A Month Later

After completing Entry Thirteen in my tentatively titled novel, I decided to back up my work and check on my progress. I've written 118 pages, all told. At this rate I'd likely have enough material in two more months for a complete novel, but it depends on how it plays out. I'm reminded of participating in an NaNoWriMo (or however you're supposed to capitalize that) and ending up with about fifty pages of nonsensical gibberish about robots. Hopefully this project turns out a bit better. 

About some of the directions I'm taking with this novel:

I was originally going to have everyone on New Gaia talk with outrageous British accents, then I realized it would be like having a planet full of Ronald Weasleys. ("Bloody 'ell!")

I was also going to use the not-quite future swearing popularized by comic books like Lobo, 2000 A.D., and TV shows like Battlestar Galactica. ("Frak!") At the moment, there's no swearing in the novel, unless it's still 1988 and you count "Hell," and, "bastard," as swears (I know my mom does.) I'm trying to keep it basic, but I'm wondering if all the characters sound the same, like a terribly written Shakespeare play. I'm also noticing that it's mostly dialogue In fact, it could practically be a script, so if the dialogue's no good, then the whole novel is garbage. That's concerning.

Entry Thirteen

Entry Thirteen:

            Jackie immediately drew her sidearm and harshly threw Deborah out of the way. She opened fire, letting out a flash of white light that momentarily blinded everyone in the cockpit. As before, Conner was unscathed, but a section of the pilot’s chair was missing. His smile broadened. “Is that my sister under that helmet?” he asked coyly through the distortion of his helmet speakers.

            “What the Hell?” Kylie bounded into the cockpit to survey the damage. Jackie kept her gun aimed at Conner, who kept his weapon holstered. He made not threatening gestures and seemed rather amused at the proceedings.

            “You should see the looks on your faces,” he said. “I’ve been waiting here for hours to do that.”

            “How did you get in here?” Kylie raged.

            “The door, obviously,” Conner said as he strummed his gauntleted fingers on the armrest. “I rather like it here. She’s a fine ship, and she’s hauling quite the bounty, my fair lady. Did you notice this missing?” he reached to the side of the chair and pulled up a round orb.

            Kylie went pale and put her hands out imploringly as she made her way to the front of the crowd. “Put that down carefully,” she said slowly and clearly as she inched closer.

            “Oh? Is it dangerous?” Conner tossed it up and down in his hand. Kylie recoiled at the first catch, but then steadies herself. “I’ll admit, I don’t know quite what it does. I picked it mostly because it was shiny.”

            As he tossed it into the air again, Kylie’s hand shot out and grabbed it from him. He was a little surprised. “This,” she said as she turned the two halves, “is a bomb powerful enough to destroy this ship and everyone in it, including you. I’ve just activated it. Now you have fifteen seconds to clear out before I detonate this.”

            Conner half-rose from his chair, as if to flee, then sat back down and spun around, laughing like a child. “I lied, I know what it does. It’s a security orb. It’s nothing but a remote camera.” Kylie bit her lip as he called her bluff. “Please, I know you’d never endanger your ship or your crew. I’m afraid I can’t say the same.” Once he had assessed the situation, General Ford escaped out the rear hatch pushing his two men in front of him. Kevin stuck his head up from the cargo hold to watch as they left and wondered if he should follow. Conner leaned out to see that they were gone, and listened to the commotion outside. “Anyone else want off? No?” he added without waiting for a response. He reached over to the panel and pressed a spot on the touch panel, and the hatch sealed. “I have to admit I was a little intimidated by the controls when I first saw them, but I think I have a handle on things.”

            With a scream of pure rage, Jackie leapt on Conner as he faced the panel. Her hands immediately went for the latches on his helmet, but he grabbed her by the wrists. Gavin could hear the crunch as he crushed the new wrist unit she had donned, and she gave a sharp cry of pain. “Don’t be such a cry baby,” he told her as he rose from his seat with her still slung over his shoulders and head. As he turned, Gavin saw how his hands were occupied and dove in to reach for the latches. Conner kicked at him and sent him flying. In the crowded cabin, he knocked over Deborah and Fredriks It felt like one of his ribs might have broken under the impact. “Want to go for a piggyback ride?” Conner asked as he forced his way through the crowd and ducked out of the cockpit. He walked over to the cargo hold where Kevin was looking up and tossed Jackie down on him. Kevin had barely enough time to put out his arms to catch her. He then pressed the hidden control switch that closed the doors again, sealing them both in. He waved to them as it shut.

            “Hold it right there,” Kylie said as she pointed a gun at his head. Conner looked over his shoulders, then down to his holster. Kylie had picked the gun out as he had brushed past her. She looked down the plain iron-style sight past the strange carved beak of the barrel.

            “Looks like you…” Conner began to say, but Kylie pulled the trigger.

            Nothing happened.

            “Looks like you don’t know what you’re doing,” Conner finished. “It only works with the armour. Listen, all this violence is fun, but I’ve got work to do.” He walked up to Kylie and held out his hand expectantly. Kylie looked at him for a long moment then reluctantly surrendered the weapon back to him. He snatched it away as soon as it touched his gauntlet. He stood still as he looked her over and took her measure then holstered his weapon. “Very good. I see you have some brains.”

            “You’re not taking this ship,” Kylie warned him.

            “I’m taking this ship,” he assured her. “I was going to invite you to come along, although I really just wanted to bring my sister. The more the merrier, they say.”

            Deborah cradled Gavin as he gasped for breath. Conner came back into the cockpit. Lance was crowding the entrance and he briskly shoved him aside. “What’s his problem?” he asked as he looked down at Gavin.

            “He needs medical attention,” Deborah said as she looked up.

            “He’ll heal,” Conner said. “Isn’t that what you Generates do well?” Gavin spat up blood and wiped it away on his sleeve. He kept wheezing. “Say, aren’t you my sister’s new boyfriend?” he asked as he knelt down beside Gavin. “That’s right, you were there that night. Captain Gavin Dales of X-77. I’m sorry, Gavin, but I seemed to have misplaced your toy. I tossed it aside once I downloaded everything I needed from it. Tell me, Gavin, how’s my bed been treating you?”

            “What?” Gavin tried to say, but it didn’t come out quite clearly.

            “I’ve been watching you. You’ve been through my things. You’ve worn my clothes. You’ve read my books. I hope the décor was to your liking,” Conner stood up and walked over to the console. “What did you think of my journal? I forgot I even had it. I stopped writing in it about the time father died. Did it give you any insight into what I’m trying to accomplish? If I recall, I wrote mostly about mother, and how I didn’t want to be King. Not many clues there, really. Here, let me get that for you,” he pulled his gun on Gavin and opened up a panel on the back the showed a digital display.

            “No!” Deborah tried to shield Gavin with her own body.

            “Will you relax, I’m not going to kill him,” he told her irritably. Having set something into the gun, he reached out to touch Gavin with the barrel over where he’d been injured. He looked at the screen for a second then decided, “Take him to the back and get him patched up. You,” he snapped his fingers at Lance, which made a metallic pinging sound. “Carry him over gently. I was a little too rough with him.” Lance obliged by bending down and gently lifting Gavin. He was as careful as if he were carrying a child, but Gavin still cried out in pain. Conner winced a little at his cry then turned his attention to the monitors. A group of soldiers had gathered outsides and they were brining tanks down the rail line. Conner laughed. “Do they even know this thing is invincible?” he asked Kylie. “Here, let’s keep them from blowing themselves up. I mean really, they have about fifty guys out there right now on the platform. One shot from a tank could blow the platform away and they’d lose their own men. This is why the war’s taken over a hundred years to fight. I sometimes think there’s more inbreeding in our army than my own family line.” Conner sat down and tapped at the console. A humming filled the ship as the engines sprung to life. Outside, soldiers began fleeing off of the platform. “Look at them run,” he laughed. “They’re lucky your jets burn cold, or they’d be melted to the deck by now.”

            “What do you think you’re doing with my ship?” Kylie demanded as she leaned over the console in front of him with her teeth bared.

            “I’m stealing it, obviously. I’m a terrorist murderer. You think hijacking a ship is beneath me? It should be, but it’s not,” he reached past Kylie and began to turn the ship around.

            “Everyone in your seats!” Kylie warned as the ship began to move.

            In the back, Lance had assisted Gavin onto a slab table that was pulled out from the wall. Deborah bounded him to it with straps that pulled out from the side and raised a cage around it. Then she quickly buckled herself to the seat next to it while Lance found an empty seat along the wall.

            Conner turned the ship around and began to climb up the long corridor by the railway while they were fired upon. The only evidence they were under attack was the video feed on the monitors showing troops firing at them. As they passed a tank descending the rails on a platform, it turned it’s barrel against them and fired. There was no so much as a shudder in the ship. “They’ve blocked the exits,” Kylie realized. She had strapped herself into the Co-Pilot’s chair and she zoomed in on the monitors. While the tunnel itself was over a hundred feet wide, the exit was quite narrow. A steel door had slid shut over their escape route.

            “Not to worry, I have their passcode,” Conner slowed to a hover as they approached, with the ship at a sharp tilt. The gravity generator aboard the ship kept everyone from tilting as well. He opened a sub-menu on the control panel and typed a long sequence into the controls. A moment later, the doors began to grind open. “There, do you see? Nothing to worry about. I don’t even have to mess up their precious base. I have, however, informed my former compatriots as to its whereabouts and given them the same passcode. We’ll see how that plays out in the future.”

            “Where do you think you’re taking us?” Kylie demanded.

            Conner merely pointed upwards. Kylie followed his signal and saw the faint outline of New Gaia’s larger moon, Diana. With that, he exited the tunnel. There was already a swarm of jets in the air pursuing them, but he sped past them. They vanished in the distance as the purple haze of the sky grew fainter into darkness and the stars appeared. Conner brought up the rear-view image of the planet as they exited into space. “She truly is a remarkable ship,” he complimented Kylie. The white surface of Diana fast approached and Conner slowed their speed. He touched down on the surface between two odd structures that looked like pyramids. “There’s no docking station here, I’m afraid,” Conner told her, “and there’s only four suits onboard. Why don’t you go and put one on?” he suggested.

            Kylie shook her head in disbelief. “That was a perfect landing. How could you know how to fly this thing?” she demanded.

            Conner sighed. “The problem with you Generates is that you have no respect for the common man. You think anyone born of a woman is automatically inferior. Well I may be a, ‘Norm,’ as you call us, but I’m anything but common. As for your ship, it’s virtually idiot-proof. I’ve had a harder time riding a bicycle. Now go put on your suit,” he insisted, “unless you think you can hold your breath.”

            Deborah had unbuckled herself and was scrambling with the readout on the medical control panel. She loosed his straps and opened his to expose his bare chest which feature a large bruised area. Deborah bit her lip with worry as she looked it over and entered in a series of commands on the console. A contraption descended from a compartment in the ceiling with a series of tools extending from its mechanical arm. A clear curtain dropped around them simultaneously and sealed them inside. Something that looked like a pair of curved tongs lowered over his chest and moved back and forth several times. “I’m going to give you something for the pain,” she told him. An arm with a single needle dropped and an attachment at the side held his wrist steady before injecting the needle into the back of his hand. Gavin felt the initial sting then his pain subsided and a delirium overtook him. A device looking like a flat white dish with several needles attached to it came down and pressed itself over his injured area. He felt a little bit numb after the injection, but he could feel the needles pressing into his flesh. Something coiled out of them and wormed their way inside. He squirmed, but Deborah put her hand on his shoulder and tried her best to soothe him with a hushing sound. Gavin let his head sink back into the brace for his neck as the needles continued their work. He could feel cold sweat on his brow, but not much else. The lights in the cabin looked a little brighter, but he felt like that was a trick of his brain. He began to think idly about his school teacher who’d never been real and wondered what she was doing.

            At last, the device retracted, leaving a pink paste over where his injury was. Deborah zipped his clothes back up and patted him on the shoulder. “You should be fine, now,” she promised him as she pulled up the curtain. As she tried to help Gavin off of the slab, she saw Conner watching her from behind and gave a start. He observed her silently with his arms crossed then nodded. “How is he?” he asked.

            “He’ll be fine. I had to fuse one of his ribs back together. Thank you for letting me treat him,” she said as an afterthought and adjusted her hair nervously. Gavin could barely focus on what was happening. He tried touching the spot where his rib had been broken, but Deborah slapped his hand away.

            “I need him alive,” Conner said. “For now, at least.” Conner walked back to the secret hatch in the floor and opened it. Jackie was crouched there with her helmet in her hands, staring up at him with utter contempt. Kevin was hunched over the scrambler panel and looked over his shoulder at Conner as the hatch opened, but acted as if he couldn’t be bothered. “Are you okay?” he asked Jackie after clearing his throat.

            “You tried to break my wrists,” she said. Her wrist unit was flickering on and off.

            “Did I?” he asked curiously. Jackie tossed her helmet at him and it bounced off of his armour. “Well I’m sorry either way,” Conner said, “but I can’t have you killing me. There’s too much at stake.” He knelt down and held out his hand to pull Jackie up. She looked at it suspiciously for a moment then accepted it.

            “Gavin, are you okay?” she asked as soon as she was out and saw him leaning woozily against the slab. Gavin could only nod, which took a significant amount of effort.

            “Really?” Conner looked back and forth between the two of them as he tapped one of his fingers on his hip and perched his other hand on the other. He shrugged afterwards and explained, “Your boyfriend, as I assume it’s safe to call him, just went through three hours of microsurgery in about forty-seconds and is drugged up on something I’d very much like to try myself. That leads me to something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about for quite some time, sister.” He reached out and grabbed the bandage on her face and tore it away in one swift gesture. Jackie gave a little cry and put her hand over her face. “This,” he pointed right to her face.

            “What?” Jackie looked up at him. “You’re proud of what you’ve done?”

            “Look at your face, Jackie,” he held his hand out towards a mirror by the medic station. Jackie hesitated then walked over and looked.

            “What am I suppose to be seeing?” Jackie asked him.

            “Exactly. There’s nothing there. Not even a scar,” Conner told her. “Don’t you think that’s a little unusual.”

            “So? You didn’t cut me that deep,” Jackie wiped away some residue from her face.

            “It’s not just that,” Conner leaned against the wall. “You nearly died a few months ago. I’ve seen your injuries. Even with the finest doctors, you shouldn’t have pulled through, but look at you. I was visiting you at the hospital when it occurred to me that you’ve never really been sick. Even that time you broke your leg horseback riding you were back on your feet in days. Doesn’t any of that strike you as odd?”

            “Not really,” Jackie admitted. “Wait, you visited me at the hospital?”

            “Of course I did,” Conner said. “I had only gained possession of the Subtle Armour, as it’s called, when I’d heard you were wounded in the Battle of the Sand Seas. I was there too, albeit underground. When I learned what happened, I decided it was an appropriate time to test out the armour. I went into the enemy camp to visit you in the medic tent. It wasn’t a pretty sight. I didn’t know what to feel just then, seeing you defeated like that, but whatever animosity I felt before melted into compassion.”

            “Shut up with your lies!” Jackie raged. “You’ve never felt anything for anyone, you sociopath!”

            “You know that’s not true,” Conner told her. “I learned to be merciless when I joined the Resistance, but that was never my true nature. I still love you, sister, and I watched over you.”

            “Please stop,” Jackie begged.

            “It’s all true,” Conner insisted. “I watched through your surgeries. I watched you recuperate over months. I roamed the halls of the hospital like a ghosts watching people being born and dying. I sat children weeping over their parents. I watched newborns open their eyes. I lay down in the morgue and wondered what it would be like to rest forever. I heard the doctors and nurses whisper to each other in the halls. They called you a freak for living, Jackie. Our family doctor would sit in his private office and stare at charts well into the night, not comprehending what he saw. I dealt with the paparatzi trying to sneak photos of you in your bed gown. A touch from my glove and their equipment was rendered useless. I let them hear my laughter in their ears and they fled as if the Devil were after them. I changed.

            “Victor was there. He rarely left. He would sit on the one side of your bed and I would sit on the other. He would babble on constantly, as if it would raise you from your slumber. He told you all his secrets. That’s how I learned what you are.

            “Victor had never tried to hide what he was, but I never suspected how far it went. Generates can never get sick. They barely age. Look at Victor today, and he looks no different than when I was a small boy, except for one possible exception,” Conner wiggled the fingers of his right hand. “It goes beyond that. The human body is a host organism, like all mammals. Countless bacteria live inside us symbiotically, when they’re not making us ill. Not Generates, though. Even their intestines are virtually spotless. Can you imagine being immune to your own food? Cut a finger off, and it’ll grow back. Cut an arm off and it’ll grow back. I don’t know how far it goes, so I had to be thorough with Donovan.”

            “What? Is that true?” Jackie asked, looking at Deborah, who nodded.

            “Our father is going to be fine. Generates are amazing, Jackie, and you are too. You’re special. You’re a hybrid. You can heal like they can. That’s why your cut is gone. That’s why you’re even alive after your crash all those months ago. That’s what I was trying to show you.”

            “You nearly killed me,” Jackie protested. “I saw it in your eyes back then. I know what you are.”

            “A killer? How different are we? Let’s tally our death tolls together and see who comes out on top, sister. At least I know why I’ve killed. Can you say the same?” Conner asked.

            “I’ve killed to defend our country. You killed to betray it!” she said, jabbing him in the chest with his finger.

            “Is that what you think?” Conner shook his head. “That’s why I’ve brought you here, Jackie. So that you can learn the truth.”

            “Forget it. I’ll believe you’ve been spying on me, but I’ll never believe the rest of your lies,” she said brusquely.

            “Jackie, look at the monitors and tell me what you see,” he nodded over to the cockpit. She looked over at the scene of two dark pyramid-shaped structures.

            “I don’t know,” Jackie shrugged.

            Conner sighed. “You don’t know? They’re pyramids! On the moon! How could you not get that?” He hung his head for a moment then looked back up. “I…” he began and then interrupted himself. “Seriously? I mean seriously? I just hijacked a space ship from a military base to show you this, and you’re not getting the significance?”

            “Sorry,” Jackie said in exasperation.

            “Do you even know what this war is about? All this time you’ve been fighting and it never occurred to you why? That’s why,” he pointed to the monitors. He looked at Jackie for a long time with his mouth open as if he were going to say something. He decided against it and turned to Deborah instead. “You seem more with it and haven’t tried to kill me yet, so I’m going to explain this all to you instead in the hopes that someone actually comprehends this. When the first settlers arrived on New Gaia on the Ark, they found a perfect world with conditions suited to their every need for survival. They had been told that the planet’s terraforming project had first begun back in the late 20^th Century as part of a secret government plan to create an Earth colony. That theory was as controversial then as it is today. Why? Firstly because that technology didn’t exist at the time and secondly because some artefacts of the planet’s terraforming predates the 20^th Century. Simple carbon dating tests would place these artefacts as existing before human history itself. How could that be?

            “This question gave rise to the Pilgrim’s religious order, which the Mainland culture labels as a cult. They believe that an alien society much in advance to our own created New Gaia. They worship these aliens as Gods and believe themselves to be the chosen people and the true heirs to New Gaia. Of course, it’s all rather stupid. There’s no such thing as aliens or Gods. That still doesn’t explain away the pyramids.

            “In the deserts, there’s a series of pyramids. The first settlers were told they were the remnants of terraforming stations. That’s not true, by any accounts. The pyramids are factual pyramids. Few people outside of the Pilgrims have ever been permitted to see them up close, but I have. There’s the obvious comparison to the Great Pyramids on Earth, but that’s nonsense. They’re entrances to a vast series of underground tunnels that were carved out of the rock by machine long before our arrival. The military base we left is perhaps an unfinished tunnel. The pyramids and what lies beneath validate many of the claims made by the Pilgrims, save for that their beliefs are flawed. The outright denial of Mainland society and its government is further flawed.

            “I’m perhaps the only person who know the truth about New Gaia. Or could you guess at it, coming where you’re from?” he asked holding his hand out to Deborah as a sign she should take over with her own conclusions.

            “You think the planet was terraformed by humans from another reality?” Deborah inquired.

            “Precisely,” Conner beamed. “I knew I was right about you. Yes, it all started to fall into place for me many years ago before I first visited the pyramids, but now I have my proof. New Gaia was once supposed to be a colony for an ancient society seeking solace from their dimension. They abandoned it long ago, but they left behind their structures for us to find in the hopes that we could learn from them.”

            “What does any of this matter?” Jackie interrupted. “Are you using this as an excuse for your actions?”

            “Jackie, there’s pyramids outside this ship, on the lunar surface. No one has seen them before now besides me. They were hidden from sight for aeons, much like the pyramids in the desert. Do you know what’s inside?”

            “I personally don’t care,” Kylie said as she brandished a weapon. While Conner had been talking, she had gone below into the hull and retrieved a weapon that looked like two halves of a sphere separated by a handle. She held this at Conner and inched closer. “Now, the other guns might not have worked, but this one can cut through the hull of the ship.”

            “So your plan is to blow a hole through me and then the ship and then…? Suffocate?” Conner mocked her. He took note that she had donned her tight-fitting blue space suit and breathing pack, but her retractable helmet was down.

            “This isn’t some jack hammer of a gun. This weapon has finesse, like an artist’s brush,” Kylie said as she patted it appreciatively. “I can cut you into pieces, armour and all, and not touch the hull. Believe me when I tell you I’m not bluffing this time.”

            “I believe you,” Conner shrugged. “So? You kill me, I die. Is that what you want?”

            “Do it,” Jackie told her as she looked away.

            “Ouch,” Conner winced. “My own sister. Well maybe I had this coming.” Kylie approached until she was just out of arm’s reach. Conner reached up and undid the clasp of his helmet and took it off. His dark, unkempt hair was pasted to his scalp with sweat, and he gasped a little at the change in air pressure. He adjusted his hair a little to make himself more presentable and tucked the domed helmet under his arm. “Well? What are you waiting for?” he asked her. “I’ve made it a little easier now.”

            “I’ll shoot you,” Kylie promised him.

            “I believe you,” Conner said a little glumly as he stared her in the eyes.

            “You don’t have to kill him,” Deborah told Kylie in a rush. Kylie glanced quickly over at Deborah, then back. Kylie adjusted her stance and swallowed hard. She raised the gun and held her arm a little firmer, then let it drop a little before taking up her position again. Jackie looked back and forth between Kylie and Conner as she stepped further back towards Kylie.

            “Drop your gun over here,” Kylie decided after a moment.

            “Fine,” Conner held his hand out submissively before reaching to his holster. He bent down slowly and put his gun deliberately on the floor, then kicked it over to her. “Now I’m unarmed.”

            Kylie looked down and the gun, and swallowed again. Jackie reached in and took Conner’s gun and put it behind her belt.

            “What was this all about?” Kylie said at last. “Why did you bring us here?”

            “To show you what’s inside,” he pointed over at the monitors, “although I’m sure you can do that without me.”

            “Do you want me to kill you?” Kylie shouted a little.

            “No, but it’s not as if I have a choice now, is it?” Conner shrugged.

            Kylie shifted once more, then threw up her gun and turned around and paced back. “Damn it!” she swore.

            “What’s wrong with you?” Jackie was exasperated. “Just do it!”

            “I can’t!” Kylie pinched the bridge of her nose over her eyes and tried to fight back tears. “I can’t just kill someone like this.”

            “Give me the gun!” Jackie said desperately as she reached in. Kylie resisted at first as she tried to pull it from her hand, but she gave in. Jackie stole the gun and aimed it against her half-brother. “How do I fire?” she asked as she pressed a button on the handle.

            “It won’t work for you,” Kylie explained. “It’s patterned to my hand.”

            “Then shoot him!” Jackie demanded as she tried the button one more time.

            “I can’t,” Kylie shook her head. “I just can’t do it.”

            “Thank you,” Conner said as he exhaled.

            Jackie dropped the round gun and drew out her sidearm. In one swift motion she aimed for Conner’s exposed head and fired. The flash lit up the inside of the cabin.

            Conner sighed.

            “What?” Jackie looked at her gun as if something had gone wrong. “I shot you! I shot you right in the face.”

            “Yes, I noticed,” Conner rubbed his face. “That hurt my eyes, you know,” he complained. Removing his hand, he showed he was untouched.

            “How?” Jackie demanded as she looked at him. “What are you?”

            Thin lines of light etched their way up Conner’s neck under his skin. They spread out across his cheeks and jaw before fading. “I was hoping to tell you without… you know… you trying to kill me. Things have changed for me. I’m not the man I used to be, in quite a literal sense,” he scratched his neck where there had been strange lights a moment before. They briefly reappeared where his finger had touched, then disappeared. “The armour is mostly for show, or not showing as it lets me vanish. I’m invincible now.”

            Jackie looked at Conner in disbelief then fired again.

            “Seriously, stop that,” Conner complained as he blinked rapidly. The air around his face steamed in the after-effects of the shot. “All I can see now are spots.” Lights danced under his skin in thin lines like veins.

            “How is this possible?” Jackie demanded.

            “I’ve become, ‘locked,’” Conner explained. “That’s their term for it, not mine. I’m not fully physically a part of this universe anymore, or any other for that matter except theirs.”

            “Who are you talking about?” Jackie said.

            “Well if you two hadn’t tried to kill me, I may have gotten to that,” Conner donned his helmet once more and clasped it. “Now I don’t know if I want to tell you at all, but I suppose I still have to. The reason I’ve abducted you all is to try and enlist you to my cause. Although it may seem strange, you’re the only people with a familiarity with this type of situation I’m dealing with. New Gaia is about be attacked by a threat from another universe. With your help, I intend to stop that threat. That is, unless, you try to kill me again. Seriously, don’t try and kill me. It’s not fun anymore.”

Entry Twelve

Entry Twelve:

            The carrier stopped briefly aboard a floating station in the middle of the vast Sea of Poseidon eight hours into their flight to refuel. It was an Arms controlled outpost and they were not allowed to disembark while their flight crew was changed. It would be another twelve hours before they would arrive at their destination. Jackie had fallen asleep in her seat with her head resting on Gavin’s shoulder while the Generates remained awake. Since Kylie’s confession, there had been an awkward silence amongst the group. Somewhere before they reached the outpost they had passed the group of islands where Conner was supposedly hiding. The signal, curiously, had not gotten any stronger as they approached, a fact which Goldie and Video had relayed to a representative from the Arms they were in communication with. There were still elite kill teams on foot combing through the islands while they were blockaded by air and by sea. They had reportedly found a number of shelters Conner could possibly have used, but most looked untouched. A fishing boat anchored off the coast of one bay had been confiscated and it’s crew questioned, but they had no information and permission to be in the area. The carrier had given the islands a wide berth in case they were at risk, but there had been no activity as they passed over.

            “What is she to you?” Deborah whispered to Gavin all at once. The others weren’t paying much attention and gave no mind. Kylie was in the bathroom and Deborah had slunk over to take her seat next to Gavin.

            Gavin looked over to see that Jackie was still asleep. “She’s important,” Gavin said at last.

            “Is she important to you?” Deborah pressed.

            “Of course,” Gavin said. “I can’t rightfully say anything beyond that. I’ve only known her for a few days. That goes for the rest of you too. No offence,” he added after a moment. “We’re all friends, of course.”

            “Of course,” Deborah said. “I think even Kylie is warming up to me, and I’ve done nothing but antagonize her.”

            “You think that’s a smart idea?” Gavin nodded to Fredriks as he looked up from his wrist unit, but Fredriks seemed disinterested and only smiled before returning his attention to the video he was watching.

            “I don’t know if I want her as a friend, or an enemy,” Deborah admitted. “She has resources to things I need, but how she’s gotten them makes me uneasy.”

            “It makes everyone a little uneasy,” Gavin said.

            “Back to you and Jackie, though,” Deborah steered the subject, “do you understand what she is?”

            “A Princess? I don’t know what you mean,” Gavin said, confused.

            “She’s half-Generate,” Deborah told him quietly. “Half-Norm. It shouldn’t even be possible, given the discrepancies between our two species and realities. Have you never given a thought to that?”

            “Not really,” Gavin admitted. “Should I have?”

            “Take a look at her bandage,” Deborah prompted.

            “What? Why?” Gavin looked at it.

            “I mean take a look under it,” she nudged him.

            “Why?” Gavin was reluctant.

            “Trust me,” Deborah said into his ear.

            Gavin sighed and slowly reached out and peeled back the edge of the bandage between Jackie’s eyes. She stirred a little, but didn’t really wake up. Gavin was shocked to see nothing but a faint scar and dried blood. He had seen Conner gash her face, and he imagined that the wound would be with her for many days. He carefully replaced it, which caused her to flutter her eyes a little and scratch her nose above where the bandage was placed. She looked up at Gavin quizzically for a second before shutting her eyes again. Gavin waited breathlessly for her to go back to sleep. “She’s healed,” he said at last.

            “Look at yourself now,” Deborah told him. “How’s you ankle?”

            “It’s fine,” Gavin admitted. He’d forgotten about his run-in a few days past.

            “It shouldn’t be,” Deborah shook her head. “If you were a Norm, you’d be crippled. That’s a Generate trait, Gavin. Jackie shares it. She’s not fully human, but she’s not really one of us, either. She ages normally, but heals quickly. She’s an absolute oddity.”

            “Does she know?” Gavin asked her.

            “I don’t think anyone knows,” Deborah admitted. “She’s a link between two species and two universes.”

            “We’re not different species,” Gavin argued.

            “We’re not even supposed to be able to co-produce,” Deborah explained, “as Generate have more chromosomes. That makes us a different species.”

            “Then how did Victor manage it with the Queen?” Gavin wondered.

            “He had a little help from Kylie,” Deborah whispered. “She said she made him have a procedure. Now I don’t know what that was, but if I can get a hold of her D.N.A., I could probably reverse engineer the basics.”

            “Well why don’t you ask her for a sample?” Gavin asked.

            Deborah shook her head. “I’m too nervous.”

            “She’s not as mean as she looks, Deborah. Just ask her nicely. You’re sitting right next to her, after all. She can probably hear you,” Gavin said, which made Deborah jump a little, but Jackie gave no sign of having heard. Fredriks, however, was watching them with some bemusement. Kylie exited the bathroom, and came back to where her luggage was secured. Deborah smiled and nodded at her blithely as she reached above her head. She found and opened a packet of rations and then took a seat in the far corner five seats down from them to eat. Gavin noted that Kylie made it a point to eat a small meal or snack every four hours, even when she was up late, although she could go far longer without food. Gavin imagined it had to do with the baby.

            Once Deborah was certain that Kylie was more interested in her snack than their conversation, she continued. “I’ll ask later,” Deborah promised. “If we can unlock the secrets of her D.N.A., it might help our species survive on this planet. If we can’t reproduce, our species will go extinct, Gavin, and we don’t have the resources to create our own Generates from scratch. There’s other benefits as well that could directly benefit the humans of New Gaia. We could boost their immunity to disease and find the cures to any number of ailments, including old age. We could make it so a situation like Plague Earth never happens here. With enough time and resources, the possibilities are practically endless and I’m not bound by the Corps rules of non-interference. I’d need your D.N.A. too,” she added, “but I’d have to give you a physical first.”

            “Why’s that?” Gavin asked suspiciously.

            “Kylie said she did something to you before you were born,” Deborah said, “and that you’re fertile. If that’s true, you’re the only one of us besides Kylie that can reproduce.”

            “As long as you’re not going to do anything as invasive as you just did to my privacy,” Gavin muttered as he rubbed the back of his neck where his node was. .

            “It’s a simple procedure I can do with a few accessories and my wrist unit. It’s painless and harmless, I promise you,” she assured him. “Although I’d like to run additional tests on Jackie. I’d be interested to see if Jackie’s healing extends to regeneration.”

            “Regeneration? Isn’t that just the same as healing?” Gavin asked.

            “Generates can regrow lost limbs. Obviously, I wouldn’t go so far as to cut off her hands,” she laughed. “All I’d need would be a small skin sample,” she explained.

            “Wait, we can grow our arms back if we lose them?” Gavin was shocked.

            “Yes. Why do you think they call us, ‘Generates?’ We can regenerate,” Deborah elaborated.

            “Then Jackie’s father…” he realized.

            “He’ll grow his arm back as good as new,” Deborah told him. “It should already be starting to bud. Sometimes they can grow back deformed, though, which would concern me. I hope that he has a good doctor,” Deborah pursed her lips and tapped them thoughtfully

            “Does Jackie know?” Gavin looked down at her.

            “I don’t imagine, although it’s a possibility. They are father and daughter and I’m not privy to what they talk about with each other. It wasn’t covered in his biopic. Victor made no mention of the difference between Norms and Generates. It’s fairly standard with Norms not to brag about our superiority. We wouldn’t want to make them feel inferior, and Victor has his role as King to think about. As far as I can tell from records, no Generate from A-6 has ever checked into a hospital on New Gaia. They’re blissfully ignorant about our genetic abilities,” she said.

            “Conner wouldn’t have known,” Gavin thought to himself. “He cut off his father’s hand not knowing it would grow back.”

            “I don’t understand his actions,” Deborah sighed. “I had always imagined that the family bond was stronger than anything, but I guess I ignored human history.”

            “How do you know so much about all of this?” Gavin thought to ask. “I thought you were a Researcher.”

            “With a specialty in medicine,” Deborah added. “Everyone has a specialty. Video already told you his specialty is communications. Goldie’s an expert hacker. Even Lance has a specialty in military history, making him practically an overgrown Researcher. I couldn’t tell you about Fredriks, or Lara, though. Even you must have some special field beyond piloting.”

            “I wouldn’t know it, along with half of what I’m supposed to know,” Gavin replied. “I’ve grown a little, but I’m still clueless about most everything.”

            “It doesn’t show,” Deborah patted him on the knee.

            Jackie’s hand snaked out and grabbed Deborah by the wrist and held it in a vice-like grip. “Do you care to explain what you’re doing with my future King?” Jackie asked as she rubbed her eye with her free hand.

            Deborah was able to break free with a little difficulty. “Nothing,” she rubbed her sore wrist. Everyone was paying attention now. “I was just complimenting him.”

            “I bet,” Jackie said doubtfully as she stretched and yawned. “Looks like we’re here,” she said and nodded to the cockpit, which helped break the tension. Gavin could feel the slight shift as they began their descent. A red light went on by the rear bay, and Gavin could see the ocean subside and the desert begin through the cockpit window. He put his hand over Jackie’s knee in anticipation, which made Jackie smile.

            “This is it, losers,” Kylie said as she dropped her tray of food. She bounded over to her luggage again and drew out a strange weapon that snapped over her wrist unit. It fit around her entire wrist over the unit itself and was banded, with a long stem that extended past her knuckles and formed a barrel. “Time to gear up.”

            “Gear up?” Gavin protested. “We don’t know how any of this stuff works. I don’t think I even know how to use a gun.”

            “Just…” Kylie sighed and put her hand over her face in disappointment. “Just try and look tough, okay? Seriously.” She pulled out a strange looking device that looked like an egg with spider legs and threw it to Fredriks. He caught it, then puzzled over it for several seconds before putting it in his hip satchel. Lance was given a gun that weighed half of what he did, which stretched up his arm to a padded brace that fit over his shoulder. The barrel of the gun itself was wider than his mouth could stretch. There were three magazines inserted into as shielded fitting. The brace had shield that protected the side of his face by his shoulder with a scope that flipped out over his right eye. He had to use both hands to lift it, and still had to struggle. Gavin knew by the look of it that he could barely hope to pick it up.

            “Isn’t this a bit much?” Gavin asked as she gave Lara something that looked like three swords strapped to two shotguns. “Conner’s still at the islands. Plus we’re heading into a military base with more armed men than we have bullets, who probably aren’t too keen on us going in loaded.”

            “That’s a good point,” Lara said as she looked at the weapon. The jagged blades pointed upwards along the barrels and stretched out past the nozzles and were made of a clear blue crystal. The holster stretched from her hip past her knee.

            “We came here to kill a man and claim what’s ours,” Kylie told him. “I brought the weapons to do that with.” She opened a package on the crate and pulled out what looked like a simple pistol. It was no longer than his hand from the heel of his palm to his fingertips and silver. It was little more than a cylinder with handle. She looked it over then looked at him. She put it back in its leather holster and then slowly handed it over to him expectantly.

            “What’s this?” Gavin said as he took it out and looked it over. As he turned it in his hand, Kylie instinctively ducked to the side and put her hands up.

            “Careful with that,” she told him. Her worried look didn’t subside until he put it back in its holster and buckled it to his belt. “These are just precautions. That reminds me,” she dug deeper into the pallet of goods and brought out a wrist unit and tossed it to him, then looked at Jackie for a moment and found another for her. “They’re basic units. Nothing preloaded. You can use them to communicate, though, and to track each other.”

            Jackie strapped hers on then got her pack. She tied it to the back of her hoverbike and donned her black Arms helmet then patted the seat behind her for Gavin. Gavin accepted it after slinging his pack over his back. He could feel the turbulence building up as they drew lower to the ground. They were practically skidding along the sand dunes. He held on tight to Jackie, and she gave a daring look at Deborah, who didn’t know what to make of it. She tried to ignore Jackie as she donned her heavy pack and held onto the top rail for support. Jackie revved up her engine and it filled the interior of the carrier with a humming noise. Gavin strained to look past her shoulders and saw a low built structure in the distance as the carrier slowed down. Jackie flipped down her visor, but kept smiling at Deborah. They cleared a high fence marked by numerous watch towers, that seemed to stretch on forever, then approached an airfield. The carrier positioned itself above a landing pad then touched down gently. The guards at the rear of the carrier waited for confirmation from the pilot to open the hatch.

            They led the way out the back of the carrier as its engines died down and it settled on its props. Jackie started up her hoverbike in earnest and detached the cables holding it down. She slowly backed it out of the carrier and turned it around before dismounting. Gavin was a little disappointed, as he expected a longer ride.

            Outside of the carrier, they were greeted by a group of five soldiers standing at attention with a man in a uniform that was a dark suit with a yellow shirt and a badge pinned to his breast and a black beret. He had a thin-trimmed white beard without a moustache and a stern disposition. He stood with his arms folded behind his back and legs straight and together. Beside him was a man with an unkempt beard and a curly mass of hair. He was rather tall, and wore sandals and slacks with an untucked T-Shirt sporting the name of a band underneath an open long sleeved shirt that billowed in the warm wind coming out of the desert. Kylie saw this man and let out an exclamation of surprise. She bounded down the ramp and squealed in delight as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the bare patch of his cheek. She nestled her head in against his shoulder and hugged him tight.

            “It’s good to see you,” the man said. “Until Victor called me, I thought we’d never meet again.” The officer in the front of the group looked at them out of the corner of his eye while his posture and expression remained unchanged.

            “It’s good to see you too, Kevin,” she said as she pulled back a little to look him over. “You look terrible. I mean you let yourself go. How did you get fat?”

            “I’m not fat,” Kevin protested, looking down at himself. He didn’t actually look fat to Gavin, but he didn’t have the same perfect physique as the other Generates he’d met. The rest of the crew slowly emerged out the back. There was a transport cart waiting for their luggage. Lance eyed the group of soldiers watching him warily as he emerged with the enormous gun he was carrying. He was very carefully to aim it away from anyone, with the barrel lowered, and he immediately placed it on the cart quite delicately.

            Jackie got off of her hoverbike and walked up to the officer in front. She saluted him sharply as she stood at attention, and Gavin did the same. The officer returned her salute. When she took off her helmet, the group of soldiers standing behind them immediately bowed. “Princess,” the officer said. “To what do I owe this honour?”

            “I’m reactivating myself, sir,” she informed him as she tucked her helmet under her arm.

            “You don’t have the authority to do that, your majesty,” he replied as he pulled a device out of his coat pocket. He tapped at it for a second and then replaced it. “You’re still on medical leave and you don’t have the clearance necessary to make it back into the ranks.”

            “With all due respect, sir, I’m more than capable of serving my country,” Jackie said firmly.

            “At ease, soldier. That goes for the lot of you too,” he snapped back over his shoulder at the men and women still bowing. “This isn’t the palace. I may be short-handed out here, but an injured princess isn’t going to help me win any wars. I’m going to have to waste men guarding you.”

            “I don’t need a guard detail,” Jackie responded, “and I’d like to keep my presence here under wraps. Please sir, I just want to serve.”

            The man laughed. “Impossible. By this time it’s probably already plastered all over the news feeds. No, I can’t force you out of my base with the Presidential clearance you have with you, but you’re not about to serve in my ranks in your condition.”

            Jackie looked a little despondent, but nodded, “Yes, sir.”

            “And which one are you?” his eyes snapped over to Gavin.

            “Gavin Dales, sir,” Gavin held out his hand to shake. The man looked at it and kept his arms behind his back.

            “General Arthur Ford,” the man replied as he surveyed the others. “We’ll take your belongings to the quarters we have set aside for you. I expect you want to see your ship.”

            “Yes, sir,” Gavin replied eagerly. Jackie donned her helmet once more as the general turned and led them across the field. There were a few hangars, a fuelling station, and planes lined up, but Gavin couldn’t see the Aurora. There was one squat building that was connected with a flight tower. General Ford led them to this while their gear was towed to another entrance by one of the soldiers wearing a worker’s variation of the uniform. Two guards let them enter the building and they came into a room that looked like the lobby to an office building. Ford led them to an elevator at the rear of the room while a secretary watched them pass by. Two more guards were stationed outside the elevator. Gavin noted that there were no windows in the room at all and the elevator itself was located behind a thick wall that seemed to serve no purpose other than to place a barrier between the elevator and the front entrance. The elevator itself was oddly placed. From the outside, it looked as though they were on the first and only floor of that level, unless they took the long hall down the right that led to the flight tower. Here, General Ford had to show his clearance badge and sign a register with one of the guards who stood at a podium. Only after was the doors opened, and they climbed onboard. The elevator itself and the door were spacious, allowing all of them inside. The soldiers turned back to the lobby, however, leaving them by themselves with General Ford.

            The elevator descended swiftly. Gavin noticed that the all-steel finish of the elevator had no visible controls. General Ford looked upwards at a camera aimed down at them. After what seemed like an unusually long time, the elevator stopped, and the doors slid open, revealing a vast cavern.

            “Welcome to Sub-Sector,” Kevin waved his hand. The cavern was lit by numerous suspended lights along a steel grate walkway. To the one side of this walkway were workstations and offices cut out of the red-hued rock. To the opposite side was a vast chasm that. Water flowed from a hydro-electric dam on the far end of the chasm and descended into absolute darkness. The roar of the water made it quite deafening. Opposite the dam was a rail station leading upwards out of sight at a steep angle. Over the chasm itself were three steel platforms forming a bridge over nothing. On the middle platform there was the Aurora. Above it was a large crane that could swing to reach the damn and the rail station. “This is a natural cave system, with all the fresh water you could want. The Arms have been building it up as their base for nearly a hundred years since it was discovered during a survey. We’re deep enough in here that no bombs could ever reach us. The dam over their powers everything and the rail station leads up to the surface. The car’s wide enough to carry entire tanks up and down. Further up the rail there’s apartments and storerooms. We have enough supplies to last us a ten-year siege if we have to. Just don’t fall off the side. Seriously, it’s happened. They didn’t spare much to make the rails,” Kevin warned. “I conduct most of my research here.”

            “Have you cracked her open yet?” Kylie didn’t seem particularly impressed by the set-up, while Lance gawked around.

            Kevin shrugged. “It would have been a matter of time,” he said. “I couldn’t lock down the passcode, but I have my system working on it. Frankly, I have better things to occupy my time than to play around with your old clunker.”

            “My clunker?” Kylie snapped. “Do you know how much work I’ve had done on her?”

            “A lot, I remember,” Kevin said dismissively. “I also remember that she was never anything to crow about back on Last Point. Maybe that’s why nobody ever took a good look at her hull. Anyway, why are you Pilots always so defensive about your ships? Is it because you’re not allowed to have babies of your own?”

            “Do you want me to mock your research projects?” Kylie snapped back irritably.

            “My research projects are above reproach,” Kevin replied. “I’d have a prize by now if these philistines believed in rewarding earnest scientific endeavours.”

            “If you two are done, and believe me when I say you are, I want this bird opened up so my men can make use of it,” General Ford said.

            “So we can make use of it,” Kylie corrected him. His expression went immediately darker.

            “Yes, I’m aware of what the President offered you in exchange for your services,” General Ford said after a moment. “Make no mistake that this bird is staying where it is, though, and when you’re done with your business it will belong to me.”

            “Like you’d even know what to do with her,” Kylie scoffed.

            “Kylie, please, it wouldn’t do to make the General upset,” Kevin warned. “Although it happens quite often. Here,” Kevin flashed his badge at the guards posted by the bridge over to the platform. As they walked over the expanse, Gavin couldn’t help but look down. Deborah, walking beside him and Jackie, followed his gaze, and immediately grew queasy. She reached out to steady herself against Gavin’s arm, and Jackie laughed at her. Deborah retracted her hand once more and cleared her throat before moving on.

            Kylie shooed away one of the workers milling about the Aurora before surveying her. “There’s not a scratch on her, not that we could,” Kevin assured her as she went around once. Kylie mainly ignored him as she continued her search. Satisfied, she stopped by the rear foot and entered her command into her wrist unit. The doors opened and the platform descended. “Hurrah,” Kevin said somewhat sarcastically. “I suppose now I can stop running my hacking program.”

            Kylie walked up the ramp into the hull and breathed deeply, as though it were fresh air. “I’ve got my baby back,” she said mostly to herself.

            Gavin looked around suspiciously, as if expecting to find something hiding in the corners. “I’ve had them start work on a fuelling charger. Should be complete in a couple or years or more,” Kevin said. “I assume you already know about the situation with the reality barrier? Even with more fuel, this thing isn’t going anywhere fast.”

            “I know why we can’t get back to our universe,” Gavin said, “but did you try breaking through into another?”

            Kevin shook his head. “Didn’t work either. It’s like someone locked all the realities. I’ve gone over countless theories and the only thing that ever made sense was direct interference. Someone is doing this on purpose and the resources they have must be literally infinite. Once I realized that, I stopped working on the problem.”

            “You gave up so easily?” Deborah was a little disappointed.

            “Not because the problem was difficult. It was. I stopped because I knew that if I were successful in breaching the barrier, then whoever’s doing this would turn their eye on me and this world, and that’s bad news for everyone. I can’t create a defence unless I know what we’re up against, and I won’t know that until they’re already set upon us. They could wipe out our plane of existence without batting an eye, for all I know,” he gave a little shudder.

            “I’m going to boost our scanner with the ship’s systems,” Goldie said as she went over a console in the Navigator’s seat. Lara went with her to help her access the controls.

            “So where’s the loot?” Gavin asked as they crowded around the ship.

            “Right under our feet,” Kylie explained. “Here,” she tapped her wrist unit once more and the floor began to slide away. Gavin was a little surprised. He could not even see the seams before they opened. He had to quickly hop out of the way as the floor beneath him disappeared. Deborah was likewise caught and nearly fell into the opening, but Gavin caught her by the arm and pulled her back. Jackie frowned at the two of them as they regained their balance.

            The opening ran the expanse under where the two cargo pallets were placed. Inside, as Gavin peered, he saw an area that filled the entire foot of the ship.

            “To think this is all undetectable,” Kevin said as he admired the cargo. Most was secured under netting, but there were a few loose items. “This is what I’m interested in,” Kevin said as he dropped down the short ladder. He crouched down in the shallow chamber and scuttled up to a box. The chamber itself was teardrop shaped and the box was fixed in the corner. “I couldn’t believe it the first time you showed me this,” Kevin said as he opened up the top panel. He removed a tablet device and held it over the controls inside. “This scrambler is probably worth more than all the weapons you have in here. I should thank you, Kylie. I based most of my scrambling tech on this and now it’s used across New Gaia. It’s made me a rich man.”

            “Scrambling tech?” Deborah asked. “Are you the reason why we can’t get a signal of this area?”

            “I had a hunch you were the one responsible,” Kylie said. “These cave men don’t have the know how to make that kind of tech on their own. My scrambler is a hand-me-down from another dimension. It’s specifically designed to jam scanners like the ones we use in the Corps. It’s what makes my secret stash invisible, but it can also be used to play hell with GPS, satellites and other communication systems. I’m surprised you were able to find a way to copy it.”

            “I was only partially successful,” Kevin admitted. “After all, I only had that one opportunity on Plague Earth to really get a good look at it. The system I came up with takes an incredible amount of power, unlike yours, which runs on batteries. If I can take a closer look, I could miniaturize my tech so that the average soldier could carry it with him.”

            “Knock yourself out,” Kylie shrugged. “There’s no use in hiding it anymore. Did you mention you were rich?” she added with some interest.

            “Very much so,” Kevin admitted, “but I spend most of it developing new projects. Since the Arms are my biggest buyers, they let me use their resources to cut down on costs and in exchange they get first pick. Too much of what I developed in the past seemed to make it into Rebel hands, like my scramblers. Everyone out here in the desert has scramblers, so everyone’s pretty much blind.”

            “You’re saying that all this world’s scrambling technology came from you?” Deborah asked with some curiosity.

            “You’re welcome,” Kevin said as a reply without looking up

            “I only ask because Prince Conner apparently has possession of scrambling technology far in advance of what you have on market,” Deborah said. “That would mean he either expanded on your tech and made his own upgrades, or he had help.”

            “Well he didn’t have any help from me, that’s for sure,” Kevin looked up. “I ran through the videos they sent over of the attack, but I can’t make heads or tails of it. The only thing I’m clear on is that there’s a sudden tech gap, and I intend to bridge it, starting with this scrambler.”

            “Where’s your wrist unit?” Gavin said as he noticed Kevin didn’t wear one.

            “I reversed engineered it out of existence,” Kevin said as he pulled a small tool out of his shirt pocket. “I used it in different inventions, and never really saw the need to put it back together or market it. Wearable gadgets had already gone out as a fad here on New Gaia.”

            “Guys,” Lance said to them and motioned towards the cockpit.

            Gavin wandered over with Jackie and Deborah. The rest of his crew had squeezed themselves into the small cockpit, with everyone crowded around Goldie and Video. Goldie pointed at her monitor. “Now, I’m getting a lot of interference here with the scramblers, but I’ve started to isolate the signal by overriding military satellites.”

            “You might not want to mention that so loudly,” Gavin cast a glance back at General Ford, who was trying to make sense of the ship. He had brought in two researchers to scan the interior.

            “I’ve definitely pinpointed the location of your wrist unit, and it’s on those islands. Once I narrow it down, I can give the exact coordinates to…” Goldie stopped as something on the screen began to bother her.

            “Let me try,” Video offered as he leaned in and adjusted the image. “The satellite imagery is sharp enough to pick up individual people. We can keep track of everyone on the islands.”

            “Except this is where your unit it,” Goldie focused on a point. “I think I can almost see it.” She was showing him the image of a sandy beach. She kept zooming in until the camera picked up a faint glint. “I think that’s it. It’s just… lying there in the sand.”

            “He left it,” Jackie said breathlessly.

            “I did,” a voice said. Gavin looked past his shoulder as Conner poked his helmet around the pilot’s seat and smiled at them.

Entry Eleven

Entry Eleven:

            “What’s she doing here?” Kylie immediately asked when Jackie came onboard. The President had sent an Arms transport carrier that was mainly used for shipping troops. It was long and short with a circular hoverjets mounted at four corners These were still humming as the carrier idled and waited for it’s passengers to board. Inside, there were rows of seats along the walls, with a long corridor down the centre where their gear was strapped to pallets. What little space there was at the rear of the row was take up by Jackie’s hoverbike. She had wanted to load her father’s as well, but there simply wasn’t enough room. Upon discovering her bike parked in the driveway, she had looked it over cautiously but could find nothing wrong and eventually complimented Gavin on his flying.

The carrier looked as if it could carry about fifty people. The entrance was through the rear cargo hatch where two soldiers stood and bowed as Jackie walked by. The carrier was parked outside the main door where it stretched across the wide driveway. The whole vessel was painted a hazy purple to match the dusk sky while the inside was dull grey and poorly lit. There were no windows along the sides. The only view to the outside world was in the cockpit, where a dome stretched outwards from floor to ceiling. The ceiling itself was little over five-feet tall. Lance, who was over seven-foot, was particularly miserable and had to occupy two seats next to Goldie and Lara.

            Gavin unslung his pack and stashed it in the overhead, noting that Kylie was sitting next to Deborah by themselves, while the rest of his crew sat opposite and down a ways from them. Jackie came up behind him and glared at Kylie, as if daring her to complain. She was carrying her own gear and had donned her black Arms uniform, complete with yellow stripes across the breasts. She was the most heavily armed person in the group with two sidearms, a bandolier with ammunition and three grenades and a rifle. She had all of this in her room, Gavin discovered to his discomfort. The grenades had been in her sock drawer. She had drawn her hair back as tight as it would go into a bun and hadn’t put on any makeup.

            “Jackie wanted to come along,” Gavin said to Kylie at last as he took a seat next to her and buckled himself in.

            “This is our mission. You can’t bring your girlfriend along,” Kylie argued without looking at Kylie. Jackie was carrying a large duffel bag which she had refused Gavin’s help with, along with the help of her own servants who were seeing her off. Moriss wasn’t present, as she was visiting at the hospital. She deposited it in the overhead with some effort and sat next to Gavin. Once she was seated, the two soldiers accompanying them came in and closed the bay doors.

            “Jackie has the most combat experience and actual military training,” Gavin said in her defence.

            “It didn’t do her any good last night,” Kylie retorted.

            Jackie leaned far forward in her seat to look at Kylie. “Do you want to say that again?” Jackie challenged her.

            “How are your injuries?” Deborah quickly cut it to break off what she assumed would be a fight.

            “They’re not as bad as hers are going to be,” Jackie said as she sat back in her chair.

            “Ladies, please, there’s no need to fight,” Fredriks tried be to tactful. He was leaning forward with his arm resting on his knee. He was the only one of them who was growing stubble. Upon reflection, Gavin realized he looked older than any of them, while being the same age. Even Kylie, at 47, was younger looking. It wasn’t particularly anything other than the shallowness to his jawline and his more protruding brow that made his entire head seem like a triangle. Even the way his hair was styled and slicked back gave this impression.

            “We need to focus on the mission,” Gavin told the two.

            “Our mission was to secure A-6,” Deborah said mostly to herself in a mutter. “Now look at us.”

            The carrier gave a jolt as the pilot got consent for clearance. They’d been informed the journey would take several hours. Without windows, they wouldn’t be able to track their progress except by using their wrist units, which Goldie and Video were immersed in. Goldie assured them that at their speed they would reach their destination before Conner, who had stalled somewhere along an island region. Gavin was relieved by this news, as it proved that Conner might not know where the Aurora was being kept. They had contacted the President directly with Conner’s location, and he had sent in a team to investigate. The islands themselves were considered uninhabited, but were still a part of their country. Their deal was still in place even if Conner was captured or killed prematurely.

            “How far along is your training?” Kylie asked as she idly read news reports on her unit.

            “How do you mean?” Gavin asked as he leaned back and tried to get comfortable on the hard seats.

            “Could you fly the Aurora if you had to?” Kylie asked him without looking up.

            “I could probably do alright inside the atmosphere,” he claimed. “Outside, though? I’m still clueless. I can’t get my head around the warp system, either. If I had to dock it, I’d end up with a pile of scrap.”

            “That could be good enough, for now,” Kylie mused. “You’re further along than I thought.

            “Goldie has the others loaded up,” Deborah mentioned. “They’re not noobs anymore.”

            “Maybe I should unlock the specs for the weapons we’re packing,” Kylie suggested as she went into a menu on her unit. “These are what we have with us, and this is what we have on the Aurora.”

            “Those… are illegal,” Deborah said as she looked at the file that opened up on her unit. “Like city-destroying illegal.”

            “These have no practical application,” Lance complained as he looked over the specs. “Something like this one could wipe out everything in a three-mile radius. Even then, we don’t know the conditions of Conner’s shift suit, along with its make and model. He could still emerge unscathed.”

            “I never said we had to use them, I’m just showing you what we’ve got, and what could be used against us if things go wrong,” Kylie explained, casting a glance down at the two soldiers at the end of the aisle. There was a din in the carrier from the humming jets, and she practically had to shout.

            “This was wildly unethical for you to bring along,” Deborah shunned her. “Trafficking in this kind of weaponry could land you a lifetime on a prison planet.”

            “Tell someone who doesn’t know and might care,” Kylie said snippety. “I’ve been carrying these hauls my whole life, which is considerably longer than yours, First. This is just a sample of what I could have brought. A ‘demo,’ if you will. If we’re trapped here, we can always try to sell them off to the President and retire nicely.”

            “I’ll do nothing of the sort,” Deborah argued.

            “Suit yourself,” Kylie shrugged. “There’s more profit in it for me.”

            “They’ve already been confiscated,” Fredriks pointed out. “I doubt we could sell them at this point, if that’s even an option.”

            “It is,” Kylie assured him. “Not even someone like Kevin would know how to use these babies. All you have are the specs with none of the hands-on know-how. Lance is a Soldier, and he’s probably clueless. Besides, each one of these is specially locked. I’m the only one who knows how to unlock them.”

            “Alpha-Delta-Omega-Zeta-Epsilon-Alpha, Texas,” Gavin recited.

            “Okay, so I’m the only one with the genetic code to unlock them,” Kylie said after a moment of shock. Gavin slowly held up his hand then pointed at himself. “What?” Kylie asked him, but then it slowly dawned on her. “Okay, so Gavin and I are the only ones who can unlock the weapons. My point is that these munitions are game-changers, but at the end of the day they’re just toys for boys. They’re more for show than for blow. Half of them would kill you the second you pull the trigger. That’s why we can’t just hand them over. We’d end up with a crater as wide as the ocean the moment our gracious hosts decide to take them for themselves.”

            “Can you try and explain how you came into possession of these arms?” Deborah said as she went through the list a third time. Over three-quarters aren’t even from out home dimension. Possessing even one of them qualifies as war-crime.”

            “You want me to sit here and tell you my life story, is that what you want? Because we’re not at that point in our friendship yet,” Kylie told her.

            “Friendship?” Deborah scoffed.

            “Yes, friendship. Or did you want to be enemies?” Kylie asked her pointedly.

            “I want to be enemies,” Jackie clarified.

            “No one cares what you want,” Kylie said flippantly.

            “My point is that you are obviously a smuggler,” Deborah said as she lingered on an image of a bomb. “And not one that particularly cares about her toils beyond the payday.”

            “That’s a fairly accurate statement,” Kylie admitted. “Yes, I’m as criminal as balls. Does that satisfy you, little Ms.Perfect?”

            “Once you’re in front of a war crime tribunal, yes,” Deborah said. “Do you know what this is used for?” Deborah displayed the image of a bomb.

            “That’s a classic,” Kylie complimented it.

            “It could kill millions,” Deborah stated flatly.

            “It could, but it won’t. Debbie, do you know how many nuclear missiles America and Russia had during the Cold War in our universe? How many of those did they fire? Those kinds of bombs are for show.”

            “Why don’t you ask Universe 7241-C, or Universe 1282-T?” Deborah asked her. “You don’t know what people are capable of.”

            “I know precisely what they’re capable of,” Kylie told her. “What they’re capable of doing and what they do are two different things. There are ten guns for every human alive and you’re still here.”

            “I didn’t think I’d ever meet anyone as despicable as you,” Deborah protested.

            “Then you didn’t think hard enough,” Kylie said. “I’m not even the worst. I could afford to be choosy about who I sold to. The gangs, rebels and armies who bought from me already had a fair-sized arsenal. One more bullet wasn’t going to add anything to the bloodshed. Most were just collectors, or resellers. Most of what I sold would never see any use beyond firing ranges and demonstrations.”

            “And the ones that did?” Deborah prompted.

            “Listen, I’m not a terrorist,” Kylie said irritably. “You’ve caught me and I’ll admit to being a smuggler and a very good one at that.” The crew exchanged uncomfortable looks at her admission. Jackie tried to gauge Gavin’s reaction, but it was resigned. “What is it that you think we do for a living? We’re traders. We exchange goods. To the public perception we deal in raw materials, but that’s a lie. We have all the resources we need at home. We’re mainly working with consumer goods, including weapons. In my private smuggling ventures, I could afford to be choosy about whom I sold to. As part of the Corporation, I never had that luxury. I’ve been ordered by Corporate to hand over their weapons caches to bloodthirsty warlords, who then used them to mow down the defenceless opposition, all in the name of cheap labour. As a smuggler, I could sell weapons to those hapless few looking to defend themselves.”

            “So you’ve played both sides of the fence and made a profit, and you think that makes you a Saint?” Deborah surmised.

            “I’m not Saint,” Kylie admitted. “I’m only saying I’ve done worse things while working for the Corps than I have behind their backs.”

            “You’re a traitor,” Jackie said plainly.

            “I’m an entrepreneur,” Kylie retorted. “I’ve done everything they’ve ever asked me to without resistance. That’s why I’m B-7. You think it’s easy, though? You want to know what kind of blood is on my hands? Why not ask your father about the things he’s had to do. You don’t get to A-6 without wetwork.”

            “My father’s not a killer,” Jackie strained against her seatbelt.

            “He’s killed,” Kylie shook her head at her stupidity. “I know he’s killed more than his share here on New Gaia for your pointless war. Don’t try and deny that. That’s probably a drop in the bucket from the operations he’s been on. Ever see him clean-sweep a planet?”

            “What?” Jackie was confused.

            Kylie merely laughed at her then broke out in a sob. She covered her face and wept. Gavin and Deborah looked at each other across Kylie’s hunched shoulders as she leaned forward against her shoulder restraints.

            Lance cleared his throat and said in a soft voice. “You and Victor both were on Plague Earth.”

            “It was over two years ago now,” Kylie said as she regained some composure and wiped a tear from her eye. “An alternate Earth was overrun by something called the M-Virus. It was an airborne disease that caused madness, then death in a matter of a few short weeks. The people infected with it became extremely violent before it ruptured the blood vessels in their brains. The entire planet was on course to being infected, with no hope of a cure. We originally stepped in to try and create a vaccine, but the size and scale of what was happening was too much to deal with and we didn’t have the time. The population had already gone from eight billion to two. The strange thing about it all was they were the ones who made First Contact with us. They had just reached the stage where their world was able to create holes in the fabric of reality. They had been able to send out a distress signal, and we picked it up by happenstance. We were there to help As Generates, we were the only ones immune to the virus.

            “With the situation hopeless, we’d been told to pack up and evacuate. The locals weren’t happy with that. There were riots. That’s when I first met Victor. Back then he was still B-12, same rank as me. He was still trying to hand out supplies as they were pelting him with rocks. I had to drag him out of there myself. We were boarding our ships when we were given the Final Order.

            “Now that they had reached the alternate reality stage in development, Corporate believed the threat of contamination slipping out of their universe was too great. We couldn’t just confiscate their tech and abandon them, because they still had the resources and knowledge to build more. Our influence had inadvertently advanced their science program generations and it wouldn’t be long before they could physically breach into our universe. We had to kill them.

            “We’d already been equipped with the weapons to do it. When we left Last Point, Corporate had told us it was for our protection. We thought they were for show, mostly, since the locals were in a blood frenzy. We thought all it would come to is firing one off in space to scare them into submission if it ever came to it. We never saw violence that bad on Plague Earth. Most of the militaries had already broken up. Those that were left were more interested in defending themselves from the hordes of plague victims than waging war. The disease was airborne, though, so even they couldn’t defend themselves. There were sealed bunkers full of dead.

            “The plan was for us to blockade the planet from orbit and just nuke it. The world had until the last ship was in space to live. That happened to be my ship, the Aurora. Everyone was horrified by the plan, of course. There were some that saw the merit in not letting them suffer, or alternately to protect our own Norm population. Victor and I weren’t a part of those groups. We saw how many of our own ships were already in position. Victor went so far as to suggest firing on our own men to stop them, but I talked him out of it. I think that when I first started to love him. I gave him a better plan. I told him we could smuggle out a small group of people onboard the Aurora and find another world for them to settle. Their world would be gone, but they’d still have their lives. We had already absorbed all of their history, culture and technology into our databanks. We could give them enough supplies and knowledge to create their own world. Problem was, time was running out. Victor went along with it, as well as Reginald from my own crew, Kevin from his, and believe-it-or-not, Donovan. We smuggled thirty-one people onboard. There was no time to be picky. There were different families, different races and different ages. Anyone we could grab. If we’d been smart we’d have picked them younger and stronger and more prone to survival in general, but they were clean and that’s all that mattered. Victor never thought to ask how I knew to hide them. I think Kevin guessed, but he never questioned. Reggie was the only one who was in on my second-job.

            “We left Plague Earth behind while Corporate barked at us on the communicators for being late to the party. We took up our position and…” she made a trigger finger. “There were twenty-two ships in total. It would only take about five with the load we were carrying to wipe out the planet. I was the last to shoot. Victor didn’t want me to carry the burden alone, so he put my hand over his when we pressed down on the trigger. That’s when I knew I loved him. By that time, our shot was wasted, but Corporate couldn’t punish us for non-compliance. Plague Earth was already a fireball. Two billion people were dead in a flash, along with all life on the planet. We’d committed global genocide.

            “I managed to find an Earth from my records that was uninhabited by human life, and we slipped away on our return to base to drop them off. They weren’t particularly grateful. One of them tried to choke Victor to death when they found out what we’d done, and he just stood there and took it. I had to punch the guy to get him off. We abandoned them there with enough supplies to last them a year. I still remember the little girl watching us leave.

            “Back home, Victor was commended for his charitable work and promoted to A-6 and we began our years-long affair. There were suspicions about our unscheduled rendezvous before reaching Last Point, but I paid off the right people with the right bribes. I was even able to sneak back to the New Earth where we left the colony with fresh supplies about two months later. Victor had wanted to come with me, but it would have raised too many questions from Corporate. What I was doing was risky enough. Only Reginald came with me on that run.

            “We found them. They were all dead. One have them had the virus, and it spread to the others. They probably only made it through the first month. They were the last of their kind, and they were gone. Reginald and I gave them a proper burial and went home. I couldn’t bear to tell Victor. It would break him. I doctored some photos and showed them to him, and he ate it all up. I told him how they had built their own little village and…” Kylie choked. “He believed me. I faked two more trips, and he sent me off each time with a kiss. I just sat in the Aurora in the middle of nowhere and drank.

            “I’ve still never told him. I think he thinks they’re still out there. Reggie was the only one who knew and he’s dead. The worst part about anything is that the only thing we did during that operation that was in any way moral would get us sent to prison if it ever got out. So yeah, I’m a smuggler and a murderer. The smuggling part is the only thing Corporate considers criminal. With infinite lives on infinite worlds, the only thing they care about is infinite profit.”

            “Why would my father not tell me about this?” Jackie demanded as she swallowed hard.

            “I guess he edited that part out of his books, along with me, and dozens of other operations where he had to get his hands dirty,” Kylie shrugged. “It’s not something most people would admit to. No one who ever went to Plague Earth talked about it, except Donovan, and Kevin and I were the only ones who’d talk to him about it. I think Donovan wanted to end it after that. He kept talking about how he saw their faces. He was going to volunteer to be sent to a prison planet. Volunteer. We talked him out of it mainly because we were worried he’d talk and we’d all get sent. You know what happened after all of that. I could blame myself for what he did, but there’s no understanding his actions. Conner probably did him a favour.”

            “Is any of this even true?” Jackie asked. “I can’t believe my father would be a part of something like that.”

            “It’s true,” Gavin rubbed the back of his neck where his node was. The information floating around in his head confirmed it. Lance nodded as well. As a Soldier, his training had apparently covered key military actions acted out by the Corps.

            “I…” Jackie shook her head and hung it. “I never knew. I think he tried to tell me once. He used to tell me a story at bedtime about a secret village far, far away.”

            “Please don’t tell him you know,” Kylie insisted. “He’s not as strong as you think he is. As for why I told you, I needed to get it off my chest. I need to get a lot of things off of my chest. The weapons I have can be used in many ways. Nothing I have on this list could cause the same level of destruction, but we have to be careful about how they’re used, and who is using them. We can trust this world’s government to an extent. They have powerful weapons, but they’ve never used their full force against the Resistance. That’s not to say they won’t in the future. Conner, however, is a wild card. We know he could only use them to harm countless people. The same goes for the Aurora. If need be, we have to be willing to take them both off of the board. We’ll either leave this world behind, or let them self-destruct if need be.”

            “Those options are on the table,” Gavin agreed, “but that’s as a last resort.”

            There was a murmuring between Lara and Lance, but Goldie interrupted. “The team the President sent in to investigate the islands has come up blank. Conner’s signal is still in the area, but they can’t locate him.”

            “Is there no way to isolate the signal?” Gavin asked.

            “No. It has something to do with this world’s scrambling technology. It’s more advanced than our own. The closer we get to the disputed territories where it’s being used, the less clear the signal will become. We won’t know where he is until he’s right on top of us,” Goldie admitted.

            “Well, then we can only hope we can stay ahead of him,” Gavin said.