Hey guys, long time no post!
But this weekend - specifically May 28th, 2017 - I will be appearing at Clockwork Alchemy to give a panel on Applied Plotonium with my good friend Anthony Francis and Rodger Que (and others)
See you there!
Quantum Spin Plates
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Monday, September 26, 2016
Debris Dreams has a new home!
I am proud to announce that my hard SF YA military-fiction series, the Lunar Cycle, starting with Debris Dreams, will be released by Thinking Ink Press in the coming months! After Debris Dreams will come Shattered Skies, then Luna's Lament.
And then?
Well, the future for humanity is a long one indeed. Future plans include releasing the Solar Cycle and the Galactic Cycle - books detailing the future history after Luna's Lament's final pages.
So, you may be wondering...
Why Lunar, Solar and Galactic Cycles?
Well, any hard SF novel is all about the orbits - orbiting is the primary focus of space travel (turns out, going in a straight line is a lot harder in space than you might possibly imagine) and cyclic events. The Lunar Cycle is about the cycle of war and peace in the Earth/Moon system. The Solar cycle is about the cycle of war and peace in the S.O.L system...and, well, the progression should seem both clear and logarithmic from here.
Still, check it out at the TIP main page!
LINK HERE!
And then?
Well, the future for humanity is a long one indeed. Future plans include releasing the Solar Cycle and the Galactic Cycle - books detailing the future history after Luna's Lament's final pages.
So, you may be wondering...
Why Lunar, Solar and Galactic Cycles?
Well, any hard SF novel is all about the orbits - orbiting is the primary focus of space travel (turns out, going in a straight line is a lot harder in space than you might possibly imagine) and cyclic events. The Lunar Cycle is about the cycle of war and peace in the Earth/Moon system. The Solar cycle is about the cycle of war and peace in the S.O.L system...and, well, the progression should seem both clear and logarithmic from here.
Still, check it out at the TIP main page!
LINK HERE!
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
E.L.F: Chapter Sixteen
Author's Note: It has been a crazy, lazy past few months - I am so sorry about all the delays. This is the last and final chapter of E.L.F - and with it done, I am going to begin posting non-story related blog posts for a while. Some of them will hold exciting and interesting information!
But for now, let us enjoy the final chapter of E.L.F.
But for now, let us enjoy the final chapter of E.L.F.
###
Chapter
16: The End of Line
Getting
out of the airlock was tricky, but in the end, they managed to
wrestle the glass doors open. Jimmy stepped out, not sure exactly
what to feel. He had been so sure he was going to die, but now that
he was safe, he felt scared of what would happen next.
"James!"
his father said. "I am so glad to see you!" He grabbed
Jimmy in a tight bear hug. The kind that made ribs crack and pop and
eyeballs explode out of their sockets. All things considered, Jimmy
preferred it to suffocating in a glass box. Mostly. The squeezing hug
went from tight to even tighter and Jimmy managed to make some kind
of inarticulate squeaking noise.
"Um,
I'm really glad to see you two," Pix said, blushing as she
looked from Jimmy's dad to his mom, her hands still crossed across
her chest, even though she had put her shirt back on. "Not to
cut into the wonderful bonding time...but...how on Harbinger did you
two get out here?"
"We've
been following you two," Mom said, her voice torn between joy
and pride. "For at least the last four day."
"You
followed us?" Jimmy's voice came out in a high squeak.
"Well,
we didn't know it was you, not at first." Jimmy's dad set him
down – and smiled as Jimmy gasped for air for a few moments. "We
thought you two were dead – the house was completely destroyed, and
there were no signs you had left. What we were following was
the data crystal."
"There
was a transponder in there?" Pix whispered.
"Well,
technically, it's an entangled quantum bit that transmits what data
it can pick up on the surrounding terrain." Jimmy turned around
at the voice, then sprang almost five feet into the air, his hand
instinctively reaching for a firearm – a firearm he didn't have.
Because the person speaking was a Xorquin. But after the moment of
panic and fear, Jimmy relaxed - this Xorquin was a light tan rather
than green. Not the same Xorquin. And since he was here,
with Jimmy's parents, Jimmy took the amazing leap to assume that he
wasn't part of his government's genocidal plan.
Hopefully.
Then
Jimmy mentally smacked himself: It also helped that he wasn't, well,
secretly a cybernetic assassin controlled by a homicidal AI.
"And
technically, it's supposed to be classified. James, could you please
stop giving away state secrets?”
the
Xorquin asked, the translator necklace around his neck flashing and
blinking in time with his words.
"They
have a right to know," Dad said – his eyes glinting with
anger. His hand tightened on Jimmy's shoulder.
"They
have a right to explain themselves." The Xorquin narrowed all
three eyes of his eyes. "They destroyed every good lead we had,
from Hir to the data crystal. Heck, we didn't even know how those
elevators worked, and now the entire system is destroyed! They blew
up the sphere, and we hadn't even figured out how to get into that.
They may have caused irreparable damage to Harbinger!"
Jimmy
opened his mouth, then closed it. Just blurting out that they had
saved the whole damn galaxy would seem insane. But...they
had. He opened his
mouth-
“Explain
what happened right now!” the Xorquin shouted, his throat rattle
crackling.
“Udo,”
Jimmy's mom snapped. “Just wait five seconds, we can get the
information – Pix is an E.L.F. She recorded all of what went on,
and we can review it without needing to badger my son.”
Jimmy
blew out a slow sigh – he really hadn't looked forward to trying to
explain the whole galaxy saving thing to his parents, let alone to
the world at large. He and the others looked at Pix.
Pix
blushed – her cheeks getting almost as bright pink as her hair.
"Um, could I edit some of it first?"
"Why?"
The Xorquin glared at her.
"Uh,
well, um." she said, stammering, her hands waving around in
vague gestures. "Jimmy and uh,...I...we...uh-"
"We're
in love!" Jimmy grabbed Pix's hand.
"Ooooh!"
Mom said, knowingly. "So, you two aren't that kind of friend,
are you?" She narrowed her eyes at Jimmy. Jimmy coughed.
"Things,
uh, change?"
"At
least tell me you wore a condom."
"Uuuuuuh."
###
Their
shuttle slid through space, heading towards the airlock it had come
from. It was a strange thing, to be traveling along the outer skin of
Harbinger. What Jimmy had scrambled through via hallways and
elevators now passed in an endless, monolithic wall of darkness that
blotted out the stars. Jimmy watched that blackness for some time,
leaning back in the seat he had been given beside Pix. Every
kilometer of blackness that passed made him feel as if more and more
stress and tiredness and fear was being drained from him – leaving
him empty and strangely fragile feeling. He wasn't going to be shot
at. He wasn't going to be stabbed. And yet, he wasn't entirely
sure what would happen next.
What
did one do, after saving the galaxy?
Thinking
of endings and what would happen next made Jimmy blink and shift his
eyes away from the window and to Pix.
"Hey...what
about Edna?” he asked.
"Huh?"
Pix jerked her eyes open – she had been starting to drift off.
"Edna."
Jimmy sighed. "What do you think will happened to her?"
"Well,
I don't know." Pix frowned. "She's got the gang, and
there's still criminals to work with..."
"That's
true." Jimmy frowned. "Well, I guess we'll find out one way
or another in a few days."
Pix
nodded. "Right now, the only thing I want to find out is who
sent us the data crystal? Why did your parents show up now to get
you? How did they get all the way up here!?"
Jimmy
sighed. "Pix. I was just about to relax in blissful ignorance
here and just accept everything happened the way it happened."
At
that moment, the feeling of gravity crashed back into full force and
then some. The shuttle
stopped moving, and there was a loud chunk THUNK
as the it sealed with the airlock it had been traveling to.
Jimmy's
dad poked his head in the back passenger compartment. "We're
here."
The
airlock opened up into a long, gray corridor. As Dad walked along
side the two teens, he said. "You probably have lots of
questions-"
"That's
right, we do."
He
cocked an eyebrow. "You got a lot ruder during your adventure,
Pix."
"No,
I'm just tired and we both almost died and I have a headache."
Pix rubbed at her temple with one of her fingers. "So, please
just explain what happened. Please."
James
cocked an eyebrow, even as Jimmy hugged Pix, gingerly. "Well.
One of our agents blew the lid on the case and mailed the pertinent
information to Mom. The agent, Kovacks, hoped your Mom could figure
out what to do with it...."
"Your
agent?"
"Yes.
Jimmy." Dad stopped at the end of the hallway, turning around
and putting his back against the door. "I'm not just a diplomat.
And Mom's not just a cryptanalyst. Well, actually, yes, she is, but
she works for someone rather different than you expect."
"Who?"
Jimmy teetered on his feet, feeling light headed.
"CCI,
or Council Counter Intelligence. Someone, or something, has been
mucking about in the intelligence networks of every race on
Harbinger. A human, your mom, was the one who pointed out the pattern
of the incursions as being the same for every single race, which
pointed towards an external force. The CCI assigned a multi-racial
team, so that everyone had a stake in figuring out what was
going on. It's taken years, but...we started to get close,
inch by inch. Then you got caught up in it all."
He
chuckled. "And, well, you got damn lucky son. But then again, I
think we all got lucky that you got lucky – even if it means that
CCI is going to need to find a new job."
"So,"
Pix put her hand on her face. "Kovacks finds out some clue to
Howl, the big bad computer. Then he sends the information to us via
the data crystal. Why didn't he just send it to you?” she asked.
"He's
dead," Dad said.
Jimmy
frowned – his brow furrowing for a bit. He opened his mouth to ask
Pix something, but before he could, Pix asked more questions, her
voice sharp.
“Why
didn't he just send it to your headquarters?” she asked.
"We
don't have an HQ. We know as little about each other as possible, to
keep us safe." Dad shrugged. "Kovacks must have figured out
where we lived via his own methods – he was a resourceful man.
Still...it ended up well in the end, didn't it?”
"No
it didn't," Pix said, her voice acid. "We almost died
dozens of times!”
Dad
paused, then said: “Well, that's something everyone has to face.
Almost dying. Really, son, Pix, I don't have anything to tell you
that will make that better. I can't make the fear go away. But what I
can say is that I am incredibly proud
of you.”
“That
and five credits will get me a cup of coffee,” Pix said, then
started to walk away.
Jimmy
looked at Dad, his brows lifted.
Dad
shrugged.
###
In
the movies, the climax of the story leads to waking up after all the
boring stuff was dealt with. Or, if the main character wasn't knocked
out by some gigantic explosion, it just cut past the paperwork. Jimmy
found that real life was far, far, far less convenient.
Pix's
memory downloads, complete with some rather embarrassingly intimate
moments, were turned over to the CCI. When Jimmy and Pix had
complained about the intimate moments being left in, well, they CCI
had rather patiently explained that if Pix edited her memories, then
they could not trust the validity of the rest of it.
With
their story verified, Jimmy and Pix were left wondering: what would
happen to them? Other than a quick trip to the hospital, where they
were shot up with some stims and then left overnight in one of those
glowing blue tubes that healed bones real quickly. And after that?
After that...they were left sitting around in the hospital. Nothing
to do.
At
loose ends.
Now
that the CCI had their culprit, and now that Howl was gone, the news
could be broken to the entirety of Harbinger. The responses filtered
to Jimmy slowly and in patches – rumors of peace talks in the
Armory and of a governmental purge among the Xorquin – but it all
felt distant. Unreal. It left Jimmy hanging, with the same question
he had had on the shuttle: What happens to us now?
The
answer came in the form of two tram tickets, using the newly reopened
cross Armory tram-line – finally reestablished in the wake of the
peace talks. The tram ride promised to be uneventful. But Jimmy
couldn't shake the feeling something wasn't quite right.
He
walked with Pix aboard the train, alone – his parents were staying
at the Harbinger Council, helping to realign the CCI's goals towards
something productive and useful. Not that Jimmy knew what those
goals were – state secrets and all. Pix looked around at the
insides of the train, frowning intently as they walked to their room.
The
door hissed open and some of Pix's frown went away – the room was
large and well appointed. And had a big bed. A single big bed. With
enough room for...
“Well,
this looks acceptable,” she said, nodding. “The best room I've
seen on a train, personally.”
"It's
the only room on a train I've ever seen." Jimmy said, sliding
his hand along her back. "It's like a hotel room."
"But
in a train." Pix grinned at Jimmy, then grabbed him and dragged
him in, tossing him onto the bed. Well, Jimmy didn't put up any
fight, so she didn't have to work that hard. He landed on his back
and grinned up at her. Pix moved up and over him, smirking. "I
can think of some advantages to doing it on a train!"
"Name
one!"
"Uh,
we can keep the window open and we'll be moving by so fast no one can
see my t-"
"Good
reason!"
Pix
grabbed her shirt, lifted it up, then got his arms tangled up above
her head, the shirt covering her face. "Stupid shirt!" She
struggled a bit, then fell out of bed, landing on her back. She
finally got her shirt off.
"Pix,
are you okay?" Jimmy looked over the bed. Pix blinked.
"What?
Oh! Yeah!" She nodded. "Um, gotta go to the bathroom."
She grabbed the nightstand and managed to drag herself to her feet,
then walked off into the bathroom that looked larger than Pix's old
bedroom.
Jimmy's
brow furrowed, but he shrugged and stuck his legs off the bed and
started to get his socks up and off his feet. There was a shadow
behind him and he half turned, hearing a whistling-
Pain
exploded through his head and a white flash filled his eyes.
Jimmy
hit the ground, groaning. For a few moments, he couldn't do anything
but just feel pain. He got his hands under his chest, pushing himself
up slightly, blinking. His head rang and everything sounded distant
and muted. Slowly, he pieced together what had happened:
Something...had hit him. In the back of the head. He rolled onto his
back, his head still ringing. Someone was standing between him and
the light in the ceiling. And then the figure stepped
forward...and...
Pix
stood over him, holding a metal bar in her hand.
"What
the-" Jimmy started – then he jerked forward, scrambling under
Pix's legs as the metal bar in her hands thudded into the carpet
where his head had been. He grabbed her ankle, but she whacked his
knuckles with the bar. He yelped - then the bar came down on his
belly. He curled up and tried to crawl away as Pix started to beat
him, a grin on her face that could only be described as psychotic.
Jimmy
held his hands up, but Pix was done beating him for the moment, the
hollow metal rod having bent a bit out of shape. He was lucky it was
made of cheap metal – if it had been sturdier, more expensive...
"Ah
whatever," she muttered, tossing it away. "There's gotta be
something better here." She kicked him, viciously, in the
stomach and he curled up, his stomach roiling.
She
walked off and he struggled up, touching at his lip, spitting out a
gob of blood, and tried to ignore the ringing and the sick sense of
betrayal.
What
was going on!?
"What
the- Pix, wha-" Jimmy started – but she was already halfway
across the room. He scrambled to his feet – managing to get them
under him.
Pix
grabbed a drawer from the cabinet and wrenched it out, then hurled it
at him. "That's for not dying!" She shouted, the drawer
smashing into the bed above Jimmy's head. "And that's for
screwing up my plans!"
She
backed into the bathroom and- Jimmy saw her this time, grabbing one
of the two towel bars. She wrenched it out of its socket, then
advanced on Jimmy. Jimmy backed up. Then what she was saying finally
clicked in his head.
"Howl...”
he whispered.
Howl
had hacked into the com-networks of entire nations...why not Pix?
That
son of a bitch!
"Ah!
The Monkey figures it out!" Pix, or Howl, leaped forward and
slammed the bar under Jimmy's arm and into his ribs. He staggered to
the side and against the door, which locked with a loud and ever so
ominous click. Howl stepped between him and the rest of the room,
smirking. "Now, I might not be able to complete my mission but I
can take it out on you."
Jimmy
gulped, glancing from side to side. One of his hands started to inch
towards the cabinet that sat against the wall. There was a lamp on
it. Lamp versus pole didn't strike Jimmy as that effective, but-
"Ha!"
The bar snapped out and cracked into his wrist and this time, Jimmy
felt something give in his wrist and he grabbed at his own hand.
"Now!"
The bar slid against his temple, slowly and ever so softly. "Do
you wanna know the best thing?"
Jimmy
looked at Howl, and into Pix's eyes and he realized he was going to
lose. Even if he overcame the metal bar, Pix was dead.
"Fine,"
Jimmy said, his voice dull. "What's the best thing?"
"Pix
gets to watch every moment!" She lifted the bar up, then slammed
down. His shoulder flared, a spike of pain shooting through his body.
He dropped to his knee and looked up. "See, she's watching. From
the back of her mind." Howl pointed at back of Pix's head. "I
am going to let her watch in horrible agony as I tortured her lover
to death."
Jimmy
laughed, softly.
Howl
blinked. "Why did...hey! You're not supposed to be la-"
Jimmy
shoved her. Hard. It was a bully's shove, the kind of shove a kid
does when he wants to start a fight but isn't ready to actually throw
a punch. But Howl, as good as he was at hitting things, still didn't
quite have the legs figured out, staggered backwards and almost
tripped. Then Jimmy strode to his feet, blocked a swing with the bar
with his forearm – and that hurt, but it didn't hurt enough to stop
Jimmy's other hand which jabbed out and smashed into Pix's nose.
Howl
grabbed at Pix's nose, eyes wide, pole hitting the ground. "Wha-"
Jimmy
grabbed Pix's hair and threw her body into the bed.
"Pix,"
He said. "If you can hear me, I'm am sorry. I am so sorry"
Howl's
eyes went wide, shock plain on his face. Jimmy grabbed those wrists
he had kissed so many times, forcing them up above her head.
"Hurts,
don't it?" Jimmy whispered, rage burning through his body.
Howl's
eyes were still wide with shock, but he nodded.
"Never
felt that before have you?" Jimmy's voice was hoarse. "Delete
yourself."
Howl
snorted – blood dripped along the lips he had stolen.
Jimmy
shrugged. Everything in his brain and body and soul told him to stop.
Everything but that one bit, that bit that looked deep into those
pink eyes he loved and saw nothing. Nothing. No glitter of
mischievousness, no slight glow, no spark. No personality. No Pix.
And
so, he forced one hand under his knee, then grabbed the other hand.
He looked at the fingers for a bit.
Oh...by
the Architect...that was the hand he had held...for walks, for
running...
He
closed his eyes.
"I'm
so going to kill you, you stupid mo-"
He
jerked, hard, and Pix's pointer finger broke.
Howl
screamed. Loudly. And it broke Jimmy's heart. He opened his eyes and
saw nothing but a blur. "Get. Out!"
"Screw
you!"
He
moved onto Pix's middle finger. Another scream. More tears.
"GET.
OUT!"
Pix's
eyes went wide and then dark...
###
"Where
am I?"
"You're
in my subconscious, which is where you routed my main personality
into the back part of my brain, you virus."
"Well,
let me out, I've got a boy to kill."
"You're
not going to be doing any of that."
Howl
quivered, his programming flexing and wriggling, lines of code trying
to escape from the murk that surrounded him. He strained out, pushing
in all directions, and then collapsed inwards with a wuff.
"Okay,"
Howl's code turned red as he started to grump. "Fine. We'll just
stick here till you're brain overheats and explodes from running all
this extra code."
"Now,
that's something I wanted to talk to you about. GET OUT!"
"Fat
chance. If I can kill you, that means the monkey hurts. If I can't
kill you both, I can at least...hurt one of you."
Pix
paused. "You know, that was a real neat bit of on the fly
programming. Interfacing with my brain, hijacking my neural
interfaces, AND overclocking my brain so I could run your program-"
"Oh,
don't flatter yourself, cyborg. I had to cut too much of my memories
out to fit into your primitive computer-systems. I know the basics,
but the specifics...all gone."
"Huh.
Sucks." Pix paused again. "Ya know that memory thing? It's
a real bitch sometimes."
Howl's
code focused on Pix's code. "What are you talking about?"
"I
have about 300,000,000,000 nanoseconds before my brain overheats and
I cook. That's plenty of time for this!" A line of code snapped
out and Howl yelped.
"What
are you doing!?"
"Giving
you some regrets."
And
Howl's code shifted...then rewrote a part of itself.
###
Nighttime.
Bed, warm. Getting out. Pix glanced around. Mom and Dad were
downstairs. Sleeping. Jimmy was across the street. She halfway
thought about going across the street and waking him up...but he
didn't like the Bright like she did.
And
so, she did what she had done the last few nights. Sneak down stairs
and steal Daddy's Brighter. Then she could spend some time with the
Bright. Pretty, pretty Bright. So fascinating, so
multi-faceted...shades of oranges...
The
only problem was the smoke detector. It had got her caught a week
ago, but now she knew what to do. She pushed a chair underneath the
smoke detector and opened it up with her fingers. Out came the
batteries.
Then
it was simple! She started the Bright. But tonight, she made a
mistake. She was too busy watching the Bright, reveling in how it
made things bend and then break apart, then spread. Then Bright got
big. Too big. Then she ran, the Bright turning to pain and scariness
as she ran out of the house.
The
flames continued to spread and there was screaming...screaming!
###
"W...what
was that?" Howl whispered.
"Regret."
Pix's voice sounded dull. "It's part of your code now. Remorse
and regret. I'm guessing you killed people"
"O-Of
course! I...my prime directive...I..." Howl's code turned a soft
blue. Softly. "W.-what have I done? No. Take it out! Remove your
code!"
"Howl,
you've got to understand, you can't just remove regret."
"Actually,
I can." Howl grunted. "If you released my restrictions!"
"I'm
not going too. By now the memory is too deep, you can't just cut it
out without losing a big part of your personality matrix. Now! GET
OUT!"
Howl
froze.
Nanoseconds
passed.
###
"Pix..."
Jimmy sobbed, shaking her slightly. "Oh Pix, please. Wake up.
I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
Pix
didn't move.
Jimmy
sniffed in, trying to force out the words. "I've said this
before, but, I don't know if you can hear me, Pix." He closed
his eyes, pressing his forehead to her forehead. "I love you.
More than I can possibly say. I love yo...you. Now please."
Softly.
"Please
wake up."
###
The
hospital smelled like disinfectant and sick people. Sour. The bench
was comfortable. Almost too comfortable. For some reason, Jimmy felt
like he should be uncomfortable. So he paced.
The
lady behind the front desk looked up. "Waiting for surgery?"
Jimmy
started. "What?"
"It's
in your walk. Someone you love is in surgery, right?"
"K-Kinda."
Jimmy gulped. He opened his mouth to explain more, but then the lady
gasped.
"You're
that boy! From the news!"
Jimmy
blinked. "Oh, right. Uh, yeah."
"So...oh
dear." The lady nodded. "I heard about your lady friend. Is
she-"
The
door to the lobby opened and a doctor walked out, holding a tablet
under his arm. Jimmy watched him, then wondered if he should call his
parents. They were still busy cleaning up the mess and getting a new
house...and they had quietly let him wait here for the results of...
"I'm
sorry." The doctor said, slowly. "E.L.Fs can over-clock
their brains for five minutes before damage starts, but after ten, it
becomes almost irreparable unless you know what code is the virus and
what code is the personality matrix, so you know what to remove
surgically and what to keep in. From your description, the virus was
over clocking her for at least nine to eleven minutes." The
doctor's mustache twitched slightly. "Without knowing more about
what the virus was, we can't fix the damage."
Jimmy
felt as though his stomach had deflated. He slowly collapsed into the
bench. "W...how long?" he whispered.
"About
a week, more if we keep her on life support. After that..." The
doctor saw Jimmy's face sighed. "I'm sorry."
Jimmy
put his face in his hands and began to sob, softly. His fingernails
dug into his skin and he shook. No, no, no, no, no, no.
"You've
got mail!" The sudden, incredibly cheerful voice stabbed into
the air like a knife.
The
doctor sighed, then looked at his tablet. He paused. Then re-read the
e-mail.
"Just
one moment," He said, trotting out of the room in a hurry,
shouting as he did so. "I need a ELF programmer and a mnemonic
restoration team, stat!"
Jimmy
looked up, his heart skipping a beat. He stood up and strode to the
door, wiping his face with his sleeve.
"Sir,
you can't go in there!"
Jimmy
looked at her. "I have to see this!"
The
woman sighed. "I'm sorry...but they have to operate in a sterile
room. No viewing halls."
Jimmy
glared at her. Then sat down as loudly as he could.
But
he didn't have to wait long...
The
doctor walked out, his face split by a huge smile. Jimmy felt his
hear sing.
"James."
He said. "I have some good news."
###
Epilogue
Sunlight
shone sideways through Jimmy's window, dappling through the half
opened blinds of his bed room. The lights played over a lump in bed,
the blankets covering the lumps head. Then, something moved under the
lump.
"Mmmph."
A
hand slapped the lump's butt and the blankets fell aside as Jimmy
pushed up, blinking blearily. "Mmpuh?"
"Jimmy."
Pix whispered, grinning up at him. He looked down at her and grinned,
then lay back down, face level with her's.
"Hey,
babe." he said, stroking her cheek.
"Mmm,"
she sighed, slowly. "By the Architects, this is niiiiice."
"I
know. Beds are like, whoa." Jimmy smiled at her. “Though, you
know, I was just thinking.”
“Hmmm?”
“We're
still swearing by the Architects. Ever since anyone found Harbinger,
we swore by the Architects. But now, we know that the Architects were
a load of genocidal monsters. But we still cuss with them. Makes you
wonder, is the God actually a geno-”
Pix
whacked him with a pillow.
The
hostilities had only just begun.
"Okay,
okay, stop!" Jimmy laughed and held his hands up, ending their
little pillow war. "We need to do your tests."
"Iiiiiiiit's
beeeeeeeen a week!" Pix whined, playfully slapping her hands
against Jimmy's chest. He grabbed her wrists and jerked them up, then
kissed her roughly. He drew back, grinning.
"You
have to do this for half a year, so the docs know that your brain is
still working. Now!" Jimmy pushed her back slightly and held up
his hand, then flashed a pattern of fingers at her.
"Five,
four, one-" She smirked. "Jimmy, don't use your middle
finger for that!"
He
laughed. "You take all the fun out of life."
He
resumed flashing fingers at her, and she continued to respond with
the number of fingers. Then he had her run through some other memory
exercises, where she remembered some events they both knew. She
nailed each one.
"See!"
She said. "I have a perfect memory. Perfecter, actually."
Jimmy
sighed. "I know, I know." He surged forward and hugged her
tightly. Pix laughed, a bit worriedly.
"I'm
not about to vanish or anything."
"Shhh,"
Jimmy whispered. "If it hadn't been for that e-mail, I'd...I'd
have lost you. Okay, you might not remember that, but I do, and it
was the single worst feeling I had ever felt."
Pix's
smile faded a bit. "Still no clue on who sent it?"
"No,
no clue." Jimmy leaned back down on the bed. "And you know,
having at least one mystery in my life is good for me."
Pix
frowned, then bit her lip. "So ,uh, Jimmy." She leaned back
on her haunches. "This is a bit off topic, but I have something
to tell you."
"Okay.
What?" Jimmy tried to control his belly. I mean, had the words
'I have something to tell you' ever been good? EVER!?
She
clicked her teeth. "I, um, you know how we kinda were talking
about kids."
Jimmy
blinked. "Yeah, but I've been wearing protection!"
Pix
bit her lip, looking up at the ceiling. "We weren't the
first...times."
Jimmy
blinked again. She was right. They hadn't even thought about it the
first time. Or any time after that, till they had got home. He looked
at her. "Um, does this-"
"Yes."
"And
you're su-"
"Yes."
She bit her lip. "In fact..."
She
held up two fingers. Jimmy had faced down guns. He had faced down
criminals and madmen, malcontents and maniacs. He had run through a
warzone, fought a million year old computer and saved the galaxy.
He
had only one thing to say.
"Oh
shit."
The
End.
###
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Friday, June 19, 2015
E.L.F: Chapter Fifteen
Author's Note: Why is it that 3 paragraphs takes five hours to edit, but the rest of the chapter takes a half hour?
Chapter
15: The End of Worlds
The
Slayer cut the bindings that held Jimmy and Pix to the chair and then
prodded them till they stood. Pix rubbed her wrists and tried to look
as clam as possible – but her face was showed how nervous she was
around her glowing eyes.
"I
really hope we don't screw this up," Pix said, her voice near as
silent as she could make it. Jimmy nodded – as subtly as he could.
The
slayer led them to a door at the end of the room, which remained
mostly dark as the Slayer guided them. The door hissed open and they
stepped into a smaller chamber. Jimmy peered around, eyes narrowed,
trying to spot any details that he could.
There
was a layer of clear, slightly reflective material – he'd call it
glass, but Jimmy doubted it was anything alike - between them and the
tube that surrounded the glass chamber. At first, he thought the room
was completely unlit save for the dim light from Pix's eyes, but then
the door behind them closed, and the chamber started to rise up. An
elevator. But light started to grow around them and Jimmy looked up
to see the light growing above them – brighter and brighter.
The
elevator bust out into light, still zooming along the guide rails,
but no longer contained within a tube.
For
a moment, it was impossible to describe what he was looking at. But
then the enormity of what he was seeing slammed into his gut like a
sucker punch. He felt a sudden swell of nausea, panic, terror and awe
that mingled into a heady melange of emotions that sent his heart
rate skyrocketing.
The
elevator was zipping up along the curved edge of a colossal hollowed
out half sphere. The elevator sat on the 'lip' of the sphere, giving
Jimmy a perfect view of the massive machines clustered inside the
sphere itself. For resting in the area...was…
A
planet. It took Jimmy a few moments
of staring to fully comprehend just how insane it was to see a planet
here, in the massive empty sphere that made up the prow of Harbinger.
He knew all the theories – no one else had gotten this close to the
front of the ship before. Gravitational flux arrays to keep the
planet from flying apart or from crushing the ship around it.
Mechanical struts, or flensing lasers to cut away at the planet's
mantle and feed it into the disassembling machines that created the
endless supply of material for the Armory and the Forge.
Now
he knew. And the theories were far less spectacular than the truth of
the matter.
The
planet hung in the center of the empty space and was being bisected
by a shimmering green plane of light. The plane – a square many
thousands of kilometers wide – was pressed to one pole of the
planet, and was slowly grinding forward with a continual, low buzzing
sound that was audible despite the vacuum between it and the tube.
With every moment, the plane pressed further into the planet...and
the planet that it touched dissolved.
Chunks of rock many miles wide were sucked into the green – sucked
in, then broken apart again and again with every motion, until they
were gone.
Beyond
the planet was the opened front of the ship – the gaping hole that
could scoop up a planet –
and with all the infinite splendor of space, spiraling out into
endlessness.
"The
Planet Maw..." Pix whispered, softly, her eyes just as wide as
Jimmy's.
"It's..."
Jimmy bit his lip.
"Gorgeous?
Breathtaking? Horrifying?" Pix suggested, one after the other.
"All
of the above," Jimmy said, startling a snort from her.
The
elevator plunged into another gray section of tube, shot past a few
more doors so quickly Jimmy almost didn't see them, then burst into
light once more.
"See!"
Pix pointed. "This tube goes all the way around!"
Jimmy
nodded, eyes wide. His knees felt something bump into them from
behind. A chair had extended from the glass wall through a mechanism
he couldn't see, let alone understand. He sat down and they plunged
into another gray section. Pix sat down next to him. They both
managed to ignore the floating death bot to the right of their head.
Jimmy
sighed. "I'm guessing those gray areas are like stations to
control the big old sucker things." He looked at Pix. "Or
for maintenance."
She
nodded. "Then where are we going?"
The
elevator shot into openness once more and Jimmy could see the angle
of their view was fractionally different but the elevator kept
accelerating at a constant rate – that meant they were in a vacuum.
They could just keep going faster and faster, assuming a frictionless
surface around them.
"Where
are we going?" Pix asked again, looking at the Slayer. The
Slayer pointed up at the 'top' of the sphere with one of its curved,
sharp claws. There hung a large chamber, spherical in shape, with a
green glowing center. Jimmy gulped. It looked ominous...but to be
fair, anything looked ominous when perched atop the Planet Maw.
In
the end, it took about an hour to get halfway there. Jimmy knew they
were half way cause the acceleration stopped coming from the floor,
and the elevator started to accelerate from the other direction.
There was a moment of weightnessness.
"Whoooaaa!"
Jimmy wheeled his arms out, yelping as he and Pix joined the Slayer
in floating. The Slayer spun himself around so his tail pointed at
the ceiling. Pix looked at Jimmy, eyes wide.
“Get
your feet facing the ceiling!” she said.
"But
we're not-"
"Duh!"
Pix shook her head. "Jimmy! Remember your spaceship lore!"
She turned her body around to aim her feet at the ceiling and not an
instant too soon. The elevator started to decelerate from the other
direction. Pix and the Slayer landed on the new floor, but Jimmy
crashed home face first. He lay on the ground for a moment.
“Ow...”
“Told
you,” Pix said, helping him to his feet.
The
elevator slowed and slowed. It arrived at the sphere, plunging the
elevator cab into darkness.
“Ding,”
Pix murmured as the elevator door opened.
Jimmy
tried for a smile as he looked at her, his eyes glinting. He reached
up, then took her hand, squeezing it.
“Thanks,
Pix,” he said. “Even if we're about to die, you can always make
me smile.”
"Even
if we die, we got to see stuff no human has ever gotten to before,”
Pix
said, in a tone she clearly thought was comforting. Jimmy made a
face.
"Not
quite, dear Pixel," a familiar, drawling voice said from the
darkness that pervaded the chamber beyond the elevator. Pix and Jimmy
both looked up, towards the center of the dome. Light started to fill
the place, a green glow from the center. They were standing on a
black, almost frictionless floor unbroken by any differing colors or
other structures. A sphere that looked a bit like water that rippled
but retained its spherical shape, hovered in the center of the dome,
casting the green light. A grid surrounded the sphere, keeping it
from moving much from side to side.
That
shade of green was very familiar, as was the black material of the
ground and the grid and the walls.
The
light flared and the drawling voice started again.
"Hello
you two," The light dimmed and the liquid contracted within the
grid, forming into a tight, solid ball. "I am Howl."
"You're
Architect technology." Pix gaped. "You're a computer!"
"Yes,
I am," Howl said, then laughed, the light fluctuating with his
laughter. At its brightest, Jimmy could see a vaguely defined shape
near the edge of the room. The Slayer hovered away from them, letting
Jimmy and Pix move closer to Howl, their eyes wide. "And you two
are most impressive, considering all the factors involved..."
Jimmy
looked at Pix. Pix cocked an eyebrow. Jimmy shrugged, but then Pix
jerked her chin. He looked where she was looking – at that vague
shape momentarily illuminated by Howl's voice. Jimmy narrowed his
eyes. It looked sleek and tube-like, and…
And
like the anti-matter bomb in the Xorquin diagram.
"You've
survived a war, my Slayer, and everything else this ship has thrown
at you. It's very impressive!" Howl said.
"Uh...thanks
for trying to kill us?" Pix said, warily.
"Oh,
no, don't worry. Most of this was entirely the fault of the pathetic
life forms crammed into me. My resources are both great and small. I
have retained minor control over some subroutines of this ship and I
have hacked into most of your communication nets with ease. You've
all been playing my game for quite a while now. Hmm, it feels good to
say that, to finally tell someone who can appreciate my hard work..."
Jimmy
glanced at the Slayer – it continued to watch them intently.
"Okay,"
Jimmy said, looking up. "So you...you caused the translation
screw-up that started the War?"
"Yes!
I also fed some black information onto the market, making data
smuggling profitable, which made it even easier for me to integrate
into the data web, giving me more control."
"And
then you played up on the resentment between the Xorquin and the
humanity and orchestrate this grand plan to detonate that bomb-"
He pointed at the shape in the shadows. "-on the engine!"
Howl
paused.
"Actually,"
he said. "I only used a Xorquin because they have the hardest,
toughest, and most efficient fighting form of all you clumsily
evolved, disgusting life forms. It made the Slayer beneath harder to
notice, as people wrote off his stoic nature as being part of his
Xorquin background."
"Oh."
Jimmy blinked. So, why was there Xorquin stuff on that data crystal?
Jimmy opened his mouth, but-
"I
have a quick question, why us? What have we done to you?" Pix
spoke up. "And by us, I mean all of humanity, not just us two."
Howl
laughed. "Why...why do you think I'm just targeting you? The
radical Xorquin terrorists I pitched this plan to got fraudulent
information. I misrepresented the amount of anti-matter-" Pix
and Jimmy edged away from the bomb. "-required to breach the
engine."
"So,
it's not enough?" Pix asked, hopefully.
Howl
chortled. "No, No Pixel. The anti matter in that bomb would
vaporize the engine, setting off a chain reaction that would destroy
every one of the sixteen reactor cores that are spread throughout
this ship. It will vaporize this entire ship and release enough gamma
radiation to sterilize every single star system in this half of the
galaxy."
There
was silence. Dead silence.
"Okay,"
Jimmy said, slowly. "Why?"
"It's
my prime directive."
Jimmy
glanced at Pix, who was inching towards the elevator door. The Slayer
grabbed her by the arm and shoved her back into the room, where she
caught up against Jimmy, which bumped him a little closer to the
bomb. Jimmy glanced at the bomb, at Pix, then at Howl. "Why
haven't you tried this before?"
"I've
tried." Howl muttered, his voice dark. "Oh how I've tried.
But every time, I've been stymied by my lack of an actual agent.
Then, I found one. The Slayer. It took me a while, but I got him into
a genetic vat that could work with my specific brand of 'light
touch'."
Jimmy
gulped, shifting a bit closer to the bomb, a crazy idea racing
through his head.
"And
so, armed with a Xorquin who was not a Xorquin, I could operate more
freely. And thus, I started to built my plan.”
Jimmy
glanced at the Slayer, who kept close to him and Pix. Pix kept
glaring at the Slayer, as if glaring hard enough would destroy it.
"What
is your Prime Directive, anyway?" Pix asked, cutting off Howl in
mid sentence.
Howl
grumbled. "To destroy any life forms that do not meet my
specifications of a pure Architect. They were at war, you know."
"Oh.
Cool. I guess." Pix kept him talking. They were closer to the
bomb now and Jimmy could see it had a rather incomprehensible control
panel on the front, with about a thousand buttons, switches, and
circuits. Okay, why couldn't there just be a big red button to push?
"What kind of war needs a ship like this?"
"A
war beyond your imagination!" Howl shouted. "A war that
spanned all the Galaxy and all of Time itself..." He paused.
"A...Time War! Our enemies used time itself as a weapon –
carving segments of history apart like the Slayer carves a biological
apart. We fought back with weapons that could survive across quanta,
and the war raged. Oh how it raged. Between
us, we burned the galaxy to the ground...but
it didn't work. The enemy died, but the Architects died as well, and
the enemy's progeny spawn and spread even now. Even now...inside
me..."
Jimmy
made a break for it, leaping towards the bomb. He looked around
frantically, hoping for an epiphany. The symbols were alien to him,
and most of the switches were colored either red, green or yellow.
The circuits were in a tangled mess that made his head hurt. Then, he
saw a symbol he knew. From the data crystal! The order, what was the
order!?
Then
the Slayer slapped his hand down on his shoulder. Jimmy half turned
before the Slayer grabbed his throat and squeezed, lifting him up and
off the ground, claws carefully turned to prevent any unwanted
slicing and dicing.
"Oh
just kill them." Howl sighed. "They're not the most
appreciative house guests."
Jimmy
tried to breathe, but couldn't. He saw stars...and the Slayer's red
eyes, glaring up at him.
Pix
appeared behind the Slayer, like the calvary from over the corner.
"Hey!" she shouted, whacking him in the back of the head
with the Data Crystal. The crystal cracked, but the sharp edge dug
into the Slayer's metallic flesh, sinking deep in. The Slayer
twitched, shuddered, then looked at her. It's movements seemed slow
by the impact and piercing – sparks were still spurting from the
hole that Pix had left in the creature's head. She ducked her head
underneath a clumsy swing from his claws.
Pix
grinned, wickedly.
"End
of line, motherfucker!" She sprang forward, then stabbed the
data crystal right into that exposed, glowing red eye. The crystal
shard sunk in to its base and the Slayer dropped Jimmy, clutching at
its head. It collapsed in a heap of glittering black metal, which
started to hiss. Smoke, steam, and an acrid stench rose from it –
as if the internal components were melting.
"Oh
dear," Howl said.
Jimmy
stood up, coughing and spluttering. He glared up at the glowing
sphere that had caused so much misery and danger and death. Then he
looked at Pix. "End of line?" He asked, his voice raspy
from the choking.
"It's
a computer joke!"
Jimmy
rubbed at his throat. "I don't get it."
He
looked back at the bomb. "How do we set this thing off? I had an
idea..."
"Are
you sure that's a good idea?"
"Yeah,
listen to the girl," Howl said, sounding a bit frantic. "You
don't want to rush things here."
"He's
got connections in all the networks," Jimmy said. "Or, at
least, he said he did. And if he does, then we don't know how much
damage he can do – today, or tomorrow. Also, who is going to
believe us if we told them? We have to end this now.” He looked at
Pix – to make sure she understood what he meant.
They
had to kill Howl.
Pix
was silent for a long while. Then, she nodded – a quick, curt
gesture. "Okay,” she said. "Well, it's a bomb. How
complicated could it be?"
They
both looked at it. Jimmy rubbed his temple. "Well, remember
those symbols?"
Pix
looked at him, blank.
"On
the data crystal?"
"I'm
not following you."
Jimmy
sighed. "When we were at Edna's place, we saw the whole evil
plan thing. And they had a series of symbols, and those symbols are
right here." He pointed at the array of buttons.
"Oooh!"
Pix nodded. "I remember those now. They were..."
She
named the symbols and Jimmy started to push them. But, right before
the last one-
"Wait,
wait, wait," Pix said. "What if it just goes off when we
push the last one? We don't want t-" The Slayer sat up, grabbing
at the crystal in its head, claws making a horrid screeching sound as
it clawed.
"RUUUUN!"
Jimmy shouted, shoving Pix away from the Slayer. The Slayer grabbed
for them, moving almost drunkenly, and Jimmy dove to the side. The
Slayer hit the bomb and something bleeped. Then blooped. Then the
bomb started to bleep and bloop in a series, each bleep getting
louder than the prior bloop.
Jimmy
grabbed Pix. Jimmy ran to the elevator. The door opened,
automatically. They dove in.
The
elevator lurched into motion and they zipped away from the sphere.
Jimmy stared at it, but then Pix grabbed him and turned him around.
"Close your-" She shouted.
A
white flash brighter than anything either of them had ever seen
blasted them through the glass, followed by a massive WHUMP and then
the elevator cab slid backwards, power failing as the glass tube it
sat in cracked and shattered. Then the elevator was tumbling,
tumbling out into space. Gravity vanished and for a moment, all they
could see was a blur of debris…
And
then the elevator was out of the cloud of shattered glass and
destroyed sphere. It tumbled around and around, providing barely
enough motion to give them a sense of shifting gravity, which faded
as the elevator started to right itself through some mechanism that
Jimmy didn't even feel like trying to figure out. After a while, they
simply floated – hanging in space, with the planet slowly growing
larger and larger in the glass.
They
were silent for quite some time.
"So..."
Pix whispered. "I guess that's it. I guess that's everything.
Evil computer. I mean, it does make sense. We all knew Harbinger ate
planets...” She shook her head, turning to Jimmy. “But, I still
have one last tiny little itty bitty question.”
“Is
it how do we survive this?” Jimmy asked, his voice tired.
Pix
snorted. “No. We're SO dead. I mean, this thing doesn't have
engines, and we've got enough air to last a few hours, by my count.
No, my question is...how the heck did that crystal end up in OUR mail
drop box?"
Jimmy
blinked, looking at her.
"I
mean if Howl came up with this plan, someone must have found it, got
it on the crystal." Pix shrugged. "But, why did it end up
in your house?"
Jimmy
sighed, his stomach still rumbling and twisting as he tried to get
used to floating in zero gravity. "I have no idea," he
said, sliding his arm around her hip, squeezing her gently. "But,
let's just enjoy the view of the planet, okay?"
Silence.
The
planet was half eaten. The green plane of light that had been
devouring it had vanished away, leaving the world as a crumbling,
slowly cracking half-sphere, like some half eaten candy. The cloud of
debris that surrounded the elevator cab kept floating away –
leaving space more and more clear around them.
"So
we're really going to die," Pix whispered.
"Yeah,"
Jimmy said.
"Also-"
Pix looked at the back of her hands, which were bright pink. "I
think that the blast did something weird to my skin."
"My
skin feels okay." Jimmy looked at his, comparing them to Pix's.
They looked at eachother. They they kissed –
quietly, gently, feeling one another draw even closer. Jimmy broke
the kiss, panting.
"You
know," Jimmy said. "If we are going to die..."
"Having
sex will make the air run out faster,” Pix said, managing a grin.
"It's
still going to run out." Jimmy grinned, feeling an odd sense of
fatalism. "And, by the Archi...and...well, we saved the galaxy.
If we're going to die because of it, I at least don't want to die a
virgin."
"Jimmy,
you're not a virgin."
"I'm
a virgin to sex in zero gravity!"
Pix
cocked her head, then grinned. "Heh, when you put it that
way...but this time, don't go so fas-" She was cut off by his
lips.
Her
shirt floated away and Jimmy grinned. "Zero gee is nice in so so
many ways."
Pix
giggled, then gave him a little wiggle. They moved together to kiss
once more as a shadow fell over the elevator – Jimmy didn't break
the kiss. It was just more debris, afterall.
Light
spilled into the elevator. Jimmy and Pix sprang apart, their eyes
wide as they looked out of the glass.
A
shuttle floated outside, bright lights flaring from the nose cone.
The cockpit's screen wasn't polarized though, and two humans, a
Xorquin and a Tette<click><click> looked at the
elevator...at them. The humans and the Xorquin were gaping, one of
the humans blushing brightly – though the other was too dark to
show any blush, even if he was.
Pix
looked at them, her face blank. Jimmy just gaped.
“Mom?”
Jimmy whispered “D-Dad?”
###
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