The Indestructibles (Book 4): Like A Comet (14 page)

Chapter
20:

What
happened to you?

Doc and Bedlam sat in the control room,
waiting for the others to return, their silence strangely comfortable. Doc let
the cyborg be within herself, glancing over once in a while to watch her eyes
flicking around the room processing. He liked her, enjoyed her confidence, but
was also worried—she'd experienced a very different trauma from those the
Indestructibles had suffered in their early experiences, and he was curious how
she processed it all. She was certainly a different character than the one they
met on that small island a year or so ago. Despite her foul mouth and intense
attitude, there was a maturity to her, an adult level of self-awareness his
team was still developing. In some ways she reminded Doc of Kate. Hardened by
the world, long before she should have to be so tough.

      "This is messed up, Doc,"
she said, finally.

      "It is," he said.

      "I accepted a long time ago
that how this all came about was screwed up. Even made some peace with it,"
Bedlam said. "I mean I wasn't going to live after—it was an accident—"

      "—That cost you your arms and
legs," Doc said quietly.

      "Yeah. It was a stupid… it
doesn't matter. An accident. I was a lump of meat in a hospital bed. Gone. You
know that? I knew I was gone. Knew I was dead," Bedlam said.

      "Did you see the other side?"
Doc asked.

      He wasn't mocking her. He'd been
to the other side of death, as a tourist, as an explorer. Not everyone goes to
the same place, but there were, he had learned, more than one thing humanity
sees when life ends. Sometimes it is oblivion, and sometimes, it is something
else.

      "I'm not sure," Bedlam
said. "But I do know what it's like to feel yourself go cold. I know that
much."

      "And then you didn't die,"
Doc said.

      "New and improved me,"
Bedlam said. "And I've spent a lot of time thinking about that, reflecting
on what these idiots did to me, and after a while I thought—hey, I'm still
here, right? I'm still me. Not the off the shelf version of me, but whatever
they had planned the end result was I'm still here. So I thought—I can forgive
them for that. Doctor Frankenstein was a heel too, but that doesn't diminish
the humanity of the monster he made."

      "That's a powerful analogy
there, Bedlam," Doc said.

      The cyborg and the magician locked
eyes for a long moment, his face peaceful and welcoming, hers hard and taut.

      "You want me to say I'm not a
monster," she asked him. "Too bad. I am."

      Doc shook his head.

      "We all are," Doc said. "Someday
I'll tell you why my eyes glow and you'll know—we're all monsters in some way
or another. It's what you do with what comes next that counts. "     

      The young cyborg almost smiled.
Doc settled for the slight loosening of the lines around her mouth as a sign he'd
said something right. She looked back down at the table.

      "Now I have to try to make
peace with the idea they were going to install an alien in my body," she
said. "Grr. That doctor in front of your name wouldn't happen to indicate
you're a psychotherapist, would it?"

      "I didn't even finish
college," Doc said.

      Bedlam looked at him to try to
figure out if he was kidding or not and then, finally, burst into laughter.

      "You didn't, did you?"
she said.

      "Nope," Doc said, just
as the other two pairs of heroes converged at the door, nearly simultaneously,
everyone looking like they'd had a very bad day. Worst of the lot was Titus,
covered in scratches and bruises and wearing different clothes than he'd left
in, and Emily, sporting a huge black eye and split lip, along with a bump on
her forehead that looked angry and painful.

      "What happened to you?"
Titus and Emily asked each other.

      "Got thrown out a third-story
window," Titus said.

      "Punched in the face by a
twelve foot tall alien," Emily said.

      Kate and Jane followed them in,
Kate looking roughed up but otherwise well, Jane with the last remnants of her
torn cape flapping off one shoulder. They looked at each other without saying a
word and sat down, Kate placed a dark plastic bag on the floor beside her.

      "I just thought of something,"
Titus said, gingerly sitting down. "Emily, have you ever been hit the
entire time we've been doing this?"

      "Hit by what," Emily
said.

      "A fist. A laser. A falling
rock. Anything," Titus said. 

      Emily pondered this for a minute.

      "Nope," she said.

      "Wait," Jane said,
leaning forward in her chair. "You really haven't, have you?"

      "I got hit with some sort of
decorative office supplies when rescuing Billy in the Labyrinth," Emily
said. "I think I got concussed one time. That's about it."     

      "I've lost enough blood to
stock a Red Cross drive and Emily's been concussed once," Titus said.

      "You have magical healing
abilities," Emily said. "Don't whine."    "You guys know it
still hurts when I get beat up, right?" Titus said. "Healing factor
does not mean impervious to pain. It actually feels like falling out a
three-story window. And 'he'll be better soon' is not funny, Kate."

      Kate seemed suddenly a lot more
invested in the conversation than she had been a moment before.

      "You heard that?" she said.

      "Super hearing to go with my
super healing," Titus said.

      "Just stating a fact,"
Kate said. She reached down beside her and dropped the plastic bag she'd
brought in onto the table.

      "We found this," she
said. "What did everyone else find?"

      "Hang on," Emily said,
interrupting. Kate shot her a dirty look. Emily ignored it. "On the
subject of me not pulling my weight in getting beat up like everyone else. I
want to learn how to fight."

      "How have you not learned to
fight yet?" Bedlam asked. "You're on a superhero team and you don't
know how?"

      "I hang out in the back behind
all these meatshields and make bubbles of float like a civilized person,"
Emily said. "I have not, until now, needed to do much punching. I am,
however, sick of that noise. Someone's going to teach me how to kick some butt.
I demand it."

      "I'll teach you," Kate
said. The entire room went quiet.

      "
You'll
teach me?"
Emily said.

      "Why wouldn't I?" Kate
said. "The more competent you are the less we have to worry about your
safety in the battlefield. It's to our advantage to not have you running around
like a declawed kitten in a combat situation."

      A very loud laugh escaped from Jane's
lips. "Sorry." She caught herself. "I think we're all a little
concussed. Can we debrief?" she said.

      Doc stood up, rubbing his eyes
beneath his glasses.

      "We've encountered something
interesting," Doc said. "It appears our old enemies, the Children of
the Elder Star, have been infiltrated from within. These aliens have taken
control of a number of members and have tried subverting their plans to the
advantage of the approaching invasion."

      "They were making host bodies
to give to the aliens when they get here," Bedlam blurted out. "Me. I
was supposed to be a host body. All of the experiments were."

      "That was the plan all along?"
Jane said. "That's why they made Project Valkyrie?"

      "Not exactly," Doc said.
"Oddly enough, according to the captive member of the Children Bedlam and
I just dropped off at the Labyrinth, most of their leadership still thinks they're
just a run of the mill organization bent on world domination for greed and
profit. They were unaware until recently that they'd been infiltrated. Which,
under less terrifying circumstances, would be hilarious to me given how vile
they are as a group in general."

      "So if you thought turning
teenagers into science experiments to be weapons of mass destruction wasn't
evil enough, imagine those kids were going to be used as extra special host
bodies for mind-controlling aliens," Bedlam said.

      Kate spoke next, gesturing to the
bag.

      "That's what remains of what
was controlling Lester Rice-Bell, president of RIETI," Kate said.

      "Who is currently in a coma,"
Titus said. "Removing that… parasite… that thing nearly killed him, but he
almost killed us while it was still attached."

      "How was he able to pass for
normal?" Bedlam asked. "Our guy had a parasite, too, but he was all
misshapen. His skin was changing."

      Kate produced a stack of yellow
legal paper from a pouch on her belt.

      "Before he fell unconscious,
Rice-Bell pointed to a box containing these," she said. "Titus read
them on the flight back."

      "Apparently Rice-Bell was
only recently, um, infested," Titus said. "These were his notes from
the past few months. It sounds like the parasite might have been working its
way up the chain of command at RIETI. Rice-Bell took notes on different
employees acting strangely, off kilter, unauthorized use of their radio
equipment, people coming and going at odd hours. These notes ended about a
month ago."

      "The time the parasite most
likely took him over," Doc said. "I wish I knew more about these
things. It might be that the parasite changes the host gradually over time and
Rice-Bell hadn't begun experiencing the full effects yet."

      "Or maybe the parasite didn't
need him to be stronger, and so wasn't changing his physiognomy," Kate
said.

      "Ours did know he was being
hunted," Doc said. "Perhaps the parasite started pumping him up for a
fight?"

      Doc turned to Jane next.

      "What did you find?" he
asked.

      "Two more parasitic entities,
just like yours," Jane said. "But the hosts couldn't have been human."

      She described the odd creatures
they fought, both giant and multi-limbed.

      "Whatever they were, they
were strong," Jane said. "And those parasite things seemed to be
providing them other powers. Speed, healing."

      "I wonder if those were host
bodies they brought with them from outer space, or if they found them here,"
Emily said. "You told us there are already a lot of aliens inhabiting the
Earth, right?"

      Doc exhaled deeply.

      "I don't know. It might be worth
you asking Neal to research and find out if they match any descriptions of
aliens we've encountered before," he said.

      "Whatever they were, that was
the welcoming committee," Jane said. "They'd set themselves up with a
little bunker in the desert. Like they expected company."

      Doc sat back down again, feeling
older and more tired than he had in a long time.

      "I just wish we knew more,"
Doc said. "The former Straylight and his partner Horizon were so quiet
about this though. They rarely talked about it. We never got the full story out
of them."

      "I might be able to help with
that," an unfamiliar, metallic voice said.

      Standing in the doorway, holding
onto the frame for support, stood the alien Billy, Jane, and Emily had
discovered fallen from the sky. His scaled skin dry and cracked, his huge eyes
dull and exhausted, he spoke English slow and deliberately, without a
noticeable accent. 

      "My name is Seng," he
said.

      Titus stood up and helped him to a
chair.

      "I would like to help prevent
your world from dying," the alien said.

Chapter
21:

Where
Horizon went

Billy watched in wonder as the
plant-like Nemesis vessels drifted by, almost close enough to touch, just
outside the windows of Suresh's ship. The little ship itself hummed with a
mechanical life, a sort of sterile white noise that made it feel somehow even
more quiet than ordinary silence.

      "So this stealth technology
thing really works, huh?" Billy said.

      Suresh joined him by the window,
handing him a cup of what the older man claimed was coffee generated by the
ship's kitchen. It looked like coffee, it smelled like coffee, but Billy
thought the closest approximate flavor it compared to was ear wax.

      "Most of the time,"
Suresh said. "Depends on who you're trying to hide from. There's a lot of
species out there, and not everyone perceives reality the same way. Fortunately
the crews of those ships use mostly the same senses we do, both naturally and
technologically."

      "So you just… found this
ship?" Billy asked. The entire craft was white and chrome, like something
out of a particularly pleasant view of the future.

      "Our solar system is either
very lucky or very unfortunate," Suresh said. "A lot of things pass
through here. Ships, debris, explorers. Some might say we're positioned
somewhere that attracts attention, but others, more philosophically, think
Earth is somehow, I don't know. Important. That it's fated for things. And that
fate draws others here."

      "Like this ship," Billy
said.

      "I suppose," Suresh
said. "The occupants died long before I found it. And I only found it
because, in case your Dude hasn't explained to you, the Luminae perceive things
not only through their hosts' senses, but through light. So Horizon and I were
able to find this invisible ship just drifting out by Neptune. Derelict. And we
made it home."

      Billy kept his eyes on the Nemesis
fleet, amazed at how they lacked uniformity. It was as if each ship were not
built so much as they were grown, with all the different variations a living
thing might take on as it developed. The ships had personalities, and flaws,
quirks and strengths. Some were more similar than others—the little
fighter-style craft often looked very much alike—but each one had its own
singular personality.

      "So what did the others tell
you of me, then, Mr. Case," Suresh said, sipping his coffee.    

      "Doc only said you went to
the stars," Billy admitted. "He doesn't talk much about any of the
old team. Only when we need to know things."

      "Do you think he's
deliberately keeping you in the dark?" Suresh said.

      Billy shook his head.

      "I think he doesn't want to
speak ill of people, actually," Billy said. "Because he said all of
you, himself included, just gave up on being heroes."

      Suresh walked closer to the
windows and watched the enemy armada floating by, relentless and silent.

      "And Straylight? What does he
have to tell you about me?" Suresh said.

      Dude had been strangely quiet
since they came on board. Though Billy could sense him busily doing something
in the back of his head. He suspected Dude was having a private conversation
with Suresh's Luminae right now, in whatever silent language they shared.

      "He talks about you and my
predecessor as being good people," Billy said. "But he's always kept
a lot to himself. He says sometimes it's better to not know too much about
those who came before."

      Suresh turned his back on the
window to look directly at Billy.

      "Have they disgusted you yet?"
Suresh said.

      "Kate's gym bag is vile,"
Billy said.

      "Not your teammates,' Suresh
said. "Humanity. Have they let you down yet?"

      Billy thought about their
imprisonment not long ago, about having his connection to Dude severed. He
thought about what he'd seen the Children of the Elder Star doing to kids just
like him, in labs, under the knife. He thought about a future they had to save
from destruction because of human behavior and hubris. He thought of all the
little crimes they'd stopped as a team, all the awful things they'd seen, all
the darkness, all the tragedy.

      "Not yet," Billy said
instead.

      The old man smiled a broad,
white-toothed smile.

      "They made me so angry,"
Suresh said. "Nigel and I—Nigel was Straylight before you, you know, the
finest living being I have ever known—we became heroes years before Doc Silence
and the rest. The Luminae keep you young, they keep you strong. But when Doc
and the others started to appear, and that fool magician suggested we band
together and make the world a finer place… it was nice to be a part of
something. Among other heroes. But the weariness was already growing in me,
even then."

      "Weariness about what?"
Billy said.

      "The darkness in humanity,"
Suresh said. "It's like trying to stop a flood. You plug a hole, you
divert the water, but it always finds a way to keep coming, it pools at your
feet. And grows and grows and grows. No matter how hard you try, humans always
find a way to be awful to each other."

      "You must've been so much fun
at parties," Billy said.

      Suresh laughed again.

      "I wasn't that bad until they
killed my friend," Suresh said. "Nigel, an optimist, could laugh it
off. He witnessed all the same awful things I did, but somehow… As long as we
worked together, I was able to overlook it. But when he died, that was the last
straw for me. I left."

      "Because you didn't think
humans deserved to be saved," Billy said.

      Billy felt a glimmer behind his
eyes, sensing Dude rejoining the conversation.

     
Horizon and Straylight were
partners,
Dude said.
We've always chosen complimentary hosts, humans we
knew would want to work together, who could feed each other's courage. But
Nigel and Suresh were different. We found them as boys. Friends. They grew up
together. They did not know a world in which the other didn't exist. We
sometimes chose our partners so that one could learn from the other, but the
timing, the circumstances… we thought these two boys, together, would be good
stewards for the world.

      How did Nigel die, Dude? Billy
thought.

      Dude hesitated. Billy could feel
his discomfort.

      I deserve to know, Billy thought.

     
You do,
Dude said.
He
died because Nigel was a good man, and he trusted the wrong person, at the
wrong time. And it cost him his life.

      Is that person he trusted standing
right in front of me? Billy thought.

     
No
, Dude said.
But
Horizon blamed himself. Which he shouldn't. Because…

      Because what, Dude? Billy thought.

     
Because the blame is on me,
Dude said.
I failed him. If anyone is to blame for your predecessor's death,
it was my incompetence.

      Billy's breath caught in his
throat. It hadn't occurred to him—how had this not occurred to me? He
thought—that Dude had to be there at the time of this Nigel guy's death. Nigel
was Dude's host. Dude would have felt the loss as it happened.

      Before Billy could pull on that
thread, Suresh spoke.

      "He's telling you about us,
isn't he?" Suresh said, folding his arms across his chest.

      "Not nearly enough,"
Billy thought.

      Suresh glanced over his shoulder
out the window again, staring at the fleet.

      "It doesn't much matter
anymore, I suppose," Suresh said. "The world I'd spent my not
inconsiderably long life protecting let my brother and friend die like a cow at
a slaughterhouse and I couldn't do it anymore. To hell with humanity, I said.
To hell with planet Earth. Let the Nemesis come. That place would deserve it."

      "But you're still here,"
Billy said.

      Suresh unfolded his arms, made a vague
gesture toward the Sun and, Billy supposed, toward Earth as well.

      "I couldn't do it," he
said. "I had to leave, to get away. It wasn't possible for me to look
humanity in the face anymore. But… I love my home, son, love that stupid,
ignorant little ball of dirt. I couldn't be there, but found it difficult to
leave. And when we found this ship…"     

      "You've been here the whole
time," Billy said reverently.

      "Watching. Waiting."

      "So you didn't give up,"
Billy said. "You just needed some space."

      "You're a lot kinder to me
than I am to myself."

      "I dunno, voluntary exile to
beyond the asteroid belt seems pretty harsh on yourself, man, not gonna lie,"
Billy said.

      "It hasn't been so bad,"
Suresh said, sounding suddenly tired. "Travelers pass through. I've helped
a few stranded vessels. Fought off some space pirates. Watched a lot of
streaming video."

      "What?" Billy said.

      "This ship is able to tap
into Earth media," Suresh said. "Streaming video and eBooks saved my
sanity."

      Billy looked at the wild hair and
overgrown beard on Suresh's face and frowned.

      "Wouldn't go that far,"
Billy said, joining him by the window. He tried again to get a count of the
vessels slowly flying by. "So what's our next move? You and me, taking out
the whole fleet? Go back to Earth as heroes, have a parade?"

      "I can't tell if that's youth
speaking, or legitimate delusions of grandeur," Suresh said.

      "Snark," Billy said. 'The
word you're looking for is snark."

      "Well, my sarcastic young
friend, you're going home," Suresh said. "We're going to stealthily
move far enough away so you've got a clean run back to Earth without being
spotted."

      "And you're going to go
finish watching the complete series of
Fringe
and leave us to all die a
horrible death," Billy said.

      "No," Suresh said, voice
calm, not taking the bait. "I'm going to find you some help."

      "Help?" Billy said. "What,
you going to call in the Starfleet or something?"

      Suresh looked at him with eyes
Billy suddenly realized had seen far more combat than he had in his young life.
Hard eyes, ready for a fight.

      "There's help out there if
you need it," Suresh said. "I'll be back, and, fates willing, I won't
be alone."