Betrothed Episode One (21 page)

The
ordinary Mark Havelock wouldn’t have been able to do that; the
ordinary Mark Havelock hadn’t been able to do much. He’d been a
junkie, a waste of space, and a no-hoper. Then he’d woken up in the
goddamn future, and someone had decided they could do something
more creative with him.

I was a
graft.

I was
still coming to terms with what that meant, but the strength,
stamina, and willpower I’d already mastered.

With a
creaking back I stood, pressing my hands into the control panel as
I steadied myself and stared at the information running across the
view screen.

Stalker
energy was very specific. It could be detected easily, but it
wasn’t always present; stalkers could clean up after themselves,
eradicating every single particle of radiation that would reveal
where they’d been.

But if
it was present, it meant one thing: they wanted you to know they’d
been there. Why? It was a kind of calling card. They would use it
to warn pirates and bounty hunters, letting them know there was
absolutely no reason to bother going after the same
target.

If on
the other hand, a stalker wanted to assassinate someone without
leaving a trace, they could do that too. So if I was picking up
stalker energy, it meant one thing: a stalker was going after Anna
Carter.

I swore again. This time the word echoing around the room
like a gunshot.

I brought one hand up and pressed it hard into my brow,
taking a massive breath before I let the hand drop to my
knee.

Technically, as a graft, I was one of the most fearsome
enemies in the universe. That didn’t mean I was a match for a
stalker. I’d heard the theories – stalkers were meant to be some
kind of leftover from the Gap. One the Illuminates hadn’t been able
to remove from the universe.

I wondered if this was worth a call to them. Whether I should
tell them a stalker had locked onto our target and there was no
longer any reason for me to go after Annie.

I instinctively knew what their response would be: they would
tell me to continue with the mission. Because for some goddamn
reason they needed Annie. Maybe it was her connection to Illuminate
Hart or maybe it was that strange ability they talked
of.

Instinctively I found myself turning and staring at the vials
of concentrated red liquid still sitting in the synthesizer. My
eyes locked on them and my hands tightened into fists. I hated not
knowing what I was doing. It had taken a heck of a lot of willpower
to come to terms with this universe. Once I’d been woken five years
ago, it had been a strange kind of hell to live in a place so
different to my past. You had to question everything you
experienced, everything you saw, and it made you extremely easy to
manipulate.

I tried not to think about that as I turned from the
synthesizer and started to type something over the console in front
of me. If there was a stalker going after Annie – and I could only
assume it was going after her rather than some other insignificant
dolt in this system – then I had to plan meticulously. I also had
to hope, pray, and believe that she would be alive by the time I
got there.

Annie
Carter had a sense of humor, I’d grant you that. I hadn’t begrudged
her company all that much. But the only reason I’d stuck close to
her all these years was because I’d been told to. I hadn’t figured
out the reason why until she’d handed me her betrothal
certificate.

As soon
as I’d handed that to my superiors, they’d confirmed who she was:
goddamn Illuminate Hart’s betrothed.

Now I
had a new mission: deliver her to them.

And who
were they?

Who knew? Some shady dodgy group my superiors and friends had
formed a brief alliance with, one necessary for securing the
ultimate goal.

I
pressed a sweaty hand into my face and let it close my eyes. Then I
took in a steadying breath.

A strange twist of emotion wrapped its way around my gut. But
just as I recognize what it was – guilt – I pushed it away. I
pushed it away with the proficiency only a graft could manage. I
could literally wash emotions from my body as if they were nothing
but unsavory stains.

After several seconds of reasserting control over my mind, I
sat straighter, my expression stiff and cold.

I knew
what was at stake here. I knew why I was doing this and would never
ever question my orders. If I needed Annie to get this done, I
would get Annie. If that meant going up against a stalker, so be
it.

Anna Carter

It was when I found the computer cores that I heard
something: an alarm fracturing the air like claws lacerating
skin.

It
instantly set my back shivering, my knees quaking, and my ears
ringing. My body pumped so full of fear, it was like pure panic had
been injected right into my bloodstream.

I
started to shake, my sweaty palms clinging against the collar of my
tunic as I stared around me with wide-open eyes.

“
The facility is detecting an intruder,” the computer said in
its electronic, emotionless tone.

“
What kind of intruder? Is it a patrol?” I asked. Even as I
asked it, I realized it wasn’t. I could feel the vision trying to
form in my mind, but my body was still so tired. It couldn’t seem
to push through.

A
searing pain erupted behind my left eye. Rather than a full-blown
detailed hallucination, I saw formless shadows.

I
pressed a hand over my left eye and turned, backing away from the
console I’d been working over. “What’s going on?” I asked in a
terrified voice that shook through my chest.

“
The facility is detecting an intruder,” the computer
explained again. Even though its tone was still electronic and
emotionless, I swore it picked up a beat, just as my heart
threatened to shake out of my chest.

I kept
walking backwards with jerky steps until my foot struck a console
and I stumbled backwards, locking my hands onto the panel behind
me. I turned my stiff neck from left to right; the vision was
trying to push its way through my mind. But it was weak, too weak
to see.

I could
only discern dark shadows, but no detail.

Pushing
a hand over my left eye, I whimpered, falling down the side of the
panel until I sat on the floor, a huddled mess of pain and
fright.

“
The facility is unable to identify the intruder,” the
computer pointed out.

I pushed
my back into the panel behind me, my shoulders shaking so much they
sounded like rain pattering against the metal.

Suddenly another warning alarm blared and then another. I
stared at the view screen that took up the wall in front of me, and
warning light after warning light began to blink on it. I kept a
hand pressed over my eye and tried to dig in as far as it would go
into the skin, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t stop the pain.
It was like the vision was trying to tear out of my
mind.

I
couldn’t stop shaking.

Suddenly
I heard a crack from the corridor outside my room.

I
screamed.

…

Lieutenant Mark Havelock

I landed
on the planet.

My
computer detected Anna Carter’s bio signs, and it had also
confirmed the presence of a stalker.

As soon
as my ship landed and the hatch opened, I flung myself
forward.

My only
enemy now was time.

If I
didn’t reach Anna first, I’d have no chance. Stalkers were
efficient. They weren’t like people – they didn’t have minds, they
didn’t have beliefs, wishes, and desires – they had a
mission.

And they
followed that through with cold efficiency.

It would
take the stalker less than a second to kill her.

So I had
to get there first.

As I ran
blindingly fast without the assistance of armor, I brought up my
weapon.

Despite
my better judgement, I’d called them. I’d told them about the
stalker, and surprisingly, they’d told me how to defeat
it.

There
wasn’t meant to be a weapon in the universe that could defeat a
stalker. Only the Illuminates could do it.

Stalkers, being nothing more than energy, could withstand
most blows. A punch, a standard shot, even pulse rifles wouldn’t do
a thing; the blow would sail right through the stalker’s diffuse
form.

You needed an enormous amount of directed energy to take one
down. And you had to be extremely quick; as soon as the stalker
knew what you were doing, it would diffuse its form into its
environment – spreading out until it was nothing more than a thin
layer of particles scattered over a distance of as much as a few
thousand kilometers.

And yet,
they had given me a weapon which they claimed would work on the
stalker in a single shot, maybe two.

Maybe it
was a trap. That made more sense. Maybe they didn’t like what I was
doing and they wanted to replace me. So they’d sold me the lie that
this gun would defeat the stalker, and when it ultimately failed,
the stalker would kill me and they would find another means to get
Anna Carter.

Or maybe
it wasn’t. Maybe this gun would work.

They’d
sent me the specifications and I’d manufactured it in the
synthesizer on my ship. During the manufacture process the computer
told me several times that the gun’s design was unknown and its
purpose unpredictable.

I pushed
myself forward, throwing my body up an incline until I breached a
hill. Before me was a facility.

A
long-range communications facility. Before I could question why
Anna Carter was in there, I hurled myself into a sprint, fingers
tightening around my gun.

I had to
get there before the stalker reached her.

…

Anna
Carter

There
was a boom and the wall shook.

“
Intruder attempting to enter the room,” the computer informed
me. If I’d imagined there’d been no emotion in its tone before, now
I swore its tone shook.

Or maybe
that was because I shook – every part of me shook. From my
convulsing shoulders to my mind.

I didn’t
bother to press a hand over my left eye anymore. That wasn’t to say
the pain had gone away; it was still there, searing as if someone
had stuck a hot iron into my eye socket.

But what
was the point?

Something howled. It wasn’t a wolf or a tiger or some alien
animal.

It was a
sound I’d never heard before. It sounded metallic, like some great
structure about to crumble under an even greater force.

And yet
it also sounded organic and intelligent.

Suddenly
there was a warning alarm louder than any before. It split the air
with its intensity. I slammed my hands over my ears, huddling
further against the panel until I could make myself no
smaller.

Then the
alarm stopped.

Every
alarm stopped.

The
lights that had once been blazing their way over the view screen
blinked out.

In fact,
the view screen and every other panel went dead.

There
was a hiss from behind me and the door opened.

I didn’t
turn to stare at it.

I didn’t
move at all. I couldn’t. I was soldered to the spot, stuck by my
own pounding, bone rattling fear.

The
computer didn’t say anything. Either it realized it was all over
and there was no point in pointing that out, or it too had been
turned off.

I felt a
rush of air enter the room.

No, not
air; it was warmer, thicker, different.

Despite
the overwhelming fear, I managed to push myself up. I ground my
shoulders into the panel behind me and I used it to stabilize
myself as I walked my back up.

I stood,
my knees so stiff I wobbled on the spot.

I turned
towards the door.

I stared
at it.

The
lights went out.

At first
I saw them blink off in the corridor beyond. One after another,
then the darkness reached my room too, and everything went
black.

But that
did not make it dark.

I saw
something move into the room around me.

Some
kind of energy. A crackling white-green cloud.

I wanted
to scream, but I couldn’t regain control of my throat long enough
to try.

The
cloud didn’t move like gas or any other normal substance; it
shifted about the room as if it were looking for something, as if
it were sentient.

I
couldn’t breathe. I was choking, gasping for air, and I couldn’t
dare push my chest out far enough to inhale.

That
diffuse cloud of white-green energy stopped. Though it didn’t have
a face, I swear it stared at me.

Run.
Something told me.

Run.