It took them seven minutes to lope back to the portals. They were back on Kruse Station when the nuke detonated, obliterating what remained of the transport ship and any evidence of the Knockdown mission.
The
Avenging Heretic
S-Day, 11th December 2206
The five of them sat at their consoles in the white oval bridge, watching the image suspended between them. The Avenging Heretic’s internal sensors showed them an engineering drone holding the black extraction package Lim had brought back from the Knockdown mission, lowering it carefully into an open white cylinder.
Callum tried to stay focused on the drone, but his mind kept visualizing pure data – not in columns or graphics, but swirling masses of symbols he had vague recollections of. The intrusive spectres flowed straight into his brain from the Avenging Heretic’s network via the neural interface – a distraction he couldn’t ignore, because trying to ignore it made him concentrate harder.
He sort-of knew the data concerned the status of the Olyix nodule’s cells – how the support cylinder was meshing its own capillary tendrils with them, establishing nutrient feed and extraction, and finally a direct neurological connection. Verifying functionality.
‘The nodule is alive,’ Jessika pronounced.
Her voice allowed Callum to focus, reducing the errant data to a sparkle.
‘And the support unit?’ Kandara questioned.
‘It’s sustaining the cells for the moment. Long term, we’ll just have to wait and see.’
‘If the nodule lasts for today, we go,’ Yuri said. ‘Strikeback, we’re green.’
‘It’s been an honour to know you,’ Johnston’s voice declared. ‘All of you. There is no precedent in human history for what you are undertaking. Future generations will thank you in person. I can only wish you good fortune.’
‘Be seeing you.’ Alik chuckled.
Callum’s thought/wish/order switched his attention back to the image ringed by their consoles in the digital sensorium that was now his skin over the real world. The Avenging Heretic hung in space, ten AUs out from the glare of Delta Pavonis, alone except for a small blue-edged disc a hundred metres beyond its squat nose. A tactical splash of North America showed a flotilla of Olyix transport ships racing upwards from Utah like a flock of terrified birds, with one surviving Deliverance ship at their apex. They were already three hundred kilometres above the planet and accelerating hard.
‘Deploying interception squadron,’ Johnston said calmly. ‘Stand by.’
Twenty expansion portals opened two hundred kilometres above the fleeing transports. Cruisers streamed out. Missiles launched, their fusion plumes a lacework of flaring light, twisting restlessly then attenuating into a glowing shroud as if a borealis storm had thundered up out of the atmosphere. Five Calmissiles sought out the Deliverance ship, destroying it within seconds. The nuclear missiles started to explode in and around the transports, turning a vast section of space into an anarchic nebula.
‘Go,’ Johnston ordered.
The expansion portal in front of the Avenging Heretic grew rapidly; white light shone through. The Avenging Heretic surged forwards, emerging in the middle of the nuclear holocaust above Utah. Ultra-hard radiation saturated the fuselage, and the disintegrating wreckage of Olyix ships shot past at catastrophic speed.
‘Disengaging suppression,’ Jessika said. ‘Entangling with the Salvation onemind.’
Callum held his breath, knowing he wasn’t – not with his body in the suspension unit in the middle of the ship. He wasn’t even breathing air. But the simulacrum obliged. He counted seconds away as pounding blood grew louder in his ears.
All his goodbyes had been made two days ago. Savi, of course; they’d remained relatively civil to each other for decades. She’d wanted to know why he was calling her and making such maudlin small talk. Always was smarter than me. His deflection was risible, and he guessed she knew that.
‘I have an assignment when S-Day comes,’ he’d said. ‘It’s a tough one. It might take a while.’
‘And if I ask you what it is, would you tell me?’
‘I can’t. Security. You understand that, don’t you?’ It wasn’t meant as a taunt, a reminder of Zagreus, but he was worrying needlessly. She didn’t take offence. They were long past that stage.
Then the really tough calls – kids and their families. For the great-great-grandkids he made recordings; they were twins, only seven months old, so in the future they’d hear his love spoken from the past like some historical artefact. I hope they’re bored by the messages. That’ll mean they’re living for real.
‘It’s accepted us,’ Jessika said. Her face betrayed considerable elation. ‘The pattern fooled it into recognizing us as the ship the Knockdown team took out.’
‘What’s it saying?’ Yuri asked.
‘It doesn’t so much say things as provide autonomic impulses, like we’re an extension of it. I’ll try and show you. Look inwards.’
Callum reluctantly closed his eyes, seeking out . . . sounds? Colours? Heat? Cold? Instead, the faint sensation was like a balance response to shifting ground. He wanted his body to sway, then bend, pivot. Something unseen beckoned him forward, to safety. Concern enveloped him like a physical constriction – the urge to get free of the shocking danger that had erupted without warning around the planet of the newly beloved. More concern over those already sleeping at the start of their great voyage to the God at the End of Time. Batwing rustling of a billion calculations a second echoed in a black cavern the size of mountains, reluctantly determining the safest route away.
He opened his eyes – a demand to see their current situation. Space had darkened around the Avenging Heretic’s fuselage as the plasma residue from the missile nukes evaporated. Below lay the huge crescent of Earth, smeared in dirty white storm clouds. He couldn’t tell if they were over land or sea; nothing was visible beneath the blanket of rucked cirrocumulus peaks. Wreckage was still flashing past them, the husks of broken transport ships dwindling as they fell, whirling helplessly towards the grinding hurricane swirls.
His reaction to the tumultuous vista was complex: so many emotions. Delight at the rout of the Olyix even though he knew it was irrelevant,
