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.”