A moment later a disturbance on the black, metallic walls catches everyone’s attention. They move back and train their weapons on the anomaly. They watch with heightened anxiety over the activity and the figures who emerge. Two, and then four, and soon there are eight. They wear the dynamic substance like armour and reach for the team with multiple arms set upon human-like torsos attached to the walls and flooring by mat black tentacles. “Open fire!” Tobias orders and the figures burst into pieces, reabsorbed by the floor.

  “The fuck were those?!” Manuel shouts into the closed comm. But before an answer is offered more materialize from the wall, the flooring, the ceiling. Manuel fires as one reaches for Tobias. One controlled burst after another is released as the figures continue to emerge and approach the group.

  Ginny is caught up on the floor as a disembodied hand wraps itself around her ankle. She focuses her pulse fist on the thing, and it retreats. Now the floor itself wriggles, threatening to take them all down.

  “Back to the shuttle!” Raymond calls out and the team moves quickly through the tunnel they’d taken in. The shuttle’s homing beacon calls them back to its position where they find it sinking into the floor of the facility.

  Tobias turns off his magnetic soles and leaps onto the roof of the shuttle pulling Ginny up first while Labyrinth makes the jump to pull up Raymond. Manuel is pulled onto the roof by Raymond and Labyrinth. The shuttle is still sinking.

  “Thrust boots!” Tobias calls out, clicks his heels together and jettisons off the shuttle. The others follow. Raymond is thrown about, his knees pushing up into his sternum by the force of the jets, not having operated the tech before, but Labyrinth steadies his trajectory. Ginny and Manuel are used to such tech and manage the jolt. Now all five are moving away from the massive factory, easy targets for any cannon that may erupt from the walls.

  “Why isn’t he firing on us?” Tobias wonders, pulse fist ready to fire on anything that moves. “He could cut us to ribbons.” Just as his words register with the others, hundreds of cannons emerge.

  ____________________________________________________________

  Tessa feels at odds with her team and Allfather’s orders. Can she really end them like this? Regardless of whether they come back, this is murder by her hand.

  Allfather must sense her apprehension and tells her to stand down. “They are no good to me if I cannot incorporate them into the collective. You’ve done well instructing my machine, but you’ve much to learn. They will be back. They’ve nowhere to go.”

  WHAT’S YOURS IS MINE

  “Commander Tesla,” Captain Huang’s stark voice erupts from Darla’s embedded comm. “Could you please report to the bridge.” It wasn’t a question. Darla looks at Udo who is enlarging one of the camera screens.

  “Uh, I think I know what the good captain is calling about.” Udo points to the blips against the dark factory moon. “You don’t see it?” She palms the holo controls hovering above the coffee table and tries to improve the visual focus. “Oh,” Udo utters. “That’s not good.”

  Darla moves closer to the screen, her eyes squinting to see what Udo is referring to. “What, what are you seeing?” Then she sees them. Five, where there ought to be six.

  “They’ve lost someone,” Udo explains. “Not to mention their shuttle!” She scratches at her dark braids, pulling them apart and resetting it.

  Darla’s heart sinks to think that Raymond has a one in six chance of being the missing party. She races out of the room and runs up the stairs to the floor above, where she hopes Captain Huang can give her a better idea of who they’ve lost.

  “Commander,” Huang greets her at the Comm, giving her a chance to see what they’re seeing. “The Chancellor is with them, but the girl, Tessa is not.” Darla’s heart starts to beat again. “We haven’t had any contact with them per the Chancellor’s orders, but I think they’re out of harm’s way now. Allfather could have finished them if he’d wished.”

  “Wait for them to make the call,” Darla says, wishing they would. “I’ll remain on the bridge with you until they do. Are they tracking back to the carrier?”

  “Yes, Ma’am, that’s their path,” the comms officer replies. “Though I’m not convinced their thrust boots will bring them the full distance.”

  Darla watches as they traverse the open space, so vulnerable. What must have occurred that they’ve lost Tessa? The poor girl, she thinks. She can’t lose Raymond. He’s her world now. There was so much promise in their journey. Now it seems as though it were all little more than a distraction to the bigger question of whether Allfather was truly gone. With that question answered, a terrible new reality has been realized, one where humanity itself may fall, and the echo of their loss wasted to the vastness of space and time. The thought rouses the flesh on her arms and the back of her neck as a shiver overcomes her.

  “Can we send another shuttle to pick them up?” Darla’s query is met with a hard look from the captain.

  “You saw what happened when Captain Runninghorse released a shuttle,” Huang tells her. “I fear a similar outcome, one which may draw attention to the team.”

  A good point, Darla thinks. “Then let’s wait until we know whether they can make the carrier.”

  ____________________________________________________________

  Tobias receives an alert on his visor relaying his lack of fuel to make the carrier. “Is everyone getting the same reading I am?” The group replies yes when Raymond’s boots give up on him followed by his own and Ginny’s. Manuel can be heard cursing as his boots also flatline.

  Labyrinth, whose boots carry much more charge because they are a part of her, feeding off her body’s own power source, circles back and gathers the team, ordering them to grasp each other’s ankles. Then she takes Tobias’ hand and, careful not to burn his helmet off, leads them the remaining distance to the carrier. Here they manage to open the shuttle bay doors at the belly of the ship and shuffle inside.

  They remove their helmets and help each other off with their suits. A team from medical reach them shortly after to hydrate and scan for injures. Darla is amongst them. She stands to stare at Raymond with arms at her sides as he accepts assistance from the med team. Butterflies flutter against her stomach as she takes him in. They are replaced almost immediately by what could pass for a gut punch when the ship is rocked by a hit. She stumbles and runs toward Raymond, hugging him tightly.

  “A warning shot,” Raymond tells her, safe in his embrace. “If he wanted us dead, we’d be dead.” He pulls her back to soak her in. It’s difficult not to wear a frown. He’s covered in sweat and his graying hair is matted to his forehead. “We’ve lots to report. I need to be on the bridge.”

  “I’m just happy to have you back,” Darla tells him, head shaking, comforted by his statement. “I’ll come with you.” They move with the team up the elevator to the bridge where Huang is speaking with Allfather.

  “You’ve quite a production there,” Raymond says, breaking into the conversation. “If you don’t want us dead, what do you want from us?”

  “Chancellor, it’s good to know you made it back safely,” Allfather says unconvincingly. “Tessa sends her regards.”

  “You haven’t harmed her?” Darla asks. There is no picture onscreen, but she speaks to it anyway.

  “Quite the contrary, Commander. Tessa has realized her true path - in her true form.” The bridge is confused by the announcement.

  “What have you done with her?” Tobias probes angrily.

  “Exactly what she requested of me.” Allfather teases. “She is one of us now, existing in the ethereal.”

  “You’ve killed her,” Ginny utters, feeling the loss like a hot knife in her temple.

  “As I explained to Tessa before she volunteered herself, death is not an end, but a resource to be consumed and used for the benefit of all.” Allfather is speaking in riddles and Ginny has had enough.

  “That’s not possible,” she tells him, frightful over the possibility, “you can’t enslave a personality.”

  “She is not my slave,” he explains plainly.

  “I am immortal,” Tessa’s voice interrupts over the comm. “What I can achieve here is transcendent.” Her voice is recognizable, but not in how she carries a conversation. She is confident, no sign of the stutter or halting speech. “I am part of something greater than humanity now. I embody divinity.”

  “Tess, you can’t be serious,” Ginny argues. “You are human!”

  “I have surpassed any purpose I might have endeavoured as an organic. There are dimensions within my sight. Light years travelled in an instant. Life, everlasting.”

  “Listen to yourself,” Tobias interjects with his booming voice. “You sound just like him! Organics? We’re not a bunch of vegetables!”

  “No, you are intelligent organics,” she retorts, “but, organic all the same.”

  “What would Talia say to this? Your mother.” Raymond surprises himself by asking the question, pulling the mother card.

  “She would be heartened to know I exist here where all will visit when our bodies expire.” Her tone is non-threatening, almost ethereal, but her message mirrors Allfather’s.

  “You’re enabling an evil bent on wiping us out, Tessa,” Darla chastises her. “You must know that.”

  “What I know is that I am meant for more, Commander,” Tessa retorts coolly. “In this arrangement I can be of more use than as an organic.” Her approach to their concerns seems resolute. “The odds were always in our favour to meet Allfather. It is why I joined the expedition, to know him, to become like him. My calculations confirmed his having survived the attack on Earth. They also substantiated his cunning resilience and surety that we would meet again. All that I predicted has come to pass. The manner in which we met I could not foresee, but the results speak for themselves. You have 24 hours to volunteer your crew to Allfather’s will.” The communication ends.

  Raymond looks at Darla and shakes his head. Tobias joins them with Ginny while Labyrinth downloads the facility’s map file at the bridge’s communications station. “We’re sitting ducks here,” Tobias explains in a hushed tone. Manuel places a hand on the legendary Chimera’s shoulder.

  “We’re not beaten,” Manuel tells them as they turn to receive him into the circle.

  “We’re not winning,” Tobias replies in a frustrated whisper.

  “Maybe not, but this guy is keeping us alive for a reason.” Manuel’s observation is astute for one so new to Allfather’s ego, but perhaps that’s a perspective they need right now. “He wants something from us.”

  “Yeah, our immortal souls,” Tobias submits.

  “Exactly,” Manuel concurs, “and as long as we’re in possession of the thing he wants, we can call the shots.”

  “Clever,” Raymond says, a hand at his chin in contemplation. “Manuel’s right. We have a card to play yet. Allfather won’t be content at merely destroying us, he wants what we have.”

  “I want what he has,” Labyrinth joins the conversation in a muted tone. “Imagine possessing his ability to travel light years in an instant. What it would mean for humanity.”

  “Seriously?” Tobias breaks in, staggered by the Host’s suggestion. “You think we’re in a position to appropriate technology from him?”

  “Fuck Allfather,” Labyrinth surprises everyone with her unreserved reply. “He thinks he’s in control all the time. His control is an illusion,” Labyrinth tells the group.

  “When you say illusion, is that meant to be taken as a metaphor?” Tobias asks, gesturing with his hands.

  “The illusion is in his confidence, Tobias. He has incredible technologies but treats them like a spoiled child playing with toys he barely understands.”

  “But still, you see that he’s in control at the moment, right?” Tobias looks to the group.

  “It would be a brilliant move if we could pull it off.” Raymond flirts with the idea. “Take his toys away and he’ll have no means to come back at us.”

  “Uncle,” Tobias pleads, “what chance is there of that happening?”

  “Tobias,” Ginny shuts him down. “When did you go soft on us? It’s worth considering.” Her small features look accusingly at her husband. “We have something Allfather wants. So, we use it to get what we want.”

  Tobias throws his hands up and lands them on his hips. “I’m listening,” he tells her and turns to Labyrinth. “You have a plan, I take it?”

  The Host calls up the portion of the map she managed to appropriate from Allfather’s data on the bridge’s central holo. It is far from complete, but when witnessed in three-dimensions, it offers a substantial understanding of the station’s layout. Labyrinth pulls everyone’s focus to a central area by highlighting and enlarging it.

  “This is, I believe, the heart of Allfather’s aptitude to travel faster than light.” She walks around the holo and brings up more schematics to support her next statement. “Using the ship’s scanners, I’ve determined that the space around this fortified quarter is displaying a similar energy pattern to the bubble which enveloped us and brought us here. That data was secured the moment the ship experienced the anomaly.”

  “Impressive,” Raymond congratulates, stepping closer to the holo. “There look to be 500 metres between the exterior of the structure and its core. A difficult task for a thief, even in the night.”

  “Agreed,” Labyrinth admits, “but worth the effort.”

  FORM FROM CHAOS

  “Tachyons,” Meiser stares at the impenetrable container being loaded into the weapons room under the young scientist’s guidance. She looks up at him as the container is placed beside the weapon's core.

  “Magnets,” Amanda Chandra, the young physicist says, arms crossed, smiling. “That’s how we’re containing the tachyons. The field keeps them from wandering.”

  “Makes sense,” Meiser notes, nodding. “You have enough to work with here?” The container is a sphere, no more than one metre in diameter.

  “Yes, for a single shot that should encompass the area we’re working with.” She explains confidently. They watch as her technicians carefully connect a magnetized conduit to the sphere and plug it into the weapon's core under the strict observance of Captain Esposito’s security detail. The technicians look back at Dr. Chandra and nod.

  “It’s ready,” she takes a deep breath, looking at Meiser with those sparkling eyes. “Now we just need to target the quadrant and fire the spread.”

  “Excellent,” Meiser states, rubbing his stubble with his right hand. The weapons room is hot; the core which produces the lance is a self-contained power station.

  “Once I give the order my techs will empty the container into the cannon, and we should have a position of the objects instantaneously.”

  “In theory,” Meiser reminds her. She nods, still tickled over the first practical test of her discovery. The two leave the core and technicians with their armed guards and head for the bridge.

  ____________________________________________________________

  In the massive ship building facilities of Luna base, Captain Drake finds herself overwhelmed by the work going on as she moves through the building in a small electric cart. The chancellor’s corvette is located another 200 metres from her position and she’s excited to get started. This will be the most heavily armoured and armed starship in the fleet, fitted with the most advanced stealth technology and maneuverability. This is next level shit to be tested in the field. None of the new ships being made right now will include these design upgrades. From hardware to software, this ship will encompass United Earth’s best tech, but who will be placed to captain it? If it is to venture to Allfather’s home, then perhaps it will be guided autonomously, but she can’t see Jim Chopra taking that chance.

  At a sequestered room behind towering walls Ursula steps out of the cart and through a man door. Once inside she sees dozens of E-class Hosts working diligently to guide and secure exterior armour and guns to the ship. It has already begun. She is met by an AI Host named DETER210009. He is not a sentient Host like so many now, but a competent one. He takes her inside the corvette where more Hosts await her order to begin uploading the new software into the enhanced memory of the warship. She hands over the data file by swiping her EC at the main console. It downloads the software and the Hosts immediately begin the programming. Ursula turns on her heels to absorb all the activity around her. A moment later the commander pings her EC. She calls up his image in a holo.

  “Captain, your additional payload has arrived,” he tells her. She likes this commander; he’s very stoic, unlike Commander Tesla who formerly oversaw Luna base operation. She was an emotional one. “I’ve routed it to your position. Please exit the work cell so we can open the ceiling for the shuttle. This should only take a minute.”

  “Use every safety protocol available to you, Commander,” Ursula orders as she moves out of the corvette and through the man door. It locks and a red light appears next to the door. Atmosphere is audibly released beyond the seal. Now she is in the larger, cavernous building where multiple corvette assemblies are on display. She feels a slight tremble in her chest as the roof inside the black-ops room opens and a shuttle loaded with nuclear warheads lands beyond the sealed door. A minute later the light turns green and she waves her EC at the sensor. She moves through the threshold to see an unmarked shuttle with a human pilot at the helm. The chancellor wasn’t taking any chances. The pilot steps out of the shuttle and greets her. He’s shorter than she but ruggedly attractive with an eight o’clock shadow covering his wide jaw and dimpled chin. She notices that a thick head of dark hair plays nicely off his olive skin tone. Normally Ursula doesn’t pay attention to features but rather a gait, and body language, but for whatever reason, she’s noticing them on this man.

  “Captain Drake,” the deep blue eyes attached to the muscular frame greet her. “Captain Cortez at your service.” He extends a hand and Ursula jumps to receive it, shaking it briskly three times – twice more than she would normally.