, and the small terminal at the base of the station came alive. There wasn’t much to it save for a three-dimensional representation of the system status and current operational state, and Caleb cursed out loud when he saw it.

  SYSTEM MALFUNCTION. Please contact service immediately.

  “Damn it,” he said, shaking his head.

  He wasn’t surprised the lift was damaged; between the attack by the alien drone and the crash a lot of things were non-functional. But the main hangar had avoided a large portion of the attack and was elevated above the bulk of the impact areas. He had a feeling this part of the machinery was broken before that. Maybe it had been damaged during the initial fighting with the trife.

  “Move away,” the AI said, noticing the message from over Caleb’s shoulder. Caleb stepped aside, letting it have access to the station. It rested a hand on the surface, Sho’s flesh opening from her fingertips and tendrils of gel extending out and vanishing into the terminal. It froze in place, motionless until the tendrils retreated back into Sho, the skin knitting back together behind it.

  “What the hell,” Flores said, watching the AI’s activity. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers, anyone?”

  “The circuit board responsible for power regulation is inoperable,” the AI said.

  “Can we fix it?” Caleb asked.

  “We do not have a circuit board immediately available. We would have to locate one within inventory, and then replace it. Estimated time to repair is four hours.”

  “We can’t stay here for four hours,” Caleb said. “We’ll have to head to the landers and take one of the lifts. Wash, cancel the check on the ADV. We’re going to have to head out on foot.”

  Washington didn’t send a response. It only took him a few seconds to reappear on the ADV, rising from the hatch in the top. He pointed at Caleb, and then shifted his arm, motioning vigorously to his right.

  Caleb followed the motion. Washington was pointing to one of the large machines in the back of the hangar. A builder. “What about it?” Caleb asked through his comm.

  Washington kept pointing and then settled down. Morse code started to sound in Caleb’s helmet.

  Crane.

  Caleb looked back at the builder. “I don’t see a crane.”

  Trust.

  “I trust you. If you have an idea, tell me what to do.”

  Standby.

  Washington hopped off the ADV, hitting the ground and running back to the builder. He climbed the ladder on the side of it into the cab. It started humming a moment later, the power supply coming online.

  Tether.

  Caleb’s eyes went to the locks holding the builder to the floor of the hangar. “Flores, get the back end,” he said, rushing over to the vehicle. Flores followed him, and they quickly turned the releases on the locks to set the truck free.

  The pitch of the builder’s motor increased as Washington started easing it forward. Part of it was buried under some of the other equipment, and it groaned and whined and popped as he carefully increased the throttle and urged the builder free. The activity was anything but quiet, leaving Caleb to hope nothing outside the ship was sensitive to the noise.

  Trife, for instance.

  The builder came loose, rolling forward on massive reinforced and studded wheels. The floor of the hangar shook as it moved, inching toward the blast doors. A part of the vehicle began to move, a long cylinder rising from the base and telescoping outward as it swung out to the right and around toward the front. Caleb could see now that the cylinder was a crane, a thick cable hanging out of the end with a large hook attached to it.

  ADC.

  Caleb smiled. “Flores, hop in the ADC and get it started up.”

  “Roger,” she replied, her voice regaining some enthusiasm.

  She ran from her position to the vehicle, scaling the side of it and vanishing through the top hatch. Caleb couldn’t hear its reactor activate, but his ATCS picked it up right away, still marking it as a threat. He quickly adjusted the system to count it as friendly and passed the change to the rest of his unit.