The Indestructibles (Book 4): Like A Comet (18 page)

Chapter
28:

Interlude:
Swords have names

Emily found Doc sitting by himself in a
hallway of the Labyrinth, head tilted back as if asleep. She could never tell
if he was sleeping or not with those glasses—he'd found a replacement pair
somewhere between the battle and now—and of course his tendency to be so still.
She wondered if it was some meditation thing he did, or if he just napped a lot
and pretended he was doing something else.

      The team had brought their
prisoner to the Labyrinth immediately, Emily holding the unconscious and
enormous alien in a bubble of float to contain him the entire way. They'd
deposited the captive in one of the strongest cells in the prison, a room
designed to hold powerful superhuman threats. No one was sure if the room would
be strong enough to contain him, but so far, so good, Emily thought. The
building was still standing.

      She sat down next to Doc,
deliberately picking the chair closest to him. Her feet didn't reach the floor,
so she kicked them back and forth, her oversized Doc Martens clunk heavily
against the legs of the chair.

      "What's up, Doc?" she
said. She did refrain from launching into her full
Bugs Bunny
imitation.

      He did not turn back to look at
her but responded softly. "Hello, Emily."

      "I have a question for you."

      "Go right ahead," Doc
said, his head still tilted back as if out of exhaustion. Emily wondered if the
fight earlier had taken a lot out of him somehow.

      "That sword you conjured up
out of nowhere. What is it?"

      "A sword."

      "No, I mean," Emily
said. "Is it a sword? Or is it a capital S Sword?"

      "I don't follow you."

      "Does it have a name is what
I'm asking. Is it famous."

      "Maybe," Doc said. "Would
it matter if it was?"

      "Is it Glamdring?"

      "No."

      "Orcrist?" Emily said.

      "No."

      "The Sword of Gryffindor?"

      "No," Doc said.

      "The Singing Sword? The
Master Sword?"

      "No and no," Doc said,
his tone continuing to be calm, tired, and monotonous.

      "Stormbringer?"

      "What? No," Doc said.

      "Longclaw?"

      "No."

      "Sikanda?"

      This one brought a smirk to Doc's
lips, but he shook his head.

      "No, it's not Sikanda."

      "The Vorpal Sword!"

      "Snicker snack," Doc
said.

      "Am I right?" Emily
said.

      "No," Doc said.

      "Dangit," Emily said. "Well
it can't be Excalibur, that's ridiculous."

      Doc raised an eyebrow from behind
his glasses at Emily. She tilted her chin questioningly.

      "You're putting me on, Doc
Silence," Emily said.

      He made a tiny gesture with his
hand and then pointed to the chair next to Emily. Sitting there comfortably in
an old leather scabbard sat Doc's sword. The hilt was simple, in a dark, almost
blue metal, the grip wrapped in oiled leather. The scabbard held no adornments,
just a sturdy home for a sturdy blade.

      Emily picked it up.

      "Careful with that," he
said. "Sharp."

      "Seriously. What is this
sword called?" Emily said.

      They were interrupted but the
rhythmic thumping of Henry Winter's cane as he strode down the hallway toward
them. Doc stood up and pointed at his old friend, who was accompanied on his
right by Keaton Bohr.

      "You," he said. "Get
your coat."

      "You look terrible," Henry
said.

      "I know," Doc said. "Coat.
Now."

      "Where we going?" Henry
said.

      "You and I are off to see an
old friend."

      "Can't you bring someone
else?" Henry said, looking sheepish. Emily eyeballed him as she sat down
in her chair, cradling the sword. "And why does she have a sword? That
thing looks like Braveheart's claymore in her hands. It's as tall as she is."

      "That's my sword, she's
holding it, and you're getting your coat," Doc said.

      "Bring Sam. Bring Alley Hawk!"

      "Sam isn't up to it, and
Alley Hawk's gone radio silent since he captured the Vermin King," Doc
said. "Kate's been checking in on him. You're up, sunshine. Coat."

      Henry sighed, shoulders sagging
dramatically.

      "Fine. Is he still… "
Henry trailed off.

      "Bring a warm coat," Doc
said.

      As the two older heroes argued,
Bohr gestured to Emily and to the glove she still wore.

      "How did that work out for
you?" he said.

      Emily turned her
gauntlet-encrusted hand back and forth a few times, inspecting it.

      "Could use some adjustments,
but it got the job done. Ka-blammo," she said.

      Bohr held out his hand and she
pulled the glove off and handed it to him. He flipped open a control panel near
the wrist and studied it. "We might have some better options for you if
you—"

      Before Bohr could finish, Doc
interrupted.

      "Em, Henry and I have to step
out. Tell Jane to stay on high alert in case the prisoner decides to try to
escape," he said. "I know she wants to try to reason with them, but I
don't want anyone taking any chances." 

      "You realize you just asked
the least responsible team member to rein in the most responsible team member,
right?" Emily said.

      "Desperate times call for
desperate measures," Doc said. "We'll be back."

      He shot Bohr a vaguely threatening
look.

      "We can talk tech when we get
back. Not before," Doc said.

      Henry waved an apologetic hand at
Bohr, seemingly to say—do as he says, sorry.

      Doc turned back to Henry.

      "Coat."

      Henry sighed heavily again.

      "Office. Fine. It's in my
office."

      The two veteran heroes walked
away, leaving Emily standing beside Bohr in the hall.

      "Hey Doc, you forgot your…"
Emily started to say, then held up her empty hands. The sword had disappeared. "Curses.
Foiled again."

      She smirked at the suddenly
anxiety-riddled Bohr.

      "You said you had other toys
I could test out?" she said.

      "That man scares me,"
Bohr said.

      "Doc? He's a teddy bear,"
Emily said.

      Bohr just blinked nervously at
her.

      "Fine," Emily said. "Gimme
my glove back. I need to go tell our best-behaved Indestructible to behave
herself."

Chapter
29:

Good
cop, bad cop

Kate watched Jane from the shadow of a
half-opened door in the Labyrinth's detention area. Jane had pulled a pair of
sweatpants with the Department's log on the leg over the leotard of her battered
uniform and replaced her one remaining boot with a pair of inmate-issue socks, then
sat in front of a set of monitors, cameras trained on their captive in his
holding cell.

      The massive creature sat perfectly
still, curled up on the floor with his knees pulled to his chest. The parasite
clinging to him seemed to breathe at a different rate than the host body did,
both creatures inhaling and exhaling slowly. The host's eyes barely blinked as
he stared at the door of his cell. He looked like a warrior, whatever he had
been in his previous life, before being enslaved by the Nemesis parasite—craggy
brow, scars across his entire upper body, a chipped fang visible in his jutting
lower jaw. It made sense, Kate thought; if the Children of the Elder Star were
working, knowingly or not, to build better host bodies for these aliens, it
would be logical that they took with them from previous worlds they'd destroyed
the strongest and most resilient examples of those species. Kate envisioned the
approaching fleet filled with a rainbow of aliens, all the most violent and
powerful versions of their civilizations. All coming here, prepared to battle.

      As much as I love a good fight,
Kate thought, I really don't want to see them get here.

      Kate pushed the door open the rest
of the way.

      Jane didn't turn to greet her.

      "Hello, Kate," she said.
"You could've come in five minutes ago."

      "You knew I was there?"
Kate said.

      "My super-senses are getting
stronger," Jane said. "I could hear your heartbeat."

      "That's… disconcerting,"
she said.

      "Try realizing you can hear
individual heartbeats and then we can talk about things being disconcerting,"
Jane said. She finally turned her eyes to Kate. "How are you?"

      "How am I?"

      "We've hardly had a chance to
say hello to each other since you came back," Jane said. "I missed
you."

      "Nobody misses me," Kate
said.

      "Well, it was weirder without
you here," she said.

      "That sounds more accurate,"
Kate said. She tapped one of the monitors. "Has he done anything?"

      "Nothing at all," she said.
"I can't tell if he's catatonic, he's meditating, or he's trying to put us
into a false sense of security so we'll make a mistake…"

      "We should talk to him,"
Kate said.

      Jane gave Kate a doubtful look.

      "I don't think he speaks
English," Jane said.

      "I speak four languages."

      "Or French or Japanese or…
what's the fourth one?" Jane said.

      "Spanish."

      "Or Spanish," Jane said.

      "What's the worst that can
happen?" Kate said. "He attacks and kills one of us? Let's speak to
him."

      Jane paused as if she were going
to say no, but she got up out of her chair and headed for the door.

      "If this goes at sixes and
sevens I'm telling everyone it was your idea," Jane said.

      "Why wouldn't you?" Kate
said. "It
was
my idea."

* * *

      The cell holding the alien
prisoner was larger than most in the Labyrinth. One of the technicians had made
an off-handed comment when the team brought the creature in about this cell
being "designed especially for" something or someone, but Henry
Winter made a gesture across his own throat at the tech and the young man went
silent. Kate wondered what threat it had originally been crafted for, and if it
was, in fact, strong enough to hold the being now locked inside.

      The door she and Jane used to
enter, however, was still normal sized. It opened with a heavy thud, letting
the greenish interior light spill out. Next to the entrance, a Labyrinth guard
who had introduced himself as Two-Ton Tony warned them to make for the exit if
things seemed to be getting out of control and they'd pump the room full of
anesthetic gas.

      The alien inside, however, seemed
anything but out of control.

      Tall enough that sitting on the
floor he was nearly at the same level as both Kate and Jane, the creature did
not react as the women walked up to him, not even with his eyes. Kate observed
those organs with curiosity. Funny that we both have eyes, she thought. Not
that we can see, or that we have optical organs, but that we have two spheres,
in our heads, pointed forward, to observe the universe with. It seemed like a
stretch that human and alien would be so similar. But then Jane had described
the aliens she and Emily fought in the desert who hadn't been nearly as
human-like, and the parasites themselves were so strange they didn't seem to fit
firmly into a category of animal or vegetable, and had no outward indications
of how they took in information around them. Maybe the Nemesis creatures
preferred to find aliens who were like humans. Maybe they sought those species
out specifically.

      Kate waited for some sign from
those eyes. They certainly did not look human. Yellowish, and made up of rows
of circles inside rather than a single iris, Kate found herself curious what
the design differences meant. Did he see dozens of her? Did those circles provide
some sort of extrasensory peripheral vision? Or were they just cosmetic? The
art of biology?

      Jane knelt down in front of the
alien to better look at him.

      "I don't know what you can
hear and what you can understand," Jane said. "But I want to talk with
you. I want to communicate with you. Is there any part of you inside there who
understands me?"

      The alien remained impassive,
unmoving.     

      "We don't want war. We just
want to be left in peace. Is there anything we can do to make that happen?"
Jane said, again with no response.

      Kate wanted to judge her, to be
annoyed by her desire to talk with this killing machine, but she found herself
strangely inspired by it. Someone still needs to have a little bit of hope,
Kate thought. I certainly don't have any. But this is Jane's job. To be the
best of us. To look for that one remaining peaceful option. But Kate studied
this creature's skin, the scars, the thick knuckles of its fists, and saw a
being who had been through many battles long before the Nemesis fleet destroyed
his world. This was a warrior. There was no surrender there. Kate imagined that
his world, much like her own, refused to go quietly into oblivion. She thought
about what it would be like to be like him, to be taken over, to have some
alien parasite commanding her every move.

      She'd shared her mind with the
Straylight entity for a little while, and Billy's Dude, while pushy and
judgmental, had not been controlling. Never did Kate feel like she was no
longer in charge. But these aliens… they looked defeated. They were like
domesticated beasts.

      She thought, at least a little
bit, that she might understand them.

      "You wish to be free,"
Kate said quietly. The alien didn't react, but she continued. "These
monsters put a yoke on you and won't let go. I imagine this is worse than
dying. You would have rather died fighting them than become a part of them. I
understand that."

      The parasite twitched. And for the
first time, the alien host blinked. No other movement, no other reaction, just
a blink. But Kate could tell he was listening.

      "I'm sure you don't
understand my words, but I bet that creature on your chest is translating my
tone. And I'll say this. We'll set you free when this is over," Kate said.
"I promise you that. Whether it's true freedom or just an honorable death,
we'll do everything we can to help you."

      The alien blinked once more. The
parasite pulsated faster, beginning to glow red inside, just slightly, softly.

      "We might want to step
outside," Jane said.

      Kate nodded.

      "I know you can't help us,"
Kate said, not moving as Jane stood up and put a hand on her shoulder. Out of
the corner of her eye, Kate saw Jane gesture to the cameras that Tony should
open the door for them. "But if we survive this, I'll make sure you don't
have to suffer any longer."

      The creature's entire body
shivered, just once, as if it caught a chill. Jane pulled gently on Kate's arm,
and Kate allowed herself to be led out of the cell. She looked back once and
saw the alien's bright yellow eyes watching her. No longer blank, she thought.
There was something there, behind them, some thought, some intelligence. Maybe
it understood what she said. Or maybe the creature just found her voice
annoying. Kate didn't know. She realized she never would.

      Kate and Jane stepped outside the
cell and, as the heavy door closed with a loud metallic thud, Kate felt tension
she didn't know she'd had release across her back and shoulder.

      "What just happened in there?"
Jane said.

      "I have no idea," Kate
said.

      "Well, something
you
said got its attention," she said.

      Kate shrugged, noncommittal.

      "We'll try again later,"
Jane said.

      Kate nodded. Before she could
answer, their earpieces chirped simultaneously, Neal's voice filling their
heads.

      "Designation: Solar, are you
available?" Neal said.

      Kate and Jane exchanged a worried
glance. They'd had the AI monitoring the skies for another incursion, and
neither wanted to face a second round of enemy ships.

      "Go ahead, Neal. Is it
another attack?" Jane said.

      "I do not believe so, Designation:
Solar," Neal said. "I have picked up something you should be aware of
however."

      "Don't keep us in suspense,
Neal," Jane said.

      "Something is entering the
atmosphere right now," Neal said. "I at first thought it was just a
small meteor, but I noticed a unique energy signature."

      "Neal, spit it out,"
Jane said.

      "The signature matches that
of a Luminae, specifically Designation: Straylight," Neal said. "But
the object is not responding to my requests to identify itself. I suggest
someone investigate."

      "Billy is falling out of the
sky right now?" Jane said, her voice rising.

      "That is entirely possible,
Designation: Solar," Neal said.

      "Where?" Jane said, her
expression incredulous. She waved a perfunctory, polite goodbye to Tony at the
controls of the cell and started walking away. Kate followed, curious.

      "The object, should it
continue on its current course, should crash in… well, the City's downtown
district," Neal said, sounding almost amused.

      "I'm on my way," Jane
said. "Emily, are you online?"

      Emily's voice crackled in the
earpieces.

      "Where are you? I'm over near
the cafeteria. Nobody knows where you are."

      "I'm heading up to the
surface. Meet me there. Hurry," Jane said.

      "OMW," Emily said.

      Jane shot Kate a worried look.
Kate read everything there in the other woman's eyes—fear, concern, and most of
all, a distinct request: do not go back inside the cell without me.

      "Go," Kate said.

      Jane nodded and broke into a run,
her hair turning to flames behind her.