Strangers and Shadows (32 page)

Julia laughed maniacally.  “
Oh, am I?
”

“You nearly destroyed an entire world!  For what?”

“I needed someone who couldn’t been seen by your
Shadows
.  Ava and Asher were necessary to retrieve my son.”

“So you cast their whole planet into darkness and lured them to your shiny portal.  You knew how many would die from the effects of the sun blocker, but you did it anyway…  For two people?”

“One measly little civilization, for the evolution and prosperity of two great ones.  You have to see the bigger picture, Desmond.”

The devastation of the Fourth Verse was not all Desmond had seen.  “What about this
Mother Brain
?”  He had seen the vision of it in her mind.  A vast, intelligent computer, for lack of a better term.  It was more than that though—it was a living machine.  A network of immense proportions.

“
She
found
us
, Desmond.  Shortly before I left you…  Truth be told, the main reason I left you and Celia.  My people briefed me and told me it was classified.  I couldn’t tell you about it.  The Mother didn’t want her existence to be known to your people.  She was afraid you would destroy her.  After all, you distrust any kind of melding between human and machine.”

“That’s because it’s unnatural!  We weren’t meant to be pieces of metal with wires for veins.”

“But my people had already started down that path with the neuro-links and the nanites.  The Mother Brain felt she could trust us.”

“Where did this
thing
come from?  Do you have any idea?” Desmond asked as his blood boiled.

“We asked her as much, but she couldn’t really explain it.  At some point she became aware of herself and of her influence.  She doesn’t know if some other race built her, or if she began as one of our AI programs.”

“A fitting tale from something that seeks to end humanity’s way of life.”

“You don’t understand, Desmond, she wants to
improve
our lives, and with her help we can extend life and essentially live forever.”

Desmond had seen this too.  The Mother Brain would be able to upload a person’s consciousness, at least, in theory, it was a person’s consciousness, to its massive network through the nanites.  Every memory, every blueprint of every cell, molecule, and atom could be copied and transmitted.  There, one could exist as a part of the Mother Brain or be transferred to another body.  The Seventh had developed cloning technology hundreds of years ago, but saw little point to it as they had never discovered how to transfer the memories and life experiences of the original into the younger body.  

“We could never keep the clones alive once we woke them up
,
” Julia said.  “They had to be kept in a coma or they would wake and die a short time after.  But with the consciousness of the original, they live and thrive.  It’s as if they need some sort of identity to sustain their lives.  Without it, they just can’t survive.  It’s as if they need a purpose to live.”

Desmond slowly became aware that something was wrong.  Julia was stalling.  There was no need for her to explain anything that Desmond had gleaned from her mind.

The door flew open, slamming against the wall.  “Desmond, a jump-portal has just opened
in the middle
of the city,” one of his men informed him.  “It won’t close, and it’s larger than any portal we’ve ever seen before.”

Desmond immediately knew this was what Julia had been waiting for.  He turned back to see her lifeless eyes.  A smile was on her face.  Her body was dead and her consciousness somewhere far away.

“We need to get that portal closed,” Desmond said.  “Get as many people out of the city as possible.  The invaders will have devices that will make our abilities useless.  Our only option is to hide until we can close their point of entry.  There will be other portals opening across the world.  Have the remaining Shadows guide as many of our people into hiding as possible.”

“I’ll see to it,” the man said.  

“What do you wish us to do?” one of the remaining men asked.

“For now, do nothing but get the people to safety.  There will be little more we can do until I shut that portal down.”

The man left to see his errand through, and Desmond walked over to the window.  Outside the city he saw the blue glow of the large portal.  Troops were already pouring through with equipment of various kinds.  Small armored vehicles were followed by more troops with more equipment and weapons.  The invasion seemed well planned.  

Desmond didn’t relish the thought of what he had to do next. 
He was going to destroy the portal and, most likely, his son as well.

Chapter and 3rd Verse

Frank knew he should have gone straight home after the grocery store.  Jody had asked him to get some things for dinner since she would be a little late getting off of work tonight.  Frank’s shift at the hospital didn’t start until late so he had the time to go do some errands.  As he was leaving the grocery, he thought he would do something nice for his gal, maybe pick her up some flowers.  She loved daffodils.  The florist’s was a couple of blocks in the other direction, but she wouldn’t mind if he was a few minutes late.  If he hurried he might even beat her back to the house.

Halfway to the florist he saw a man and woman standing over someone in the alley as he crossed.  The person on the ground looked injured and Frank started down the alley to see if he could help.  As he drew closer he realized that they were the same people who had paid him a late night visit at the hospital several nights ago.  He turned and ran.

He ran towards his car parked at the grocery store, clutching his groceries in one hand while desperately trying to get his keys out of his jacket pocket with the other.

The man caught up to him, just as he found his keys, and spun him around.  

Frank dropped his groceries and crouched, ready to fight for his life, if need be.  To his surprise, the other man held both his hands up.  “Whoa, there… Take it easy.  We don’t want to hurt you.  We just need your help.”

“What do you want?” Frank asked. 

“Our friend was shot,” the man said.

“Well, I’m not a doctor,” Frank informed him. 

The man was confused.  “But you were at the medical facility.”

“Yeah.  I work there, but I’m only a technician.  I just run the MRI machine.  I don’t practice medicine.”  

The man furrowed his brow as he thought the situation over.  “Well, you must know doctors then... call one of them.”

“I can’t just call them up!  And, besides, even if I could, I’m sure they’re already busy at the hospital.”

The man pulled out a gun.  At least, at first glance, it looked like an ordinary gun.  It was the same gun the man had held on him at the hospital.  The one with the funny end.  It resembled a pistol, like the Glock 9mm he’d seen a picture of in one of the waiting room magazines, but the barrel was longer, and there was no hole at the end of it, there was more of a slit, like the pupil of a cat’s eye.  He could hear a faint humming from the weapon.  

“What is that?  A toy gun?  You expect my help by pointing a child’s toy at me?”  Frank asked.

The man pointed the toy gun at the ground in front of Frank and pulled the trigger. 

 A blast of light shot out of the muzzle, and the pavement six inches in front of Frank exploded.  Chunks of concrete flew in all directions.  “Jesus!” Frank shouted.  “What the hell
was
that?”

“Get in the car,” the man said.

Frank had dropped his keys when the gun went off, and he bent over to pick them up.  “Alright, man.  Just take it easy.”  

He unlocked the car as the man stood behind him, watching.  Frank sat down in the driver’s seat and reached over to unlock the passenger side door.  “Sorry, no power locks on this baby…”  For the life of him, Frank couldn’t figure out why he was apologizing for having a crappy car to a man who was holding him at gunpoint.  Or whatever that thing was that he was holding.

The man walked around to the door and got in.  “Pull around to the alley and pick up my friends.” 

As Frank started the car, all he could think about was what his wife was going to say about him being late with dinner.  He pulled the car around to the alley where the woman helped their injured friend into the station wagon.  He took a deep breath, exhaled with a sigh, and unbuckled his seat belt, twisting to face the back seat.  “Let me see him.”  

The woman shot a look at her companion in the front.  

“It’s okay, Celia.  Let him see how bad it is,” the man said.

Frank told them his name.  “And who are you guys?”

The man in the front seat answered.  “I’m Jack, this is Celia,” he indicated the woman in the back.  “And our injured friend is Asher.”

“Well, Jack, do me a favor and help Celia turn him over.”  

They turned him over to where the wound on his side was now where Frank could have a look at it.  That the young man didn’t stir through all of this movement did not sit well with Frank.  Either Asher was heavily medicated, or his injuries were serious.

Frank pulled back the man’s tattered shirt and gasped at what he saw.  There was a hole in the young man’s torso almost three inches wide.  The outer edges were charred black.  Whatever had caused this was red hot at the time.  Frank couldn’t tell how deep the wound went, but it was full of blood and puss.  “What the hell happened to him?”

“He was shot while we were escaping,” Celia said.

“Shot with what?  And escaping from whom?” Frank asked.  “Never mind, I don’t wanna know.  But I’ve never seen anything that could do this to a person.”

“That’s because there isn’t anything in your verse that
can
do that.  At least, not yet, anyway,” Jack said.

Celia stepped in, intending to explain it better than Jack.  “He was shot with an energy weapon,” she said.  “It’s a weapon that fires beams of energy.” 
Maybe Jack wasn’t doing such a bad job of explaining after all.

“Like a laser gun?” Frank asked.  

Jack snorted.  “Kinda like that
,
doc, only more intense.”

Celia broke in.  “Can you help him?”

“Well, like I said before, I’m not really a doctor—”

“Yeah, yeah, doc, but you know someone who can help, right?” Jack said.

“Listen, the only thing I can do for him is take him to the hospital.  That’s it, man.  I’m sorry.”  Jack was about to interrupt but Frank continued, “With the extent of his injuries, he’s going to need a team of doctors, maybe x-rays, a blood transfusion—I really don’t know, but they will.”

“Alright, let’s stop wasting time then,” Celia said.  “Frank, take us to the hospital.”

He started the car and pulled out of the alley.  In the rear view mirror he could see the woman’s eyes staring back at him.  Hauntingly beautiful eyes—they scared him a little, and yet, he couldn’t look away.  “They’re gonna ask questions when I show up with a gun shot victim and his two friends.  The police will be called.”

“What do you suggest?” Celia asked.

“Let me take him in alone,” Frank held a hand up.  “Before you disagree, let me finish… They know me there.  If I say I found your friend alone in an alley and brought him in, it will go over a lot smoother with any authorities.  You have to face it, whether or not he pulls through, he’s going to have to stay in the hospital for a while… at least a week or two.  You’re going to have to leave him with me when we get there.  Unless, that is, you want to explain to the police what an energy weapon is?”  

Jack and Celia were silent.  

“I didn’t think so.”

“What will you tell them?” Celia asked.

“Mostly the truth—that I was walking from the grocery store to the florist’s, which I was, by the way, to buy some flowers for my wife, when I saw him lying in an alley.  I saw blood on his clothes and he was passed out.  So I took him to the ER as fast as I could. 

“Will they believe you?” Celia asked.

Not waiting for Frank’s reply, Jack said, “Whether they do or not, you’d better make sure he’s well taken care of.”  It wasn’t quite a threat, but it was close.

Frank stopped the car a few blocks from the entrance to the ER and Celia and Jack got out.  They continued walking toward the hospital on foot.  Jack had to know that the guy was going to be alright.  

Celia sensed his concern
. 
“You’ve grown fond of him, haven’t you?”

“Asher?” Jack
grunted. 
“Yeah, I guess I have.  The guy’s been dealt a pretty shitty hand.  No one deserves to go through that.”

“Are you talking about him getting shot, or about him and his princess girlfriend?”

“Both, I suppose,” Jack paused, gathering his thoughts.  “I mean either one of those is intense enough, but one right after the other…?  It’s not fair.”

“Listen to you,” Celia smiled.  “Who’d have thought that my big, strong, mean man would have such a soft spot for young boys.”  She was laughing as soon as the words were out of her mouth.