Chapter 38: The Only Ones
The sky overhead burned in the bright spectral lights of the perpetual storms of Trellan IX. The large gas giant’s disk half shadowed in the endless sky above, an ever-shifting kaleidoscope of raucous colors whose phantasmagorical patterns drew the eyes like a magnet made of screaming light. The city of Korscam burned too, but not with the swirling matrix of nature’s fury. Instead they burned in the fires of rage and ruin, the explosions that had cut off citywide communications and damaged key points of infrastructure casting a dark pall over the chaos below. Clouds of thick oily smoke that obscured the city from Trellan IX’s watchful gaze like the sheet of a mortician over a body long cold.
Paulie and Jakiikii stumbled over another pile of shattered masonry that had been dislodged by the nearby blasts. The ground was cratered and scarred with heat blasts, likely plasma burns. The sounds of fighting were very close now, along with the strange noise he had identified moments before. Small fires burned everywhere and he choked on a thin haze of smoke and ash.
Jakiikii paused, stopping on a corner and holding up her hand in the gesture she used to let him know she was about to cloak. He nodded and pressed himself into the cover of a nearby recessed doorway as the termaxxi gave him another concerned look and then shimmered. In heartbeats she was gone, moving off to see what she could see like a phantom in the night. Only a slight disturbance left in the haze as proof that she had ever been there.
Paulie shuddered as that strange groaning hum seemed to shudder through his very bones, the bass rumble of it vibrating the very ground beneath his boots. Like the moaning of some huge creature, images of ancient predators from primordial Earth’s oceans flashed unbidden to his mind. The stark clarity of these ancient horrors dragged from the depths of his subconscious as if by intention. He frowned, likely the damned parasite at work again trying to unbalance him. He grumbled and tried to think happier thoughts to counter its efforts.
For another minute Paulie waited in tense silence, his right hand heavy with the gun he held at a low ready. Prepared to unleash hell in a moment should the danger he feared present itself. He scuffed his boots on the duracrete below him as he tried to suppress his worry. Jakiikii was probably the most capable person on this planet of remaining undetected, even more so than he himself. He smiled a bit as he thought about her, she was everything he was not.
No, there was no reason to worry. If there was anyone on this entire planet that could sneak around without getting caught it was the enigmatic termaxxi woman. And so Paulie leaned his back against the wall as he waited for her to come back for him.
It didn’t take her long, after another minute of waiting and listening to the sound of conflict he saw a faint shimmer drop from the wall on the other side of the street. Remembering what she had said earlier he immediately tried to pretend that he had not seen her, looking around as casually as possible. But his eyes kept flicking towards that patch of unnatural warped light that zipped its way towards him. Small eddies in the smoke that drifted along the pavement giving her away as clearly to him as a neon sign.
Paulie stepped out into the light as the termaxxi reappeared in the dim light of dusk, the flickering of the overhead street lights casting deep shadows across the street.
“What is it, did you get a good look?” He asked her as her breathing slits flared.
She gave him a long look before answering. “It’s not zalcing good, I will tell you that. The precinct looks like it took some heavy damage and activated the failsafe.” She gestured over her shoulder. “That’s the noise. Megaton-rated Zirco shield generator. No way they are getting through that. Either way.” she added.
Paulie shrugged. He didn’t know what a Zirco shield generator was, but he did understand the grimness in her tone. He took another step into the street, pacing for an instant as time ticked by. This was bad, this was really bad.
“We can’t get a message in?” He asked her. She shook her head slightly, all eyes locked on him. Paulie swore under his breath, that sense of dread creeping back. He quashed it and then squared his shoulders, determined to be useful in some manner. “Well, there has to be something we could do.”
Jakiikii seemed to perk up. “Wait, there might be a way to get a connection through!” She fumbled at the larger pouch on her suit’s belt and withdrew the dataslate she had borrowed from the library earlier that day. The one that had already led to their situation as it were.
He shrugged. “What are we going to do with that?” The sound of the energy shield grew in pitch along with an intensification of cracks and pops. The fight nearby seemed to be intensifying.
She turned it on, the pinging of gunfire a constant distraction as she fiddled on the controls. Suddenly she made a small noise of triumph and held it so he could see. The falling lines of alien text looked as indecipherable to him in that instant as they had since his first encounter with them, and he just shrugged again before giving her a look.
She shook her head, “You really need to learn galactic common. Here, this light?” She pointed to a symbol in the upper part of the device, it was a series of small circular pips. Each one moving slightly counterclockwise around the others. “It says that we are close enough to connect directly to the local area network of the precinct. We might not be able to get in physically, but we can at least try and get a message in.”
There was another series of blasts in the distance. Possibly the cultists or invaders or whatever they were trying to gain entry to the precinct.
He stepped to her side protectively and she glanced up into his face with two eyes. He smiled thinly and then was surprised as she touched his cheek softly with a free hand. “That was really cute of you to pretend you didn’t see me earlier by the way.”
Paulie blushed slightly, caught. “Well, I uh..” But before he could finish speaking she waved him off.
She muttered as she messed with the pad again. Paulie leaned closer to the alien woman as the dexterous fingers of her smallest arms flew over the keyboard. Her others held at a low ready by her sides, one still gripping the handle of the MDF pistol he had given her earlier.
Another few seconds and the screen changed suddenly, the falling text changing to a black square. Paulie cocked his head, the square was filled with small red pinpricks. They looked almost like..
“Officer Jakiikii. Human, Paulie. It is fortuitous that we have reestablished contact with you. The precinct and city has fallen under attack.” Rozz said calmly from over the connection. The hive-mind’s voice a low burbling buzz that made Paulie think of masses of swarming beetles in a pool of thick tar. A slick, syrupy tone that seemed to slide from the device with reluctance.
“Yes, that’s the problem. The communications are on lockdown..” Paulie started to say, but was actually cut off by the dark shifting mass.
“No, destroyed. Not enough time for back and forth. I was informed to relay any contact from you to Senior Detective Mack immediately, they are on the line.” The image shifted, Mack’s large expressive grey eyes now filling the screen.
The miriam gave a loud outburst to something on his left before turning back to the screen. “Jakiikii! Paulie! You are alive! Oh, this is fortunate news!” The alien exclaimed, his sharp teeth flashing as he gave them both a wide grin that was at odds with his tired and bedraggled features. A smear of bright blue liquid dripped from a cut on the alien’s head. But he either didn't notice or was too tired to care.
Jakiikii tensed, immediately concerned for the man that had given her life stability and meaning. But it was not to her that Mack addressed his next comment.
The miriam’s sensory quills chattered as he pulled back a bit from whatever camera he was using to communicate. “Paulie, there is no time to explain the situation on the ground. It’s dire. Life and death. You need to get to the Palace as soon as possible, I fear that the attack here is a delaying tactic only and that the monarch is in danger. They don’t have the firepower to break the building’s defenses, but neither can we leave while the failsafe protocol is active.” He took a breath, nodding and then giving fast instructions to something or somebody out of view. There was a clatter and movement in the background.
When Mack turned his head back towards them there was a haggard look in his eyes that he could not conceal. “I won’t lie to you both. The situation is dangerous, and there is a likelihood that many more will die tonight. But if there is anyone in this entire world that could turn our fortunes this night, it is you two.” Silence reigned after the declaration.
Paulie looked at Jakiikii, she was fixated on the screen. Four of her six eyes turning to look at him as he grimaced. She sucked in a breath, the breathing vents on her upper back flaring as she spoke softly. “How do we get to the palace? The city is locked down and it’s the middle of the night.”
Paulie snapped his fingers. “The car park! Mack..” He gestured towards the car park, on the far side of several blocks. “Is there anything there we can use?”
This time it was Rozz that answered, their guttural voice cutting in without superseding Mack’s picture feed. “There are several vehicles registered to the use of federal and local authority that may be remotely accessed. I could direct you to one of them.” There was a pause. “But I should clarify that there is heavy hostile activity in the area. It would be very dangerous to your selves, and your kind die so easily.”
The cold, near-passionless voice of the alien didn’t do much to dissuade Jakiikii though. Her own temper rising as she gripped Paulie’s nearer hand in one of hers. “It needs to be done.”
Mack spoke up suddenly, “It’s dangerous..” He seemed to be trying to talk himself out of his own doubts. He opened his mouth, but Paulie spoke up first.
Paulie nodded. “But it’s necessary.”
Jakiikii nodded and squeezed his hand harder. Paulie gripped it tight, he saw Mack’s expression harden slightly as the miriam nodded. Sensory spines along the back of his neck chattered as he spoke with a sense of finality. “Then you best get to it, time is not on our side. May the blessings of the infinite be upon you both.” The connection cut, Mack’s face being replaced by the many red eyes of Rozz.
“You two may not succeed.” A pause. “You could be destroyed, this can not be.” Rozz said, thick accent bubbling with something that sounded disturbingly like emotion.
Paulie swallowed. “Never, couldn’t be me.”
Jakiikii might not have understood the reference, but she got his attitude. “Yes, no way we could fail. We are too awesome.” Once again he felt her fingers entwine with his.
The eyes blinked like the twinkling of blood red stars in that inky black mass. “False bravado. We see through your facade, you are fearful.” Paulie felt a little flash of annoyance, but was forestalled from his outburst as the strange alien admitted to them, “We are too.”
“What?” Was all Paulie could utter, his breath leaving him explosively as the tension he had been building was released all at once.
“Yes. We are fearful. We found the alternate, the Counterrozz. And what we found cannot be true, but the collective is incapable of lies. And so the truth is as it was revealed to us. The dark ones have returned, the ancient threat still looms in the spaces between reason and mindless terror. I warn you both, there is much more at stake than at first appears.” The alien’s burbling voice changed, becoming slow.. serious. “You. Must. Not. Fail.”
Paulie’s voice shook slightly. “What happens if we do?”
The Rozz was silent for a long moment. “The old time of fear will begin anew. The whispering in the darkness has foretold.. when the beings from the pit of doom would rise again. We fear that time is now, and that you are the catalyst of our apocalypse.” The link severed, Rozz’s words hanging heavy in the air.
Jakiikii looked at him with wide eyes, the orange of her irises flashing. “What did Rozz mean by that?” she breathed.
Paulie swallowed, pulling Jakiikii a little closer. “I don’t have a clue, but a part of me feels like we might find out sooner rather than later.” In the back of his mind, dark laughter echoed and he closed his eyes, but the laughter didn’t stop.