The Agathon: Book One (32 page)

“Help me lift him,” she said. Tyrell finally moved slowly over to them and helped the captain to his feet.

“Are you okay?” she said. He reached up and touched his face, running his finger over where one of his eyes had previously been seated. He let out a light sigh, but it didn’t seem to be that much of a shock. He looked at Carrie and gave her a smile.

“Your mother would not be happy about this at all,” he said. Carrie looked at Tyrell, who said nothing.

“Can you walk?” she asked him.

“Yes,” he said. “Give me a minute.”

“I do not believe we have a minute,” Tyrell said, looking down the passageway they had just come down. A group of humanoids were coming their way.

“Is there another way out of here?” Carrie asked Tyrell.

“How the hell would he know?” said Barrington, looking at Tyrell.

“Yes but it takes us past the
central
—”

“Just take us, Tyrell!” Carrie said, interrupting him. The approaching humanoids grew closer. Tyrell nodded and turned to head out the far side of the chamber they were in. Carrie followed, guiding her father’s unsteady feet.

What’s going on, Dice
? he said into her mind.

Explain later. Just trust me
, she replied.

As she followed Tyrell down another dark corridor she began to sense that the thing watching her was getting close and that perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea.

26

Agathon Bridge

20:03 Martian Standard

“S
tatus,” said Boyett in the centre seat, staring at the visuals from the engine room on one of the bridge monitors. She couldn’t see Emerson’s body but knew that there would be nothing left to see once the plasma had come into contact with it. Still, she looked anyway.

“Still venting, sir,” Ferrate said from behind her. The bridge crew were on edge. She could feel their fear at what they had all witnessed on the screens. She had wanted to grab a gun and join Chavel, but someone had to remain in command or she would lose the ship. The doors to the lift slid open and Chavel walked onto the bridge. His face had a trickle of blood drying on it. Boyett got out of the chair and stared at him. They looked at each other for a moment.

“Lieutenant?” she said. He nodded, looking shaken but keeping his composure.

“Are you all right?” she asked. He nodded, making his way over to her slowly and looking at the live images of the engine room.

“As far as I can tell there’s three dead down there,” he looked at the floor. “It killed Emerson,” he said.

“I know,” she said, holding his gaze.

“Did Tosh make it out before plasma hit?” Boyett said. Chavel shook his head.

“He was badly injured but on the level one walkway over The Betty, so he may be still there.” Boyett turned to Ferrate.

“Let’s see it, Kevin,” she said. He nodded and honed in on the walkways overlooking the FTL drive. Sure enough, there was Tosh’s chair upturned on the walkway with Tosh lying beside it.

“Time to complete venting?” she asked the young man.

“Two minutes,” he replied.

“Boyett to Brubaker” she said, tapping the comms system on her chair.

“I’m outside the engine room, Lieutenant. Just give the word and we’re in,” she replied.

“Two minutes. Doctor Tosh is on the first level walkway, please make him a priority.”

“Understood,” came the reply before it clicked off. Boyett looked around and tried to think of her next steps.

“I’m going after the captain,” said Chavel. Boyett sighed.

“No you’re not,” she replied, not even looking at him.

“We need to get The Betty up and running and fire up the thrusters. We’re getting off this planet,” she said, looking up at the engine room.

“What?” Chavel said.

“You heard me, David. This place is trying to kill us. Time to move on,” she said.

“And the captain, Carrie and Tyrell?” he said with astonishment. Boyett began to feel a temper rise in her. The burden of command. “You can’t leave them behind. You don’t have the authority to make that call,” Chavel said. Boyett turned to him and met his angry eyes head on.

“Lieutenant I warn
you
—” she said.

“Oh screw that,” he said.

“Yes, we’ve been attacked by a hostile force, but we’ve defeated that force on both occasions. This ship needs John Barrington, not to mention Tyrell. Where are we supposed to go, Charly? We’re a thousand years out of time with what’s left of the human race.” His anger began to rise. “We can’t run anymore. If those things want a fight, then I say we stay and fucking give it to them!” He finished his point by slamming his fist into a diagnostic console and cracking its screen.

The bridge went silent. Boyett took his angry stare and held hers firmly in place. She looked at his eyes and reddened cheeks and understood it. She felt her sadness of losing her parents, Landon, her captain and her world. She softened her eyes and turned away from Chavel, taking the centre seat. She saw Chavel look at his fist and shake his head.

“You done?” she said. He nodded slowly.

“You’re right,” she said. She thought for a moment. “You know I was seconds away from venting the atmosphere in the engine room before you were able to detonate that grenade?” He frowned and looked at Ferrate, who nodded apologetically. He raised his eyebrows at her.

“Thanks for not doing that,” he said. Boyett smiled. “I’m sorry,” he said. He walked over to his navigation station and took a seat. Boyett looked around the bridge at the eyes glued to hers.

“If you all think for one second that I don’t want to open the ship’s doors and have every last man, woman and child mount a rescue team for the captain, then you are all crazy.” She fought the tremble creeping into her voice.

“As far as we know, this ship is all that’s left of us,” she said. “This is it. Humanity. I... WE don’t have the luxury of losing any more people. It’s simple mathematics. As soon as this ship is
space
-worthy, I’m getting the hell off this rock and making our way to the next habitable system,” she said, looking at Chavel.

“You have a problem with that, you will have to fight me as well as this planet. And if you think a giant alien robot is an easy win, you ain’t seen nothing, kid,” she said to Chavel, putting enough force in her voice to leave no doubt she wasn’t kidding. Chavel smiled.

“What do you need?” he said, surrendering. She walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I need you checking the flight systems and getting us ready for launch,” she said aloud. Leaning into Chavel she whispered, “I’ll give her as much time as I can, David, but as soon the engine room gives me a green light...” Chavel nodded and began running flight checks. Boyett took the centre seat and raised her gaze back to the engine room.

“Medical team have entered the engine room,” said Ferrate. She nodded, turning her attention to the bridge monitor showing the nearby treeline.

“Come on, Carrie,” she whispered to herself.

The Cube

20:16 Martian Standard

Carrie’s ears popped as the pressure in the passageway seemed to change. It was lit like all the others by small points of light along the twisted
pipe
-filled walls and ceilings. They had been walking for well over ten minutes and had taken several turns in different directions. It was a maze that only one of the group was navigating.

“How far, Tyrell?” Carrie finally asked. Her father had regained some of the strength in his legs and was walking steadily. He still had his hand on Carrie’s shoulder for balance. The air felt humid.

“We are close,” Tyrell said.

“How do you know where we’re going, Tyrone?” the captain finally asked.

“We know,” he responded. The passageway finally opened up and the trio found themselves in another vast open space. Carrie looked around at the vista. This area was different to the open canyon they had passed by earlier. A single curved walkway circumnavigated a large gorge, with nothing but a slowly rotating cube at its centre. It seemed to be
free
-floating and must have been a mile wide in each direction. There was a light source that Carrie could not see coming from its base, which made it look more ominous. It was silent and there was a sense of calm in the cavern.

“What is this place?” her father said, staring at the floating cube.

“The Targlagdu,” said Tyrell.

“The what?” he replied.

“It’s a life form,” said Carrie. “This whole planet isn’t a planet. It’s an ancient life form that feeds on life,” she said, looking at Tyrell.

“And this is not Doctor Tyrell,” she said, deciding he needed to know. “There was an accident in Tyrell’s lab which shattered the container holding The Black. It entered Tyrell’s body and has taken over his mind.”

The captain took a step back from Tyrell in shock.

“What?” he said.

“It won’t harm us, Father. It’s our only way out of this place.” She could sense her father’s anger as thoughts of her mother flooded his mind.

“It did not mean to kill her, Father,” she said. He looked at her. Tyrell remained motionless.

“Are you Tyrone Tyrell?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“We are not,” Tyrell replied. Carrie sensed her father was about to grab Tyrell, but before she could stop him she was thrown against the wall by something. The captain and Tyrell were thrown onto their backs. Carrie slammed into a back wall, which knocked the wind out of her lungs for a moment. She struggled to get her breath back as she was held firmly in place pinned to the wall in
mid
-air by what felt like a hundred invisible hands covering her whole body. She looked at the quietly turning
mile
-wide cube in front of her, as a dark low mechanical voice penetrated her mind.

Tar
-
gla
-gdu
! it said. There was no emotion attached to the word. A low humming mechanical voice that filled the depths of every space in her mind.

Tar
-
gla
-gdu
, it said again without a change in tone or speed. Carrie couldn’t move. She looked down at her dangling feet and struggled like a fly in a web to no avail. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her father still on his back. Tyrell was standing upright and facing the gigantic floating cube. He turned to her, eyes completely black.

Merge
! the mechanical voice said so loudly in her head she had to wince.

“Tyrell, get my father out of here!” she screamed at him. He didn’t move.

“I can assist,” he finally shouted at her. A small beam of bright light shot of out the cube and landed on Carrie’s shoulder. It felt warm but there was no pain.

“Get him out of here. The ship needs him,” she said again, as the beam of light made its way over her body as if scanning her. She turned her head to Tyrell.

“Please go!” she screamed. Tyrell nodded calmly and in one smooth motion picked up the captain and slung him over his shoulder like a ragdoll. Carrie watched as he turned and started walking over to her.

“What are you doing?” she said. Tyrell raised his right hand, which was free, and placed it between the beam of light and Carrie. The flesh on his hands seemed to burn as a thin ray of light pulsated from his fingers and made contact with the cube. It cut out in the blink of an eye. He turned to Carrie. Eyes black.

“It will not let us leave,” he said to her. He pulled back his free arm and landed a solid inhuman blow to Carrie’s
mid
-section. It seemed like hitting a brick wall. Strangely she felt no pain and the resulting punch seemed to free her from the energy field holding her against the wall. She fell to the ground hard. Getting her breath back, she turned to Tyrell. They both looked at the cube as the sound of something crackling grabbed their attention. A small storm seemed to be forming on its top. Small flashes of lightning began to swirl around a dark cloud.

“I’ll buy you time, get going!” Carrie said.

Tyrell looked at her. “Follow that passageway to its end,” he said, pointing with his head towards an opening. “It will lead you to a surface opening.”

She nodded at his black eyes, looking for some sort of connection to explain what he was doing. Still nothing. Before she had time to say anything else a bolt of electricity hit her square in the chest and sent her careering into the back wall. The shock of it stunned her, as the muscles in her body contracted with the electrical charge that pulsated through her body. She screamed out in agony and looked back at the cube. The electrical storm had spread across its surface. There was no denying it. Whatever the Targlagdu was, it looked angry. A rage began to take hold as she saw Tyrell disappear through the passageway off to her right. She brought herself slowly to her knees and noted the smell of burning that was coming from her clothes. She felt sadness at the thought of never seeing her father again. That this was where she would die. Then something else took over. She looked at the Targlagdu and, for a moment, sensed pleasure coming from the dark consciousness. Her body began to shake with rage. An energy deep inside erupted through her spine.

“Okay, motherfucker, let’s see what you can do!” she screamed, not knowing if it was directed towards the cube or herself. She threw both arms back behind her body and flung them forward, making her hands into claws. Her arms lit up as bolts of blue light burst violently into existence. Thousands of arcing beams of electrical energy made their way towards the cube. It seemed to react quickly and met her attack head on with a fiery volley of lightning.

The two forces met in
mid
-air and formed a halo of light and crazed energy so bright it soaked the emptiness in its glow. Carrie had never felt so powerful. It was like a waterfall of light flowing through her as she held her ground as the opposing force. The Targlagdu was strong.

Tar
-
gla
-gdu
, it said in her mind, as the two were locked in a storm of lightning. Carrie felt an opposing surge from the cube that made her take a step back. Her hands began to shake as she suddenly began to feel the effects of fatigue. Maybe she wasn’t so powerful after all. She began to sense pleasure again coming from something. She opened her mind to it. She saw her castle with her atop it. She saw herself looking out beyond the walls, her arms outstretched with a thousand bolts of blue light shooting out in all directions.

“Tar
-
gla
-gdu,” something mechanical said off in the distance, as an explosion impacted the castle walls. It had started to crumble. She saw visions of the crew cut up into small pieces. Her father’s head lying on the ground with something that looked like him standing next to it, with long tentacles where his arms should have been. Smiling at her. She was snapped back into the present as her feet began to slide backwards. She began to feel heat on the palms of her hands. She felt air beginning to rush past her cheeks as though a hurricane was starting to land on her shores. She bent her knees and leaned forward, now on the balls of her feet to counteract the force being applied against her. Her arms began to weaken as her hands began to glow red. The bolts of energy lessened in intensity. She couldn’t beat the storm as she felt herself relinquish to the inevitable. As her arms began to give way, she was taken back to the footsteps of her castle. It was a calm spring day. Lush grass surrounded the stone building. Carrie stood at the foot of the lowered drawbridge, looking out at the endless vista of trees and fields. She felt a quiet wind against her face as a female figure approached her. She stopped a few feet in front of her and smiled. She knelt down and picked a small purple flower from the grass and handed it to her. She took the flower.