The Indestructibles (Book 4): Like A Comet Page 12

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

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

  "You heard that?" she said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  "You'll teach me?" Emily said.

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

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

  Doc stood up, rubbing his eyes beneath his glasses.

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

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

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

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

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

  Kate spoke next, gesturing to the bag.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  Doc turned to Jane next.

  "What did you find?" he asked.

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

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

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

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

  Doc exhaled deeply.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  "My name is Seng," he said.

  Titus stood up and helped him to a chair.

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

  Chapter 21:

  Where Horizon went

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

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

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

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

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

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

  "Like this ship," Billy said.

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

  Billy kept his eyes on the Nemesis fleet, amazed at how they lacked uniformity. It was as if each ship were n
ot built so much as they were grown, with all the different variations a living thing might take on as it developed. The ships had personalities, and flaws, quirks and strengths. Some were more similar than others—the little fighter-style craft often looked very much alike—but each one had its own singular personality.

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

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

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

  Billy shook his head.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  "Have they disgusted you yet?" Suresh said.

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

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

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

  "Not yet," Billy said instead.

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

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

  "Weariness about what?" Billy said.

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

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

  Suresh laughed again.

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

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

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

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

  How did Nigel die, Dude? Billy thought.

  Dude hesitated. Billy could feel his discomfort.

  I deserve to know, Billy thought.

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

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

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

  Because what, Dude? Billy thought.

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

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

  Before Billy could pull on that thread, Suresh spoke.

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

  "Not nearly enough," Billy thought.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  "Watching. Waiting."

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

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

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

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

  "What?" Billy said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  Chapter 22:

  Where monsters come from

  The chieftain used to remember his name.

  He recalled many things from his life before the invasion, before he was
kidnapped by this terrible armada; though, with each passing day, those memories became foggier and foggier. He reflected on the times with his wife, their litter of children, and a pre-technological world, with high trees, and clear skies, and bloody battles between nomadic tribes.

  Finally, he remembered being a warrior.

  Here, aboard this starship, the cold emptiness of space all around, his home world felt like a dream. It was a dream, in any way that mattered, he thought. Gone, a desiccated husk of a world, eaten alive by these creatures, the Devourers, as his people had come to call them, and all that was left behind—every ally, loved one, mountain and tree—gone with it.

  The chieftain had not forgotten pain. Perpetual pain. His life had been one of battle and blood, and every waking moment there were aches—old injuries, hardened scar tissue, even just the heartache of growing old in a world where every day was a struggle. He hurt because he had been a warrior, and he hurt because he had lived.

  This thing on his chest, this parasite, it took away the pain. He did not feel hurt, cold, or warmth. Yet it was not true numbness, not precisely, but it was a barrenness, an absence of feeling, a disconnect between his body and his mind.

  Disoriented and completely separated from his actions, it was as he viewed himself from afar.

  His brother walked by, in a slow, aimless shuffle, recognizable in the dark by the cracked and broken horn growing from the left side of his head. They did not speak to each other any longer. They'd tried, at first, but the parasites sent waves of agony through them, as if to stop them from communicating. Now they stared at each other with dimming yellow eyes. My brother, the chieftain thought, his heart breaking at the emptiness he saw in that green, scarred face. The mightiest of us. The strongest. Reduced to cattle. Like me.

  There were others here, as well, not just from the chieftain's planet, a menagerie of freaks and monsters, reptilian and furred, six-limbed and twelve, things that walked on two legs and things that moved on many. All seemed dim and distant, wearing these decorations of flesh on their chests. There was a strength to them, though, and the chieftain had come to realize this was what they all had in common—the Devourers kept the strongest from each world they destroyed, enslaved them, making them their own warriors and servants, leaving the rest behind when the world no longer had anything left to feed them.