Chapter Eleven: It's The Final Countdown
As humans naturally do, Adam went over the worst possible scenarios in his head. Iokus could shoot them down right on the spot, Arlios might warn Quinn and he could shoot them right on the spot, the terraforming process may have already begun, and so on.
"I'm such a glass-half-empty kinda guy," he muttered as the warp elevator zipped along.
"The way I see it," Novus began, "is the glass is always full. Half water, half air."
Adam smiled sarcastically at her. "Oh yeah, thanks smartass."
The elevator slowed to a stop. The doors dinged and opened to reveal a security detail of half a dozen armed guards. The apparent leader took the empty seat to the left of Adam. The others filled in seats and kept a subtle eye on Adam. He looked at Novus and practically rolled his eyes. Standing, he pretended to stretch.
In an almost conversational tone, he asked: "Before we get started, would anyone like to get off?"
The guards looked at each other for a second, momentarily confused, then reached for their weapons. Adam elbowed the leader next to him and he felt the sickening crunch of the man's breaking bones. Two guards drew their weapons and Adam hoisted the unconscious guard up, blocking the quick shots. He reached for the guard's pistol and dropped the body as he knelt, still using it as cover as he quickly dispatched of the two guards. Novus had also quickly neutralized her three would-be-assailants. In the fight, Adam noticed the pistols fired what could only be described as laser bolts. He motioned dumbfoundedly to the sidearm he was holding.
"They shoot laser bolts?!" he exclaimed, fearful and excited. "Goddamn laser bolts!" What he was actually concerned about was the ease at which he had disabled the three guards. He had never learned to fight like that, but the moves seemed so natural and instinctive.
Novus nodded patiently. "Yes, they convert the heat in the air to concentrated energy. We're only a little way away from the generator. We have to hurry, Quinn will no doubt hear about this."
Adam wanted to sit, but his adrenaline was still pumping furiously, like a short distance runner. Nobody would get that comparison, Adam thought. He paced and paced as the warp elevator sped along. There was no coming back from this now. Novus meanwhile sat quietly with her legs crossed, humming a peculiarly haunting tune. Adam decided to prepare with something useful and unbuckled the belt of the nearest guard.
"Whoa, man," Novus said, stopping her tune. "Keep it in your pants."
"Seriously," Adam said dryly. "I'm getting the holster so I can carry two guns."
"Compensating much?"
"You are insufferable." Novus broke into a smile.
The doors dinged and opened once more. Just before he stepped out, he grabbed a knife from the guard. He figured it would be wise to have a weapon he could actually handle well.
Novus grabbed a pistol and stealthily hurried out with Adam close in tail. Novus quickly navigated the way through the maze of identical halls. After half an hour of traversing the halls, Novus suddenly stopped. Adam, numbed from the endless walking, bumped into her. She turned and smiled slyly.
"Is that a knife in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" she whispered. Adam pulled the flip knife out of his pocket. "They're just around the bend," Novus said, changing the subject.
Adam glanced around the corner. Iokus was talking with a man in a white lab coat. "Good to see those haven't changed." Piles of crates containing hardware and tools lay strewn about on the metal grates that served as the deck. In the center of the large cavernous core was, what Adam assumed was the generator. One would find it hard to describe. Incased in glass, a large mass of various colored blue light swirled and twisted this way and that. The swirling blue light was contained center of two large, funnel-shaped objects that ran to the top and bottom of the massive cavern.
"Yes, I know you're impatient, but manipulating time is a tricky thing. What you're asking will take time," the frustrated man in the lab coat was explaining.
"Don't talk down to me Bill Nye, I quite understand," Iokus replied in his usual irritated sarcasm. "Just get it done. All right? Ok," he said with a beaming, condescending smile. The man turned to a computer and began typing. Adam, fearing the worst, raced out from behind cover, Novus trying to hold him back, and took cover behind a stack of crates.
"Have you seen them?" Adam heard Quinn's voice ask.
"Seen who?"
"The Earthling and Scout 03."
"Yes, I did. I let them do what they wanted and had them on their way," he said sarcastically. "Of course I haven't seen them."
Adam seized the distraction of the two arguing and popped out from behind cover. He shot the engineer in the leg. The sound of the whizzing laser bolt was followed by screams of pain from his unsuspecting target. He hated to do it, but it bought him time.
"Damn, they're here," Quinn said as he and Iokus quickly readied their weapons.
"No shit, Sherlock," Iokus replied, in his perpetually sarcastic voice.
Adam dared to release another shot at Iokus but he missed by a hair. Novus quickly joined him.
"I need you to reverse whatever has been started. Wring it out of the engineer," Adam ordered Novus. Nodding, she began working her way towards the small station.
"You don't have to do this, Quinn," he began yelling, hoping to keep the captain distracted.
"On the contrary, this is a necessity," the captain boomed back.
"Have you no humanity, you . . . you scruffy-looking nerfherder," he replied, quoting a line from an ancient movie for lack of a better insult.
"Humanity is relative. What is a human, a man anyway? Is he merely a collection of memories? Is he the sum of his principles and actions? Is he defined by the choices he makes, the sacrifices? Id he defined by his greed? Is he defined by his dependence on others? Well, I have a hard truth for you: Memories fade, principles change, actions are forgotten, sacrifices are in vain, the only thing in this life you have to count on is yourself. And you can't even count on that. In the end, there will always be somebody stronger than you, faster than you, smarter than, and you will lose. And I am all those things. So do your worst, scum."
Adam continued to peer over the top of the stack of crates. Novus was whispered with the engineer and periodically pecking at the small station near her. He saw the characterizing tricorn hat of Quinn and shot at it. The hat immediately ducked back down. "You nearly put a hole in my hat!" Quinn yelled indignantly. Adam ignored the comment and continued to watch Novus out of the corner of his eye. So far as he knew, they had been focused on him and hadn't noticed her. He immediately regretted the thought as a few lasers streaked by her and barely missed. Novus dropped to the ground and Adam feared the worst, but she quickly resumed her objective.
Without much thought, Adam vaulted over the crates and sprinted for Quinn and Iokus's cover. He jumped over it, clearing the meter-high boxes. Quinn was startled and rolled to the side, but Iokus was nowhere to be found. Adam fired at Quinn who continuously moved, evading the lasers.
"Iokus is somewhere around here, keep your eye ou – argh!" Adam yelled as Quinn shot the weapon out of his hand. He reached for the second on his belt only to realize it had fallen out in his mad dash. Quinn stood and trained the pistol on him.
"I have given you every opportunity to agree," Quinn began, his voice low and menacing. "I have held my hand time and time again to give to the choice. I have more power, more experience, greater ability, and yet, you still fight, you persist. Why?"
Adam launched himself at Quinn, drawing the knife. "Because no one else will!" Quinn was fast enough to fire one shot that grazed Adam's arm before he was upon him. Adam slid beneath the captain's arm and pulled his legs out from under him. As Quinn fell to the ground, Adam quickly stabbed him in the lower back. The captain remained motionless.
Novus screamed for help and Adam didn't spare a second thought on the dead Quinn. Adam raced around the crates and saw Iokus pinning the A.I. fragment to the ground with his boot. He aimed his weapon at her head and pulled the trigger. Adam screamed and hurled the knife at Iokus.
Time seemed to slow to a near halt. Adam remembered everything. The dying captain behind him. The helpless A.I. fragment. Iokus standing over her with a wild grin on his face. The knife suspended in midair. Adam knew he had seen it all before.
Just as quickly as it had slowed to a stop, time resumed. The knife caught Iokus in the left shoulder and he staggered back, tripping over the waist high rail and plummeting to the deck below with an ominous silence. Iokus had tried to shoot the weapon at his killer, but the shot went wide, hitting the center of the glass of the swirling blue light. The hole was small, but small streams of the strange stuff flowed out. Something like wind picked up and tossed any light objects through the air.
Adam raced over to Novus. As he began to kneel, Quinn rammed his shoulder into him, sending Adam over the railing. Adam managed to grab the bar with one hand, jerking to a violent stop. The wind picked up, howling. Quinn's hat blew off and pistols flew through the air. The small hole gave way to cracks. The wind had picked up immensely, and Adam was being slowly pried off the bar by it.
Quinn looked down on Adam, contempt in his dark eyes. With the last strength he had, Quinn kicked Adam in the face. Adam was ripped off the bar by the force of Quinn's boot and the wind. He was sucked back and slammed against the glass. It cracked even further and was on the verge of completely breaking.
Blood streamed out of Adam's broken nose and his screams were drowned out by the deafening sound of the tornado-like winds. The metallic smell of blood filled his nostrils. Adam was being pulled to glass, unable to move as if he were strapped down on every inch of his body. With a resounding crack that was barely audible, the glass shattered. Adam was sucked into the swirling blue and white mass of light. He was whipped around in what felt like an infinite plain. He screamed once more as the bloody wound on his arm began to glow. It felt like the substance that filled all he could see was pouring in through the open wound. The major moments in his life passed through his mind, reliving each in their entirety, while they passed by in an instant.
He saw the broken hull he had slept in only days previously and he was thrust towards by some external force, pushing him farther and farther towards it and he feared he would slam into it with whopping force. He closed his eyes and blackness flooded in.
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Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed the chapter please drop a vote and comment.
Sorry for the late chapter, but I hope it was worth it. It was a little difficult to kill off Novus, but I figured it would shock the reader.
What do you think happened? Did anything click?
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