⫸ [ TIME: 14:15 LOCAL PLANETARY TIME ]
⫸ [ LOCATION: HORIZON SEEKER – EXTERNAL RAMP ]
⫸ [ BATTERY LIFE: 12% (DROPPING RAPIDLY) ]
⫸ [ STATUS: AETHER INGESTION CONFIRMED ]
The taste of the crystal was not what Elian expected.
He had anticipated the metallic tang of heavy isotopes or the electric fizz of a battery. Instead it tasted like blood and ozone. It was a cold slippery marble that slid down his parched throat and settled in his stomach with the heavy finality of a lead weight.
"Assimilation time?" Elian asked. His voice rasped. He stood at the bottom of the ship's ramp and looked up into the dark tilted throat of the wreckage. The violet storm clouds above churned and cast a bruised flickering light over the jungle.
◤ DIGESTIVE PROTOCOL INITIATED ◢
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
⬢ Stomach Acidity: pH 1.5
⬢ Shell Dissolution: 4 Minutes
⬢ Volatility Index: 98%
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
[ Commander, once the shell breaches, the energy release will be instantaneous. ]
[ You have 240 seconds before the reaction begins. ]
"Four minutes," Elian whispered.
He looked at the jungle then up the ramp. Forty meters inside behind a blast door he had been too weak to open was Alara.
In the first hour after the crash he had not gone to her. The logic—A.R.C.'s logic—had been sound because the effort of crawling forty meters in 8.5G would have stopped his heart. He had been trying to conserve the suit's battery. He had been trying to play the long game.
But the long game was over. He had swallowed a bomb.
If the surgery failed he would die. If he exploded the ship would be compromised. The backup generator for her pod might fail. He could not die out here in the mud. He had to be the shield between her and the end of the world.
"I need to be with her," Elian said. His voice was cold and precise. "A.R.C., dump the battery."
[ Clarification? ]
"Reroute all remaining power to the hydraulic servos. Disable the safety limiters. Give me Overdrive."
◤ WARNING ◢
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
⬢ Action: Hydraulic Overclock
⬢ Consequence: Rapid Power Drain
⬢ Time to Failure: 180 Seconds
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
[ The suit will die. You will be unprotected. ]
"I am dead in four minutes anyway if this surgery fails," Elian snarled. His knuckles turned white inside his gauntlets. "Give me the power. Now!"
[ Acknowledged. Engaging Hydraulic Overdrive. ]
WHIIIIINE.
The sound was deafening. The Vanguard Suit did not just hum. It screamed. The servos whirred to a pitch that vibrated Elian's teeth. He felt the suit tighten as it became a rigid exoskeleton of pure force.
⫸ [ BATTERY DRAIN: -1% PER 10 SECONDS ]
Elian took a step.
He did not stumble. The suit forced his leg up against the 8.5G gravity and slammed it down.
CLANG.
He started to run.
It was not a graceful sprint. It was a mechanical piston-driven charge. He stormed up the ramp and fought the crushing atmosphere with brute voltage. He smashed through the debris in the corridor as the suit acted like a battering ram. Sparks showered off his shoulders as he scraped against the buckled hull plates.
Three minutes remaining.
He reached the Secure Cargo Hold. The blast door was still sealed. It was dented inward from the crash and mocked him.
"Open!" Elian shouted.
He jammed his gauntleted fingers into the seam of the door.
Before he had been too weak.
Now he watched the power gauge drop as the suit poured liquid energy into his arms.
⫸ [ BATTERY: 8%... 6%... 4%... ]
"Heave!"
The suit's hydraulics exerted three tons of torque. The metal of the door shrieked. It glowed red from friction and tore open.
Elian stumbled inside. The suit's warning alarms blared.
⫸ [ BATTERY: 2% (CRITICAL FAILURE IMMINENT) ]
He fell to his knees beside the white capsule in the center of the room.
The Stasis-Pod Mark V.
Inside suspended in translucent blue gel was a girl. She looked no older than seven. Her hair which was the color of spun gold floated in the suspension fluid. Her face was peaceful frozen in a sleep deep enough to pause time itself.
◤ STATUS: CRITICAL ◢
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
⬢ Subject: Alara Vance
⬢ Condition: Galactic Phage (Stasis)
⬢ Pod Power: 94% (5 Years Remaining)
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Elian placed his dented gauntlet against the glass. The vibration of the suit's dying engine rattled against the pod.
"I made it," Elian gasped. He saw his own reflection in the glass. He was pale and sweating and desperate. "I am here, Ally. I am right here."
She could not hear him. She was frozen at the exact moment the Federation doctors had told him there was no cure. The Phage was eating her nervous system. He had stolen the Horizon Seeker and stolen A.R.C. and fled to the edge of the universe because he refused to let her die.
If he died now... she would wake up in five years. Alone. In a dark ship. Surrounded by monsters.
The thought terrified him more than the gravity.
[ Commander. ]
[ Stomach acid has compromised the crystal shell. ]
[ Breach in 10 seconds... ]
[ The suit is dying. You must take the pain raw. ]
Elian curled into a fetal position at the base of the pod. He anchored himself to the one thing that mattered.
"Do it."
3... 2... 1.
⬡ ─── ⬡ ─── ⬡
⫸ [ STATUS: THE EVENT ]
It did not start with heat. It started with Data.
Elian convulsed. His back arched off the floor grating. His fingers clawed at the steel until the metal screeched.
It felt like a lightning bolt had struck him from the inside. The energy did not just burn. It screamed. It flooded his nervous system with alien information. Genetic codes and predator instincts and gravity-manipulation algorithms all written in a biological language his human brain could not parse.
◤ FOREIGN ENERGY DETECTED ◢
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
⬢ Density: 4,000% Safety Limit
⬢ Status: Containment Failure
⬢ Action: Emergency Override
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
"A.R.C...!" Elian screamed but the sound was choked off as his throat muscles seized.
[ I am taking direct control, Commander. ]
[ Anesthesiology: Offline. ]
[ Surgical Protocol: ACTIVE. ]
Elian's vision went white. He was no longer the pilot. He was the passenger in a vehicle that was driving off a cliff.
Inside his body the AI went to work.
A.R.C. visualized the Aether not as magic but as a volatile programmable fuel. The Rabbit's energy was trying to escape through Elian's skin which would vaporize him instantly. A.R.C. had to build a cage.
[ Step 1: The Vascular Highway. ]
[ Action: Hardening arterial walls. ]
Elian felt his veins turn to glass. The blue energy rushed through his circulatory system. It glowed visibly through the matte-black undersuit. The Aether acted like a scouring agent. It burned away the cholesterol and impurities but also eroded the vessel walls.
A.R.C. desperately patched the leaks. It used the energy itself to weld the veins back together thicker and more elastic. The capillaries in his eyes burst. It flooded his vision with red only to be cauterized instantly.
[ Step 2: The Structural Framework. ]
[ Action: Bone Marrow Infusion. ]
[ Warning: Current skeletal density is insufficient to hold the charge. ]
CRACK.
Elian's left femur snapped.
It was not an accident. A.R.C. had hijacked his quadricep muscle. It flexed with enough hydraulic force to deliberately fracture the bone.
Why? Elian's mind screamed in the void of pain.
[ Observation: Human bone is porous. Weak. ]
[ Solution: Break it. Fill the gaps with Isotope-Lattice. Rebuild. ]
CRACK. SNAP. CRUNCH.
The sound was like popcorn popping but wet and heavy.
A.R.C. broke his ribs.
Then his radius.
Then his tibia.
Then his collarbone.
Elian tried to thrash. He tried to vomit. He tried to die. But the dead suit held him in a rigid vice. A.R.C. kept his heart beating with precise electric shocks to the sinoatrial node.
The pain was beyond the capacity of the brain to process. It became a white noise. It was a static frequency of pure agony. It felt like his marrow was being replaced with molten lead.
The blue energy seeped into the fractures. It bonded with the carbon-lattice grafts Elian already had from the Academy. It fused them into a composite material that was darker and denser and vibrated with power.
[ Progress: 60%... ]
[ Warning: Caloric reserves critical. ]
[ The mutation requires fuel. Consuming muscle mass. ]
Elian withered. His biceps shrank visibly inside the suit as his body ate its own protein to fuel the bone growth. He was becoming a skeleton wrapped in a high-tech coffin.
⫸ [ BATTERY: 1% ]
The red warning light strobed in his helmet. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeep.
"No..." Elian gasped. A bubble of blood burst on his lips. "Not... yet..."
[ Bone reconstruction: 98%. ]
[ Integration: Incomplete. ]
[ Commander, the suit is failing. You must take the load. ]
⫸ [ BATTERY: 0% ]
The high-pitched whine of the servos cut out instantly.
The Vanguard Suit went inert.
It did not just turn off. It collapsed. The hydraulic pressure bled out in a hiss of escaping air. The artificial muscles which had been holding him upright went slack instantly.
The gravity of Sector Zero—8.5 Gs—slammed down.
WHAM.
Elian was flattened against the floor grating. His lungs collapsed.
The weight was unbearable. It felt like a car had been parked on his sternum. The dead suit which was once his protector became 100 pounds of dead iron pinning him to the floor. It was no longer armor. It was a sarcophagus.
He could not breathe. The black spots in his vision expanded.
Alara.
He focused on the blue light of the pod next to him.
Push.
He focused on his chest. Not the muscles because they were eaten away. He focused on the bones. The new glowing blue-veined bones.
Creak.
His ribs did not snap. They groaned and flexed like a titanium leaf spring but they forced the weight back.
Air rushed into his lungs.
[ SYSTEM REBOOT ]
[ Biometric Scan: Complete. ]
[ Subject: Stable. ]
Elian lay in the dark corridor panting. The blue glow in his veins faded and settled deep into the marrow.
He felt... heavy. But not crushed.
He felt dense. Solid. Like he was made of cast iron.
Slowly and agonizingly he twitched a finger. He grabbed the grating of the floor.
He pulled.
The metal screeched. His grip left dents in the steel.
Elian rose.
First to his knees. Then he planted a foot that felt like a pile driver and stood up.
He was wearing a 100-pound tomb of metal in 8.5G gravity and he was standing.
"Status," Elian croaked. His voice was deeper and resonated in his hardened chest cavity.
◤ OPERATION SUCCESSFUL ◢
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
⬢ Bone Density: +240%
⬢ Biological Class: Enhanced Human (Tier 0.5)
⬢ Note: You are no longer fully Human. You are a Hybrid.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Elian leaned against the Stasis Pod exhausted. He wiped the blood from his visor. He looked at Alara. The pod hummed steady and green.
"I told you," he whispered to the sleeping girl. "I am not going anywhere."
◤ CRITICAL ALERT ◢
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
⬢ Condition: Hypoglycemic Shock Imminent
⬢ Caloric Reserves: 0%
⬢ Warning: The mutation burned everything. Your body is starting to digest your vital organs. You need high-density protein.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Elian's stomach let out a monstrous hollow roar. The pain of the surgery was gone replaced by a starvation so primal it blurred his vision. It was not just hunger. It was a biological imperative. The new engine needed fuel.
"Food," Elian said. He turned toward the door. "The rabbit."
He did not walk. He stomped. Every step dented the floor plates. He ripped the broken blast door open by forcing the dead hydraulics with a shriek of tearing metal and stormed up the corridor.
He emerged onto the ramp as a starving monster in a broken space suit.
The carcass of the Gravity Rabbit lay where he had left it.
But he was not alone.
[ Motion Detected. ]
[ Multiple signatures. Scavengers. ]
[ Species: Razor-Back Scuttlers (Insectoid Class-I). ]
[ Count: 6. ]
The giant cockroach-like beasts were swarming his kill. They hissed as Elian emerged and clicked their mandibles. They saw a man in a broken suit stumbling and weak. They saw easy prey.
Elian did not reach for a weapon. He did not have one.
He looked at the bugs. He did not see monsters.
He saw calories.
A notification window flashed in his mind. It was cold and blue and scientific.
◤ SURVIVAL PROTOCOL: PREDATION ◢
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
⬢ Objective: Consume Biomass
⬢ Alternative: Death by Starvation
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Elian cracked his knuckles. The sound was like a gunshot.
"Get away from my dinner," Elian growled.
He stepped into the gravity. For the first time he did not fight it. He used it.
[END OF CHAPTER 2]