Zero - Earth Fire: Zero, #2 l2q1k

Zero:

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Earth Fire Author:- Clifford Barker

Zero - Earth Fire Copyright © 2020 by Clifford Barker. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review. Cover designed by Clifford Barker This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Zero - Earth Fire

Chapter 1 - Antarctic Aftermath.

Chapter 2 - Train of death.

Chapter 3 - Eight Defrosted

Chapter 4 - A missile on ice.

Chapter 5 - Rain is expected.

Chapter 6 - Knowledge is power.

Chapter 7 - Zero MkII? ...

Chapter 8 - Dem bones dem bones.

Chapter 9 - Thraten cannon fodder.

Chapter 10 - The beginning of the end?...

Chapter 11 - From blinding light ... Darkness.

Chapter 12 - Catch me if you can.

Chapter 13 - Sphinx dissected

Chapter 14 - A fiery ball of bottom quarks.

Chapter 15 - Zero swings the Axe.

Chapter 16 - Aelren’s hammer falls.

Chapter 17 - The shadow of the beast.

Chapter 18 - The beast revealed.

Chapter 19 - Battle stations!

Chapter 20 - The original beast awakens.

Chapter 21 - The endless climb.

Chapter 22 - Can a Repton change their scales?

Chapter 23 - The Edge of Madness.

Chapter 24 - Nice weather for lizards.

Chapter 25 - Maintenance Shaft Malady.

Chapter 26 - The Novus who would be Prime.

Chapter 27 - Pulling the Dragon’s Teeth.

Chapter 28 - One of our hybrids is missing.

Chapter 29 - The ghost and the shell.

Chapter 30 - Dissatisfaction and deception.

Chapter 31 - “Where am I?”

Chapter 32 - Gray goes living in the past.

Chapter 33 - Hackers for hire ...

Chapter 34 - Disrespect and Destruction.

Chapter 35 - A Novus in the shadows.

Chapter 36 - The beast returns.

Chapter 37 - All control is lost ...

Chapter 38 - The giant, the detective, his prisoner and her brother.

Chapter 39 - Aftershocks at India-7.

Chapter 40 - The hunt for Nazir begins ...

Chapter 41 - Lies and Half Truths.

Chapter 42 - Ghosts.

Chapter 43 - Wraith baits his hook.

Chapter 44 - The beast rises from the ashes.

Chapter 45 - Respark and retirement.

Chapter 46 - Death Arrives to the party.

Chapter 47 - Acerrima proximorum odia ...

Chapter 48 - To be a Number with a name.

Chapter 49 – Pickin’ up good vibrations ...

Chapter 50 - Safety ... OFF!

Chapter 51 - Welcome to war.

Chapter 52 – Revolt and revulsion.

Chapter 53 - Death, doubt and diplomacy.

Chapter 54 - Defences raised!

Chapter 55 - The Beast laid bare.

Chapter 56 - The most exclusive club ... The hive.

Chapter 57 - The first cut is the deepest.

Chapter 58 - The biggest jump ... The hardest landing.

Chapter 59 - Live to fight ...

Chapter 60 - A little slice of home...

Chapter 61 - Once more unto the Kuiper.

Chapter 62 - Survival ... Instinct kicks in...

Chapter 63 - The net tightens ...

Chapter 64 - Khai-mah killer ...

Chapter 65 - The dark at the end of the tunnel ...

Chapter 66 - The tunnel of love ... Out of order.

Chapter 67 - Not your average headache ...

Chapter 68 - Object oriented obfuscation.

Chapter 69 - The take up ... before the take down ...

Chapter 70 - You shall go to the ball ...

Chapter 71 - The future absolves the past ...

Chapter 72 - The circle broken by fate ...

Chapter 73 - Another day ...

About the Author

Chapter 1 - Antarctic Aftermath. Chapter 2 - Train of death. Chapter 3 - Eight Defrosted Chapter 4 - A missile on ice. Chapter 5 - Rain is expected. Chapter 6 - Knowledge is power. Chapter 7 - Zero MkII? ... Chapter 8 - Dem bones dem bones. Chapter 9 - Thraten cannon fodder. Chapter 10 - The beginning of the end?... Chapter 11 - From blinding light ... Darkness. Chapter 12 - Catch me if you can. Chapter 13 - Sphinx dissected Chapter 14 - A fiery ball of bottom quarks. Chapter 15 - Zero swings the Axe. Chapter 16 - Aelren’s hammer falls. Chapter 17 - The shadow of the beast. Chapter 18 - The beast revealed. Chapter 19 - Battle stations! Chapter 20 - The original beast awakens.

Chapter 21 - The endless climb. Chapter 22 - Can a Repton change their scales? Chapter 23 - The Edge of Madness. Chapter 24 - Nice weather for lizards. Chapter 25 - Maintenance Shaft Malady. Chapter 26 - The Novus who would be Prime. Chapter 27 - Pulling the Dragon’s Teeth. Chapter 28 - One of our hybrids is missing. Chapter 29 - The ghost and the shell. Chapter 30 - Dissatisfaction and deception. Chapter 31 - “Where am I?” Chapter 32 - Gray goes living in the past. Chapter 33 - Hackers for hire ... Chapter 34 - Disrespect and Destruction. Chapter 35 - A Novus in the shadows. Chapter 36 - The beast returns. Chapter 37 - All control is lost ... Chapter 38 - The giant, the detective, his prisoner and her brother. Chapter 39 - Aftershocks at India-7. Chapter 40 - The hunt for Nazir begins ... Chapter 41 - Lies and Half Truths.

Chapter 42 - Ghosts. Chapter 43 - Wraith baits his hook. Chapter 44 - The beast rises from the ashes. Chapter 45 - Respark and retirement. Chapter 46 - Death Arrives to the party. Chapter 47 - Acerrima proximorum odia ... Chapter 48 - To be a Number with a name. Chapter 49 – Pickin’ up good vibrations ... Chapter 50 - Safety ... OFF! Chapter 51 - Welcome to war. Chapter 52 – Revolt and revulsion. Chapter 53 - Death, doubt and diplomacy. Chapter 54 - Defences raised! Chapter 55 - The Beast laid bare. Chapter 56 - The most exclusive club ... The hive. Chapter 57 - The first cut is the deepest. Chapter 58 - The biggest jump ... The hardest landing. Chapter 59 - Live to fight ... Chapter 60 - A little slice of home... Chapter 61 - Once more unto the Kuiper. Chapter 62 - Survival ... Instinct kicks in...

Chapter 63 - The net tightens ... Chapter 64 - Khai-mah killer ... Chapter 65 - The dark at the end of the tunnel ... Chapter 66 - The tunnel of love ... Out of order. Chapter 67 - Not your average headache ... Chapter 68 - Object oriented obfuscation. Chapter 69 - The take up ... before the take down ... Chapter 70 - You shall go to the ball ... Chapter 71 - The future absolves the past ... Chapter 72 - The circle broken by fate ... Chapter 73 - Another day ...

Chapter 1 - Antarctic Aftermath.

1973 ... SECONDS AFTER Geyldian had jumped Zero's lifeless body aboard Central directly to Leren’s medical lab ... "Again! This host is impossible ..." "Yes ... And we were doing so well." "What’s the damage?" "I have received the following so far. Heavy impact trauma over eighty percent of host ... Two penetrating wounds from a long narrow blade ... One centre mass through the sternum and a second through left shoulder and lung. Lower right leg, Spiral break. Ribs on both sides are broken. We have lost a lung on the right hand side and all the protective cage is gone ... The liver is obliterated, a kidney is missing, intestines have been transected in multiple positions ... That's not the worst of it ... I ed a wound to the right hand..." "How is that the worst of it?" "I said I ed a wound to the right hand ... Then it stopped responding completely ... The way host bled out ... Cells surrounding the wound are burnt and dead. Host has been caught in some sort of explosion ... We think the whole arm was blown off and part of the chest went with it!" "He's really done it this time ... How long?..." "This will not be repaired quickly, in recent times host has been a light eater, we haven't the fuel for this, it will take weeks." Of course this conversation was not carried out in words, but chemical signals. And whilst every word may not be accurate and some of the more colourful language may have been omitted here, this was the general gist. The spores were beginning to take of the new injuries sustained by their accident prone host of almost a millennia, even despite their endless fortification of his systems. This was host Garic's 2807th death; this time he’d really out done himself.

Back in the early days, the spores had settled nicely into host Garic’s fresh and healthy body. Their journey into his body had been simpler than they could have ever hoped. After being harvested from their previous home in some sort of plant, they had spent several generations in a laboratory. Here they were screened, spun in a centrifuge and filtered to remove any colonials who weren't pulling their weight correctly. During this process they had lost almost two percent of their number in what represented a vastly sped up version of their own natural thinning out processes. What began with the remaining colony being sucked into some sort of device, ended with all but two of them being introduced directly into host Garic's nice warm nervous system, at the base of his spine... The perfect place. In a couple of hours the colony would split apart and begun their symbiotic roles, metering and measuring all Garic’s bodily processes. Each member of the colony would play a role in keeping Garic alive, in turn he would be their fortress enabling them to survive. Firstly the colony would split into equal teams, making their way along the nerve pathways, not only up the spinal cord, but outwards into every peripheral system. The numbers of colonials were such that one would remain at each nerve signal node, before the rest of the team continued their journey onwards until the final node would be reached. Having taken a position where systems could be monitored and signals could be sent easily between the colony ; their journey would usually end here. However, host Garic was a very high order organism possessing complex organs as well as a brain; as such he was capable of far more than rudimentary survival functions. Realisation of this would cause any surplus colony to find a route back to the neural cortex, and further on into the brain. Ordinarily the function of the colonials was to maintain the health and function of their host, irrespective of whether that host was a simple plant, animal, or something more complex like a cloned super soldier. Some of the colonials had also embedded themselves through the organs within host Garic's body. All this very simple yet highly industrious behaviour allowed them to sense stress, heightened muscle activity, trauma by physical damage or disease, and chemical imbalances from poison or pharmaceutical drugs. The Colonials themselves were certainly not immortal, but their reproduction by

splitting was triggered each time some modification or repair had to be made to their host. In some cases this was imperative as the chemicals released from the breakdown of the dying colonial was the remedy required to fix the host. The priority for the colonials was to maintain balance ... perfectly. Following this the colonials were able to trigger a lot of processes in the host, which he could never have hoped to perform for himself. Absorption, and even assimilation of virus's, disease molecules or any other substance introduced to the host, which was not native, but which could be useful later as a building block. Reactivation of stem cells and their perfect guidance to the damaged area were just some of the processes the spores controlled. In the spore colony’s earliest epochs, their host had suffered damage from outside trauma mostly ... To various degrees. Host had been perforated, crushed, bisected from various limbs, incinerated, and starved of oxygen before suffering massive impact trauma. Despite the numerous methods Garic had already explored to kill himself utterly; the spores were always surprised as their host managed to find a new, more devastating way. Sometimes these events would be months apart, and sometimes Garic would've barely even regenerated the day before. Some of these deaths, whilst being endlessly creative, left hugely traumatic memories. The realisation of his purpose as a fully autonomous weapons platform, built to fight and die, then live and fight again and probably die again soon became too much for Garic to bear. The accumulation of painful, traumatic memories inevitably led Garic towards a bout of self-induced death events. Following these events, which escalated in both violence and complexity; host would again be regenerated. There was no escape even for a suicidal soldier. A bigger worry for the spores inside Garic was the way large doses of epinephrine, opiates, or an unhealthy amount of beta blockers would be introduced into his system. These almost caused the colonials in the brain to seek detachment. True to form the colony’s first and arguably only objective, was to live long. This meant they had to protect their host so he could protect them. It didn’t take long before the colonials sensed this pattern of death and poison. Initially the colony had been utterly baffled by how less self-destructive host had become when his brain was pickled with chemicals. The frequency of his death events which required their regenerative interventions also seemed to drop to almost one tenth.

The clever colonials realised that the chemicals being introduced were harmful. But they were also attempting; however crudely to replicate natural chemicals within host Garic's cerebrum. The net effect was strangely beneficial. By measuring when these chemicals were introduced against their benefit inside host’s system, the spores were easily able to learn how to modulate the chemicals naturally. If they sensed the soldier was about to enter battle, they would quickly get to work to alter their host’s brain chemistry. This then, was the earliest form of Garic’s famous battle ready mode, where emotion would be drained and his senses would become sharpened. Each time they did, the outside introduction of non-synergistic totally artificial chemicals, which were incomplete in both chemistry and functionality was quickly reduced and then halted altogether ... So too were Garic’s suicidal tendencies. As good symbiotes, it also made sense for the colonials to achieve certain objectives within their host's brain. Firstly they would catalogue his memories, categorising them into the three main areas of functional, learned or convenient. The spores already realised that their host had not been born naturally, but in a pod. As such his brain had been hard wired with certain skills which were designed around a life of fighting, bearing arms and flying a whole host of craft. These were functional memories, over and above Garic's autonomic functions. Anything new which Garic learned in the performance of his duties was stored in a separate place. Languages, new weapons or skills, places, all information which was knowledge based was stored in the learned memory synapses. This left the humdrum day to day things which occurred in host Garic's everyday life, to be committed to his convenient memory. People, their relationship to and with him, as well as most of his experiences unrelated to learning were stored in this annex. This place in host Garic's mind was the throne on which all his trauma related baggage sat. As such the colonials tried hard to find ways to block these. Many attempts proved to be unreliable, with a violent death memory always flashing back into Garic's mind vividly, just as he was bearing down on his target. Though only momentary, the hesitation this would cause would be enough for Garic to miss his target. Flying right on by, he would then be blasted to pieces. This circle of doom spiralled almost out of control for many of hosts early life cycles. Eventually the colonials devised a method to chemically break

down the connections from the cerebrum, and the memories stored within the engrams of the convenient annex. This was permanent but reversible if required. More importantly, this proved totally reliable. Host Garic was hard wired to perform his secondary function of fighting. None of his convenient memories were needed for this to happen. Better yet, without the memories of a death in a similar situation, Garic knew no fear. Battle mode was complete. After this the colonials noted several occasions where host's operational rhythm was slowed involuntarily. Processed air was pumped into his lungs with such voracity as to nearly cause a rupture. This was then expunged so completely as to risk collapse. The air being pumped in was not in sync with host Garic's actual lung capacity by any stretch. During this time their fortress was breached by needles which always seemed to cause some colonial casualties. Quickly the colonials also realised that a death event was largely preceded by a rush of various chemicals, the main one being adrenaline. In this event, muscular and respiratory activity would be heightened for prolonged periods of time. Even though Garic was mentally focused and ready to fight, his body was not capable of being pushed up gear after gear; eventually the soldier would succumb to fatigue. This often saw Garic become a target. The colony learned to boost this adrenal spike, whilst retarding other chemicals which might serve to hamper stamina and muscle activity. With host Garic's body able to move at accelerated rates for long periods without cramps or fatigue, death events became lessened even further. Colony life settled into a more normal routine. Never before had the frequency of host's death events ever dropped to the record low which the colony had observed in this last 410 cycles. Today was only the eighth death event in all those years, but it certainly was some of the worst damage their fortress had ever sustained. The first death in this period was a notable one, only because it was preceded by a full five minutes of abject terror, an emotion which they had not observed in their usually calm and emotionless host for hundreds of cycles. Host Garic's lungs had then been flooded by molecules of Hydrogen and Oxygen in a mix most incongruent with his respiratory needs. This liquid was also unhealthily rich in ions of both Sodium and Chloride, as well as a plethora of minute flora and fauna. Minute being a relative term as these organisms were all

huge compared to their own size, measured on the Nanoscale. These flora despite their own small size had it seemed evolved past the need to live symbiotically within a host, but also suffered a much shorter life span as a result. It didn’t take long before the colony realised that host Garic was somewhere new. Six cycles later and host Garic was again dead, having suffered huge surface trauma which had effectively led to him bleeding out. This damage had taken only one night to repair and their host was good to go again. It wasn’t quite one century before the third death in this new location, but if the colonials had dreamed of a period of inactivity, the reality had been far from that. Host Garic lived in a dirty place, rife with disease. His system was being constantly exposed to a whole manner of new micro organisms and viruses. This new world was a primordial soup of bacteria. Many were useful but many more were hostile. Throw into the mix water borne parasites, bugs injected by larger bugs and host Garic's newfound predilection for another kind of fluid which initially played havoc with his system and the colonials had their hands full the whole time. It seemed that even when host Garic was actually looking after their fortress, the organisms on this new planet were all trying to kill him instead. There were however several useful molecules, not to mention DNA strands which had shown themselves to the colonials. By no means was every part of every invader repelled. The useful items were distributed throughout host Garic's skeletal system in the matrix and the marrow. These served to bolster his immunity against any recurrence of that strain of illness, but also the colonials could rig the stored pieces together with proteins and amino-cites which they had manufactured internally, to fend off some of the more virulent attackers ... Whilst all these tiny invaders had all tried hard to scale the walls of their fortress, with only limited success and no lasting effects, the situation right now was far worse. Some external power had wrought almost total devastation on Garic’s body. It wasn't long after damage reports stopped coming in to the central cortex, that a completely new set of invaders was being ed. A series of large gauge needles were sensed in both thigh muscles, through which pain medication and adrenaline had been istered. Only once before on this world had the spores witnessed anything like this.

Most of host Garic's time on this new planet had been uneventful; though he had found some interesting ways to kill himself. Beginning around forty years previously, the colony had seen a spike of death events with high levels of soot and dust entering their hosts system. Whilst being completely different to back on their home planet, this inferred that Garic was once more fighting in a full scale war. At the end of this period their host received a devastating trauma. This was followed by the introduction of large gauge needles, and some crude efforts to repair the damage by external means. Then as now this had been the clone doctor Leren’s only option considering the damage to Zero’s torso. The site for a direct injection of Nanites to the heart was heavily damaged. The spores were shocked to find themselves confronted by mechanical contraptions, not much larger than themselves. That day turned out to be a real scorcher. These tiny Nano sized robots had actually made a difference. The spores released chemicals immediately, attempting to get on with their work. But as they stopped host Garic’s heart, mere milliseconds later an outside stimulus had istered a shock to instantly restart it. This had not been anywhere near enough time for the colonials to split and reproduce. Luckily enough, though the spores had missed their chance this time, the small robots were making up for it. This time the spores decided to sit back and watch, even discussing at length the possibility of hijacking these tiny devices which were incredibly capable not to mention mobile. Finally the idea was mute, immediately upon completion of their set tasks, the tiny robots suffered rapid oxidisation, and were completely dissolved in the next seconds. This was something the spores had never witnessed before in Garic’s many lives. An external force had been introduced to regenerate their host for them, then destroy itself. These artificial devices which had been injected in their millions; achieved in a couple of weeks what would have taken them only days. The spores found the process novel to watch and valuable resources had been saved. Eventually the needles were withdrawn and the chemical balance within host Garic had been redressed. Everything returned to normal, as usual the spores severed the memory of the death event and so their host quickly got on with his 2,286th life. After this the massive traumas seemed to stop also, though host Garic was living his life at a vastly elevated level. It seemed that one of the lasting effects of the small robots had been to repair synaptic connections within

his brain which had long been rendered dormant by evolution; having even been so in the three species which Garic had been created from. Since the death event in 1945, host Garic’s brain function had been greatly elevated, this only seemed to serve him well. Despite getting into some violent skirmishes in the first decade following; the last thirty years had seen host Garic taking much more care. At least until today ... It was clear to the colonials that despite the massive damage to their host, outside forces were again trying to sustain and revive him. This was totally counterproductive to what the symbiotic spore colony needed to happen. In an attempt to force death to occur quickly, the colonials raised the levels of dopamine in host Garic's system to counteract the adrenaline Leren had infused. Several of their had already started the process by which they copied themselves, this was bad. Once their host was dead, then the spores would divide, after this the original spores would also die leaving the new colonials to synchronise and act on the information which had been chemically encoded within them. Then the process of regenerating their host would begin. If these premature colonials finished splitting before their host was physically dead, they wouldn’t be able to help him. Instead they would be absorbed by white blood cells after the regenerative process was complete, having been considered alien to their hosts immune system. Quickly enough the cortex received the final signal, host Garic's heart was no longer beating, even in the face of the artificial systems trying to sustain him. Thanks to the spores, these were no longer having any effect. The next hour would be critical. The colonials would plug into the system, and then divide. The originals would then die, and the restoration of their fortress would begin. By and large the process was a success. Host Garic's body was not touched any further. The first thing the new colonials noticed were tiny electrical impulses, being conducted through Garic’s long dead brain. This could not be understood as the process was completely new and seemed to be having no physical effects on their host whatsoever. Their first task was simply to decipher the encoded signals left by their previous generation, and then get to the task of rebuilding. The fluids which had so far been pumped into their host would now become invaluable. A well hydrated

body was never a bad thing for the transfer of chemical signals. The faster these could be transmitted and received the better. Mere hours after the new incarnation of the colony had gotten its feet wiped clean on host Garic's welcome mat, repairs had started and all looked set for a normal humdrum resurrection of their host. Five hours later though and some very strange things began to happen. Moisture was being leached from their host’s body; this was a bad thing. Though they couldn’t be certain, it was like the atmosphere outside their host was being changed. The needles pumping in the chemicals or delivering micro shocks had all been removed. The electrical impulses in the brain had also stopped; it was clear that no further action was being taken to externally revive their host. Host’s body temperature was being lowered; significantly and rapidly. No damage was being seen at a cellular level due to the desiccated state of their host’s body. Cells which had still been alive after their host had ceased to live as a complete organism were being forced to shut down into hibernation. All attempts to keep them functioning were failing. Gradually signals were being lost too from the intact peripherals. The last signals were from the core, probably as the organs in this area had taken longest to be dried out and cooled. This was bad, not since the very early days had the colonials experienced this. Someone was trying to preserve host Garic's body; suggesting they didn’t expect him to come back to life. If any were needed, this was the final proof that Garic was not on his own world. Everything which had been experienced before in the last 410 cycles might have been a test, but no one had tried to preserve their host's body before. Regeneration could not proceed in this rarefied environment. The last signals received to the cortex were acknowledgements of total shutdown. There was no point speculating ... Maybe they would get a chance to succeed in the future. Maybe they wouldn't ... But the situation at this moment was dire. There was no fluid, not enough food, no oxygen and no chance ...

Chapter 2 - Train of death.

NOT SINCE AUGUST OF 1991 had any of the inbound Khai weaponry actually impacted the Earth. Originally Mona had been tracking six Khai missiles on her deep space scanner; now there were more than twenty. Growing ever closer, the first was only a month or so away. Within the conduits carrying them, the speed of the missiles was incapable of changing, hence it was easy for the Numbers to calculate accurate trajectories for each. Geberus determined that the second missile to arrive would impact somewhere in the western Atlantic Ocean Had they not been rendered inert by the conduits, the potential damage each missile could wreak on the Earth, couldn’t be ignored. Based on speed alone all the missiles were classified as original MkI's to MkV's; the same kind which had become embedded in Antarctica. No new objects had entered Mona's scanner range in the last two years. This good news was only offset by the knowledge that the conduits would do almost as much damage to the ground as the missiles could to the atmosphere. Geberus theorised that the first generation weapons had been fired directly after the Devine as they fled. The later generations had probably been fired thousands of years later. It appeared to be pure fluke that these caught up with the earlier marks of missile; Geberus had no scientific explanation. In fact the scientist was baffled as to why a singular MkV had actually overtaken the fleeing Devine leviathans to reach Earth first. It was in fact Oxull who threw his hat in the ring ... -Well ... This is just speculation ... But maybe the missile which became embedded in Antarctica malfunctioned. Technologically that missile’s design would best be described as revolutionary. The circuitry is much more like an attempt to copy Devine tech’ than the schematics I’ve studied for the MkI’s. We know our ships were opening conduits at will, but the Devine never managed to stabilise their length. According to Geberus, a missile has no control whatsoever. If the Earth hadn’t gotten in the way the missile might’ve cruised right past us. That said ... Let us say that this early MkV caught the scent of a Devine ship using its far more advanced sensor array, even thousands of years later; then accelerated after us. Then let us say that a plasma injector balancing sensor began to malfunction leading the brain of the missile to believe thrust was being lost ...

-Then the missile might begin to speed up. Theoretically the same sensor would also be part of the engine output safety limiter. Yes ... Oxull has a point. Even if the thrust being produced went from optimal cruising speed all the way to maximum, this would produce a longer faster conduit. If the maximum output limit was exceeded by Ten to Twenty percent ... I see no reason why the missile couldn’t have ed the Devine vessels. Especially considering how many stops the Devine had to make in order to plot their course, not to mention gather and then refine more fuel. -The next leap isn’t that big. If the Khai were starting to copy our technology, maybe they started to think more like us ... A stretch of logic I know ... But if we had launched something into space and then immediately lost with it, we would’ve done a lot of fault finding and would’ve corrected the issue. This is my reasoning for why only one missile made it here ahead of us. Maybe a correctly functioning MkV isn’t much faster than a MkI. Some discussion was held between the other numbers. Leren now voiced the concern of the hive ... -Okay, but if the first missile was pushing the envelope of what the Khai were capable of, is it likely that more than one system could’ve failed? Of course, connected to the hive as the Numbers all were, Oxull knew immediately what the doctor was referring to. -You’re saying that maybe the Khai figured out how to shield the missiles for conduit travel? And that maybe this system failed also ... -Which is why the missile in Antarctica arrived inert, if the Khai went through a process of fault finding and correction ... Is it likely that the next missiles will arrive intact with a full payload? Oxull’s answer was blunt, but clear. -No ... Absolutely not ... None of the data shows any improvement to the missile’s shielding. In fact the emitter is reassuringly identical to that shown in the record for a MkI. I recognised it immediately. You have to understand, the Khai never put much effort into tracking their ordnance ... They didn’t have to. Experience told them with the target was

almost a foregone conclusion. They were definitely fire and forget; but this might be our best hope. There is a slim chance that the Khai have no idea that their missiles were moving fast enough to enter hyperspace conduits. They would certainly have no idea that the missiles would require shielding to survive such travel and remain functional. I remain confident ... Well hopeful at least that all the missiles will arrive having been rendered inert. The other Numbers moaned their disapproval at Oxull's unfounded speculations, letting the engineer’s hunch play out would be dangerous indeed. Eventually, Aelren restored order, informing the Numbers in the circle that there was no point blaming Oxull, he hadn’t designed the missiles. Aelren invited Geberus to speculate what the actual threat rating of each missile might be. Geberus did not disappoint his Prime and was prepared for the question. -Well at the moment I estimate that only twelve of the missiles will actually the Earth, given the predicted time of intersection with the planet's orbit. The remainder will be visible if they drop out of hyperspace given their proximity to the Moon. If their trajectories carry them a little wider, they will presumably embed themselves into the sun. Something which I have not finished calculating the effects of just yet; but the mind bank has been set the task. -OK then, and what are the chances of detonating them as they drop out of their jump conduits, before they reach us. -Well I can try to work out the positions of the gas giants as each arrive. The closer the conduits to them, the sooner they may drop the missiles out of hyperspace. This would be good for us; it would certainly give us more time to intercept. Of course once a body is in motion through space, it will never stop. Those missiles will reach the Earth unless they hit something before. Never the scientist, Zero’s imagination began to run amok ... -Can we make a planet out of the asteroid belt beyond Mars? ... Maybe we can make a gravity well ... That should disturb the path of the conduits, maybe we could even deflect them away from the Earth. Geberus was amused by Zero's never say die attitude, but this time their super soldier’s question had not been very smart. -I'm sorry Zero, but none of those choices are possible ... For too many reasons

to list ... I'll give you the short version. I agree that the main asteroid field does have plenty of small fragments, but we would need a sizeable mass just to get the process started. Then, it would take too long to agglomerate these into a planet on a stable orbit. Also the start point would be everything and given the time scale which at best would be several millennia, this is not an option. The final mass of another Mars sized planet would definitely disturb both Mars and Jupiter. There is no way to create a huge gravitational force without something massive. As for a gravity well; some have been known to occur naturally. But as we can’t move black holes or White dwarf stars, this wouldn’t just be harder than the other two options; it would be impossible ... So again I can rule it out. Zero was persistent and kept challenging the scientist. -Could a large explosion create a blast front substantial enough to disturb a hyperspace conduit? What we need is a little more resolution on Mona's deep space scanner. This would give us the speed and accurate trajectory, so we could put a huge explosion in the path of the conduit. Do we have the ability to sniff out a conduit? You speculated that the conduit volume is fixed given an object's mass and initial speed at entry? In my mind this means the conduits the missiles are moving through are already here, we are only waiting for the missiles to arrive. Clever Zero had once again confounded the scientific clone; using one of Geberus' own theories to form the thread of an idea. The circle was as normal silent, given all communication was telepathically achieved. Yet the eyes of Zero, and the surrounding Numbers were now firmly focused upon Geberus; who did not have an answer. All he could do was hang his head, but not from shame. The scientific supervisor was entering a state of deep thought. Zero’s idea was not without merit. This fact had Geberus kicking himself for not thinking of the idea himself. Moments later ... -Zero ... That might be a good strategy, I will consult with Kariina on Mona to see if we can improve the scan resolution. To use an analogy, we can already predict where the conduits should be to within an area the size of Manhattan island ... But we need to be able to predict within an area more like a tennis court, which will not be easy. What would you propose to blow up? -Could we use some of the old reactor cores? we only need to do this once. If we are successful, the conduit should drop its missile. We’ll need an

explosion of significant size. Too many cores can destabilise a dying sun so a few should suffice for our needs. Then we apply a breaking force to the missile to slow it down and use it to destabilise the next conduit. If we blew up all the conduits right now where would the missiles be? -Currently they are a few systems away, but then we might be making a problem for someone else. -How so? If the missiles were ing close to anything else large en route, then the conduit wouldn't reach here now would it? And if we were successful, the missiles would just be crippled junk floating in space. Geberus felt like a small boy would after being chastised by an elder; despite neither being true. Zero always claimed to have no knowledge of astrophysics, nor any proper understanding of how their reactors worked. Yet here he was correctly suggesting that the explosion from a reactor breach might destabilise a hyperspace conduit. -An explosion of that kind would certainly be enough to get the job done, but are any of Central or OFFrights ageing reactors actually decommissioned yet? Much less separated from their bank. This was a question for Oxull. His response was only half what the pair wanted to hear. -As you both know, we have been receiving parts for the last four centuries aboard OFFright, but these new cores are even now still only at the assembly phase, there is a reason you don't see me on board Central very often you know. Oxull looked perplexed, maybe even angry at the thinly veiled insinuation that he was working too slowly. None of the other Numbers had ever seen the Old engineer with an expression even approaching this. Generally Oxull was a rock; stable and even tempered to a fault. With his penchant for practical jokes he would normally be a mountain of smiles and laughter; by far the easiest going of all the clones. Now though he looked as if he may explode. Zero sensed this change as easily as the clones, but he was the only one who dared to speak. -Oxull ... We all appreciate the work you've done and continue to do. You are more reliable than a reactor core. But this may be the only way for us to get

ahead ... Which would you prefer? ... The extraction of an old core? ... Or is it easier to assemble a new one and bring it online in space? In either case, we need your help to make it melt down and then breach in a set place, and at a set time. You know what's at stake. -I think within one month I can get one out, but it's tricky with the power matrix live. It could be disconnected from the main control system, but it will need some form of bespoke containment. Without that the core would probably accelerate towards a breach as soon as we release it from the rest of the bank. I'll need Eight ... Aelren who had been content to listen calmly up to this point, was transformed by this last comment. The Prime now appeared fully ready to melt down himself. Eight had been resigned to stasis over ten millennia ago. He was technically still the current Eight, as the role had remained unassigned in the clone’s absence. The problem was that Eight had shown himself to be a traitor within their ranks. Eight was almost as old as Oxull, and the pair worked together for a long time. He was without doubt a genius, even considering the other Numbers who had made it into the circle. The problem was that in a singular act of rebellion, Eight had tried to recreate the experiment of bringing human helpers on board Central. Whilst none had suspected it to be the case, Eight had clearly been able to disconnect from the hive for long periods; exerting singular control over the waves he allowed to escape from his mind. Eight was skilled to such a degree that none of the human helpers, annexed in a very low deck had been discovered until one of the humans had caused an equipment malfunction. This led to an explosion large enough that it could not be covered up. Aelren had caught Eight red handed killing the humans in a bid to cover up the whole experiment. It was a testament to the mental strength of Eight, that it had taken the efforts of the Prime and the other five Numbers combined to contain Eight in a mentally isolated state, unable to move his body. Eight gave his reasons, these were hotly disputed. He felt the humans were far more capable than they had ever proved themselves to be, and that with the right nurturing they would be a useful asset on board. His plan was then to send the enlightened humans back to the surface to seed the planet with a higher

intelligence. Eight felt it was an affront to the human’s learning ability and an insult to their industriousness not to guide them towards this new era; sooner rather than later. The other Numbers all knew the humans were nowhere near ready for technology. Humans were barely into the Bronze Age at that point and acted little better than cavemen when given any power at all. This same scenario had played out roughly two thousand years later when the greedy humans had forced Queen Amaka to run amok, becoming Khaalida. Only Geyldian had ever managed to mingle with humans for the benefit of a common good. -Why would we need Eight? Aelren’s tone was cutting; Oxull chose his next words very carefully. -He is the only clone I know who has ever dabbled with containing fields. Of course, the Devine were field capable. The creators used them many times to patch hull breaches during the war back on Prime, but Eight is the only clone I know of since who activated several fields effectively. -I don't like it. Even if we bring Eight out there is no guarantee he will even be willing to help. You have to watch him like a hawk. Take two Ninurtan with you. -Actually Prime, we don't need to. If we imprint him into a new clone inside a medi-pod, we can talk to him inside stasis. Aelren was far happier with this solution. Leren confirmed a clone body was already available in a stasis pod on a lower deck which he could make ready to take an imprint within a few hours. This final resolution effectively adjourned the meeting. The Numbers all waited for their Prime to leave first, before jumping away to continue their assigned tasks. Joan was in charge of liaising with the leaders of all the Earth’s countries. Months ago, she had informed both the leader of the United States and the leaders of Western Europe and Africa of the potential for a tsunami, resulting from the arrival of the nearest missile. This impact would be allowed without any attempt at interception, simply because there wasn't enough time. Joan was not slow in pulling the countries on both sides of the Atlantic together. Having already leaked the details of the impending impact and the potential effects to local news outlets on both sides of the Atlantic, Joan ensured that the burden of fear was shared by all the countries who would be affected. It did not

take long for the biggest story of all time to proliferate down to pavement level. Fear and uncertainty were both clearly visible on the faces of ordinary of the public. Joan was adamant that the countries with resources should also assist in the protection of those countries less well equipped. Pulling together the humans in this way had always been the aim of the Caretakers, sadly after eons of trying ... And failing. Joan had quickly put them to shame. It was easy for them to see now that their hands off approach from deep inside the shadows could never have worked. Of course, Joan had the added benefit of a clear and present danger to the species. Clearly, humans could rally together when presented with the right reason. As a human, Joan was visible publicly. She was also far more direct in her approach. After all, she also had family on the surface who would be affected as much as those of anyone else. Joan was very much invested in the survival of humanity; she didn’t have the luxury of being divorced by cold hard logic ... Unlike the Numbers. Initially, Aelren had almost rejected the idea of informing the public point blank. The Old Prime still felt humanity wasn’t ready. Broadcasts made by leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, slowly persuaded Aelren he might be misjudging the humans. Each leader began by outlining the problems facing them. Next came words of reassurance, but mostly people were too stunned for these platitudes to be convincing. More than that, most people were realistic enough to know that this would be a game of planetary roulette. The outcome couldn’t be predicted. There was nothing to be done ... but wait for the disaster to happen. Then they could do what humans do. Adapt ... Cope ... Then move on and pick up the pieces of their lives. After being introduced, the next voice the people of Earth heard would be Joan; who was now publicly acknowledged as the first Ambassador of Earth. As such her remit was the coordination of the effort to protect the whole planet. Heads of state, Premiers and Presidents all answered to Joan; there were no exceptions. Calmly, but firmly ... With resolve; Joan put meat on the bones of the words spoken by the leaders of each country. The tone of her voice never wavered as she delivered fact after fact regarding the impending Khai-mah attack. Finally Joan outlined exactly what was being done as far as mitigating casualties and providing aid for the aftermath.

“Make no mistake people. This time we must accept our fate, but we are already taking steps to ensure that this will not happen without creating some benefit for us.” Joan's speech then swung almost instantaneously from the previously soft, ive tone, to a sterner one ... “Listen very carefully everybody. There will be those amongst you who see this as an opportunity to gain wealth and power ... Profiting from those around you who will be suffering ... I guarantee this will not be tolerated by myself or the beings for whom I speak. There will be no breakdown in law OR order. As far as possible I expect only one thing from all of you. Continue your lives ... As normally as you can. When the Khai-mah missile arrives, many of us will be left with nothing, but we are Humans ... Not animals. We must help each other to get through what is coming ...” Silence ... As Aelren attempted to reach the minds of the people above him on the surface, a singular focus was detected. The people were listening, almost as one. As Joan spoke, her words were hitting the minds of the people. And yet far from being fearful, the people’s minds were focused. Far from losing hope, Joan was inspiring confidence. Despite all the new concepts and revelations, very few were even fazed. Each word had been absorbed and fully understood. “Severe punishment will be meted out to any person who would seek to riot, loot or commit any form of crime. I do not intend to build more prisons ... such a notion would be absurd ... NO. From this day onwards, anyone committing crime of any kind will be immediately conscripted into a new branch of armed force. The Earth Defence Force will form the front line in the battle to protect the Earth. If criminals need a little persuasion to defend our way of life, then the fight against a species of warmongering lizards ought to prove sufficient. No longer will I tolerate talk of borders. No longer will I tolerate hatred of your brothers and sisters ... For any reason. We ... All of us ... Are Human. When the day comes ... And make no mistake, that day will be soon ... We are going to show the Khai-mah that the Earth is OUR world. They will be biting off more than they can chew if they decide to engage us in battle. We will make sure that the Earth sticks in their throats ... A lump they can never hope to swallow. To achieve this everyone must do what they can ... There will be a role for everyone!”

Still listening, Aelren was satisfied. Joan had taken the disaster which was to come and used it to unite the humans in a way no Caretaker had ever thought possible. It took a small woman from Yorkshire to teach the Old Prime that even he wasn’t too old to learn. In the next few months, the Human Network who were heavily ensconced into all areas of both the governments and the military forces issued their report. In the countries which Joan had addressed directly, the crime level had not risen; it did in fact look to be dropping. Everywhere, able men and women were g up for duty without any general conscription being required. Everyone was fulfilling a role; no matter how small. -Maybe we have a chance after all ...

Chapter 3 - Eight Defrosted

LEREN WAS IN HIS LAB when the two Novus brought in the Stasis pod containing the clone body. This particular clone body had been grown almost one hundred and eighty years before, to test a serum which Leren had devised for Geyldian. The stubborn old hybrid had gotten himself into some trouble whilst eating his favourite meal in Shanghai. Before the Old doctor could transfer Eight’s imprint into the soulless body, the stasis environment had to be removed. Then the body had to be elevated close to normal temperature; this would also mean sparking the clone into life. Previously, it had not been necessary to spark the clone. Leren simply manipulated the body on life only; with the being never becoming mentally aware. The only task remaining, was for Leren to flood the clone with a modified version of the Neurotoxin harvested from Geyldian during his little tummy ache. The complete paralysis of Eight, was a precaution Leren felt compelled to take. The doctor couldn’t shake the feeling of foreboding at the thought of tangling with Eight again. Referring to the disgraced clone by the seat he originally occupied, only added to the Clone’s notoriety. The doctor figured the more precautions he took, the better. Eight's skill with telepathy and his disconnection from the hive at will, would make him difficult to confine. If Leren had recommended that the clone be encased in concrete; Aelren would’ve probably endorsed the idea. Only ever used inside Leren’s lab, kept alive by a Medi-pod, it seemed this clone body would never draw breath under its own steam. The alternative was sparking Eight into a conscious and capable body, only to watch him jump away. It had taken the Numbers over two centuries to capture him the last time. Eight had been located and cornered with the help of a small number of humans. This collaboration marked the birth of the first Human Network. Sadly this human branch had found little use after Eight was apprehended; falling by the wayside within a decade. After landing two footed into the Circle of Numbers, it was Geyldian who resurrected the idea; forming his own Human Network four thousand years later.

Now as then, the current Human Network was essentially formed for the hunt. Their quarry now was not one rogue clone, but the best and brightest minds which humanity was producing. Within five centuries Geyldian began seeding these people with skills and ideas which would bear fruit long into the future. With the clone body prepped and warmed up better than creme brûlée, the Medipod then made the relevant s to the clone's head. A few more buttons pressed on his console and Leren began to Eight's record into the clone. It was another two hours before the was finished. Paralysed as the clone was, Leren was hoping that Eight may not even realise he was once again inside a body. The final stage was to get the cranial electrodes clear, close the hatch, then re-establish the stasis environment. Leren had already signalled Geyldian and Oxull to come and perform the mental dive. Geyldian was vastly experienced at diving into the subconscious mind of a body in stasis. Even though Eight would be rendered totally inert, his mind would require stimulation, or madness would set in. Normally the Medi-pod, would have access to the occupant’s memories and these could be played back selectively. It seemed that if the soul was occupied, the brain would be fooled enough to not miss the organs it was no longer able to control. Thus effectively suppressing any attempts by the brain to revive them. This process was the key to stasis. By contrast, Oxull seldom had the need for mental communication outside the norm. Many times the engineer had said his goodbyes to elders within the circle of Numbers before their ascension to the record. This scenario was a different thing entirely. Stasis was just a long pause, saying goodbye was not required. Despite his inexperience, only Oxull could ask the right questions to Eight ... More critically, only he could understand the answers. The only way was for Geyldian to form a telepathic bridge. Diving simultaneously into the minds of Eight and Oxull, he could guide the two minds to their meeting. ing vividly how the Numbers had left Central enmasse from locations around the globe, they had closed the net around Eight. A fifth grade Novus at the time, Geyldian had not been involved directly, despite being far more skilled topside than any of the Numbers ... Novus never left the ship. Once the humans had located the rogue clone, the Numbers had closed the net.

But Eight was not to be toyed with; he’d proven to be both devious and slippery. Two traits not normally found in a clone. Gazing at the apparently lifeless clone, the three Numbers knew without any doubt; Eight would quickly seize upon any chance they gave him. Such was his skill, he might easily turn the tables to seize control over Geyldian, Oxull or both. Having established the connection with Eight, Geyldian explained to him that the Khai-mah were once again looming on the horizon, and now his longtime friend and colleague needed his help. Geyldian then made the second connection with Oxull. Geyldian readied himself ... -The time is now Oxull ... Eight is ready. -Okay Geyldian, you know I'm not very good at this, let's take it slow eh? -Oxull ... Old friend, and Geyldian, I'm pleased to see you made it into Aelren's circle, I never doubted that you would. Things must be dire indeed if you need my help. The doctor has gone to some trouble I think ... -Jer-mija. Still as dramatic as ever. You know our ways ... Why would we leave the situation to become dire before talking with you? No, in fact we are seeking to make preparations and you Old friend, are the only clone I know who can help. -So tell me. You're a capable engineer, maybe better than I am with mechanical aspects ... Which means this is something special ... I'm flattered. -We want to shatter a hyperspace conduit by detonating one of OFFrights failing reactor cores along its path. If successful we gain more time to prepare without damage to the planet. -Oh Oxull, you always used to bring me the best problems. You don't disappoint me this time either ... You want to disconnect a single reactor cell from the main bank, maintaining control and containment. Well control is easy enough with a small sub controller, but you are more than up to this task I think. Which means you want a containment field ... local to the reaction chamber. A tasty and not insignificant problem ... give me a day to think.

With that Eight broke off the connection which he had allowed Aelren's best Novus to believe they were in control of, apparently withdrawing back into his hibernating shell. -That went well Geyldian, I thought he'd blow us off for sure. -As he told you brother, you needed his intellect. As twisted as he became, Eight can't resist the difficulty of the problem you presented to him ... But we should remain mindful. He severed the connection, which means he was playing with me. He recognised me, yet I didn't have anything to do with him when he was active in the circle. This means as far as I thought I was inside his mind; he was probably also inside mine. -You think he might make a break for it? -Anything is possible, if Eight is able to figure out a solution, you need to get together with Kariina and Geberus to check. Spend some time running simulations, follow procedure. Our urgency to realise a solution should not mean you take Eight's offerings at face value. He could just as easily sabotage our plan to create a diversion. Both clones were deep in conversation, neither saw that only one of Leren's Novus was now in the lab. Previously, as always there had been two ... Leren had been at his console the whole time Geyldian and Oxull had been diving into Eight. No anomalous readings had been detected. According to the doctor, Geyldian had been in sole control of the dive. Leren proffered that it was simple bravado on the part of Eight which now had the two clones scratching their heads. -Maybe Eight subconsciously suggested that you end the connection, and you did. Whilst this move would have taken some skill against a clone with the power of Geyldian, it would not be impossible. Either way Geyldian did not see this as a let off for Eight. There was no reason to trust him based on the thin suggestion that he might help. The following day, to the minute; Geyldian and Oxull were once again stood by the stasis pod which held Eight. As before Geyldian initiated the dive, but this

time the Second quickly returned to Oxull, without inviting him mentally. For a brief moment, Geyldian looked to be gripped by panic. All too soon though the more experienced clone calmed, his usual expression returned. -Very clever Jer-mija. I have to it, you are more powerful than I ... Oxull was perplexed, but soon Eight's little game was revealed. Oxull stared across the medi-pod at one of Leren's medical Novus. The clone in training had his head bent low and his eyes closed. The only sign that something was off was the smile now forming on the Face of the Novus. Once his grin had spread almost from ear slit to ear slit, the Novus lifted his head and opened his eyes. The Novus, fully under the control of Eight, glared at Oxull. Far from being panicked anymore, Geyldian sensed that Jer-Mija was feeling more threatened himself. -A fine Novus this one. I wonder Leren, did you realise that all the branches of knowledge are strong within him? He could have been anywhere, but he chose to stand alongside you Leren. Though how he could endure YOU; doctor crusty for all this time escapes me. Needless to say he has thus far made a worthy vessel for me. Before you ask ... I didn't just possess him, I asked ... He agreed. Jer-Mija continued to explain that he had formed the seed of a concept as soon as Oxull had made his problem clear; however several things needed to be tested first. Fearing that the exiled rogue may have tampered with his beloved interstellar drive, it was Oxull’s turn to panic ... -You haven't? -Yes ... I have ... Oxull you compliment me ... I haven't touched your precious ship. I did everything I needed to do at my old station, inside a simulation. What you ask is perfectly possible ... Eight then went on to explain to Oxull exactly how he should go about separating one cell of the ageing reactor core from the rest of its bank without blowing the whole ship up. The process required a secondary, smaller bank controller to be connected in parallel to the cells own main connections ... -Make sure both control signals are fully harmonised before you go any further. This should only take a couple of hours. It will be a far harder task to redefine the main reactor bank containment field, in order to remove the target cell. At

the same time we will have to ready the second localised containment field. -If we do that wrong, the resulting explosion might blow the planet back to an embryonic molten blob. -Indeed ... The operating frequencies of both fields MUST be harmonised to within a few Pico-Hertz at the time of activation. If not the smaller local field will begin to cause ripples in the larger main field. If the ripples are allowed to grow in size the peaks of the ripples may overlap to form closed spaces ... Bubbles if you will. -Bubbles? -Yes Gill ... If these bubbles as Eight calls them were to burst ... It would be Sayonara to everyone and everything. -So assuming we can modulate both fields correctly ... Then what? -Then comes the final step ... Which should be easy enough ... -We would just have to sever the connections from the extracted cell to the main bank controller. This would make the extracted cell a stand-alone unit. -Very good Oxull. After this we can separate the extracted cell. Once the fields are no longer overlapping, the tolerance for the field frequency will be of little concern ... As long as any changes happen smoothly. Jer-mija said that both the field emitter and the small cell controller would need to be powered by the extracted cell and that Oxull should prepare some means to accomplish this; as if the task was beneath him. -It's all a bit of a moot point anyway isn't it? I mean ... You disconnect the cell and make your bomb. But how do you propose to get it into space, a Caddy wouldn't be able. By the ancient underworld, it would take more Caddy than we have on the planet to lift that thing. It was Oxull's turn to smile, he informed Eight that a few changes had occurred in the 9,800 years since he'd been retired. He also baited his old colleague ... -Will you help us then, or will you be a crushing bore and insist that we send

you back to the record? -You mean up a perfect chance to crush the lizards and help mankind while we do? You must be joking right? -First of all, I'll be taking back my Novus ... Now thank you! If you get back into this body without any fuss, I'll bring you out of stasis in a couple of hours. I can't begin until you do. -Oh Leren ... So slow for one so intelligent. I never left your prison made of flesh. See you all soon. With that the medical Novus appeared to return, shaking his head clear of the fog of the last day. Eight had not expected to be released ever, let alone welcomed back so easily. Clearly the threat of the Khai-mah meant that it was time for all hands on deck. The exiled clone appreciated that, and would be willing, even happy to help. True to his word, upon seeing the small spike in brain waves which said Eight was back where he should be; Leren began to remove the stasis environment. Two hours later both engineers were hard at work on the reactor deck. None of the Numbers had once sought permission from their Prime, they had not needed to. They had taken Jer-mija's cooperation as a sign that he was still one of them. As such the Numbers knew Eight would be an asset. 9,800 years was a long time; but to Jer-mija the time had ed in an instant. Many of the Numbers he had served with had since ascended to the record. The Novus who had moved into the circle in his absence were all mentally powerful; Eight knew it made no sense for him to run. He was a clone Caretaker, following the design of ages he was hardwired to help. Eight would never run ...

Chapter 4 - A missile on ice.

DURING THE STRATEGY meeting, Zero flanked by Wraith and Surayyah had all agreed to baby-sit Geberus topside. The missile lay in a chamber 2 Kilometers below an icy plateau in Antarctica. This was five times deeper than Central was submerged just off the Floridian coast; topside was a relative term. Oxull’s speculation that maybe the missile had been shielded, but that this had malfunctioned just rolled around inside the scientists head. Geberus could not concentrate until he’d gathered more data. The next MkV missile was years away, but if there was any chance it would arrive shielded, they needed to know. Zero wasn't worried. In his mind it was simple. They could shatter the conduit the missile was travelling through, at the edge of the solar system. This would allow time to assault the missile, conquer the shielding and harvest the pieces for their own means. This cock-sure attitude did nothing but irritate Geberus. Unencumbered by the possibility of failure, and with confidence in buckets, Zero assumed he and the Numbers could achieve anything. Zero grew worse when Wraith and Surayyah were by his side. The old Geberus would’ve been right there with him, joking that the Khai-mah were technological monkeys not Lizards. It wasn't a case of IF, but only WHEN they would defeat the missile. In recent years, maybe more so in the last decade whilst working with Kariina on the various preparations; Geberus had realised the error of his old arrogance. Too often the pair had hit a hurdle which had utterly confounded him. It was Kariina, possessing a similar spirit and total lack of understanding to Zero who would waste no time asking questions or offering ideas. Even if these had not been the solution, they had eventually led the pair to one. It occurred to Geberus that as smart as he was, he didn’t have all the answers. Geberus had been isolated within the grip of his arrogant overconfidence for too long. He had to it progress had been made more easily with Kariina, and though he hated to it it, with Zero too. Until Zero had broken out of the Thrall mind bank, Geberus had little to do with him. The scientist had no inkling how Zero was able to break things down so easily. Leren and Geyldian stated that Zero was a capable engineer in his own right, but

he was no scientist. Maybe the human had interrogated the record before coming to rest inside Thrall-8596. Maybe with all their knowledge laid before him, Zero had actually understood some of it ... That’s a lot of maybes... Since they’d jumped into the chamber, Zero had been quiet. At one end lay the lift, smashed to pieces after Geyldian’s little ruse. To the other was the tunnel boring machine, still inside the hole it bored through to the missile. Between was a perfectly preserved scene of carnage. Blood was splashed copiously everywhere. Rocks, originally from the cavern ceiling, now littered the floor. As the whole ghastly affair played back for somewhere around the hundredth time, Zero explained to his son that where they were stood, maybe sixty foot behind the tunnel boring machine was where his arm and part of his rib cage should have come to rest. Odd then but no bones or mummified bits of flesh were apparent. Zero made a note to check with Geyldian, maybe he’d collected them at some point. To his knowledge, Gill hadn't been down to the chamber since a few months after he’d been killed. The Second never mentioned retrieving any body parts. This place was depressing. This was where Wraith’s father had lost his body and should have died. It was only the fact that Zero was such a valuable asset which had enabled him to survive. It was as if the chamber was sucking Wraith’s previously upbeat mood right out of him; what remained was a void of what ifs. Wraith’s mind was filled with vivid memories of special occasions spent without his father. It was like he'd been robbed of his best friend. The scene was hard to take in. The blood told the gruesome story which even to this day, his father had not seen fit to share. Was Zero shielding him? After their tussle in the hangar, that seemed unlikely. Maybe Zero was embarrassed to have lost a battle he should've won with some degree of comfort. Surayyah, sensing the low spirits of all three, suggested moving onwards to the missile. A short while and a few tricks later, the big Diesel engine of the tunnel boring machine stirred into life. Despite the engine running a little lumpy, the party successfully widened the entrance to the missile. Pushing a little further, a hole was breached in the outer hull. Geberus remarked that the boring machine would never have breached the hulls of Central or OFFright so easily as these were built from a proper alloy, not like the “Mazakian” metals the Khai used. Luckily, they had breached into a sub walkway. Given the huge size of the

machine it was reasonable to assume it had been constructed in space. Despite the icy grave and the eons which it had lain undiscovered, the missile still looked as pristine as the day it had been fired after the Devine. The walkways were about five feet too low for everyone except Zero to comfortably walk along without stooping. This showed the missile’s design had probably been based on a Khai cruiser for speed. Such walkways allowed the assembly of the navigation, propulsion, targeting and arming systems. Rushing ahead some distance Zero found a much larger corridor. This must’ve allowed the positioning of large subassemblies within the missile. Zero shouted for the others to hurry up and him. The power reactor was still active, albeit in safe mode. This safety feature had auto-initiated after sensing that all the other systems had been shut down by the hyperspace conduit. So impatient were the Khai-mah to destroy their neighbours, none of the potential problems of travelling so fast had even been perceived, much less designed out. This immense piece of ordinance had travelled so far, so fast; and yet was little more advanced than a human mortar shell. Geberus did find one novel feature. At the front of the ship a sensor array which mirrored their own sensitive directional scent following organ. The Old Ones had catalogued nearly all the species living upon the Earth. They knew most lizards augmented poor vision with enhancements to other senses. Forked tongues directionally tracked scents, whilst heat sensing pits allowed them to hit their targets accurately. Though galaxies away, the Khai-mah had evolved similar features. Geberus determined the sensor array allowed the missile to override its initial course, upon sensing thrust emissions from the Devine Ark ships. Interrogating the sub routines in the control program, Geberus found that the missile remained disarmed until it was certain to the enemy. Telemetry stored in the computer log, showed a sharp dip in the quantity of particles being tracked by the sensor array. The missile interpreted this as the enemy getting away and accelerated to re-acquire its target. -So why aren't there a lot more of these things embedded into the planet, if this was how they were programmed? Geberus was at a loss to answer Zero’s question, but after three days trekking around inside the belly of this dormant beast, interrogating every console and

sub-system inside the missile; one question had been answered. Geberus had satisfied himself that the missile had not been shielded. Again it was Zero who speculated as to the possible answer ... -You said the missile doesn't arm until it's within range, and can track its target? A snake will track prey for hours patiently following their tongues. The final strike happens blindingly fast, based on sight or heat signature. Is it possible that this missile did catch up to some of the Devine stragglers? The missile must’ve armed itself and then struck with such velocity that a hyperspace conduit was formed. The rest is a matter of geological history. -You might be correct Zero, but if the other missiles never got close to arming, how are they in hyperspace unless ... -This one was a prototype, maybe a MkVI. The missiles all sensed targets, maybe the only difference between a MkI and a MkV is the final yield. This would explain why the missiles are all headed towards us in order. You were thinking the others were all talking to each other? You may be right, but that still doesn't explain this. Can you extract a sample of the reactor plasma? You should be able to extrapolate that to a hyperspace signature. Comparison to the other inbound missiles will show they don't match. We know the MkV's were developed and hence fired a few thousand years after the MkI's. They must be slightly faster. They caught up to the earlier missiles. Proof the missiles were in communication with each other, is that these missiles did not the earlier marks. Why? -No target detected? -So they are travelling mostly in formation because they all sensed a target together? -Or the first one did and sent a signal to them all to accelerate ... It takes a serious grudge to keep firing at an enemy you haven't seen for a few thousand years. Your enemy would be far away by then. Clearly the Lizards had no appreciation of hyperspace. They made their missiles faster, but they got it wrong ... This prototype was too fast. They probably watched the missile disappear and thought it had self-destructed, so didn't bother to try again. Geberus listened quietly to Zero's words, they made sense. Once a human war was won all fighting normally stopped, victory would be decisive. That wasn't

enough for the Khai-mah. Launching missiles for thousands of years after their prize was already won. It was clear to the four of them that the Khai-mah had a serious need to wipe the Devine from existence. It was a small oversight then, due to his need to tune into Zero, the scientific clone had not investigated what drive signature this particular missile had been set to sniff out. If he had, it would not have taken Geberus the science genius long to determine that the missile hadn't been chasing a Devine Ark ship at all. These speculations which were proving effective at slowing them down were all wrong. The Numbers were so focused on the threat that none of them could imagine what had really happened after their mass exodus. Eons ago their makers the Devine had effectively handed their world to the Khai. So long had the Caretakers been hiding and hating, that every threat they encountered in this quiet area of space had to be Khai in origin, for the Devine had never made an enemy of any other race. Returning to Central, four days after leaving, another meeting was held in the circle. For the first time, Wraith had to stand outside the circle, Eight had returned to his rightful position. Most of the Numbers ed Jer-mija, but Aelren felt compelled to welcome their contemporary back to the circle; thanking him for the progress he had allowed in the few short days since his return. The meeting was a brief one, intended only as an update. This was the first time for a year that Geberus had a chance to meet Kariina, who also had no official position within the circle. Taking his opportunity after the meeting ended Geberus spoke with Kariina regarding the resolution of the deep space scanner on Mona. -I need two things if possible. A way to see the hyperspace conduits so we can target them and secondly, some enhancement to the spectrographic sensors. -The spectrographic sensors? What are you looking for? -I’d like to try and analyse the missile’s residual thrust emissions ... It’s just a hunch Zero has, but it’s worth checking. Geberus also confessed to her that Zero confounded him almost on a daily basis.

-Sure thing ... It might be a little faster if you help though ... Returning to Mona with Kariina was an easy decision for Geberus to make; now the scientist greatly enjoyed her company. All his previous animosity was forgotten ...

Chapter 5 - Rain is expected.

THE DATE WHICH RA-SIAN had predicted eventually came. The first missile being tracked by Mona, a MkI; was about to reach Earth. Enhancements to the deep space scanner had allowed the Old Ones to calculate exactly where the missile would hit. Striking within 1000 km of Central, this would be further west than originally thought. There would be no impact, and no massive explosion. Due to the way the conduit would interact with the crust, the missile would probably just appear embedded into the rock. Mona did the same millennia ago after crashing through the moon. Under the conduit, the pressure wave of the approaching missile would easily liquify the Earth’s crust; even underneath the ocean. As devastating as that would be, the arrival would be far quieter than many of the humans were expecting. The damage wrought coastally on both sides of the Atlantic would only be determined once the hyperspace conduit finally ceased to exist. A tsunami was possible, but simulations suggested it would be unlikely in this case. The relatively small size of the missile, and the perpendicular trajectory meant the missile would probably become fully embedded. Under water the molten crust would cool quickly, leaving the missile undamaged and intact. Oxull could then begin his survey of the whole area to see if pieces might be salvaged. The Old engineer was keen to design a missile which could stalk the Khai technology. Antarctica had yielded valuable data, but more missiles equalled more data. Ra-sian signalled that the conduit had touched down; the missile would be close behind. Strong vibrations were felt on both sides of the Atlantic, the forces being generated began to flex the crust. Vibrations turned to quakes seconds later, and even Central’s frame groaned as the ground ing her moved violently. Soon the molten crust contained within the conduit flowed outwards as the pressure increased. Whilst many humans thought the true apocalypse had arrived, the end was not nigh; nor did the Earth cease to rotate. Slowly but surely the conduit was edging its way towards the downed leviathan. The Novus were completing preparations which had begun two weeks earlier. Everything which mattered had been strapped down, even so the shaking was so violent that equipment was being damaged. Wondering if they were about to be melted along with the crust,

everyone found a seat. His mind wandering, Geberus began to think the Khai-mah missile could still be sniffing out the reactor emissions of Central; even after all these millennia. And as the minutes ed, it was looking increasingly likely that the missile would impact them directly ... A perfect shot from such basic technology. The missile’s final proximity to Central was within 100 km, but this was mere coincidence. The conduit had gotten close; so close that Ra-Sian had felt compelled to track the path of devastation as the Earth rotated. Geberus, watching helplessly on a neighbouring console, had a look of actual panic developing across his face. This had not been necessary. Only thirty minutes after the conduit had been detected, the missile appeared embedded into the rock; then the conduit vanished as predicted. Arguably from the best seat in the house, the whole of Central had just witnessed the process which had entombed Mona into the lunar surface. Geyldian ordered a ship wide damage report; minutes later it was confirmed that Central had survived intact. Save for a few things now lying on the floor, no damage was detected, truly amazing given her age. The Caddy all began to arrive back into the hangar deck one by one; their subtle vibrations being felt for around an hour. From a safe distance, the Caddy had all been tasked with observing and monitoring the surface of the Earth. The ed telemetry showed the conduit first touched down one thousand kilometres west of the mid Atlantic trench; on a latitude in line with Cuba. Incredibly, the data revealed a flattened track on the sea bed which marked the path of the conduit. As the crust had been rendered molten, high spots and low spots were evened out, but the forces were both downwards at the centre, and outwards at the edges. This created a broadly dished valley two kilometres wide skirted by a ridge almost half a kilometre high at the edges. At the western end, with only the thrust outlets visible, lay the missile. Sadly, all living things caught in the melt zone, or the column of water above it, had been removed. Broken down into their constituent atoms, the conduit had mixed them into the fabric of the Earth’s crust. It seemed also that a not insignificant volume of sea water had also been consumed by the anomaly. Reports put the general sea level almost a sixteenth of an inch lower. This had been a steady process rather than a sudden disappearance; like a quick evaporation. As a result the predicted tsunami had not occurred.

In spite of these last factors reported by the Thrall, the Old Ones still saw the outcome of the event as being a successful one. All too soon it was business as usual. Terror was replaced by focus as the Numbers and their Novus began interrogating the Caddy data. They needed to fully understand the effects on the planet and the missile was safely inert. There had been a slight swell on the US side of the Atlantic, and some magnetic disturbances had been observed as the crust liquified. Thankfully all shipping had been warned off or diverted away from the effects, and no lives were lost. The vibrations felt on land had become significant in the later stages. Many older structures remained intact, but were damaged beyond repair. Aid was already being mobilised in the relevant countries. Soon the people affected would be relocated, but again no human casualties had resulted. All in all ... It had been a good day. A few days later, Wraith had ed that his dad had promised to talk to Leren, but as usual Zero was off ship, on yet another mission with Geyldian. The teenager now decided he would speak to Leren on his behalf. -Leren ... When we were in Antarctica two weeks ago, I was expecting to find the remnants of my father’s real body. We saw where they should've been, but the area was clear. Did you have them returned here? Dad seemed a little puzzled. -No Wraith. Geyldian jumped his body back to my lab, Zero had already been dead for a few seconds, but only his body arrived ... None of the bits. -Gill went back there to take samples and find evidence though didn't he? -Yes but I seriously doubt Geyldian would have picked them up, without bringing them to me. He wouldn't want something like that hanging around him. Gill was very upset at the time, such a reminder wouldn't have been good for him. -Would they have rotted away then? Zero thought they would be there, preserved in the cold dry environment. -I would've expected the same thing myself. There must be some other explanation, though I'm sure no one else has been down there since Geyldian.

-He was enhanced though right? My dad was a normal human until you enhanced him, with Nanites ... -Nanites which should not have been present any longer. They were only intended to rebuild his body after he saved Geyldian, then they should have been broken down and ed out of your father's body. They COULD NOT be responsible. Even if Nanites HAD still been present in Zero’s body, without a working circulatory system they would've ceased to function anyway ... -Well that presents us with an inexplicable problem doesn't it? -Oh ... How so? -Me ... If my father was spectacularly human as you say he should've been, how do you explain me ... I mean I'm about as far ... -Yes, yes I see what you mean! And I cannot explain it, or you. If I had an American dollar for every time I had tried and failed to understand your father's physiology and why he was special ... well I'd be a rich clone. I used your DNA in combination with some of your father's harvested from his corpse in order to make his new bodies. Even then there were no guarantees that I'd succeed, but honestly this had been THE last resort. The fact you exist showed that whatever changes were effected by the Nanites, they were permanent ... In his DNA, or these would never have been ed to you. Truth be told, when you were born even your father had no idea if you'd be ... well ... special. It was a visit from your Uncle Gill which seemed to show that you would become a valuable asset, hence the reason we had to ensure you were on track with the augmentations every three years. Zero's body had long puzzled Leren, this had come to a head when the Old clone doctor had tried in vain to make their asset a new body. As hard as Leren tried, the properties which Zero displayed on a day to day basis had proven illusive, with no enhanced tissues being developed. Leren was careful to guard his thoughts, Gray Albern represented the ultimate puzzle ... But spawning a new Zero from a dead fragment of arm and chest, which then auto-reanimated and walked away into the Antarctic wilderness? That was preposterous; the Nanites just didn’t work that way... Wraith was clutching at straws. -On the contrary Leren. I was merely wondering if someone or some human organisation, would have sought to go down there and retrieve the body parts.

Wraith was his father’s son, tenacious and skilled. Sensing that the doctor was shielding his thoughts, it had not taken him much effort to dive into Leren’s mind, undetected. -Wraith ... You constantly amaze ... And scare me ... Please respect my mind. As Wraith winked at the Old doctor, then turned to leave, he only uttered one sentence. -Hive mind Leren, total honesty with no need for secrets ... I'll be on Mona ... This was a big jump for Wraith. In the last decade he hadn’t ventured back to the surface more than four times. This was even more risky considering the lad had only been to Mona once before, and never really ventured past the hangar bay. Now though, flexing his mental muscles the skilled soldier in training had taken an image of the science bay on Mona from Geberus. Taken some months ago, Wraith had stored the image until this moment. Mona was a long way to jump. Even Wraith took a few seconds to clear his mind so only the target image remained. Leren thought it was comical that Wraith would attempt such a stunt. If his concentration was distracted even a little bit the consequences would be fatal. Geberus' lab on Central was in an upper deck. towards the front of the ship, at the other side of the hull plating was Mother Earth. The scientist's lab, and current location on Mona was in exactly the same place. Less than forty feet in the wrong direction would see Wraith materialise free floating in the lunar atmosphere. Despite the weak lunar gravity, he would then begin to fall 750 metres or so to the dusty surface. This he could survive ... But not the lack of oxygen. Wraith would need to instantly jump to the front of the vessel. Here he would be able to make his way inside through the hangar main door; a huge tunnel positioned right in Mona's nose. With a deep breath, and a not insignificant crack, Wraith was gone. Seconds later the teenager’s huge smiling face appeared exactly where it wanted to be, on Leren's screen. The surprise was obvious on the faces of Kariina and Geberus, who now flanked the youngling. Wraith waved and then the screen went dead. Leren went back to his work glad that Wraith only displayed his rebellious child side on rare occasions these days.

In general he was a respectful young man who if told, would never overstep the mark twice. Now in the science lab on Mona, Geberus and Kariina were entangled in the deep space scanner again. Geberus still had not managed to confirm or deny Zero's speculation about the missile in Antarctica being a later upgraded model. Wraith asked if he could speak with Kariina privately for a few moments. A few minutes later, Geyldian's sister ed him in a quiet corner of the lab where they would not disturb Geberus. “Kariina, I hope you don't mind, but I really have to ask you a question, it concerns who you were, before you arrived on Central ... may I?” “Sure thing kiddo ... What can I help you with?” “Don't be mad ... I wasn't prying, sometimes I wander through corridors, other times I wander through minds. Not for fun ... Mostly when I'm asleep. My mind never seems to stop. One night I ended up in my dad's head. I couldn't see all of what happened in Antarctica, just a few scenes; like an observer. I have no choice. Anyway, my dad was all Grey and you were on a huge chair; you weren't on Central. I guess you had something to do with the man who attacked my dad in Antarctica ...” “Yes honey, I'm not proud of that period in my life ...” “I know my dad’s over it, and it's nothing to do with me ... You're not the same person now, I know that. About 10 weeks ago we were there with Gabe gathering more info on the missile. My dad found it odd that the broken pieces of his body weren't still laying there. Did you have your soldier collect the body parts?” “When Quinn reached me at the rendezvous point after the mission, he was very close to death himself. His mental resolve and his body had been broken by how far he pushed himself to best Zero. He wasn't carrying anything. In fact long afterwards, he explained to me that he’d ran for his life, leaving your father as the tunnel was beginning to collapse around him. I didn't send him back there; his job was done. As far as I was concerned Zero had been removed from the equation. We were still at sea a few days later when I heard the chatter coming from some very high sources. My insider said the organisation responsible for

the act would be tracked down and held able. I shut down everything after that. My brother searched forever to catch up with me. Of course I never realised that my longtime nemesis was actually my own long lost brother. I'm so glad it was though.” “Hmmmm ... Okay, but was anyone else involved? Was it just you and Quinn? Surely there were other players?” “Nope ... Sadly not. Antarctica was my own mission, not a contracting job. Maybe one of the scientific parties ventured back after. Quinn told me there were delegations from many countries. There had been a lot of cover for him to work with. Just because Geyldian detonated the capsule in the shaft, that wouldn't stop other people visiting if they were determined. Quinn went down one of the first exploratory shafts, they're all still there, no one was guarding them then, and probably aren’t now either. Why? What are you thinking?” “Well Zero was upgraded, barely human anymore, far more alien, if someone got wind then they might go after a sample for DNA. There would be a lot to gain if they could unravel the mystery.” “I think we're safe there Wraith, even Leren was totally confused by your father on that score, according to ...” “I know ... Spectacularly human.” This final statement was the end of Wraith's enquiry. He could tell easily by the expression on Kariina's face, that she was embarrassed. As usual there was no hint at all that she was covering anything up. Wraith could not see himself ever getting to the bottom of his father's missing body parts on his own. Maybe the fragment of his father’s body had simply been blown in a different direction and was lying under the fallen roof even now. This was more plausible than a secret organisation retrieving them. This notion did of course fly in the face of Zero’s own recollection ... Wraith never doubted his father’s memory, it was not photographic so much as it was cinematic. Wraith had the vaguest recollection, probably gathered whilst sleep diving through his father's memories, of Gray arguing with the Japanese delegation during his first visit to Antarctica. There was nothing to suggest the Japanese delegation suspected his father and Uncle's hidden agenda. A smile raised on the teen's lips even now at the notion of his dad, speed dialling the Japanese Premier.

To everyone there, his father was an outside contractor with the expertise to get the shaft completed, nothing more. Geyldian had stated categorically that despite their early enthusiasm and vigour to begin digging, the scientists had been turned away and sent packing with their tails between their legs ... And a new appreciation for their lives. Wraith believed that it wouldn’t have taken much skill or effort to imitate this behaviour. Biding their time, they could have waited until everyone else was gone. Wraith was kicking himself now. He hadn’t checked for other footprints in the cavern, or signs that someone else had been there. This would be his next move. Preparing himself for the long jump to the cavern, Wraith took a few steps backwards into clear space. A few moments was all it took to focus the image of the cavern in his mind. Kariina nudged Geberus who momentarily stopped working to watch the young man blanking his mind in readiness. Seconds later there was a significant crack and Wraith was gone again. Milliseconds later and the mist in front of Wraith's face said he was back in the cavern deep below the frozen wastes of Antarctica. Scanning the area for any signs of disturbance, or human presence yielded nothing. There were no mummified remains, and no footprints which couldn’t be ed for. There was no mistake on his father's part either; the blood spatter on the walls of the cavern illustrated sword strokes and retaliatory punches very well. Wraith built a clear picture in his head. The largest blood patch stretched from wall to floor. This indicated the spot where Zero had sat to meet his end; two massive footprints in the dried puddle of blood left no doubt where Uncle Gill had stood to retrieve his father's body. According to Zero, this final wound had taken him down fast; he hadn’t moved far to reach the wall. The chunks of his body should have been within five or six paces. In one final desperate act to trap his attacker, Zero had then mustered all his telekinetic power to shake the cavern. Large rocks and chunks of ice lay everywhere, some of which could have covered up the body fragments. Quickly Wraith began overturning everything within that distance of the blood stain, even venturing a few feet beyond this area to make absolutely sure. Two minutes later and the disappearance of the body parts was

confirmed beyond any doubt. This was a mystery for sure. If Kariina had not tasked Quinn with their recovery and Geyldian had not retrieved them for Leren. And Leren was sure that the rib cage and arm could not have spawned a new Zero, not without a beating heart and hell of a lot more body to boot ... -So where could they be? Who would take them? Who would even suspect that dad was upgraded? These questions were merely the tip of the iceberg. As far as answers, the first two were a bust; but the third, this would be the key. If he could figure out who had their suspicions about Zero ... Then the answers to the first two questions would follow. It seemed fairly obvious to Wraith why someone would want Zero's genetic material; but in public situations his father would never use any of his extra skills. Favouring brains before brawn, Zero was well practiced at dumbing down his abilities to protect his cover. As far as anyone outside the network knew, Zero was Gray Albern; and Gray was a human, an engineer plain and simple. Of course within this persona, Gray had several engineering disciplines which he could call upon. Wraith marvelled at his dad's knowledge of electrics, structures and mechanisms. As such, in Wraith's mind, this logically ruled out most of the planet as suspects, including the Old clones and the of the network. Even his own mother never suspected Gray was anything more than a normal human; until he shared that information with her. There were suspects though, of course there was an upper echelon of people within all the countries considered to be superpowers. None of these people were of the network, but all of them were privy to the existence of Zero at the very least. The less important amongst them still had no knowledge of whom Zero served. With Zero’s upgraded genetics, any head of state could make an army of unimaginable power, capable of taking over the planet easily. Wraith confined the suspects to those who had been a part of the Antarctic task force; on ly Japan could be ruled out straight away, thanks to Uncle Gill’s efforts years ago.

Wraith felt the suspect list could be further narrowed down to those countries with the biggest resources, America and Russia, who had only been invited because they were in a position to furnish transportation and shelter. Wraith reasoned that either of these two superpowers would definitely be curious as to what was occurring in the middle of the frozen plateau. A German scientist had taken issue with Gray, but this matter had been settled amicably the next day. Wraith could not see any reason to suspect the Germans. Past history aside, they were as well ordered as ever, and their technical help had been invaluable already in the preparations to meet the Khai-mah head on. Wraith felt like he had to share his discoveries and theories with someone, but who? Everyone was so busy, focused on the battle to come. Now that the missiles were actually making this situation was unlikely to change. Having opened Pandora's box Wraith found himself incapable of closing it again, his dad's genetic material was a treasure trove of science for whoever would be bold enough to recover the body fragment. Even though Leren was sure beyond all doubt that no Nanites remained; clearly some lasting physical change had been sustained from their introduction. This could be analysed and then replicated to make super soldiers at the very least. Yet Wraith couldn’t help thinking that the enhancements could also be used more nefariously by a single person or group. Someone had to investigate; after all anyone seeking Zero’s powers might not be aligned to their immediate needs and goals. They might try toppling things from the inside to seek an alliance with the lizards. Why, Wraith could not comprehend, but it was still possible and should be avoided. Wraith knew he could not ask his father directly about his missions. Instead, he would consult the record to examine all of his father's past interactions with powerful people prior to his death in 1973. Wraith would need to be discreet. He couldn’t let this interfere with his actual duties, or the clones would probably frown on the whole thing. The person Wraith really wanted to consult with was the one person he couldn’t ask; his dad. Zero always became defensive or evasive when the matter of Antarctica was being discussed. Both modes were equally unhelpful. Of course these feelings were barely perceivable externally, with a cheery poker face Zero would always try sway the conversation in another direction; but even Joan could sense the upset which Antarctica stirred within Zero. There was always Uncle Billy, after all he’d accompanied Zero the most, flying him around in the Caddy. Wraith was sure Billy knew nothing regarding mission

specifics, but maybe Billy could the locations, with a little help. Wraith jumped to Dubai, using the roof of his Uncle's prestige car showroom in the CBD as the jump image. Wraith was familiar with the showroom floor having visited several times. But his Uncle changed the arrangement of the cars monthly; this made jumping directly to the showroom unpredictable. The risk wasn’t worth taking, the roof was safer. Once there Wraith found the roof access door was locked; a minor inconvenience. A peak over the parapet showed the alley next to Billy’s showroom to be vacant. A leap over the side and mere seconds later Wraith walked in the front door. As expected Billy would not divulge any details from his father’s missions; he ed the penalties for leaking top secret information. What Billy did share was Zero's eventual realisation that he was being targeted directly. Once Zero had set his mind to it, tracing this tail had been an easy task ... That all American non domestic big brother organisation, the CIA. Wraith was alarmed to hear that Zero even confronted the then president Tricky Dickie regarding these activities. Nixon confirmed that the CIA was firmly allied to the Old Ones and their goals. Along the way, information reached the agency that Zero had been painted as a target; at which point they had taken steps to ensure his safety. Only the best men had been assigned, men who could tail anyone undetected for days if needed. Zero's enhanced senses had allowed him to spot them all. Nixon agreed the agency would share any information they discovered, but within two weeks Zero was dead. This was a lead, but whether the CIA knew it or not, the real and present danger had always been Quinn. Realistically Antarctica represented Quinn seizing his chance, and his trusty Katana; to accomplish his mission. The fact remained that the CIA was a shadowy organisation whose bad deeds probably outweighed the good. Somewhere in the background, some unknown individual had chomped through all the data the CIA gathered whilst tailing Zero. In the aftermath of Antarctica, Zero’s death had not been kept secret. Geyldian and the Human Network had wielded his death like a big stick; it was clear they were seeking justice. And yet ... If a person had a mind to harvest Zero’s rib cage and arm, the benefits would outweigh any risks. The President had been aware of the mission in Antarctica. It was Nixon who

had asked his secretary of defence to make the U.S.S. Constellation available; diverting the huge aircraft carrier off course to take Zero to the vicinity. It wasn't too much of a stretch to suggest that with Zero out of the way, Nixon may have ordered agents to the cavern to gather what they could. - Hmmmm, more investigation is definitely required. Wraith thanked his Uncle Billy for sharing what he could, of course it would have been all too easy for him to get what he wanted from Billy by diving in to his mind, but the Old doctors words were still ringing in his ears ... Respect my mind. It was a good rule to follow, applicable to all ... It had been a busy day on board Central, and while the damage reports all showed her to be intact, the same could not be said for all things onboard. Deep in the bowels of the ship, a stasis pod which had been stored there some years ago had been shaken violently enough that the transport frame on which the pod had been sat, had collapsed. Now there was a crack in the glass, even this had remained intact and functional throughout the missiles arrival, but ... as the Caddy had re-boarded Central, the subtlest of vibrations in the hull had caused a single tiny shard of glass to become dislodged ... The shard of glass, so small as to be barely ed by normal vision, was now laid on the chest of the occupant, frozen solid within the pod ...

Chapter 6 - Knowledge is power.

- Wraith! What are we doing here? - Uncle Gill, I explained everything in the briefing ... Please get on task. - Yes. Yes ... I know all that ... You think your father's body parts were stolen from Antarctica and you've done some digging. Now you think you've found them. - Thanks for brushing over all my efforts, and with a tone which makes them seem completely irrelevant, you're such a great Uncle. Consider this ... Why would someone need to steal my dad’s body parts? You maintain that no one suspected Gray was anything other than human, but I think plenty of people you guys rubbed shoulders with were more than a little curious about him and his closeness to the Old Ones. Just before Antarctica my dad knew he was being followed, in fact he worked out who he was being followed by ... - Yes ... Quinn ... We all know that too ... - NO! That's only one part of it ... Yes Quinn was targeting Zero, and Antarctica wasn't the first time. The CIA had issued a protective detail to help Zero, to watch over him and assist him if needed. Nixon itted as much to my dad. I'm sure you'll agree that of all the secretive organisations on the Earth, the CIA is the one most likely to have a secret agenda regarding even something so superficially simple as a protective detail. If the CIA were following Zero closely enough, they would have seen him doing things which would have raised his status far above that of a normal human. Could the CIA then have been shadowing Zero, in order to be there at the moment of his death? To allow them to collect samples of his DNA and tissue? ... Maybe they'd have taken his whole body if they'd had the chance. - You can't be serious, the CIA wouldn't have been a match for Zero, I bet he knew the minute they were assigned. Quinn was the threat, plain and simple. - Not that plain and simple Uncle, I spoke to your sister a year ago, Quinn was tasked with killing Zero ... Full stop! Not capturing ... Not retrieval of his body, simply erasing him from the equation. That's all ... Khaalida was never interested in Zero's enhanced abilities, she wasn't even fully aware he had any. Quinn never

got close until Antarctica. In this building lie all the answers, it's taken me a year to track this place down ... Are you with me or not? At this point Billy arrived on the scene, older now, he was out of breath from running. Knowing that his father would be less than interested, Wraith had sought help from the two other men he trusted the most; even if his Uncle Gill was not fully convinced. "I've scouted the whole perimeter, not a lot of security ... Not visible anyway. It's all very low key. Anyway, if what you think is in there, is actually in there, along with the results, they would hardly want to draw attention to themselves with a load of external security. Wraith ... Are you sure three of us will be enough?" -Yes more than enough, I saw some research papers whilst scouting another lab in Alaska, they were redacted but the gist was fairly clear. They have been somewhat successful but nowhere near on the level of me or Uncle Gill. You aren't going in anyway Billy, you stay with the Caddy and be ready for when we come out, we may be plus one. -Plus one what? -I told you ... All will become clear inside. Uncle Gill, I know this is easier said than done but let's try not to be seen ... Alright? Wraith did not wait for Geyldian to answer now, his focus was the mission. From his position on the ground he first moved to a crouching position before leaping into the night. -Hey wait for me! Matching Wraith's speed and vector flawlessly the old alien human hybrid sought to catch up, landing two seconds later on the roof of the structure they'd been observing seconds before. Both were silent externally but all observations were being shared now. Billy was correct, there was only minimal external security consisting of a gatehouse at the entrance and maybe five men with Alsatian dogs cruising around the foot of the building below them. All these guards were equipped with side arms, batons and what looked to be a pouch, probably containing pepper spray. It could be assumed that these men wouldn’t be a defensive force, they only served to deter or report any intrusion.

The building was huge, akin to an aircraft assembly plant. Walking slowly, it took the pair several minutes to reach the nearest skylights. Wraith and Gill peered in. The floor was maybe 100 feet below, a distance which was no problem for them. Below they could see an arrangement not dissimilar to Leren's medical pods, except these stood vertically not horizontally. The fronts were also closed to form a sealed chamber. Extending from each was a series of heavy cables probably for power. There were also several smaller cables, most likely for control and monitoring, finally a series of tubes with various coloured fluids were also hooked up. These were probably chemicals, nutrients and a source of food. But what was inside? Wraith's curiosity got the better of him now. Sensing an impending movement in his compadre, Gill put his hand on the young one's shoulder as if to steady him from moving hastily. - Be patient, we don't have to go looking for answers. In time humans always give the game away ... Flicking his head north easterly, Geyldian indicated to Wraith that a lab worker had entered the area and was steadily covering the distance to the centre of the hangar, clipboard in hand. For over an hour the pair watched as the lab tech visited each of the pods in turn, examining all connections, then looking at the print-outs being spewed from each control terminal. After scratching down some notes regarding each, the tech then moved on to the next pod. The two were watching and discussing how the humans could have gotten hold of their pod technology as the lone tech, walked back to the exit and left; this time turning out the lights for the hangar. Now the only light was a greenish glow emanating from each of the pods. -They look convincing but these pods are crude compared to the pods we use, even the MK1's. These aren't a copy; they are merely a best guess. Quite sophisticated considering the challenges they must've faced. The questions are these. Do they have your father's body fragment? If so where? It's not guaranteed to be at this location, especially if this is where the sharp end of the research is being carried out. It wouldn't make any sense to keep all their eggs in one basket. Your dad’s genetic material would be like a seed for this research, if this place is discovered it can probably be erased at a moment's notice. No ... I'll wager your dad’s fragments are somewhere else.

Then of course we do need to know what's in the pods? -To my mind it can only be one of two things, an actual human which they are trying to enhance, or a clone of my father replicating all of his enhancements. Honestly though, the way Leren made it sound, even he wasn't sure how my dad ended up the way he did from the simple introduction of the Nanites. He wasn't upgraded at all, he was merely repaired, that's the way Leren tells it. So was my dad special before this, well again Leren says not. Gray Albern was no different to every other human, but something happened to him. Now we need to find out what is happening below and report back to Central to form a plan of how to confront the humans. With all the other preparations going on right now, I'm surprised they have the time for secret projects like this, I'm sure my mum will be most displeased. -I wouldn't want to be in their shoes when Joan finds out! With that Wraith's head was filled with noisy psychic laughter, Wraith almost lost it himself. The tone of Geyldian’s psychic laugh was several pitches higher than his actual voice, it was bizarre sounding enough to be infectious and soon Wraith was laughing with him. The roof light they were standing by slowly gave a whir, then the top pane began to open slowly. -Obviously a measure to regulate the temperature in the hangar below, the pods may have entered a regeneration cycle. If so the heat output would be significantly higher ... They’d need to dissipate it. -No matter, this is our route in ... Wraith took hold of the top and began to lift. The whirring noise changed pitch indicating an acceleration of the actuator beyond its normal limit. Maximum movement would have put the roof light open about 400 mm, nowhere near enough for the two giants to squeeze through. The window would have to be removed completely, but Wraith didn’t want to break the actuator. This would trigger a non-functional alarm on the and could bring people to investigate. It was risky to perform a spatial jump without having prior knowledge of the jump landing point. Even though they could see into the hangar, the angle they

were looking from was not the view they needed to visualise for a safe jump. Having both considered the same thing, at the same time, the pair stared at each other and shook their heads in unison. Using his thumb nail Wraith began to unscrew the fixings to the actuator. Tough at first, but his nail was easily up to the task being almost 1.2mm thick, much thicker than a normal human. With the actuator disconnected the window was swung open and laid back against the frame of the skylight. The resulting opening was now more than adequate as an entry point. Moments later the pair were at ground level inside the hanger, surrounded by ten of the pods. As their eyes adjusted to the low light the realisation hit that these weren't the only pods in the hangar, which looked even bigger from the inside. These pods were merely the last of seven clusters, though none of the other clusters were lit up, all were seemingly inert. Subtle differences in the designs of the pods told the story. These were merely the latest incarnation of experiments, of which the evidence now suggested there had been six previous attempts. Geyldian proceeded to gather information with his PUCK logging down in detail the design of each of the seven pod types. He was even able to gather residual samples of the fluids from the tubes, probably these had been spilled when the pods were decommissioned after they'd failed. More chillingly, by each of the first pods was a stain, as if someone had defrosted a freezer without a means to collect the water. Analysis showed this material was human; or at least it had been. Molecules of bone were not only mixed in with; but fused to organic material. The first experiment had gone horribly wrong that much was clear. Geyldian made sure the data was being beamed to Leren’s lab. The story was the same at the MK2 pods, Geyldian could not begin to imagine the mental stubbornness of any scientist who would continue to push after basically liquidising twenty men ... -These people, this organisation ... Do they have no conscience? What were they hoping to achieve? Again, that this situation had been allowed to exist, told how pre-occupied the Old Ones had been preparing everything for the arrival of the Khai-mah. What had gone on here was nothing short of cold blooded murder, on the worst scale.

The person or organisation responsible, as with all serial killers who thought they were getting away with it, felt no particular reason to stop. -What caliber of men are they using? -Does that matter? Even hobos don’t deserve this. -But these men were probably serving soldiers chosen for their brains, or battle proficiency. There were probably the kind of men who didn’t deserve to go out like this ... A stain on the floor, with nothing remaining to even honour with a burial. Geyldian was becoming increasingly incensed, he wanted the people responsible ... -We have to stop them. Still at the point where they’d entered, amongst the latest pods Wraith approached the glass of a chamber. The glazed surface felt cold to the touch, but the sides; bulky as they were still felt warm. Gill figured that as with their own pods, the environment remained cold inside by removing the heat to the outside where it could be given off to the air. This was wasteful compared to the pods on Central which re-used this heat energy for other functions. The inside of the glass was frosted with tiny ice crystals, this wasn’t like the pods on central at all. The environment inside these pods was freezing. Within the pods on Central the environment would be rarefied, there was no moisture to make ice. Ice crystals were in fact counterproductive to the whole process of stasis, as formation of these crystals within the body would cause cells to explode or be ruptured. Thawing out would then yield nothing useful, only genetic mush where a body had been. The evidence suggested they had experienced this first hand ... Twice. -How can they be growing anything in a frozen environment? Leren's clones are grown in a stasis pod, but the process is entirely different to stasis. The cloning process is warm, almost hot. It is performed at body temperature or just above to promote rapid cellular growth. Of course high temperature can also give rise to problems. -Well sure. A body begins to break down when gripped by fever. Three degrees above normal temperature can be catastrophic to cells ...

-Yes, but these were all problems which the Devine mastered eons before their arrival upon Earth. The process of succession for a Devine or even an Old clone, is a far more complex one than producing a puny human body. Staring at the pods, Wraith could not figure out the process by which to revive the occupant; if this was even possible at this point in the process. Seeing that all the consoles were powered by stand-alone generators somewhere inside he resolved to take one entire pod, complete with all the equipment directly back to Central. The empty hangar where Leren had developed Zero's new body ought to suffice. Gill would need to help him; tandem jumps were always a chore and came with several major risks. The jumpers would have to be synchronised perfectly or the object being transported would be torn apart, materialising at the destination dead ... Or in pieces. Gill was vastly more experienced so Wraith let him into his mind to allow precise control of when to jump and how much power to use. In this way Wraith became like a mast with which the Old One could extend his jump capability. The pair stood either side of the pod, placing one hand on the pod and one hand on the control console. Wraith emptied his mind, then as if on auto pilot he could see the hangar back on Central in his mind. The next moment they were there. Almost instantly the pair were ed by Leren who had sensed the prize they’d retrieved. Geyldian was not satisfied to take just one pod, he wanted all ten. If by some miracle Leren could help these people then that was what must be done. Signalling his intentions to Wraith, who nodded his approval the two were gone again with a crack. Moments later they appeared further down the hangar with another pod. This process repeated a further eight times until all ten pods were safely back on Central. Leren had been busy in the minutes they had been working, and already had useful information he could offer. The Old doctor's immediate observations pointed to a serum, possibly derived from Zero's cellular material which had been introduced to a normal human. Leren's best guess was that in their early trials these humans would wipe out with something similar to anaphylactic shock. Zero’s cells were incompatible, plain and simple, the bodies had dissolved in much the same way as poor Thrall8596. Examination of the video evidence of the other pods seemed to show that in successive rounds of experiments, the humans had expanded the process to flood the system with inhibitors. This effectively wiped away any immune response, in order to allow Zero’s DNA to infiltrate their bodies. This raised the temperature of the bodies

significantly. Hence the need to cool the pods in the extreme. -It's highly inefficient, but all the same I have to hand it to them, they have almost come to the same methodology as I used but they've arrived there in a very backwards way. I tried to upgrade men, also using fluids but the bones would always take far longer than the tissue. As we know the results were always a failure. The humans are not being anywhere near as sophisticated in their approach, but they are taking baby steps and enough precautions to make it work ... But what level of upgrades will be yielded I wonder? We need to break this one out of its shell I think. I will ready a medi-pod for a rescue should it be warranted ... Or even possible. With this the Old clone doctor, as if following some inbuilt instinct for sniffing out the process the humans had used, suspended the process by ceasing the introduction of fluids. He then pressed another seemingly random sequence of keys, at this point the green glow was replaced by an orangey red one. Within only thirty seconds the ice crystals on the door began to melt. Agglomerating into water droplets, they began to run down the inside of the screen. Only one minute later and a final button press ended the glow altogether. The trace on the console began visibly ing a heartbeat, initially beating so slowly as to not , then increasing to ten beats per minute, by the time the process was almost complete, the beat count was steady at 45 per minute. Although closed, the eyes were the first area to show any sign of life, rolling left and right inside their lids as if dreaming. The fingers also started to twitch, then the whole hands began to flex to a fist and then back to a flat open hand. Leren and Geyldian pulled back from the door, leaving only Wraith, who at least had a more human appearance despite his immense size. Nodding to the young man, the doctor signalled him to tap on the window. If Leren was correct, any sudden movement on the part of the pods occupant would automatically trigger the door to open. There didn’t seem to be any other means for opening the door. A reasonable precaution he posited to stop unauthorised personnel from interrupting the pod’s functions. Tap Tap Tap ...

Chapter 7 - Zero MkII? ...

TAP TAP TAP ... The noise was muffled ... Was it morning already? Slowly opening his eyes, the room was still dark. - Are you kidding me? It’s not even morning and someone is tapping on my window ... I must be late for muster. Opening his eyes further, the realisation hit. - Oh ... That’s right, I’m not in my room ... The experiment. I’m in the tube ... Who’s that? That’s not the doctor ... At the other side of the glass, Wraith peered inside the pod, casting his huge shadow over the occupant. This made it hard to see inside. Pulling back a few feet revealed a face, with eyes open looking back at him. Without thinking, Wraith smiled at the occupant and nodded ... So far so good, he thought to himself. Slowly the face behind the glass also began to smile. The expression suggested relief ... Maybe the man had not expected to survive the experiment. Much more slowly the smile began to fade away again. - Who is this guy? ... He looks kind of human .... But check the size of him ... He’s a giant. There was no recognition on the part of the occupant who was now wondering where he was, and who was looking at him. Moving his head toward the glass to gain a broader view of his surroundings triggered the pod to release its precious contents; exactly as Leren suspected it would. The door swung open; Wraith was first to speak. "Hello sir! Welcome to Central, you are one lucky guy, let me tell you. Slowly now, you're about to see some things you weren't expecting, but you're safe. We don't mean you any harm." After so long inside the tube, inactive; no sound was produced as he tried to respond. The man didn’t panic, but he looked uncomfortable. ing the

day he’d stepped inside the tube; the building had been huge like a hangar. This location was different. The roof was visible dimly, but the lights didn’t reach any wall, intimating that this place was larger. The tube had been moved ... eventually ... "Central ... What's that? Where am I?" "All in good time sir ... All in good time. Let's get you checked out and confirm that you're as okay as you look. Doctor, if you would please ..." From behind the tube Leren appeared in all his tall, blue, spindly glory. Offering his long boney hand to help the man from his protective cocoon out into the hangar maybe wasn’t the best form of first . The man was visibly shaken, even closing his eyes and shaking his head; as if to clear the disbelief. Leren spoke through Wraith, not being able to speak English in any way at all. If the man was scared now, hearing Leren’s actual alien voice would have finished him off. "Take my hand please, let me help you out ... Just a few simple tests to check you've reanimated correctly. We don't want any surprises now do we?" Wraith's voice was young, possessing a soothing but respectful tone which put the man at ease. Leren used a medical kit to draw a sample of the man's blood, after this he shone a light into the man's eyes, checking his pupil’s dilatory response. Then a few taps on various nerve reflex points and finally a listen to the man's chest to listen for heart and breathing murmurs. Leren had no problem issuing a clean bill of health. The man had been watching the whole time, unable to take his eyes off the huge alien figures and the giant young man in front of him. Taking a back seat now, Wraith reached out to his father, instructing him to bring his mum with him. Seconds later the pair appeared a few meters away. Some moments were spent, seemingly silently to the man who was always watching, but of course this time was being used by Wraith to catch his dad up on the whole episode. Zero was not slow on the uptake, the man before him had possibly been infused with his DNA, although he looked perfectly human. Zero now walked up to the man with his hand out for an introduction.

"Major Gray Albern, United States Air Force, and who might you be young man?" The man was still seated but sensing the presence of a superior officer he instinctively reached out his hand and moved to stand. Then he hesitated, after all the man in front of him wasn't in uniform, and he seemed far too young to be a major. Not to be out done, Zero reached out, gently but firmly grasping the man's hand, then slowly shaking it. "It's okay son, we only want to help ..." The man gave a cough to finally clear his throat, before ... "Yes sir ... Sorry sir ... Sergeant First Class Evan Flynn Sir!" "Evan, that's Welsh and Flynn ... Irish? It's a classic Gaelic mix up, myself I'm English German originally ..." A lengthy pause followed; Gray spoke again before it became too awkward. "Walk with me please Sergeant." Evan’s eyes wandered right and upwards to the large bluish figure still probing. At this point Leren was using some medical device to assess Evan's fat reserves, he looked to be somewhere between lean and underfed. Leren nodded with his eyes lowered to signal to Evan that he was fine to get down from the table. Evan hopped down and made to catch up Gray who was keeping an average pace in a straight direction down the hangar towards the other pods. "So how did you end up inside one of these then Evan, a lab experiment? Did you volunteer? Or were you ..." "Affirmative Sir! A scientist showed up at camp looking for people to take part in an experiment. There were some special considerations given to our families as incentive, a tax break and such. I hadn't done anything new in particular for around two years and thought the tube might be something different." "When did you complete Ranger training Evan?" "Sir?"

"Since you hopped off the table, you've engaged me and answered my questions; but you haven't stopped looking at your surroundings. You're looking for exits, weapons ... Maybe right about now you're thinking of making a run for it. Well go on soldier, the door’s over there; but I think you'll fair better here with us. It's a maze out there, trust me. It took me a decade to learn the route to my quarters." Evan was indeed glancing quickly all around him, he didn't know what year it was, or how long he'd been inside the pod. As far as that went he didn't even know why he'd volunteered for the experiment considering he felt the same and looked weaker than before ... Some super soldier programme. "Ok, the year is 1994, I don't know how long you've been in the pod, what year was it when you signed up? Leren ... The tall blue alien guy over there has a few more tests before we know exactly how the experiment has affected you, but we DO want to help you ... And your comrades here. Do you have any idea who they are Evan?" "1994! Oh my god! ... It was 1987 just yesterday for me ... No Sir! I don't know any of these people. I went into pod six, the first five were already occupied, we didn't mingle before. I guess the last four came after me ... Seven years." "Alright try to remain calm, didn't you know how long the experiment was due to run for? Did you know what they were trying to do to you?" "Sorry, I just don't believe it ... Seven years ... It wasn't supposed to run beyond two. We were all screened for physical fitness over five days and a battery of mental tests for logic, intelligence and such." "Chosen because you were strong, fit and smart ... That's a shame ..." "What do you mean?" "Well along with these pods, there were six other groups, sixty more people who didn't make it out. Didn't you see them?" "No ... I mean I don't think so ... The hangar was partitioned and I was led to my pod directly ... I don't any other pods. You know they didn't make it out?" "Well that's not quite accurate on my part Evan I'm sorry ... They made it out, but

not alive and not intact. The process killed them, in a way not befitting a soldier; that's all you need to know ... Hey I noticed something ... You haven't called me sir in the last two minutes." "Oh sorry Sir! It's just ..." "What?" "You don't seem like any Major I've ever met ..." "Really ... Well it's been a few decades since I last used that rank. In fact I hold a high rank in every major armed force of the world. My lowest rank was captain in the SAS during WWII." Evan could not contain the smile growing ever wider across his face, who was this man? Major Albern was no older than he was and yet he claimed to be around ninety years old.. "What you don't believe me ... I have a birth certificate ..." Turning back to face the others but focusing his gaze on Leren ... "Doctor ... I think we're done here; we need to find Evan some quarters. How long will it take to crack the other pods open?" "About an hour Zero." Again this response was spoken through Wraith for Evan's sake. As Zero walked with his arm around Evan's shoulder towards the exit, the pair were still talking ...

Chapter 8 - Dem bones dem bones.

JOAN WAS ANGRY; FOR the last four years her duties had kept her regularly in the White House. In the interests of full disclosure, and as a condition of the tech upgrades, all special projects had been declared. Joan didn’t seeing anything like this project on the books. "Wraith, will you help me look through the files again? I can't believe I missed this." "Don't waste your time mum, you didn't miss a thing. This wasn't on any list; they’re trying to use dad’s DNA to make their own super soldier program." Joan shot a look at Leren, who was slowly nodding ... - I believe Wraith is correct Joan; it seems they retrieved Zero's rib cage and arm from the cavern in Antarctica. Wraith has done an excellent job getting to this point. At first I couldn't find it, the reactions in the first test must've been so violent that in the successive tests Zero’s DNA has been diluted more and more. I still can't tell if there's even been any effect with such a dilution. The whole experiment could’ve been an expensive waste of time, but if Evan consents I'd like to put him through some more stringent physical tests. Joan was still incensed but managed to pull back from going on a complete rampage. Calming quickly, except for the usual fiery look in her eye when she sensed someone was taking her for a fool ... - I believe I have an appointment with George, it's time to get to the bottom of this. I'm going to demand the return of all Gray's genetic material or the malls will be closed down on U.S. soil. At least to the U.S forces, I'll make damn sure of that. Taking hold of Wraith's hand, Joan only had two more words to say. - My office! With a crack the pair were gone leaving Leren and Geyldian to start breaking out the other pods ... Several decks up and a few hundred metres towards the front of the ship, Zero

had Evan squared away in his new quarters. The two men then circled their way back to the doctors medical bay. When they arrived Leren was surrounded by Novus, each accompanying a human. - One, two, three, four, five, six and Evan. Seven! What happened to the other three? - I'm sorry Zero ... They didn't make it. - Soup? - Unfortunately not, maybe it would have been better for them if that were the case. All three took several steps out of the pod under their own steam before ... - That's alright Leren ... I understand ... Well now ... That's a shame. - I'm sorry Zero ... There was no time ... I wasn't expecting it. They all emerged alright. - Don't blame yourself Leren, by now Joanie and Wraith are about to even that score ... Zero was correct. Connected as he was to Joan and Wraith almost all the time, he knew only two well how devastated the U.S. President had been as Joan had shown him the footage from the first wave of tubes. Even though there hadn't been any bodies, the images were fairly self-explanatory. Bush ordered the head of the CIA to attend at once in order to explain; even he had no knowledge. ittedly these men hadn't been the ones who'd started the project which had clearly been set up a few istrations before. Joan could not blame them directly. In an amazing display of power Wraith jumped all four of them to the hangar to see for themselves. The lab techs were busy shredding everything, sensing that the jig was up. Bush ordered them to cease and desist all activity, Wraith was only too happy to enforce this order. Most of the records were intact. Joan identified the lab chief... "Where are the body fragments? Tell me now!" Joan knew that the body she buried back in '73 was only an inert clone of Gray; Aelren had informed her of this fact when he gave her the knowledge. She even

knew that the bulk of Gray’s body was being stored somewhere deep in the bowels of Central. For some unknown reason, recovering this fragment seemed more important to her than it had ever been to Gray. The lab chief looked at his feet and sighed, before informing them that the fragment was deep below them in a special bunker, equipped with a cryogenic storage facility. Even now his boss, the man who single handedly orchestrated the whole project, was below watching them; sealed in. With this he swung his head back over his shoulder, pointing to the security camera. "Wraith!" "I'm on it ... Which way?" With this the scientist nodded to a door behind them, it was a lift. Wraith got in and pushed the “DOWN” button. " ... He knows you're com ..." BOOM! The lift exploded out into the room. Regaining consciousness Joan could see that everything was gone. The lift and its shaft had all been blown away. Unpanicked, Joan could hear her son's voice in her head. Wraith had sustained heavy damage initially, before falling the 300m to the bottom of the shaft but was already recovered enough to begin moving again. The next thing Joan heard was the booming echo of heavy percussion reverberating back up the shaft towards them. Wraith was attacking the bunker. - It's no dice mum, this door must be 10 foot thick steel. I can't breach it, and I can't get my fingers behind it. I'm gonna need Oxull. The Old engineer had only been a mental call away and quickly came to assess the situation. - Hmmmm ... I see your problem; maybe I have something back on Central which can make short work of this. One moment please young man ... With that Oxull was gone again, two minutes later he had collected everything

he needed and a few more things besides as contingencies. True to form the first method, after a seemingly lack lustre start began to make headway. Oxull informed Wraith as he worked that the paste he was spreading over the door was an ancient life form from the Devine Prime. Once found and categorised, this life form had been put to work. Talking as he worked Oxull itted ... -... But here on Earth, there hasn’t been much call for these little beauties. This paste is a live culture of bacteria which feeds solely on alloys of iron. This door may be made of special alloy, but it still contains iron in its makeup. So these babies will definitely weaken it. Once he was done spreading the Bacterial paste over the surface of the door in the most abstract pattern, Oxull continued to lean on the door. Moments later the knuckles of his closed fist began to simply sink into the door, which had been transformed into a putty like substance. The door, no longer shiny or hard, was easy for Wraith and Oxull to breach with their bare hands. Afterwards Oxull carefully recollected a small sample of the bacteria from which to culture more. The pair then proceeded into the corridor, meeting very light resistance. The bigger threat came from the gas which was now flooding the corridor around them through ceiling vents, this too was ineffective against the pair. Wraith's system immediately counteracted the effects, whilst Oxull’s alien physiology suffered no ill effects at all. At the other end of the corridor was a simple door which was quickly liberated from its hinges by the swift application of Wraith’s foot. Entering the room, the orchestrator was already face down on the ground with his hands behind his back. Realising he was beaten his weapon was placed obviously at the front of his desk so there could be no mistake. Silently, unconditionally, he surrendered. Oxull withdrew something akin to two bracelets from his tool belt. Once fixed around the man's wrists, Oxull resized the links until they were snug. This same process also activated the bracelets which clunked together magnetically with enough force to restrain a Devine clone. The last time the bracelets had been used, was to restrain Eight after he rampaged clear of Central. The man had no chance of breaking free. One handed, Wraith picked the man up and plopped him back down on his feet before proceeding to manhandle him towards the exit and back down the corridor. Gas was still hanging in the air; his own guards were laid around in the

same spots where they had tried to engage the two massive infiltrators. Oxull had jumped away but quickly returned with Joan, escorting her to the back of the underground room the pair approached a glass fronted chamber. The inside of the chamber appeared to be a chilled environment, much the same as the tubes used in the experiments 300 metres above them. The contents of the chamber were obscured completely by the tiny ice crystals coating the inside of the glass, but Joan instinctively knew what was inside. Oxull didn’t know what buttons to press in order to open the chamber but figured the obvious choice would be the large green button. With this there was a rush of escaping cold air as the seal was broken; then the door swung slowly open. Now before them was the artefact which had been blown off by Quinn back in the cavern. Irrelevant enough to remain unclaimed before, but which had to be retrieved now before any more damage could be done with it. Well preserved and still looking freshly severed, it was part of Zero's chest with his arm still attached. Joan breathed a sigh of relief whilst Oxull proceeded to liberate the body parts from their cradle, before putting them into a cryogenic storage case. The two of them then jumped back to Central where Leren met them to transfer the body parts into a stasis pod. Leren would carry out a battery of tests on the severed fragment to see if any regeneration had occurred before the tissue suffered death. Leren was the only clone who had relatively little to do now. The doctor’s contribution towards Earth’s defence, the Thraten army had been completed five years ago. This would be a nice distraction for him ... If a little macabre. Above the bunker back in the offices of the facility, Wraith had turned the mastermind over to George and the director of the CIA. Several teams from the local army base, having been called directly by the president; were just breaching the gates of the facility. As it transpired the man had been a key member of the general White House staff through several presidential istrations extending back to Nixon's term, before getting himself reassigned to a top secret security project of his own prescription. The man and his project promptly disappeared one year later, never to be heard from again until today. Now they knew why. Joan considered sentencing the man to life on Mona for his transgressions against his own species. George assured her that he had a facility just as adequate, there would be no escape.

The man had been making his way from the White House late one night in September of 1973 to an external office close by. Quite by chance, illuminated by the flood lights he’d witnessed Zero making his quick exit from the Oval Office. Intrigued he had asked his boss Nixon who the man was, only to be stone walled. Doggedly, he'd spent the next few days using every connection he had to track down the unknown man. Hearing the chatter which suggested strongly that the man known only as Zero had been killed, then man was on the next supply transporter to Antarctica. This was when the man sought to gather approval and funding for a new security detail, tasked with tracking unknown threats on domestic soil but with even more power than the FBI, and far more secrecy. Had it not been for the clones being fully distracted by the preparations to meet the Khai-mah in battle; such a project would have been immediately quashed. Having never been brought fully into the fold by the Old Ones, the man found a slightly neglected President Ronald Reagan to be a sympathetic ear regarding the subject of both E.T.'s and UFO's. Ronald, like so many people and presidents before him, had witnessed a Caddy piloted by some careless Thrall. But not once ... Twice. It was later in Ronald’s term, after he had been introduced to Joan, that she began to guide the president down the right path to assist in the preparations. By this point the project had seemingly gone silent, was presumed defunct; and had not been mentioned. “So he had to cover the project up through each successive istration?” “Yes Wraith. Once he and his team had collected the remains from the cavern; he knew they were scientific dynamite. He made the decision then that any gains should be solely his, despite all the funds which had been provided by the government.” “Dodgy ... But one round of funding couldn’t have achieved all this?” “No ... To keep the project quiet, and off government books he sought out sympathetic and independently wealthy contributors, who no doubt had all been promised a piece of the pie once the process had been perfected.”

“How could they stay invested after it became clear he’d found the most savage and expensive way to murder our best and brightest?” “They didn’t ...” Joan was examining the pages of a little black book, taken from the inside pocket of the man’s jacket. “It seems after every round of failures, he had to attract new investors. Probably with the same pitch. To them each attempt was the first attempt. In fact learning from his mistakes, his pitch probably improved each time. To the investors, the goal was a dream many of them would’ve been chasing already.” “Well I guess if you can’t take it with you, then you need to stick around forever.” “Indeed son ... Indeed. His notes suggest that rounds four and five were beginning to yield results. The tubes only failed in the latter stages, but the casualty rate was still too high.” Joan now locked her gaze upon the man, his head was slung low; he couldn’t look any of them in the eye. “Why did you keep going?” “With each phase of the experiment I was getting closer ... But my investors ... They were keen to be transformed; not killed. They put up more money and just kept pushing me ...” “I don’t believe you. I can tell from your demeanour this project was all yours. I’m willing to bet that none of your investors ever saw a tube ... Well not working anyway. You were too scared of losing control to someone else.” Following warnings from his investors, the man had embarked upon the MK7s; which Evan had been a part of. Even this wave had proven to be problematic, forcing the whole experiment to push way past the two years initially expected. With events no longer a mystery and with the man's full ission of guilt, he was sentenced to life in a maximum security prison for treason. His long list of financiers, now in the grasp of Joan and the clones, would be put to good use.

Slamming the little book closed between her fingers ... “I’ll use this to leverage the financiers. They are all companies we can use ... Some impressive facilities. This won’t cost us anything. They’re all tech giants or major manufacturing companies, and they have some serious brainpower working for them. We could use the help. At this point we might be over reliant on the military.” Evan didn’t know any of the other six men and women that were liberated from the pods. None were US Nationals either. One Female English RAF lieutenant and a South African Army Captain had also been recruited. It seemed as if the mastermind had not given the whole game away, but Zero and Evan reached the conclusion that once successful these agents would have been inserted either actively or as sleepers, back into their old stations. Beyond the obvious intelligence gathering, neither of the two men could fathom how much influence a lone agent could have exerted, nor how effective one super soldier could've been in a battle. After checking, Ra-Sian discovered that none of the freed test subjects had any family, beyond parents, all of whom were still living. After much soul searching the seven all agreed that no with family should be made. The parents had all been informed that their offspring had been killed in the line of duty. In the years which followed the families had made peace with their losses. None of the recruits wanted to cause their families more pain by staging a miraculous and very difficult to explain resurrection. Quarters were found for them all on board Central, but some didn’t fare too well. Most notably the South African. A child of the Veldt, he was used to living barefoot in the sun when not in uniform, not a sunken alien leviathan. Joan allowed him to visit the malls, where he naturally slipped into a role with the Thraten regiment. For a human the similarities between him and the blue guards were easy to see. Remarkably well built and very muscular, his test run with Zero showed he was capable of taking down most Thraten fighting at almost 80% capacity. Clearly this was an effect of the experiment, which according to Leren had simply taken a better hold inside a bigger body. This was not without some drawbacks though. The huge South African had a temper and battle rage to rival any Thraten, once fired up it almost consumed the man. Some of the Thraten in the evaluation run were damaged so thoroughly by brute strength and skill alone that they were not fully repaired two full days after they'd been

stretchered from the hangar. At the finish, and sometime before he was allowed to leave for a mall, Leren fitted a small device into his brain between the Amygdala and Hippocampus, with a tiny cluster of regulatory tendrils into his Cingulate Gyrus. The device worked well to damp both the initiating signals which sparked him into aggressive action, as well as the inevitable response. Fricky's ability to follow orders had never been in question before the experiment, his record showed him to be a fine soldier. Leren's gadget merely served to temper his enhanced battle readiness back to its previous level. Zero placed Fricky, real name Jannie Frick of Boksburg, under the direct command of a Thraten Guard platoon commander, his best. Here Fricky would become a one man unit, at least initially. The overkill Fricky showed against the Thraten almost destabilised their trust in the humans aboard Central. Most simply did not want to fight alongside Fricky. Leren and Zero both hoped that with the implant working successfully, in time Fricky would come to be a valuable and trusted asset. He certainly didn’t bear any ill will towards anyone, human or Thraten. Once stationed at the mall just outside Washington D.C. their hope was realised with Fricky becoming completely integrated into the Thraten ways of fighting and moreover, of living ... Since the first Ninurtan had been created by the Devine, eons before in the war against the Khai-mah, the blue warriors had been so numerous as to evolve their own clan systems, rules and customs. The Devine threw them into battle at every opportunity not because they were powerful overlords or oppressors, but because the Ninurtan wanted it. A more perfect breed of naturally aggressive and skilled soldier had never been created. Most races could never have handled such a potentially deadly creation. As was the Devine way, sections of the Prime home world were made available to the new warriors, who although fearless and formidable, also were endlessly faithful and loyal to the ones who had created them. The Thraten were a new breed, an evolution. The successful merging of the fearfully inept, but spectacularly capable multi-tasking Thrall brain, into the incomparably aggressive, battle ready and strategically genius Ninurtan brain. These were bridged with a healthy dose of Zero to fuse the two. The Thraten were Leren's piece de resistance. If anything the Ninurtan still dominated the organism, such was the way of the breed, but functionality at all levels was

definitely enhanced by the other two slumbering personalities. As such the old customs had their chance to live on. The clan system was brushed aside as needless baggage, most likely by the influence of Zero. All Thraten were equal. In his armour, Frick could barely be identified as being non Thraten, he carried the same weapons, which were definitely heavier for him without any complaint. He was also adept in their use. Frick's integration was complete after he sweet talked Leren into altering his skin pigmentation to match their greyish blue sheen. The doctor of course was ill prepared to refuse and in truth had not seen any reason to deny the request. The result however had Zero burying his head in his hands for a short period. Amongst the Thraten however, Fricky was now a brother, even if he did present quite a spectacle when on an outing to a bar or club with his human friends, though such outings were happening less and less. The other six recruits also exhibited notable gains. Leren observed if that person was smart before, they were a lot smarter now. If they'd been physically strong and capable before like Fricky, so too they were much more so now. The serum seemed to have targeted the strengths of each candidate perfectly. Even so, three had still not made it out. -It's quite remarkable Zero how the humans seem to have succeeded where I failed ... -Don't you take that to heart for too long Leren. Human stubbornness when left unchecked can accomplish a great many things, but let's not forget those who were sacrificed along the way on both sides. We tried and killed maybe ten men before we changed tack, they killed sixty three men and women. You play for 100% or nothing, they achieved maybe 10% after countless tries. Ethical policy should always be ed Leren, something the humans trade off too easily. -Of course you are correct Zero, but these men and women are going to be useful to us all the same ... Yes? -I won't let the sixty three die in vain. They all want to fight, they're all highly motivated and capable ... So yes! They will be useful to our efforts. -Would you care to see the fragment your boy spent the last year tracking down and recovering? They are the root cause of all this? -Now why should I want to do that? What an odd request, you know truth be

told the way you ed me to the record when you did back in 1973, it was like I never died at all. Sure I cast off my old body, but I moved on and transformed; now I'm better than I was before ... I'm definitely over Antarctica. -Pardon me Zero but I disagree strongly. The change in your manner is too easy for everyone to see when the matter of Antarctica raises its head. You are so strongly affected by the memory that you will not show the event to Wraith; even though I suspect you know full well he CAN handle it. Wraith has visited the scene several times more than you by now. No my friend ... You are most certainly not over it. Zero was slightly annoyed at Leren’s words. Why would none of them drop the Antarctica thing? Zero knew he'd made mistakes, he also knew that none of the clones thought any less of him given the outcome, so why couldn't they let it go. Zero had a look in his eyes which was direct, fierce even. It was a look he’d never needed against a clone before, even though he knew he shouldn't, he couldn't stop himself. -Leren, at the end of the day, what happened and how I deal with it is MY business, and mine alone. Right now there is too much to deal with. We have four months before the next Khai missile arrives, Oxull and Jer-mija are failing in their project to design a carrier ship and everyone including my own son, WHO should know better keeps asking me about Antarctica. Let it lie will you!? With this Zero turned to face away from his friend, raised his right arm and for effect clicked his fingers, by the time the click was heard, Zero was gone ... -Every day I thank the ancients I'm a clone, I do not think I could handle the burden of being a human with all your baggage; grief and loss especially ... No ... Thank you ancients. Leren began examining the remains of his friend. It was fair to say that even though Zero had been successfully ed to the record, some part of him had died that day; Leren was sure that it wasn't just Zero's physical body ... He wanted to help his friend and had only asked the question in the hope it may bring some closure. A way for Zero to unburden his infinitely broad shoulders. Leren now regretted his decision to not allow Zero to see his old body, at the time he thought it wise. Talking to the ripped off piece of rib cage with its heavily wounded arm is if it were the whole Zero ...

-Mmm ... Maybe I should’ve encouraged you to see it ... It is funny my old friend ... How you humans deal with grief. What to do, what to do? Grieving over a friend is hard enough, but you are grieving the loss of yourself ... How could you ever hope to reconcile that in your mind? ...

Chapter 9 - Thraten cannon fodder.

THE DAY AFTERWARDS, the dust was settling on the previous day's events. Leren had finished analysing the recovered body parts. Wraith and Joan were busy on scheduled tasks and Evan had slept; deeply. Considering how long he’d been in the tube; Evan was surprised at how easily he’d managed to fall asleep. Waking up and getting clean in the Bac-Vent, Evan had barely gotten dressed when Zero knocked at his door. Minutes later the pair were two decks higher and advancing steadily towards the front of the ship, Zero had met Evan in his quarters. Now the pair were talking as they walked. The initial ice had been broken and was melting rapidly. There was a lot for the young soldier to catch up on but Zero was keen to find how much, if anything; the young soldier knew. "Did you ever see a lab, or maybe a cryogenic storage facility? Before you went in the tube?" "There was a lab at one end of the hangar, there was a freezer but I wasn't in there long. They kept me pretty occupied." "So you didn't see any old bones or parts of a body?" "Hell no! what kind of question is that?" “Well it’s tough to explain. In short you went into the tube because of me ... And maybe some poor housekeeping on the part of the Numbers.” "What! ... I don’t understand. I was in the tube because of your bones? ... But you have all your body." "Yes but this is not my body ... Well it is ... It's just not my original body ... I told you it's hard to explain; it would be easier to show you, if a little traumatic ... Anyway I can't show you, I haven't even shown my boy Wraith yet. He’s the big human that got you out." "About that, how did they get all the pods and equipment out?" "Wraith and Gill jumped you all out ... Tandem jumps ... Highly skilled stuff."

"They did what now? I expected you to say tactical armed insertion but you say jumped." "Well that I can show you; I've even taught people. Take my hand." Evan, clearly not knowing what to expect didn't want to comply, so Zero put his hand on the young man's shoulder. The next second the pair were standing outside Khaalida's lair in Nepal. It was snowing and visibility was down to less than ten feet. Evan was clearly too stunned to run. "You see ... Jumping ... Tel-e-portation. Blimey it's cold out here, let's go back." "Please!" Once back on Central, in Zero's quarters; the clone’s agent tried to give Evan the abridged version of events. "I work for the blue guys; they're clone caretakers left here by an alien race ... Get over that quickly. They've been here millions of years watching over us, guiding and helping; they are NOT the enemy. I am the tool which they now choose to use in order to fulfil that purpose. Back in 1973 whilst on a mission I was killed. The main point to is that the mission was accomplished. During a fight I was caught in an explosion and part of my body was blown off. Naturally I died, or more accurately my body died. Mentally I was rescued by Leren. It took a while but he designed me this artificial body. It's almost better than my old real body, actually that's not fair, it's a lot more capable, but completely artificial. I have certain powers; you just saw one of them. I can also jump literally two miles in a single leap, fight like a demon, take damage which would kill a battalion of normal soldiers, and heal from such wounds completely in minutes. You're getting the picture?" Evan nodded, but his jaw was growing ever more slack. "My main body was brought back here, it’s in storage somewhere on this ship, but my rib cage and arm were not. Until a year ago I assumed my parts were still inside the cavern. My boy Wraith has been like a bloodhound for the last year following leads. I've been too busy to concern myself, but then last night he found you guys in the tubes. Shortly after he brought your pods back he and Joan found the fragment of my body. Wraith's fairly sure it started out as a CIA project ... Ultra top secret. Then things went ... Off book."

"I see, that's a lot to take in, but if it's any consolation, I don't feel any different, certainly not super." "Well maybe there's a condition attached, like there has to be a stressor to cause an adrenaline spike in order to give you access, we'll find that out in a moment. I'll take you to the training sim'." Zero jumped Evan to another hangar which had been set up as the battle testing area for him, Wraith and the Thraten battalions. Once there Evan was handed a chunk of military hardware which was more than familiar with. An M249 light machine gun. "I just wanna see what you can do Evan, it's all live ammo, the simulation run is up there, the targets are real, you see the bluish grey well-built dudes? They will come at you as if to kill you but they won't actually go that far. You CAN shoot them; they were built rugged. Your bullets won’t hurt them in any lasting way, so consider this to be you or them." "Understood Sir!" Evan approached the start line to the run of hides, barricades, tubes, slopes and jumps with some trepidation. He hadn't been in the field actively or held a gun for the entire time he was in the tube and maybe not for two years before that. He’d been a training instructor at his base training newbies. His muscles felt slack, and still weren't moving entirely to command. This is gonna be a slaughter. The “big guys” Zero told him about could be seen patrolling in the distance, so at first Evan decided to try and infiltrate the run rather than storm it Gung Ho. He would take his time to get comfortable before getting too heroic. Zero had other ideas. He wanted Evan to be stressed; to see his reaction ... What he could do. Listening to Evan's every thought, the young soldier's mind was awash with memories of his training, all his fears and trepidations. "Evan stop sneaking about, they are battering rams. To survive you must batter them, they know where you are ... I've given them your location." "Dammit!" With this the soldier sprang into action. After finding cover, he popped his head

out to see the range. Immediately he drew fire, from a weapon similar to his own. If they weren't planning to kill him, they were certainly coming pretty close. - Okay! So this Zero fellow wants to see a running battle eh? Well I guess I can do that! "Evan I said the Thraten won't kill you ... I didn’t say they won't hit you ... Defend yourself, there are fifty of them and only one of you. Evan popped up from behind his hide to find two of the Thraten almost on top of him, instinctively he double tapped the first in the chest before sighting the second who got the same treatment. Evan advanced, towards a tube intending to use it as a hide ... But then, thinking that it would make a perfect kill box he dodged the other way, taking fire again. Looking around he sighted another of the guard running to him. Zero made a note that to have a word with the Thraten. They were showing themselves too easily; such was their eagerness to fight. Evan's gun automatically followed his gaze. Finding his target, again he double tapped, that was three down. The next moment Evan felt a broad arm around his neck trying to lock in a choke hold. The Thraten were proving to be better than he’d given them credit for, one had managed to get to him unseen ... This was bad, but he didn't give in. Evan tried to turn his gun around behind him but no dice, the strap was caught on the Thraten’s armour. Dropping his gun it began to dangle, bobbing about, Evan began to elbow the Thraten in the stomach. Of course this was nothing to the big Blue soldier, but under orders to make a fairish fight of it by Zero, who even now was briefing them all telepathically, the guard loosened his grip as if winded. This was all Evan needed to turn and break free. Now Evan was standing toe to toe with the most fearsome sight he had ever witnessed. Six and a half feet of blue, armoured, solid muscle, looking not unlike the Incredible Hulk he ed from TV years ago. How could he fight this? His hand was forced as the Thraten lurched at him, quickly trying to re-establish some sort of hold and control. Evan ducked and turned sideways, launching punch after punch into the Thraten’s side, aiming specifically for the breaks in his armour. The guard was fast for his size, but he couldn't match Evan who was beginning to get warmed up. His training and skills were flooding back, but more importantly ... Control. Evan danced around the guard hitting at every

opportunity, once at his rear he applied a well-aimed kick to the back of the guards right knee. This didn't take the guard down but it made him wobble enough to stop him. Evan went again, but harder. This time the guard fell forwards; now in obvious pain, his knee appeared to be blown out. It was Evan's turn to apply a choke hold, but the guards neck was so thick his arm barely fit. Locating the guards windpipe in the crutch of his elbow he moved to tighten. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a fifth guard closing in fast. Without breaking his grip he pulled the guards side arm and aimed left handed, firing two shots centre mass. This Thraten was out of the game; Zero told the fourth Thraten to play dead. Sensing the guard had stopped moving, Evan retrieved his weapon and began running forward again. At the end of the run was a narrow enclosure with enough hiding spots for him to be taken out. Rather than go through, he found an alternative route up one side, arriving to two more Thraten. Four shots rang out ... Two more Thraten were out of the game. Now though the guards at the other side had him bang to rights. One of their shots embedded itself into his vest, over his right pectoral. With the wind knocked out of him Evan needed some time to recover. Ducking down behind the guards he'd just retired; Evan took stock of the situation. He had to find some way to flank them. As his breathing steadied again quickly, he jumped up into the air, he was fast. The pair of Thraten had only taken their eyes off Evan for a second and he was now dropping out of the air towards them, firing as he fell. Two more Thraten down. The next section was darkened, there was no light at all but still Evan advanced; his eyes quickly adjusted. Thinking that the human couldn’t see them in the darkness, the Thraten didn’t even bother to hide. A big mistake as Evan emptied the last shots from his magazine into them. He was just availing himself of their weapons when a loud siren sounded and the lights came up. Looking back down range behind him Zero was waving. Evan was perturbed to see all the Thraten sitting up then getting to their feet, he hadn't hurt a single one of them; not meaningfully. Even the one who's knee he'd knocked out of t was already hopping down range to get to his regen station. They would all make a brief visit to the recovery room to get bullets extracted, nothing more, not even stitches. After this each would be certified as fighting fit and released back to their dorm. Human weapons clearly had no effect on the huge blue soldiers, Evan’s take downs had mostly been fake. In the debriefing which followed Zero showed Evan the footage he'd recorded.

"This is in real time by the way." Evan watched as his initial rush covered maybe twenty paces in two seconds. His time from acquiring his two first targets, to putting them down was also impressively fast. At the moment where he was fighting the Thraten hand to hand, he seemed to be punching at a rate he could never have achieved before. "I expected that one to take you down, any one of them could've. They all have speed far in excess of a normal human, even a trained ranger. You managed to take his leg out, you couldn’t have before. They did hit you though didn't they, again it didn't keep you down for long." "Well it went into my vest, it's pretty good, it felt like a hard punch, what is it? Triple Kevlar?" Helping him out of the vest and holding it up to him, Zero revealed the hole. "What this old thing, it's mine from the Second World War, it couldn't stop a can of tuna thrown by a three year old girl! You got hit in the chest and seconds later you were back up and away. I'd say the experiment was a success Evan, well done ... You had no idea the bullet had gone into you? Really?" Evan turned a whiter shade of pale, he’d been shot in the chest, he should have had a collapsed lung. In seconds he was able to stand and keep fighting. "Zero?... I want to know who did this to me ... And how did you know I'd be Ok?" “We already have him Evan ... Wraith and Joan caught him last night. He used to be a somebody, now he’s a nobody. You don’t need to meet him, he’s not worth your time. He saw an opportunity to make money selling a new kind of super soldier ... He was wrong. As for the other ... I didn't ... You're a Ranger, I didn't think you'd get hit." Zero was grinning broadly. "You do know the Thraten weren't fighting you at full strength don't you, I couldn't have them rip you apart without knowing if you were stronger. I made them dial things back to thirty percent or so. Trust me when I say you could not take one at 100%, at that level even I struggle with those wily blue buggers.

Come on we should let Leren do a full checkup."

Chapter 10 - The beginning of the end?...

-The conduit just touched down Zero, and this time won’t be like the last. I think the whole world probably knows the conduit has grounded; seismic sensors all over the planet are lit up like Christmas trees. They are all ing the location ... Siberia. It's a wasteland but the conduit is already on the move ... -Where to? -At least Tumen, maybe even as far west as Yekaterinburg, not to mention everything leading up to and in between. -I knew we couldn't be lucky every time, but I'd hoped we’d be luckier than this. Ra-Sian ... Please liaise with Joan and get her to make a call to Mikhai ... NO! Boris? ... Oh I don't know ... Let her handle things -Things look a lot worse on land, the land is turning to liquid much quicker than it did in the ocean, the topography will be changed forever ... This is only the third missile. Zero had rarely seen any of the Old Ones panicked, it just wasn't their way. More usual would be acceptance of the situation, before planning a means to mitigate the losses or affect the outcome in a more favourable way, but never this. RaSian's voice was growing ever higher, his words coming faster and faster within Zero's head; it was becoming unbearable. The Old One in charge of watching, recording and cataloguing events was compelled to narrate every graphic detail, as mile by mile a huge swathe of Siberia was liquified complete with the destruction of every living thing. It would have been a quick death for anyone caught inside the conduit boundary; though that was no consolation. With all their technology focused on the incoming missile, there had still been no real indication of where landfall might occur. Geberus and Ra-Sian had been cooperative at first, but as time ticked on and the appearance of the conduit drew ever closer, the two had finished at odds. Complete disagreement ... And disarray. The deep space scanner had done its job, identifying all inbound targets seemingly well in advance. The only objects not being tracked were actual Khai vessels. Information regarding the huge inbound object had so far all been furnished by Devine outposts light years away. Given current events the

approach of the Khai ship was well down the Old Ones list of priorities. Having been advised of the imminent arrival of this latest missile in plenty of time by Ra-Sian, Geberus had extrapolated the speed and trajectory of both the missile and the Earth, factoring in rotation to give the expected point of impact. Both were equally qualified to comment, but the only thing the pair could agree upon was that this missile was approaching on a more tangential path. This and the position of the moon caused a set of complicated variables. The moon could easily intercept the conduit; more ominously, the missile could be thrown past the Earth or pulled closer. By the time each had finished their calculations, and then run simulations, the worst scenario was realised. The moon, having sneaked past the conduit's expected route, would send the missile closer to the Earth. This was the first realisation. The second, making prediction next to impossible was that the conduit, having been bent by the moon was still bending as it approached the Earth. Add to this that the missile traveling inside the conduit began to speed up in a way which didn’t match the gravitational attraction of the first two missiles and the Old One’s brains were finally fried. Their final prediction ... The conduit would certainly hit land this time ... somewhere on a northern latitude, in the eastern hemisphere. An area so vast that evacuation was not an option. Once the effects of the Moon’s interference were known, Joan had addressed the leaders of the world simultaneously. Russia was a vast place, even having three days prior notice, there was little the government of Russia could do in order to evacuate people from an unknown area of unknown size. All the same the Soviet government issued a public warning. The difficulty the leaders faced was urging people to stay put, not to move from the place where they were. It would have been the natural instinct of everyone to make a run for it, but this had to be advised against. The scar left by the second missile, roughly sixteen months previously into the western Atlantic, had now been surveyed extensively by the clones and by scientific teams from all over the globe. Roughly 1200 kilometres long but less than ten wide, this new geological feature looked for all the world like a surgical wound; as if God himself had taken a scalpel and made a perfectly straight incision. Once the conduit had vanished the

molten ground had cooled very quickly, setting the devastation permanently into the ocean floor. This would not happen on land. This was going to be a natural disaster on a scale never witnessed by humans before. Firstly, the conduit would liquify everything it touched, but to a significantly greater depth than before with no ocean water to dampen the effects. Secondly the increase in heat and overall effect of this huge gash being opened up in the crust might also penetrate through to the molten mantle. The pressure wave preceding the missile would then cause lava to spew out. The expected volume of lava would rival the last great eruption of the Yosemite caldera, eons ago. People could be expected to survive the age of the conduit, even if it were to within fifty miles of them. Significant damage would be sustained by their dwellings, but they would likely survive. The greatest threat would come after. The clones couldn’t say for certain where the huge surge of lava might spew from the scar. Only that it would likely overtake anyone fleeing its path. It was a phrase which none of the clones dared utter, but luckily enough the Siberian region was barely inhabited when compared with some of the cities below the region. The moment the conduit made ground fall and began moving, both Ra-Sian and Geberus were galvanised as a team once more. The path was not in doubt, the die was cast. The only issue which now faced the pair was how long the conduit would take to deliver its cargo, the third missile. Again though, because of the moon this was barely predictable. The conduit might track for thousands of miles or barely more than before. The curvature of the trajectory toward the planet was certainly countering planetary spin, but the tangential approach meant the affected area would be larger ... Hence the confusion. The mood in the control centre was low but despite this everyone was performing their duties unwaveringly. The most frustrated clone of all, and with no particular outlet was Aelren. As Prime, with all his power and influence, all he could do was watch. He wasn't even consulted for advice, everyone now looked to Geyldian who was onboard, or Zero who was actually on the ground taking real time telemetry using Geyldian's PUCK. Aelren, who just couldn't bring himself to watch anymore, decided instead that he should apply some pressure to his chief engineer and his ex-chief come collaborator, Jer-mija. Having made all the preparations to extract a cell from the

old unstable reactor core many months ago, and realised this plan shortly after using a bespoke containment field generator; the now safely operational single cell was still firmly rooted onboard Central. If Oxull couldn’t get the first of his new mid-sized carrier class vessels up and running, this situation was not about to change anytime soon. Jer-mija was functioning at full capacity again, as he had millennia before becoming tainted by his own beliefs and desires. It seemed he was making up for lost time, eagerly working on any project which Oxull put his way. The Old teacher had now become a valuable partner; capable of both aiding Oxull and pushing him to try new things when the need arose. If a human commanding officer had ever left a scene like this to his subordinates, the mood might have risen, at least slightly as some of the pressure of command would be removed. Sadly that wasn't the situation here. With a loud bang and a fizzing noise which suggested the air might actually catch fire, Aelren jumped away. The disturbance in the molecules of the environment caused one of the nearby control s to blow. This was an essential piece of equipment for the recording and analysis of incoming data. Seconds later Geberus had switched to a backup system so this wasn’t a lasting problem. The lasting problem was that even when Aelren wasn't with them ... He remained present inside their minds; as if he were still physically there. The Circle of Numbers and every Novus aboard heard the dressing down which the two engineers were receiving. Aelren sought to embarrass the two clones. Reminding them of their deadline for the project, he went on to inform them how many months past this they were ... Like they weren’t already aware. Finally, and mischievously; the Old Prime asked each of them to explain himself, like an old head master might to two failing pupils. This was control and power wielded as only Aelren still could. Despite Geyldian being in line to be the next Prime, the Second was far more easy going. Having neither the will nor the need to exercise discipline, Geyldian preferred instead to allow his contemporaries to do their duty, then trusting in their capacity to do so. He was always available to advise ... In the most general . As if learning though, far from stepping in, Geyldian merely listened to his elder as he tore strip after strip from the two engineering clones. Words like duty and ability, then phrases like respect for the chain of command and the end of the

Earth as we know it rang out through everyone's head. This was Aelren venting; there was nothing else to do but let him go. Oxull's shoulders were wide indeed, he could take it. As for Jer-mija, he was probably smiling from ear to ear though Geyldian couldn’t this. Both clones knew what had to be done, but key issues regarding the ship's frame and inflight stability had proven hard to overcome. It had been a long time ... A very long time since the clones had been involved with such a task as deg a new craft. Even so, creating a pure spacecraft would have been no issue at all. This craft was different, it needed to perform in Earth’s heavy atmosphere as well as in space. Despite being far heavier than a Caddy, the new craft would also be faster and more manoeuvrable. In a bid to escape from Ra-Sian's ever more frantic commentary. Zero figured that if he came to the site to monitor, he would know before the watcher; who would cease his dialogue. Zero had peace for twenty minutes before Aelren began his meltdown at the two engineers. Not that it was required. The Prime was unable to stop himself broadcasting planet wide to anyone who could tune in. It was only natural then given the subject, that Zero chime in. Whether this would be helpful or not remained to be seen; but if it stopped Aelren, he figured it was worth a shot. - What about the ship that crashed here in the 1500's? Wasn't that a mid-sized fighter? Isn't there some way to re-jig the internals to create a load bay, we're only talking about an area three point five metres square by five metres long. That ship should be able to take it if you make it flyable single handedly, without the crew. - I'd completely forgotten about that ... Well ed Zero. I can only see one problem ... All the indications were that ship also ran unstable, needing more personnel in an aft compartment. Anyway if I correctly, she didn't have the beam we need. - And! That ship was toast the minute it crashed. Use it to learn some lessons and incorporate them into the ship you're deg. - Yes Zero ... I'm sorry ... I ... We can definitely do that. What do you think about the control layout? Is it ergonomically sound? ... Is everything in reach? - Affirmative Oxull. When I sat in the cockpit, I thinking everything

was positioned perfectly. I got the impression she'd have been a rugged old bird. Judging by the thruster positions she was side drift capable. If she was ever in a tangle with the Khai ships, I bet she cracked a few skulls. Yes Oxull I think she was probably very easy to fly; you could do a lot worse than produce a straight copy ... No brain work. Zero’s intervention was successful in silencing Aelren, and the Prime got a look on his face which neither the engineer nor the genius could quite identify. Oxull turned to look at Jer-mija, for whom the news of a second species crashing to earth was all new. Jer-mija had never been in space but was well apprised of Earth's back water location. That two completely unrelated species would come to rest on the same planet was statistically unlikely. Maybe it was fated. It seemed this downed ship held the key. If they were to halt the conduits from deploying their missiles, it would only be after learning lessons from the creators of that ship. As dire as the situation was, there was still plenty of time for things to get worse. Hopefully Oxull and Jer-Mija would work quickly enough to ensure that today’s events would never be repeated. Geberus and Ra-Sian continued cackling like a pair of headless chickens, so severely upset had they both been by their apparent inability to site the touchdown location, that now they were at a loss to explain why the conduit appeared to be moving so slowly without delivering the missile. The brains of both were being overloaded for the first time ever. Eventually Geberus confirmed that the moon’s influence was continuing to bend the conduit. Effectively the rate of bending almost matched the Earth’s speed of rotation. An unforeseen benefit, this was retarding the conduits approach towards the major cities in its path. There was also a huge down side. The slow rate of age along the crust was allowing the conduit to melt the crust to a much greater depth. A breach to the molten mantle below now looked certain. Zero was a novice in the use of Geyldian’s PUCK, which the Second usually guarded with his life. Oxull had created the PUCK as a gift to celebrate Geyldian’s ascension to the circle of Numbers. Since then the device had never left Gill’s pocket. The device was loaded to be sure, and more functionality had been added by Oxull over the millennia, as Geyldian expressed the need. There was a screen and several buttons. All markings and on-screen menus were in the undecipherable Old language. This was stumbling block number one. If

only I was still in little 8596. Luckily Zero was a quick learner and the menus were fairly intuitive. Once he gained the realisation of what label marked what function, his use of the PUCK became smoother. Zero was observing the effects deep within the crust, not as real footage; but more as a spectral graph. The thickness of the crust was displayed on the screen. Slowly, as the frictional heat of the seismic disturbance penetrated the crust, the colour was changing from brown to white. Once the depth of the melt reached a certain depth, Zero observed a notable acceleration. This made sense to the two scientists, as the crust was naturally hotter closer to the mantle. The PUCK telemetry was being displayed in Central, the Old Ones were utterly powerless to do anything but observe. Aelren who had been shut down quickly by Zero's interjection earlier, had unfortunately returned to the main control room. -Geberus! -Yes Prime! -How long do we have until the crust is fully molten? -No more than a semi Huron, and the hole will be several kilometres square, unclosable. The only reason the melt isn't flowing out right now is that the conduit is at the bottom of a mountain range, which is helping to contain the expansion somewhat. -Now we can see the conduit, we can target it ... Yes? ... Can we launch a nuclear strike in the high atmosphere, if we control the guidance and detonation? How many would we need to use? Refocused by his Primes enquiry, Geberus set to work. On the off chance that the calculated result was favourable, Geyldian was already talking to Joan in Washington. Joan was, as they spoke dialling her liaison in Russia to ready the missiles. Ra-Sian was already hacking the missile control bunker which for him was not as isolated as the Russians had intended. Once Ra-Sian had programmed the missile all the Russians had to do was launch them. Then they would all be observers as the missiles guided themselves to their target. A minute was all Geberus needed to complete his calculations. Of the ICBM's

currently stored all over continental Russia, roughly one third had the capacity to reach the conduit safely within the allotted time. Geberus realised quickly this was a numbers game. Even if detonation occurred high within the outer layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, radioactive fallout would be blown around the planet. Hence Geberus sought to limit this to an absolute minimum. It would take roughly twenty missiles all detonating synchronously, to achieve the desired effect. A significant amount of fall out would result. -The Russians are ready, launch at will Ra'. Joan's voice confirmed all preparations were ready, seconds later Geberus patched the intended altitude and coordinates through to Ra-Sian. Once received the watcher took control, launching the required missiles. The plan was simple, some of the missiles were further away geographically so the skillful scientist would need to compensate for this in the trajectories of the nearer missiles, such that all missiles would travel the same distance, this was job number one. The second would be detonating all twenty of the Satan missiles at the same time, outside the conduit. If a missile breached the conduit, it would be melted to nothing within a second, thus being rendered ineffective. Ra-Sian was confidently rewriting the code which controlled the missiles such that they would follow his command to detonate from a single common signal. Of course his reprogramming completely removed the re-entry phase, the only direction these twenty missiles would be going, was up. Once the detonation signal was received the result would be a flash so large, that observation would be impossible. Skin would be scorched, blistering instantly if exposed within a radius of 300 miles. The sun's light would first be augmented by the light of the detonation which would add light to a sixth of the atmosphere. Then depending upon the view point, if this were possible, the sun would be completely blotted out, becoming invisible within the glow for a period of up to twenty seconds. With such a high-altitude detonation, toward the outer edge of the exosphere, the final and thinnest layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, it would be unlikely that any of the blast pressure would be felt on the ground. This was the best estimate on the part of Geberus to use the full fuel load of each missile to their advantage, in order to protect people on the ground. As such the travel of the missiles would take roughly the same time to reach the 5500 miles as they would have to reach their original Cold War targets, just less than half an hour. There was no time to waste, given the minute by minute destruction on the

ground. Ten minutes from target and Ra-Sian was finished, all that was left to do was get ready to broadcast the detonation signal, which he would do manually at the last possible second. His signal would be bounced from Central to a Russian communication satellite and onwards to the missiles. Even with a boosted signal this would take around six seconds, for this reason, and taking of the radar tracking delay which gave the missiles location also with a small delay, the two scientists quickly agreed that ten seconds before the intended point of impact would be the most prudent time, as far as estimating the last second. Even if the blast was not right beside the conduit, they hoped the missiles would be within five miles. At this range Geberus calculated that the focused blast of the twenty missiles which would all finish within one cubic mile of each other thanks to Ra-Sian; would be effective in destabilising the conduit. Mona was still tracking the Khai missile within the conduit. It was barely inside the outer limits of the solar system but was travelling far faster than the Russian nukes. If the plan was successful they would expect the conduit to vaporise, ejecting the Khai missile somewhere between Jupiter and Mars. There was no plan to receive the missile, it was simply too big to bring back to Earth, but there was a plan to repurpose this missile for the greater good. Following Zero's original plan, the next conduit to appear would be utterly annihilated by the Khai weaponry. then so on and so forth, with the Earth never again being exposed as she was today. Finally ... -OK my friends ... I’m ready for a ten second countdown, on my mark ... mark ... nine ... eight ... seven ... six ... five ... On the ground directly below the blast, five miles from the conduit wall; only one man had not taken cover. Stood like the proverbial sacrificial lamb, with no cover which would yield any benefit at all, Zero stood with his right arm held high above his head. In his hand he grasped the PUCK. Aiming Geyldian's toy directly up the side of the conduit, which was clearly visible as a tube, shimmering all the colours of the rainbow like a slick of petrol; Zero was focused on getting real-time telemetry back to Central. The nearer Zero looked to the base of the conduit, the more the colour changed. Firstly, deep red, through reds and oranges, all the way to light yellow. This was the colour of the molten crust. If Zero had been able to peer inside this cauldron of fire, the colour

would have changed again to a brilliant white. The PUCK had already confirmed the temperature 10 km below him was in excess of 2,400 degrees centigrade and the molten hole was boring ever deeper. -Four ... three ... two ... one ... Giving no more words after this as acknowledgment that it was time, Ra-Sian quietly and unceremoniously pressed the button which triggered the signal. The two scientists would know if their efforts had been successful in a few seconds. As good as Zero’s eyes were; the twenty detonations, all occurring as planned within one second, all presented one flash to him on the ground. Even Zero, protected as he was by his unique physiology, looked for as long as it took his retinas to burn out. This was accompanied by the worst and most intense headache and pain which Zero had ever experienced. A bold claim indeed considering the number of times in his past that he'd been shot or stabbed or had portions blown off him. The last thing Zero saw was an intense white light, and this didn’t go away. Blinded, Zero sat on the ground but kept the PUCK raised above his head. The intense burning pain quickly subsided as his body began to repair. Three and a half hours later, as the rumbling noise of the blast reached Zero, his eyesight had still not returned. The mission had been successful almost immediately. The twenty SS-18 nukes, a class which was ominously titled Satan, had all detonated their maximum 20 Megaton payloads within two miles of the conduit boundary. All within a half second. The tensile forces in the conduit boundary meant that the blast had not been enough to destroy the conduit outright, but the instant result of the massive blast had been to knock the interstellar anomaly sideways. Anchored to the ground as it was, friction and inertia dictated that the conduit could not traverse the ground as quickly as was required. After being jerked half a mile across the surface of the Earth, the stresses induced in the conduit walls by this sudden shearing movement quickly became enough to destabilise the conduit. A mere five seconds after Ra-Sian detonated his strike, the conduit snapped. Again, the two scientists on board Central were both confounded by the final location where the Khai missile was ejected, which was nearer to Earth than it was to Mars, nowhere near the pair’s prediction of Jupiter. Finally, this was a usable positive. It just meant the missile would be easier to board and get ready for the next conduits appearance, just less than two months away. From this

point on, things were about to get really busy; even more so than in the previous decade. So badly was the flash etched into Zero's mind that he couldn’t even visualise a jump image. Without this, jumping back to Central on his own would be reckless. Zero waited for Geyldian to take him back to Central in a tandem jump ...

Chapter 11 - From blinding light ... Darkness.

IT WAS TWO WEEKS IN Leren's medical lab before Zero’s body managed to repair the damage to his optic nerves and the muscles in his eyes. It took several more days before the cloudiness in the aqueous fluid of his eyes cleared and the super soldier’s eyesight returned. Zero hadn’t foreseen the risk to his eyesight. Stubbornly watching the flash, he’d simply been unable to look away. Somewhere deep inside his memory he ed seeing flashes similar in magnitude. Odd considering he’d never been assigned to observe nuclear testing after WWII. Nonetheless this explosion had struck a chord of familiarity deep within him. In the aftermath of the conduit, the ground which had been rendered molten remained so. Occasionally areas of the crater rim would cool into a black rock which easily betrayed the circumstances of its birth. Generally, the rock around the crater appeared to be in a state of flux, churning with the heat of the planet’s own magma which heaved beneath the open wound. There was massive speculation by the world’s gemstone mining companies that such an event may have formed huge new veins of precious rocks or new minerals, but at the request of Central the area was declared off limits. The Russian army were conscripted to enforce the boundary of this area; and not for no reason. The clones had quickly come to realise that the whole area was now emanating a strange radiation; maybe from deep inside the earth due to the thinning of the crust. Another origin may have been residual traces of the conduit itself. Either way, nature seemed to be in no rush to recolonize the area. Maybe this was the best indicator that the area was hazardous to life. Only humanity stubbornly questioned nature’s logic enough to require forceful exclusion from the zone. Once his sight had returned, Leren finally discharged Zero. Psychologically though it appeared the super soldier was far from healed. Once reunited with Joan in Australia, Zero had begun asking about journals. Mystified, Joan, Gill and Billy had dismissed these enquiries, stating unanimously that Zero never kept such a log. Yet the memory remained constant and vivid. The explosion and resulting flash had shaken it free from deep within his subconscious, to flaunt itself at the forefront of his mind. So badly was Zero affected that he lost his will to train. Later the only people he

could stand to be around were Joan and Wraith. Finally, Gray even withdrew himself from the company of his family, preferring instead to sit in the darkened corner of an unoccupied room two decks below. Here Gray meditated. A process of relaxation he’d last employed for three months whilst training his mind to focus solely on a jump image. Gray was barely eating or drinking, and eventually reached the conclusion that though the room was dark and quiet, the cold Alculinium just wasn't conducive to the meditation process. In a fit of temper, Gray picked an image completely at random. This singular image had pushed its way to the front of his mind amongst the din of every other memory. Focusing in ... Gray jumped, leaving no note. Joan was worried, but this wasn’t shown outwardly. Her duties and the need to maintain communication with world leaders had to take precedence. There was a lot to do. In only three more days the fourth missile conduit was due to manifest itself on the Earth’s surface; on land again. Ironic indeed considering two thirds of the planet was covered by water. Bounding giddily into Gray and Joan's quarters Oxull found Joan and Wraith eating a cooked meal, not one dispensed from the machine in the corner of their living space. Both looked subdued, Wraith was lost in thought; Joan at least acknowledged Oxull’s arrival. Wraith was trying to tune into his dad but Gray had been masking his presence for days, before taking his leave from Central. Even Geyldian hadn’t noticed his friend leave. -It's done ... Finished. Well ... where is the big man? He said he wanted to be the test pilot. -Zero isn't here right now Oxull, it seems he's left Central, Wraith is trying to find him. Oxull's face dropped, this was a critical time and Zero had gone. Had he finally cracked under the strain? -Oh no! That's not good ... We ... We must find him. The new ship needs his reflexes to fly it. The seat ... all the controls ... they are all set for him. -Zero is not in a good place right now Oxull. If Wraith can locate him, he and Geyldian will go and try to talk to him. Oxull didn't like to hear that the only person who could fly his new craft had

simply up and vanished, but there was nothing he could do. His own mental powers were no match for Wraith or Geyldian. Oxull’s frustrations were easily readable though, and on another part of the ship the Prime was listening loud and clear to his head of engineering. Aelren, whose mental powers were not even half matched by any of the other clones, put his mind to the task. Ever up for a new challenge, the Oldest clone started by finding the last place where Zero had been whilst on board. Sitting down in the dark empty room, Aelren was able to pick up residual traces of Zero's aura. Within seconds Aelren became wracked by feelings of confusion, nothing made sense anymore. His mind was filled with visions of leather-bound books and a hand grasping a quill, then later a fountain pen. Were these the thoughts Zero had been having just before jumping away from Central? Aelren fought not be overtaken by the apparent madness which Zero was suffering. Clearing his Old brain, slowly the images became blurry. Only one image remained clear ... -This must be the one, a dark surround but with a clear landscape beyond, probably a cave mouth. Aelren was not boned up on human architectural styles around the world; as far as he was concerned a house was a house. Nor could he understand the human class system which would lead one man's house to be larger or grander than another's. Being a clone from a long line of clones; Aelren appreciated their equality. Even within the Circle of Numbers no clone would stand out except by their role as supervisor to the Novus. Even possessing exceptional skill in their chosen fields, the Numbers were merely old Novus themselves. Focusing on the structure of the cave mouth, Aelren could see the town in the image looked almost pre-industrial European. Realising this probably wasn’t accurate now, Aelren attempted to home in on the faint mental leaks from Zero himself. Finding his agent, the masterful Old Prime jumped, silently ... To Zero. Since capturing the rogue Number Eight, Aelren had never left Central except when venturing to one of the other ships. The last time had been his interrogation of Quinn over sixteen years ago. Not for eons had Aelren set foot topside as Geyldian called it. The shock of the cool air in the cave was only offset by the comforting sight of Zero; sat on a rock, legs folded, arms by his sides and eyes closed. Even though

Zero had not acknowledged his old friend, he had felt the movement in the air as Aelren arrived, then simply decided to keep meditating. -What a beautiful spot, not as isolated as you it though is it? Aelren’s opening gambit was his attempt to reassure Zero that he wasn't angry or even annoyed. Moreover, Aelren alluded to the fact that he knew what Zero was going through. Of course Aelren knew; at such close range any mental resistance was futile against such controlled power. -It used to be such a sleepy village ... But do you know what the real problem is? I've been on missions to , but never this region; not ever ... How do I have the memory of this cave? How do I know the large industrial town below which covers the valley floor, used to be a sleepy little village? That's not all! You know better than anyone that I've never been on any mission involving nuclear weapons testing, yet just over one month ago I realised I'd witnessed many explosions of a similar magnitude ... But I have no memories at all. -Do you how you met Geyldian? - You know I don't, I lost that memory due to the amnesia ... Reading between the lines I guess I took a bullet for him and he rescued me. When I woke up everything was new to me. That much is as you say. -One bullet? More like six I would say. You suffered massive trauma and should have died. But you know Leren ... To him you were like one of those multi colored cube puzzles the humans rave about. His pride would not let you die ... Truth be told you showed immense physical strength yourself in order to pull though ... Neither one of you gave up. The problem was you were dressed in a German uniform, but that was it ... No side arm and definitely no journal ... Not then and not since. After you recovered, Geyldian was convinced you would be useful to our cause and I gave you our knowledge. It’s a lot of information to take in all at once ... I have never seen an explosion to match that which we caused, not in reality ... But inside the record such images do exist; I have seen them. I might have put the memory inside your mind without even realising. I didn’t hold anything back. Zero slowly opened his eyes; raising his head, his eyes quickly located Aelren. Far from being in a meditative state, a switch had been flicked inside Zero's head. The look he shot squarely at Aelren spoke loudly and clearly ... Pull the

other one and get serious. -No! Your explanation works well for that one example, but you’ve seen that I have lots more random memories which you cannot explain ... And neither can I ... Would you say the inherited knowledge made me a scientist ... Or a better engineer. No ... It’s only an accumulation of knowledge. In truth I can’t any aspect of the knowledge until that knowledge becomes useful. You didn’t implant any memories of Journals ... I just need my journals. -Before you were only looking for one ... Singular ... Now it is many? ... This makes the problem a lot more complicated. -Problem?... -Of course this is a problem. Your mind is so preoccupied you cannot function in the role which we need you to perform. This is a big problem. Aelren had changed the subject quickly, attempting to de-fuse Zero’s anger. He knew the Old Prime’s comment regarding their inherited knowledge was only an attempt to cover over the confusion he was feeling inside. Zero still trusted the Old Prime. After all they weren't given to lying, it wasn't in their nature. At worst Aelren could be guilty of a lie of omission. This was probably for Zero's own protection more than any nefarious reason. One of Aelren’s first actions had been to share all their information with him, in much the same way he had decades later with Joan. This was firstly to remove all doubt about what the bigger picture was, underpinning the human events on Earth. The who, the why and the how had all been explained in a few short seconds. Secondly, this had been a huge show of trust in Zero on the part of the clones. The shared information could be very damaging to their existence. Aelren seemed to sense straight away that Zero would never betray them. -But how? ... How could you know so quickly that I would never betray you? -That question is truly the key which would unlock everything isn't it? I could continue to placate you by telling you that it was simply because you were willing to lay down your life for a giant bluish man who was about to be killed, but I don't need to do that do I? ... The truth then ... Now Aelren's old eyes which rarely expressed emotion and had witnessed

almost twenty-eight millennia of life on Earth, were returning Zero's glare directly. But the arrangement of muscles in his face, far different from a human, were almost mimicking an expression of sorrow ... -... is simply that we don't know anything about you prior to that point. Of course we quickly figured out the German officers uniform was a ruse and that you were on a top secret SAS mission for the British. It wasn't too hard to follow the information on your dog tags to learn your true identity and military service record. This was exemplary and may still have led us to you in time. Before this we are Unclear, and I am not willing to speculate as this could throw you off the scent; but you clearly wanted to reach Geyldian. You even sacrificed yourself to do so. All I ask is that if you do feel given to follow this through, be sure it's what you want deep down inside. In my opinion, and Leren would probably back me up, Amnesia is a coping mechanism used by the body to prevent exposure to a massive trauma. Your case certainly fits this. Your mind wants you to forget something, some struggle or fight which could break you if you were to relearn of it. From my own viewpoint, purely selfish I it. I do not want to lose you from the battle. You’re precious to me, as more than a soldier. Your unique vision and insights have often pushed us to move when we're struggling to know what to do. By whatever process you came to us, I am grateful every day that you did. Please Zero ... Put this away ... At least for now. Oxull is ready for you and we don't know what problems you will find yet, we only have days to fix them before the next missile is due, it's only one system away. -You're right Aelren, my only skills are my strength and lack of fear. Now is no time for me to be afraid or having doubts about myself. Not at this critical moment. I need to get focused, but I would like to keep a record of all the memories which surface, then I can breeze past them and keep my head in the game. We can re-examine this once we've crossed the finish line, if there is anything to go back to ... That's my darkest fear Aelren ... Please do not say anything to the others, especially not Joan ... But I already feel like I know what the result is going to be ... As if I've lived it ... And it won't be good my friend. -I never put much faith in people who claim to see the future, even Ra-Sian with all his skill cannot claim this gift. It is probably impossible. I it you seem utterly convinced in the past, but it’s the future I’m concerned with. We have to give it our best shot. Millions of years we’ve lived on this planet, watching and helping. Humans are like our own children, what kind of parents would we be if we left them to their fate against the Khai-mah?

Aelren was persuasive indeed as Zero prepared to put his own mental trouble on hold and return to the fold. The biggest clue so far was contained in the Old Prime's last statement. The language he had used appeared to segregate both the clones and him from humanity; Aelren had made no attempt to cover these words which had been delivered in his usual deliberate style. This was the biggest sign that even if Aelren knew next to nothing, he did have his suspicions. Nor was he objecting to Zero following his nose, after all it was his choice and his right to get to the bottom of who he was; if that was what he wanted. Zero respected Aelren’s request for his help with the battle. The super soldier remained fully committed. This situation wouldn’t change; after all, his family and friends were involved. Zero had everything to lose. His second biggest fear was that he may have already built a family somewhere, and then lost them. Previously family had been something Zero had longed for, then made a reality. Now though he was ninety percent certain that this original longing may have been deeply rooted in a family already lost to him. When he could not say. Their names he couldn't ; but this only made the snapshot of their memory more unsettling ... And compelling. -Ok Boss! Let's go home, I can't wait to see Oxull's bird. -I'm a lot of things to a great many people, but I'm not a boss to any of them ... Even less so to you my friend ... After you. Zero was first to silently re-materialise back on Central, inside his living space. With little effort he snuck up behind Joan, but this hadn’t been enough. Most people described Joan and Zero as being very close, even inseparable. But since Joan had been enlightened by Aelren, it had been even more than this. The pair were as one. Having sensed his return instantly, Joan turned in time to be swept up into his big strong arms. The result was a cuddle the likes of which they had not shared since the arrival of the last conduit. The embrace was strong yet tender, Zero had this habit of drawing her so close to him that Joan would fear for her ribs. At the same time, Joan knew she was safe and didn't want to be anywhere else. In a few silent moments, the cuddle said it all. Zero was apologising for his distance in the last month. At the same time it was a reaffirmation of his love for her. How silly had he been to think he would find answers all alone; if he was going to make any progress at all it would be with Joan's help, and that of the clones ... But that would come later ... Standing in the cave mouth, Aelren surveyed the town below. It was so different

from the village in Zero's original memory; sprawling with industrial and residential areas alike. It was a shame to see the different coloured smokes rising into what should have been pure alpine air. This was something which had to change. The humans had come so far technologically yet they’d evolved relatively little. No other organism on this planet had been compelled to learn, and keep learning; to push and keep pushing, limit after limit had been reached and then sured. The only thing the humans had not learned yet was how much of a strangle hold they were placing on their own planet, which could not sustain much more. Aelren was not so naive as to think that this war would be won without the clones showing every aspect of themselves, as troublesome as that may be. Joan was already preparing the humans for this inevitability. By now many younger and more open minded humans were probably aware that problems were being solved in a special way, with outside help. When this war was over, when they had won, there would be no reason for them to hide any more. As the nine and a half foot tall, blue skinned, long framed alien clone ventured outside the cave mouth into the warm glow of the sun; the moment was transformative. Aelren resolved that whatever came afterwards, it should be done cleanly. Who could tell what damage may be done to the atmosphere with weapons fallout? This could be scrubbed clean in time but only if the humans didn’t continue to add their own pollution. Time and a little effort could fix anything; but why go to all that effort if the humans were to keep on the same track they were following currently? Aelren wasn't thinking about derailing the humans, far from it, nothing would be served by taking them back to simpler times. If they managed collectively to end this war favourably, then the humans would have earned their right to stand tall in the galactic community. Now the Earth was isolated, but time ... Time could change all that. What Aelren planned to do was merely remove a few bends from the road which the humans were currently following, say one millennia. Geyldian had previously expressed his heartfelt belief that technologically, the humans would grow pretty much on par with their own achievements. Aelren saw no harm, if they could win this war the humans would’ve already come together as one planet. Maybe their appetite for destruction and killing would be burnt out. There would be few opportunities for conflict afterwards.

As Aelren basked in the sun, lost in his vision of the future, the Prime became aware that he was no longer alone. Quietly he turned to see a family of humans walking up the track towards him. They were laughing and talking, blissfully unaware of his presence. Steeling his nerve to just stand there silently, Aelren gazed on at the family. Whatever Zero's background was, he was far more human than the Caretakers were. Maybe this was why he had assimilated and followed so many of their customs. As Aelren watched, it was easy to see what the draw of a family might be. As the two young children laughed and chased one another, their parents were laughing and giggling at their antics; basking in the chaotic glory of their kids. It was clear that the humans, created by the Devine from two major strains of already bipedal apes, had lost none of their ability to bond or form packs, nor any of their curiosity. Humans just didn’t seem to do well alone. Aelren knew more about Zero than he could say. According to Leren, Zero was just another human, that said there were many things Leren could not explain. Still suppressing his presence from the hive, Aelren briefly allowed himself to visit the events which had brought Zero to them. Events which he had felt were best erased, for the good of everyone. A decade ago Aelren had tried to make Zero choose between them and Joan ... his family, but as the Old Prime unobtrusively spied on the family; he could see his error as plainly as the lack of a nose on his face. There was no way Zero could have abandoned Joan, a fact their super soldier had made clear in his own devil may care way at the time. Aelren’s mind had wandered for a little too long but was snapped back to reality by the children. Having raced ahead of their parents, they were now running around him as if he were a tall limbless, dead tree. The brother and sister were so focused upon each other that they didn’t even realise they were circling a clothed figure, not a tree covered in bark. They didn’t even notice the slow movements of Aelren’s head as he tracked the pair at his feet. The children were so small, maybe five or six years of age. Their bond, size and facial features strongly suggested they were twins. Most likely they too shared their own mini hive mind, which was probably why when the little girl saw Aelren move from the corner of her eye, both children stopped in unison as if by one hand. Slowly the girl looked up, full of wonder. This first encounter was not planned;

but now Aelren could not simply jump away. The parents, attentive to a fault were both moved to pay attention by their children's inactivity. Given their previous excitement, the change had been unmissable. Quickly approaching, the two parents gathered their children, crouching behind the little ones. All four were looking up at the alien figure. It was the little boy who finally gained the nerve to say hello, in German. It did not matter what the language was, Aelren understood perfectly. Not equipped with the vocal cords to respond, he would reply mentally; hoping he could do this calmly enough not to scare them. -Hello little man ... This is your twin sister yes? The boy nodded quickly as if unfazed. -What a pity you did not all arrive here sooner; you could have met my friend. He's like you but he works with us ... We've watched over you all for a very long time, protecting you. You are the only people who have ever met me. You won't tell anyone you saw me, will you? We will be visible soon enough, stood with you shoulder to shoulder ... Everyone will know. There is a long struggle coming but I don't want any of you to worry, my very best friends are all on it, and they will never stop until we are all safe. The parents nodded slowly now too; standing they turned to leave. The children waved before the four walked together back down the track. Aelren stepped back into the mouth of the cave. Pausing long enough to let the family leave, the Prime jumped, spectacularly as always. The over-modulation was no accident. Aelren was announcing himself to the world, renewing his vow to protect the planet. The boom, constrained by the cave mouth, was then reflected and amplified outwards, high over the town. Briefly the whole town stopped. People inside rushed outside to investigate; yet everyone was calm. There was no suspicion of a bomb or any other sinister cause. As he jumped Aelren had projected his feeling of happiness and his protective intent into the community below him. Re-materialising on Central as intended inside Zero's quarters he approached Zero and Joan, positioning his arms around them both. The glow which began to emanate from the three washed through the hive like a wave; giving the Novus a boost before the possible troubles which they might face in the next few days.

After some minutes, Zero kissed Joan lightly on the lips and jumped away to meet Oxull. The engineer was happy that his test subject had returned fit and healthy. Zero thought Oxull turned to wipe away a tear. -Blasted hydraulic fluid ... -I know Oxull ... I won’t tell anyone.

Chapter 12 - Catch me if you can.

IN OXULL’S ENGINEERING hub, Zero smiled broadly; his intent was clear. Oxull's new craft was about to receive a shake down to the point of break down. The pair jumped down to the hangar, where the new craft cut a fine sight amongst the Caddy lining both sides of the spacious launch deck. Just larger than a medium sized craft, she was brutish looking with sharp angular surfaces to stave off discovery by radar. The outer skin was reflexive, a feature Joan had first requested on the fighter which the humans had collaborated on. This allowed the outer control surfaces of the craft to move with no gaps as the outer skin would be tensioned over a moveable frame. In an air battle maneuverability would be increased if all flight surfaces flowed smoothly from one to the next. Previous attempts at articulated wings, which transitioned from subsonic to supersonic modes were efficient enough for the human forces. Yielding a superior craft against a fixed wing design, the changes in wing section required for the articulation still reduced efficiency. Even inside Earth’s atmosphere, where the Khai might be at a disadvantage; Oxull did not believe the swing wing design would fare well against the Khai-mah. Hence the need for an improved design. On this new craft, which had been tailored specifically for Zero; the control surfaces were also hidden in the fully contiguous skin. The craft would be hyper manoeuvrable, to match any inputs which Zero made. Unsatisfied with the need for ive back seat crew, Jer-mija had written software to handle flight dynamics and thrust control; as such the craft would be fairly point and fly. The remaining problem of weapon selection would be dumped upon Zero himself. Jer-mija had already determined from looking at Zero's Caddy flight tests that he was more than capable of taking the extra duty on top of flying and targeting. Whether Jer-Mija had noticed that Zero was inhabiting a Thrall body at the time of this flight test, nobody knew. Luckily Zero’s new brain was also Hexalobic. For protection, the craft now featured the latest incarnation of Geberus and Kariina's Khai shield killing beam, now vastly miniaturised from the MkI design. The particle beams were now fired as an array of ten fine beams in circular arrangement, with a weapons grade high intensity plasma beam at their centre.

A weapon similar in class had been attempted several times by the humans. Requiring a nuclear power supply which hindered portability, their best effort was a gimbal mounted laser suspended from a Boeing 747. Even powered by a nuclear reactor the weapon took too long to get on target, and even longer to have the desired devastating effect. The weapon, and the idea was scrapped shortly after. With the scientist and battle tactician’s newly developed and hardwon weapon, a hole could be opened in a Khai vessel’s shielding instantly; then the beam could dismember the craft at will. As Zero got into his flight suit, Oxull and Jer-mija were both explaining his preflight checklist, together at once ... Zero wasn't listening. This suit looked like a copy of the one worn by the occupants of a craft which crashed on Earth several hundred years before. Zero had seen images when trapped inside the mainframe. Everything was going fine with Zero pulling on the suit quickly. It wasn't until he was fastening the final main zip which ran up his side then back to the top front that he caught the base of his thumb in the zipper, drawing blood instantly. Like a bullet to the brain, a parallel memory of an identical injury rushed Zero's brain. He was no longer listening to the two engineers as the images of this injury all pushed for his attention, thousands of them all at once. Sensing that Zero had zoned out, Oxull placed his hand on the pilot’s shoulder, stooping to look him in the eye ... -Zero! Are you in there? This is no time for daydreaming ... Zero was back, fastening the zip the final few inches to the top before closing the collar seal, he was ready. Jer-mija fastened Zero into an auxiliary oxygen supply and handed him the pack. This was it then ... Zero walked below the craft and sat down in his chair, completion of the strapping in procedure triggered the seat to raise up into the cockpit. In turn this triggered the closing of the outer hull hatch, then the inner firewall, finally followed by the lower cockpit bulkhead which closed the safety cell around Zero and sealed it hermetically. Zero was now inside the cockpit, which could be jettisoned should the craft get into difficulties or be damaged beyond its capacity to stay airborne. Zero was experiencing momentary sparks of familiarity despite having never flown a craft such as this, as far as his memories had shown him. Yet there were also stark differences. Prior to walking below the craft, Zero had done a thorough walk around, pacing out the ship and basically taking in the shape to

get a first feel. He distinctly ed having not seen any front or side screens, the thruster nozzles were fully shielded inside cooled jackets, designed to lower the heat signature when confronted by Khai missiles. If anything, these two adaptations were improvements on what could have been taken as a normal design, but they made the ship look bulky; this in turn made Zero wary of how the ship may handle. Whilst not actively listening to a word the two engineers had uttered, Zero had heard everything, and now began his drastically shortened pre-flight checklist. The original list handed to him by Oxull had been far too overzealous and would not have seen the craft leave the ground for several hours ... Now Zero was sealed in, he was in command. As such he would only check the things which mattered right now, such was his way. Of course when the ionic wave pulses began to emanate from the main engine and the control thrusters began to spurt their thrust, a sign of exactly how unstable this craft was, Oxull went ballistic. Approaching the craft the engineer was waving his arms wildly. Even if he couldn’t see Zero, he was fully aware that Zero could see him. This was no time for cavalier shenanigans. Oxull wanted data ... Meaningful data. They only had two days to correct mistakes and make adjustments. After this the craft would be going into space. The mission? To ready the third Khai missile to take out the fourth conduit which was three days away from its expected arrival, thankfully this time the course was much more predictable. If they had their way this one would be knocked out in space and would never touch down on Earth. Masterfully Zero set the craft into a perfectly axis locked horizontal rotation, causing the craft to spin on the spot, showing the tail end to Oxull who was now running back down the hangar cursing Zero. Jer-Mija, expecting such a display from their pilot, had taken his leave back down the hangar bay the moment the engines fired. Now the cunning Eight couldn’t help but raise a sly smile as his colleague attempted to run his heavy frame to safety. Completion of this same rotation a further ninety degrees had the craft aligned in the direction of the large main outer hangar door. A door so large it allowed the reactor cells to be brought in before they were lowered ten decks below to the bottom of the ship. This was eons ago during Centrals construction in high orbit around Devine Prime. There was no way for Oxull's new creation to exit by the Caddy launch tube, so Jer-mija the force field expert had erected a containment

field at the door to prevent the ocean water and silt from rushing in. Thrall in Caddy fitted out with new tools had cleared the bulk of the sea bed which had settled against the door over countless millennia. Even so all hands were evacuated from the hangar and all access points had been sealed. Zero was on his own now as he watched the huge outer hangar door open. The hole dwarfed his craft and Zero gave true thanks to the skill of the two engineers as the ocean appeared a dark blue in front of him. Not much light reached this depth. ing through the force field into water, progress was slower, only as fast as a racing powerboat. Not that the ionic thrusters didn't like water, the issue was merely that the ocean was dense at this depth and the craft was about as fish shaped as a brick. Joan had already alerted the FIA to keep the airspace down the eastern flank and western Atlantic clear of traffic, but this was purely a precaution. As soon as Zero breached the ocean’s surface he opened the thrusters and headed south east, fewer planes flew down there so the air space would be clear. Ahead, the radar showed a small rocky outcrop, Zero chose to land there. Upon touching down, Zero began testing the thruster cooling jacket effectiveness with a full burn. Inversion of all the thruster nozzles to an upwards pointing position would achieve nothing more than pressing the craft into the ground, presenting a perfect way to test the thruster mountings and the landing gear strength in addition. -Thrusters inverted ... And locked ... Full burn initiated. -He's doing what? ... But ... He's on the ground ... She wasn't designed to take all that thrust in an immovable position ... He'll rip her apart ... Damn that Zero ... I can't watch. Zero actuated the thrusters to full manually, having over ridden the control circuit; the result being all six thruster nozzles were now roaring. By way of compensation the craft was groaning loudly; heavy vibration was also being experienced. Zero monitored the temperature of the cooled engine masking jackets, all seemed well. Temperatures inside the jackets were optimal, though the heat signature wasn’t being masked after 70% thrust as the plumes of fire raged out of the ends of the nozzles. Failure number one but Zero could overlook

this, it would be a rare occasion indeed when he would have to do this in the air, more than anything Zero was probing the frame. An eyebrow was raised however as he noticed that a few seconds after commencing the burn, all the thruster pods were bouncing. Hinting that the thruster pod arms were flexing to a point and then temporarily overcoming the huge thrust to spring back. This wasn’t desirable and had been a good thing to find out. Zero made a note to check with Oxull what the fatigue parameters were for the pod materials and then have him check all the anchor points. Despite this Zero continued the burn. Five minutes was his target ... So far one minute and twenty-six seconds had elapsed. The pod oscillations never increased further which gave Zero some comfort. The temperature was eventually beginning to climb in the cooling jackets, but this was to be expected given the test. Again this would be of little consequence, in service the thrusters would never be fired for this long in this configuration ever again. Zero had complete faith in the two engineers and in the design, which was why he trying to break it. Back on Central Leren who had gone to observe the test was a source of comfort for Oxull when he reminded the engineer how Zero had also tried to test his new body to destruction within hours of him being imprinted into it. That was just his way ... Calming down, Oxull also realised that whilst this was a wild thing to do, it was also completely rational. Their time frame was short so if a weakness did exist Zero had to find it quickly. It was also logical to assume that by following this plan, Zero was only gaining confidence in the design and would not be given to worrying about his own safety. This meant his mission focus would be on point and sharper. The Old clone engineer remained exasperated. If Zero had only explained all this beforehand, he would not have wasted his breath, and time to compile the huge pre-flight checklist. Jer-mija confirmed that the data coming in was useful and that despite the apparent savagery of his method, all the results were good. -Zero has just shut down the two midship thrusters, the oscillation increased by a further five percent showing no signs of stopping. -That’s it then. Zero thinks those two arms are weak so he’s killed them. I expect he’ll want to see us later then.

The remainder of the five-minute test would be performed without the two midship thrusters. The remaining four thrusters were dialled back. Blipped off while Zero righted their orientation downwards before being blasted back on to push the craft quickly into the air. Next came a new test, vertical climb rate in horizontal orientation. Zero was purposely presenting the largest cross sectional area in the direction of travel, as opposed to aiming nose high yet the craft was climbing at an amazing rate. Jer-mija ed 300 feet per second, staggering for a craft of such size. Oxull was beginning to be impressed too as the fastest craft the humans had developed pre-collaboration was the MIG-29 Fulcrum at 330 feet per second, nose high in a vertical climb. As Zero rotated the craft to face upwards, he opened the ionic wave engine to maximum. The frame of the ship began to rattle every three seconds as she hurtled through successive sound barriers. Zero’s flight suit had tightened somewhat around his legs now. This and the inertial dampening which Oxull had incorporated meant Zero was fully conscious ... And fully in charge, despite the extraordinary acceleration his body was going through. Before exiting Earth’s atmosphere, Oxull's craft had sured all the craft launched into space by the humans; nearly doubling the required escape velocity of 25,053 miles per hour. So fast in fact that the front of the craft was glowing bright orange. Oxull had foreseen this need as part of a rapid intercept scenario, should Khai vessels ever come knocking at Earth's door. Once in the cold of space the hull cooled rapidly but Zero never looked back, he would set a new record to Mona of only twenty-five minutes and thirteen seconds; halving the time in a Caddy. Looping around the back side of the moon the Earth came back into view after only a few short minutes, with no problems being encountered. As Zero began re-entry, Oxull expected him to return home but someone else had other ideas. Hitting his hard deck altitude of 1000 ft above the surface of the Pacific just west of Hawaii, Zero was perturbed and excited simultaneously, as an alarm began to bleep. Someone had painted Zero as a target. The aft screen showed nothing but clear blue Pacific skies; but as Zero continued to watch, he just managed to capture the light bouncing off a wing tip at the far edge of his screen. A sharp course correction brought the tailing craft squarely into view. The silhouette was small but growing at incredible speed, and as Zero reached the Hawaiian island chain the craft was chasing him all the way at a 100 ft distance.

Scanning the craft revealed an Earth force collaboration fighter, christened the King after any snake which would eat its own kind. A reference to the fact that the craft had been designed to prey upon Khai-mah craft. “I prepared a little surprise for you my love ... I hope you like it.” Joan's softest and most sultry Yorkshire tones now addressed Zero over the comms with a worrying giggle. “I knew it! No one else would have the stones to pull such a trick ... You’re right though, the next phase of testing should be in combat.” As Zero threaded the larger craft at speed through valleys and over mountains the King was glued to him, this pilot was exceptional ... The way they anticipated Zero's movements to keep the lock, he wasn't just following Zero. This pilot was flying the terrain just as Zero was, looking ahead, and just like Zero they were taking the fastest tightest route. Far from drifting around behind Oxull's craft, tight formation was always being maintained. The King’s pilot could've taken a shot at any time. Zero initiated a scan of the craft, there were no life signs. This was an unmanned UCAV. “You sent a drone to test me ... You naughty woman.” “Come now honey, there's no man in the seat but there is a man at the stick, he's right here at the side of me ... Would you like a word?” The next voice came over the intercom ... “Zero! Old friend ... You're flying like a Trojan but you won't lose me ... Not in this baby!” It was Billy, despite his advancing years he was exhibiting all his skills as a flying prodigy; that said he was only human. Zero, decided it was about time he unleashed his Thrall derived Hexalobe brain. Manipulating the controls sent the craft into a horizontal rotation again, the two craft were now nose to nose with Zero flying the larger craft in reverse. The faintest note of panic was evident in Billy's voice now as he maintained his charge toward Zero.

Zero was now flying using his aft scanner screen only, this lead to his route becoming slightly more dangerous than before, and as he scraped the tops of trees ahead of Billy, it was the nose of the King which was collecting the debris ... Billy dropped back but went weapons hot. Zero's target lock indicator now turned red and alarmed a more constant tone, Billy meant to fire on him ... -Enough showboating, it’s time to get serious. Zero pitched the thrusters full down, raising his craft instantly straight up, Billy sped below him unable to match the move. The King did have vectoring thrusters and vents, but nothing on a par with Oxull's creation. Seeing his quarry effectively disappear before his eyes, and with his vision limited to an array of eight monitors in a mostly forward-facing aspect, Billy cut thrusters and deployed his air brakes. Pitching the nose skyward and advancing the engine to maximum output, Billy set off chasing Zero in a vertical climb. After rocketing skyward for twenty seconds there was still no sign of Zero, who had totally faked Billy out. Becoming the target, Billy’s own weapons lock alarm was wailing on the desk in front of him as Zero pulled the huge beast in close behind him. Billy raced for cover; thankful he wasn't in the cockpit. The King was far more capable of tight turns, soon the pair could be seen racing back into the valleys below. "It's not fair that you can thrust sideways old chap, that's just not cricket is it." “Come now Billy, you're not a bad workman, and your tools are impeccable. My craft is just different to yours, best you find your limitations now eh?” Approaching the same mountain range for the third time, Billy was scraping the trees himself as he neared the summit. Breaching the tree lined ridge, Billy again cut thrust, applying full air braking surfaces whilst sharply pushing the nose down to follow the other side of the steep ravine. Zero temporarily having the sun in his eyes lost Billy for a moment, he would need to have a word with Oxull regarding solar filtration and glare compensation in the display interface. Oxull picked up the thought loud and clear, another error ... He'd put a lot of effort into protecting Zero with no loss of visibility, but he'd never thought about the sun. Zero was flying without a helmet and visor so there was nothing he

could do to counter the glare; this was a distinct tactical disadvantage which the Old engineer needed to address quickly. On the plus side Zero was demonstrating the reflexive control surfaces and airframe strength irably, these seemed fine. Oxull was occupied, he was already thinking about the MK2 version of this craft, only a few minor modifications. Turning to face Jer-mija, he was about to say let’s get started, but his old mentor was gone. Oxull found Jer-mija down in engineering, The genius was already changing the blueprints in line with Oxull's ideas, this was the power of the hive mind. Back in Hawaii Billy had once more turned the tables on Zero, having fallen in behind him as soon as the big craft had crossed the ridge at speed, there was no time to lose. Firing both canons, Billy unleashed hell at a rate of three thousand nine hundred rounds per minute; enough to cut a normal fighter into pieces from a single burst. Sensing he was about to become a sitting duck as he crossed the ridge, Zero had already engaged his aft shielding, and with good reason. Billy, a decorated fighter ace after action over Korea, had gained a reputation for never leaving his target in the air. This time was no different. His friend turned opponent’s fire was assuredly on target now too. Whilst these were only 30mm rounds, such density of fire was eroding Zero's shields over the aft section at a fair rate. Probably Billy would run out of rounds before his shields failed but Zero was alarmed to find the shields had not rotated, the same field was in place. This was bad, if the shields had rotated each would share a five percent increment of damage before rotating, this would give each field a chance to regenerate. In this instance the main aft shield was already at 15% capacity and falling rapidly. Zero instinctively began to pull manoeuvres to evade. The sequence of barrel rolls, momentary brakes and horizontal axis flip were so far beyond the capacity of the King that it did not take more than three seconds for Zero to have his craft tucked in safety behind Billy again. Having lost lock and sight of his target so quickly, Billy’s head was spinning. He was unable to comprehend the moves he’d just witnessed. Billy pushed his throttle to full, thanking god he wasn't flying a conventional jet or he'd have called bingo for fuel quarter of an hour ago. Whilst trying to run, Billy also contemplated the paradoxical thought that it had taken all the world's

forces, and certain additions from a non-indigenous species to the planet combined to create the King fighter. If the superpowers of Earth ever had a cause to quarrel again after this, the war would never end with so few constraints. The King, whilst being way smaller than Zero's bird, was easily as large as the old Phantom jet, so many more weapons were on this flying platform, that a nation could be taken down by a single flight of Kings. Joan had said that the engines and non-human weapons were only on loan from the clones. Billy thought this was very naive. What superpower wouldn't do whatever it took to hold onto this technology for their own gains. Billy did not see one war against an off world aggressor as being any deterrent to a small war afterwards against a species already trapped and incapacitated by a lack of numbers. After all the clones main air might was piloted exclusively by humans, they had no craft of their own save for the one chasing him now, and these couldn’t be mass produced to match the numbers of kings already manufactured. Zero was also mindful of Billy's thoughts, it was something both he and Joan had already discussed at length, many times. As a result, Oxull had already prepared the means to quell any future uprisings, prior to furnishing the humans with their technology. Billy was a good man and would never have taken such action against a race who were helping the humans of their own accord. There were however, plenty of powerful men who would not be so grateful should the opportunity present itself to kill two alien birds with one stone. -Don't worry Billy, Joan had that covered from the very start. The humans will move past war or they will be thrown backwards two hundred years. They will not be permitted to bare their teeth against the Old Ones. “I hope you’re right Zero.” Billy's mental communication skills were so rusty, he actually blurted out his last sentence. His answer to apparently no question from Zero raised a few eyebrows around him in the control room. Only Joan appreciated the two men were talking. Zero was matching every move made by Billy's King drone, much to the chagrin of the fighter ace. Billy couldn’t bear the thought of losing to the hulk flying behind him, but this had been Zero, Oxull and Jer-mija's intent from the start. Being space capable, the large craft was an infinitely more valuable tool for meeting the Khai-mah head on. The King fighter would have its place should the

Khai breach Earth's skies, but this was a secondary role. “Joan? ... May I?” Joan knew what Zero was asking and why, the only thing so far not tested on Oxull's Goliath were the weapons systems. Joan knew that Zero was only concerned with one of them. Instructing Billy to run high, as high as the King would go and engage shielding, she had already prepared this drone to exhibit Khai style shielding harmonics. “Be my guest Gray, I have thousands more. Not too close to the ground though, the engine will go with a huge bang if you hit it so try to aim midship. It's a smaller target anyway ... a better test.” “Copy that Joan, loud and clear.” As Billy pulled up, engaging his shields and pushing his plasma reactor to its limit, the drone began to pull away from Zero. The King was impressively fast in a straight line even climbing vertically. By the time Zero reached the King’s ceiling altitude at the very edge of space some 200 miles above the Earth, Billy was several miles ahead of him. Now a unique feature of Oxull's newly developed HUD came to bear. The King was nothing more than a grey dot ahead of him, sometimes lost against the blackness beyond, but the targeting interface knew exactly where Billy's drone was from the crafts exhaust trail. The instant Zero painted the King drone as a target, his screen zoomed in to enlarge the craft, which was now covered with a red marker. Weapons lock would not be lost now, wherever the drone moved it would remain in Zero's crosshairs. “Charging the Axe ... Ready to fire in Three ... Two ... ONE!” Pulling the red trigger on the side of his main stick, Zero watched as a green glowing beam extended ahead of him to connect the two craft. On the enhanced HUD, Zero could watch with perfect clarity the devastation being wrought on the King drone. Within seconds the craft was bisected into two pieces, just behind the cockpit. The drone interface had been severed by the Axe, from the main fuselage containing the engine. Billy felt his controls die; for him the game was over, but his loss was the Earth’s gain. The particle disruptor and subsequent high intensity plasma particle beam had worked, with 97% of its nominal charge remaining. This was a complete success

and now Zero was hearing the familiar tones of Kariina in his head. -Ya-tah!... It worked Geberus ... It worked. Her excitement was too much to contain and most uncharacteristic of an Old One, even for a human hybrid. Nonetheless Zero's head was filled with wellwishers, congratulatory messages and comments from Numbers and Novus alike. Within Five minutes Zero plunged his craft back into the Atlantic and was cleared for approach to Central. Upon breaching the outer threshold of the main hangar, Zero could see the inhabitants of Central lined up along the sides of the hangar, clambering for a view of Oxull's craft. Carefully Zero piloted the craft which hummed its way back to the pad up the corridor of Novus. Setting down he killed the engine and thrusters. Thirty seconds later the hull plating opened and his seat emerged from the bottom of the nose. With a click the harness was released and Zero raised himself to a standing position. Free of the craft there was no reason why the Novus should hold back anymore. In the most civilised manner possible, the Novus crowded around Zero before raising him above their heads, to him back towards the observation deck. Wraith had jumped in with Joan and Billy who was clapping loudly. Technically Zero hadn't bested him, his reputation and record were intact, but he knew that Zero and that craft were a tough combination. Had the battle been a serious one, it could've gone either way with a slight nod to Zero. Climbing over the handrail which separated him from his friends, Zero walked firstly to Oxull and Jer-mija, holding out his hands to meet theirs. -Well done chaps, very well done, what you've both accomplished even behind schedule ... It's nothing short of remarkable, extremely flyable and agile ... Not to mention bloody fast. Truly I'm honoured to have flown her and I can't wait to fly her again, but we need a name. Joan's collaborative fighter is the King, I think we call this class ... Sphinx. After the Achemon Sphinx moth, it's a huge great thing, but fast, agile and it lives in Florida ... Perfect. -Sphinx eh?... I like it ... Could we have a debrief after ... Well this?

-Of course my friend, of course ... I can't wait ... There are a few things but they're nothing, I know you've already got a plan ... Well done again! Zero moved on to Geberus and Kariina who were holding hands. The pair were now widely known to be more than just friends. Both the clones knelt to give Zero a hug as this was clearly what he wanted approaching the pair with his arms extended widely. Again Zero congratulated the pair on the work they had done to bring the Axe to fruition, he reassured them that this weapon was formidable and would make a real difference. -When I fired the Axe and watched the King come apart, I could literally see the lizards flying out of the hull! This comment was a strange one. Obviously Zero had studied the record in his downtime and was acutely aware what a Khai lizard looked like. But to put that connotation on the destruction of the drone, having never engaged the Khai in battle, was odd. Zero left the pair staring at each other in disbelief, was Zero that eager to get started? Aelren had been listening in to everything which was happening, such was his power. Only he truly appreciated what Zero had said to Geberus and Kariina. Zero wasn't eager, but he was ready. In fact he had always been ready to take on the Khai-mah ... Although Aelren could not comment to anyone, least of all Zero. Given the way things had been left in the cave, Zero's oldest memories were beginning to leak free. Almost fifty years before, the Old Prime had tried to overwrite and absorb Gray’s memories into the knowledge he gave Zero when he came aboard Central as an agent. Whilst this wasn't ideal, the more of those battle memories which came back, the harder Zero would fight; and the more effective he would be. Zero would be the dog of this war ... Ever faithful and ever capable of reaching and destroying the target ... -The war will be interesting indeed.........

Chapter 13 - Sphinx dissected

IT HAD ONLY BEEN 10 minutes since Zero had landed back aboard Central, but with the inescapable welcome blockade, it felt like hours. Aelren had interjected directly into Zero's mind and for the last five minutes the pair had been conversing, shielded from the others by the Old Prime who was wary of Zero talking about killing lizards to anyone else. There were certain things the Old Prime would need to consult the record about before all his suspicions could be confirmed or dispelled. This would take some time. Even having the level of familiarity with the records that Aelren had, he’d never delved back all the way to the beginning. His next search would be into uncharted territory, even for him. This didn't mean that Zero hadn't gotten there first and viewed everything. Firstly, Aelren wanted to know how much detail their creators the Devine had left about the Khai-mah. Were there any details regarding battles and skirmishes on Devine Prime? Had there been any actual recorded footage which showed the destruction of a Khai-ship in space? Aelren was somewhat annoyed with himself for his actions fifty years ago. Not as far as showing the knowledge to Zero, but for not examining the soldier’s memory better to confirm a few things. This kind of investigation might have yielded some answers for Geyldian and Leren also. Over the decades both had been continuously confounded by the conundrum of Zero. Instead, with Geyldian suffering a similar strife then as Zero was now, the Clone Prime had chosen to overwrite all the memories of his numbers, very thoroughly. The most frustrating part was that he had not even kept records for himself ... Plausible deniability. The rest of the hero’s parade went off without a hitch. Zero finally rewarded Joan for all her efforts steering the humans to collaborate on the King fighter. The craft would surely be a very capable asset if the Khai-mah did breach the atmosphere. Joan’s reward came in the form of a firm kiss on the lips, unashamedly and unabashed, much to the confusion of the Novus who had no equivalent custom. Kariina was aware of course as in her less glorious past she had taken human suitors, these interludes, however unproductive in the long run had usually involved going some way past third base. Firstly, she explained the concept to Geberus, the latest object of her affection, before asking him if he

would like to try. As his blue skin flushed a darker shade of purple, she moved in for the kill; planting her almost normal human looking lips onto the lipless hole which Geberus sometimes used for speech in the old language, mostly when frustrated. Upon first the formerly blue skinned clone scientist felt as if he was being asphyxiated, but as the seconds ed, he realised his girlfriend wasn't trying to eat him. The warm moist eventually began to feel somewhat better than good. Kariina was experienced ... Zero left the hangar to go to engineering with Oxull and Jer-mija in tow, next would be the all-important debrief. First on the agenda the mid-ship thruster pods. Stubbornly Oxull pulled reasons out of his engineering bag why they should be kept, the best case being for redundant backups. Zero insisted that the two thrusters were not required. - ... They’re functionless as redundant backups as they’re positioned directly below the centre of gravity of the craft. This would lead to the craft becoming even more unstable. Zero suggested eight thrusters equi-spaced at thirds along the fuselage or stick with just four. Zero then made his case to shorten the four arms back toward the fuselage, merely retaining the nozzle gimbal. This would eliminate the previous problem of thruster arm flexing and meant the thrusters would be better shielded from taking hits. Oxull conceded the point, after all this was his first attempt, nor was he a pilot so he had to differ to Zero's common sense observations. Oxull appreciated Zero's opinion as an all-round engineer, and this was all it could be. As far as Oxull knew, Zero had never been a pilot during his armed forces career in WWII, and he’d been too young to indulge his unique skill set during the Great War. Zero had qualified as a Caddy pilot during his time as a Thrall but the two craft were so different that no insights could have been learned in the one, then applied to the other. Regarding the sun shield, Jer-mija had already incorporated this into the interface in a very clever manner. Whilst in the atmosphere the sun would be blotted out by a black disc, the black disc would reduce in strength outwards, slowly diffusing back to nothing, the resultant blot was enough to offer perfect vision very close to the sun whilst completely eliminating direct glare, in a further development the clever number Eight had also written a totally separate subroutine which would dampen highlights from sharp edges or shiny surfaces.

Zero could effectively enter a dog fight with a Khai fighter in uptown Manhattan on a bright summer's day with no glare whatsoever ever and a clear view of the enemy ... Assuming he was the fox and not the hare. Zero's own comments did not amount to much past these topics. The changes he had requested to shorten the thruster arms would increase performance by lessening resistance through air and water and increase the ship's overall robustness under fire. Manoeuvrability was already A1 and the ship had been a total joy to play with in the air over Hawaii, toying with Billy. The King fighter, although greatly improved, was also much more conventional with many of the usual aerodynamic limitations of thrust and lift. -So how long? Oxull had already been tapping away at his computer interface, this was linked to the machines which would manufacture the new thruster cowlings from the same reflexive skin as the rest of the fuselage, the heat capacity and dissipation rates were exceptional for this material making it a natural choice in this application. -Just take a look at this Zero, give me a yay or nay and then I either push the button or start again ... Zero approached the console with a smirk on his face, Oxull's sense of humour was a defensive mechanism to cover his lack of confidence. The Old engineer always had a very outgoing personality. In all matters regarding Central and the upkeep of the Caddy fleet Oxull was the man. Only whilst developing the Sphinx, which had pushed him from maintenance or redesign, to actual blank sheet design; had he been shunted out of his usual comfort zone. Now the selfdeprecating jokes were a cover and a plea ... Correct me, but please be gentle! Zero ed his first years on Central, he too had lost much of his usual confidence as all the sights, sounds and tasks were completely new and unfamiliar. The clones had shown him nothing but respect and patience; now Zero would do the same. -Let's feather that edge a little more, lose that bit or it'll burn off anyway and you're good to go Oxull, great work. Oxull was in awe at how quickly Zero was able to evaluate his design and make these few changes. If he had given some time to evaluating the aerodynamic

efficiency, Oxull may have realised the first point in time himself. As for the second point; he would never have caught that one. -Oh there is one more point, maybe possible and maybe not ... For you Jer'. What are Khai craft like under water? -Well the record doesn't tell us much but if we look at the fighter craft the Devine were up against at the time we can see exposed vents, lots of hard edges and no proper control surfaces, which would suggest the craft either cannot go in water at all or would be severely hampered. Jer-mija had brought up several schematics from the record, which he'd hacked as Aelren was loathed to give him access just yet. The smallest was a threelizard craft about the same size as a Hawker Siddeley Gnat. The Gekkoda was the fastest and most capable craft the Khai had inside an atmosphere; this tiny craft was however, armed only with plasma cannons and two low yield missiles. The next smallest craft moved up in size and was the largest craft capable in a planet’s atmosphere, but probably not one as dense as the Earth’s. Having a sixlizard crew this beast was twice as big and four times heavier than Oxull's craft. The record showed the craft was mainly used in space but had also been marginally capable inside a thin atmosphere. -So I doubt you'll run into these much ... Why? -I’d like you to investigate two shielding modes. Rotatable under fire above water and shape changeable underwater. When I was leaving Central on the test run, the speed under water was atrocious. No more than a racing speed boat; 113 kilometres per hour. If the Khai ships are capable at all, and we cannot take the risk in my opinion, then we need to improve this. If we find they are not capable, then as far as I can see the oceans become our advantage if they can't follow us there. A few quick manoeuvres and we can pop out behind them. What I need Jer' is for the ship to not touch the water at all, but rather travel in a streamlined shield generated bubble. You're the force field expert so I'm leaving this with you ... Of course, I don't need it right away, but I would like it ... What do you think? -I get you ... Another interesting project for sure ... I think I can manage something ... How fast do you need to go? Jer-mija was now thinking that Zero's request would be completely reasonable,

but Oxull was shaking his head with a smile on his face. He knew what was coming from first-hand experience. Zero would ask for the moon, then expect it to be not only terra-formed but inhabited with fully developed sentient life. Zero pointed to the smallest of the Khai craft ... -Since this baby is the one the Khai will probably throw at us, and this is the one which looks most like it could travel in water ... If you can’t guarantee to beat it for straight line speed ... Then don't bother! Let me know in one week what you can do! Jer-mija was used to having hard tasks thrown his way, the Old Ones had always relied on him, but this may be too much even for him. Before his exile Jer-mija had dabbled with force fields and had some success. So now he was the expert. Zero was not in the mood for excuses and jumped away with all the concerns of a fully fed baby in a clean nappy. It was Jer-mija's task, but Zero had faith in him. Oxull was laughing as he approached his former mentor, placing his hand on JerMija's shoulder ... -You'll get used to it ... JER! -I'm sure I will OX! This last comment soon had Oxull straight faced again, he'd seen the record and knew full well what an OX was. Oxull took the verbal slapping from his old teacher as it was intended. The two began laughing again before Oxull had to Zero in his next planning meeting ...

Chapter 14 - A fiery ball of bottom quarks.

ZERO'S NEXT POINT OF call was to see Geberus and Ra'sian, he needed to know if there was any news regarding the location of the conduit. The fourth missile would arrive sometime in the next three days. In that time there was a lot of work to do, the super soldier and one or both of the scientists had to get on board the stranded third missile and reprogram it to sniff out the conduit which would deliver its sibling. The missile currently lay dead in the water drifting just over a third of the way to Mars and would take a full twelve hours to reach. Upon boarding the missile, Geberus was sure he could reprogram the forward sensor array such that it would sniff out the anomaly all on its own. The missile could then deploy its full payload right in the conduits path. The payload of the missile was most likely in the trilli-tons; making Ra-Sian's previous effort seem like a bursting balloon. Calculations showed that this blast, if not successful at destroying the conduit outright, should at least throw the hyperspace tunnel so far off course that the missile had no chance of impacting Earth. On this matter both scientists were in agreement so strongly they could have been coned at the brain. The only drawback would be the size of the blast, which would create a sizeable gamma wave that would quickly wash over everything in the system, Earth first and then Mars. This Gamma Ray burst would last for barely more than a second, but would be followed by a reasonable afterglow, the first to be actually detectable within the Milky Way Galaxy. This would be a problem, detonating practically next door to planet Earth it could wreak havoc with both nature and technology, despite being many orders smaller than the usual source of an exploding star. There was no way to shield the planet from this radiation, except to turn technology off in the exposed area. Coordinating all the inhabitants of a planet which was turning nonstop would be a major problem. Even then such actions would not provide any protection for inhabitants, animals, or birds which lay directly in the path. If they could reactivate the missile's main engines and begin the mission now then every hour they could get the missile to steam away would lessen the effects on the planet. This was another problem; the clones had carried out full surveys of the three

missiles which had so far arrived and all had been in the same condition as the one buried in Antarctica. The conduit had in some way perturbed the stability of the plasma reaction, causing a mass of irregularly charged particles to coat the inside of the reactor. This blinded the reactor control sensors into thinking the reaction output was being lost, at which point the controller would up the output. With its foot firmly pressing the gas pedal the missile quickly began to reach a runaway rate of plasma production. This meant the plasma being produced literally could not be ejected from the thrust nozzles at the back fast enough. At this critical stage a secondary auxiliary sensor measuring the plasma pressure in the ejection chamber behind the reactor would be showing true readings; invariably in direct contrast to the sensors in the reactor. Unable to reconcile the goofy telemetry the system would shut down to a safe mode. Oxull knew that these irregularly charged plasma particles were statically bonded inside the reaction chamber and had since their formation clung inside the heart of the missile. The clever engineer speculated that venting the excess pressure in the ejection manifold system to nil, before injecting enough base ions into the reaction chamber to allow attachment of one to each of the wrongly charged ions would restore the equilibrium in the reaction chamber. A full system reboot should then restore the missile to operation. There had so far been no practical reason to test the theory as the first three missiles had become embedded into solid rock. With nowhere to go, why fire up the engines? Now though the fourth missile stranded out in space was the perfect guinea pig for Oxull to test his theory on. As usual time was the pressing factor, Oxull had to collect ions from Central’s reactor chamber and hope the ions were of the same plasma mix. Differing ratios the engineer could compensate for, this wouldn't be an issue; but different base materials for the plasma would only end one way ... Total destruction. Oxull could collect all the ions he needed in a few hours, but during this time he needed Geberus to use his Thrall mind bank to carry out a series of difficult calculations. The result should tell Oxull how many irregularly charged particles he’d be dealing with. To restore equilibrium to the reactor, Oxull could not inject more than a 5% excess or the reaction pressure would be outside optimal parameters. If this were so, the engine still wouldn't start up correctly. The plan was decided and the mind bank was set to work. All other tasks were put on hold. The Thrall knew who had instigated this request even though it was

Geberus entering the command. For Zero they would self-overclock to the maximum rate possible. The answer should be ready when Oxull was, in around three hours. Within a quarter of an Horon after this, all necessary clones and equipment should be in Oxull's craft and ready for wheels up. Geberus speculated that if they could get the reaction chamber under control, reset the missile and reprogram the tracking system to sniff out the conduit within five hours of their arrival, the intercept point would be well outside the Ort cloud. In which case the effects of any resulting Gamma Ray Burst would be negligible on Earth. The rocky debris cloud would provide effective shielding for all the planets. It was a gamble based upon speculation, after a raw guess; but Zero could not have hoped for better people to be doing the thinking. Oxull and Geberus would be with him all the way; in this instance his mission was merely to drive the bus. Three hours later Oxull, Geberus and all the equipment the two would need was loaded and ready. The size of the ion flask and its Lev-Tran was large enough that the clones would be standing for the entire journey. Oxull reminded Zero that until the ions were discharged, he would be piloting an unstable and potentially explosive device ... -So please fly straight, no loops or stunts ... Please! As the roughly 13 million mile journey got underway, the clones needed to adjust. Seldom had they ever been in such close proximity for such a prolonged length of time. Having all specialised in different fields, the clones daily tasks meant that before the preparations began, Oxull and Geberus had seldom met, let alone had a reason to talk collaboratively. With the plan clear in everyone’s head the pair had little to talk about. Geberus did not really want to burden his genius mind with Oxull's engineering problems, whilst Oxull could not begin to understand Geberus and his scientific riddles. Zero could associate with Oxull, as he was an experienced engineer; although Oxull often dealt with things on board Central which were beyond his comprehension. A self-professed dullard compared to them, neither clone could reconcile the way that time after time, Zero had used his simple logic to seemingly bail them out, speeding up their processes and show them the way. Zero couldn’t understand how such a logical race of beings could become so bogged down in

the details of each task that the end game was completely beyond them. His focus was achieving the end result efficiently. Problematic details were easy to identify along the way but didn’t always need to be addressed directly. Once in possession of all the problems, Zero could then weigh up which ones must be solved in order to make the project succeed. The lesser problems would often just melt away, being solved, or simply becoming not worth solving. Both clones were glad Zero was accompanying them. Zero's course again carried him past Mona's resting place on the moon. Tipping his fuselage to the huge craft, Zero made his final course correction to intercept the missile. Pushing the throttle on the plasma reactor to wide open, he then augmented this burn with all thrusters. Velocity was increasing rapidly, though the only evidence was the big blue marble with the little white cue ball in front of it, getting smaller and smaller on the rear view scanner. To cover the distance in the allotted time, the thrusters would be used for the first five hours, after which Zero would turn them off completely. Geberus had calculated that the journey could be done in twelve hours if the velocity parameter could be met. This was all based on knowing the engine output and setting a burn time. Of course the final two hours would be spent in deceleration once the missile coordinates were being approached. Final approach would be under thruster power alone. Zero would use these to bring the Sphinx alongside the missile access door; last sealed by a lizard construction crew, eons ago. Ra-Sian was left back in the hangar on Central, a shame indeed as the Old watcher may have proved to be enough of a bridge for Oxull and Geberus to find some common ground. Ra-Sian, by his very nature had picked up enough details regarding both the clones disciplines that he could have instructed both subjects to an advanced level. The Watcher was by his console. A far more useful place, from which he could collate all the data gathered by Mona's newly modified deep space scanner. He hoped that examining the conduit data collected during the arrival of the first three missiles, might yield the best indicator to track down the inbound conduit. If possible he hoped to find a precursive marker which would allow their modified missile to sniff out the location of the conduit before it arrived. So far the Watcher, who could find anything or anyone, anywhere and at any time had drawn a blank. With time running out, the outcome was not looking good. Having already isolated more than ten markers which would allow the missile to

easily home in on the conduit once it had materialised in the region, there would be no way to stop the conduit materialising on Earth. This presented the same potential for damage already witnessed, this was undesirable. Ra-Sian could not however, find a single anomaly, disturbance, or perceptible difference in the space ahead of the conduit, which would allow them to place their missile in front it. Approaching halfway to the missile, Zero began a long distance conversation with Ra-Sian. He was getting worried that the Watcher had not been in touch yet. "Talk to me Ra-Sian, tell me what you have." "I have lots of ways to alter the missile’s tracking system to get the missile quickly to the conduit, what I don't have is anything which would allow us to set the detonation in the path of the conduit. I've tried Zero and I am at a loss." "If I knew anything about quantum theory or particle physics, I'd have been sipping drinks with Einstein in Austria. What about the fabric of space? There was a scientist in England that I read about once on a flight, Peter Higgs ... He and his collaborators theorised that space isn't just what you can see, there is matter in between all the visible stuff, like a liquid suspension. There is another theory ... Totally new ... Quantum entanglement. Two particles at opposite sides of the universe can communicate and become synchronised ... How? By micro wormhole is the speculation. That's basically what our conduits are, they allowed you guys to cover massive distances in a short time. Eventually I thought the Devine learned how to create the anomaly and open the hole. So what about the conditions needed to open the hole? It couldn't be as simple as moving really fast and opening a rip in space. Maybe the changed particles used to open the conduit are pushed inside it by whatever enters and precede the item travelling through. Maybe the conduit is formed by a transformation in the particles as the conduit shoots through space, like an electromagnetic alignment of the normal space particles to form the conduit. I don't know Ra'sian, I'm an engineer not a physicist. Have a look, that's what you do." "In all this time I have never considered the mechanism which forms the conduit, but it may be a place to start. I’m aware of the field which holds all matter together. It does not sustain itself at a constant density throughout space, some particles through it very quickly, but some particles are caused to slow

down rapidly, suffering some kind of mass transformation. What you say about some kind of conductivity ed along may also make some sense to check ... A naturally conductive signal of sorts which orders the particles into a formation ... Maybe it is possible." "Ok good, let me know ... Zero out!" Another hour and the silence was deafening, so Zero tried to engage Geberus, just to run the problem past the scientist. If anyone did know about quantum theory or how to open a wormhole, Zero figured it would be him. -So ... Geberus ... Wormholes ... Tricky Devils eh?! -Really ... You think so?... I always thought wormholes were quite straight forward ... This had been a mistake, and as Geberus launched into his lengthy explanation Zero made a note to take Oxull to one side and demand that he fit one of those new-fangled in car CD players to the Sphinx, just for situations like this. -So you see given the right conditions if you're really clever and you manipulate the particle to a more focused point, you can open up a worm hole which will stay open indefinitely. As long as the objects ing through do not approach more than thirty percent of the total mass of the particles which form the bridge. If that happens the hole will close up on the vehicle ing through. It's just about having the right size of bridge for the vehicles using it. Now the conduits ... They are tricky devils. You see they are opened instantaneously as an object of a certain mass approaches a critical speed where the bow wave against the ... What did you call it? ... The Higgs Field?... Well it reaches such a pressure that particle collisions happen in front of the vehicle in transit. Once you reach a critical mass of particle reactions, this can become self-sustaining and accelerate all of its own accord. The conduit forms milliseconds later and the vehicle vanishes. This is why the conduit size is in direct proportion to the mass and speed of the vehicle. A large vehicle cannot form a conduit as long as a smaller one so the smaller one can go further in one jump even if their entry speed is the same. A smaller and faster vessel can go way further in a single leap. The only reasons why a conduit ever terminates, I.e. the chain reaction brakes down so the conduit ceases to form are, as we know being obstructed by a planet or object similar in mass to the vehicle and conduit particles, or some large gravitational

force which may cause the conduit to shear or bend severely after it has ed. If the conduit is broken along its length then the tension and atomic stiction holding the particles forming the conduit are broken apart explosively, so the conduit would burn back to its ends dropping the object wherever it happened to be. There is no control, it's the variables of the missile itself which had set the parameters of the conduit and unless something happens to disrupt it, it would continue forever. That's what's difficult! Geberus was used to Zero not understanding, resulting in him having expended his intellect for nothing. This time was no different, Geberus waited for the silence to continue, signalling that Zero had abandoned their little chat ... But surprisingly. -I see, well done. That was an explanation a three year old could understand ... Geberus had a warm feeling at the rare compliment from Zero ... -A three year old genius that is! But seriously then we need to have a brainstorm. You are telling me that if nothing got in the way of the conduit it would never end? This part I don't understand ... But only because typically all the missiles have been rendered dead inside the conduits, they become thrust inert, how do they keep moving? How is the critical particle reaction achieved if the missile isn't pushing forward anymore? When I consulted the record on Khai-mah interstellar craft, it seemed to show that their vessels create a bubble around themselves and this bubble is what moves them through space ... Maybe the bubble doesn't travel, maybe the particles are flipped along or transformed to give the effect of the bubble moving, like a ripple in space. Obviously these reactions occur over fractions of a nanosecond, fast reaction ... Fast travel. I don't really understand, I was just thinking the conduit might be an effect of the Khai tech as opposed to a purely natural phenomenon. -That's an interesting idea, if you investigated the record, then you already know that the first time the Devine saw a hyperspace conduit, it was a complete accident. They even lost a vessel over it, rendered inactive. It's correct what you say that the last Khai ships the Devine encountered were hyperspace capable. They did indeed cloak their vessel in a bubble. I don't think that is the same as a conduit or a wormhole. The record is clear, the Devine didn’t have enough exposure to fathom the technology. By contrast because of the way our forefathers first encountered a hyperspace conduit, in the same way as these

missiles, that is what we learned to replicate. None stay open permanently, they are either stopped by some obstruction or they eventually peter out. -OK then, so permit me one last question. You said that a conduit always used to render the vehicle dead, due to the reasons we discussed back at Earth. So how did the Devine manage to overcome the effects of the conduit on their engines? ... By shielding right?........But what kind of particle shield would act as a barrier to the conduit particles? I just find it hard to believe that the first sign of the conduit is after it has already ed. If that's the case we're already too late ... You know me ... I won't accept that ... There is always something that can be done. We just need to look at the problem from the right direction to shed some light. -Suffice to say Zero that I agree with you. But as you say the particles are colliding so fast that there is no way to see the results, we can only see the aftermath. By then the conduit is millions of miles past our vantage point. Considering this though, if the engine technology does have a bearing upon the fabric of the conduit, this may give a Khai induced conduit a different signature ... A Khai signature. Even so, we’re trying to sniff against the wind already by setting our Khai missile to look for its own signature. We already know more or less where the conduit is thanks to Mona and her deep space scanner, it's not the best for positional accuracy but there is something we could try ... I need to speak with Kariina. Zero opened a channel and began trying to raise Mona, in less than a minute the familiar voice of Geyldian's sister was heard throughout the ship. The Sphinx was too far away from Earth to allow mental communication, something Oxull had allowed for. Geberus began to explain to Kariina using a neural transducer exactly how he thought Mona's predictive scanning could be honed even further. The Genius scientist did indeed understand particle physics, knowing that particles could be smashed together to form other particles was the first step. Secondly the more energy which was expended inside the collision so a more exotic particle would be created. The problem was that this particle existed momentarily and would decay incredibly quickly. The most common particle which an exotic decayed into would be two bottom quarks. Geberus insisted there was no way to set the missile to look for bottom quarks ... “Even if there were, the missile wouldn’t be able to detonate before being destroyed by the conduit. Mona's deep space scanner might be a different matter.

If you can find some way to increase the scan frequency into the Pico Hertz range, we won’t see every decayed particle, but we will see a lot more. I believe the highest concentration of target particles will be directly in front of the conduit.” “And that should allow Mona to pinpoint the precise location to aim the missile.” “Then it’s only a case of trajectory, timing and communication delay just like last time.” Kariina knew just what to do, adjusting the wide spectrum scanning receiver to its maximum, resolution was achieved better than Geberus wanted by a factor of 100. In broad instead of finding tens of bottom quarks Mona would see thousands. Half an hour later and Zero had begun his deceleration burn. Not a moment too soon Kariina got back in touch with her news. With the increased scan rate looking for the high density of bottom quarks only, the picture looked very different indeed. Everything was now being omitted from the scan, no planets or stars could be seen, only bottom quarks; ranging as far as Mona's scanner could see. As Kariina relayed the information on her monitor, her voice was excited ... “I can see the end of the conduit, it's glowing like a ball of fire, moving very quickly. I thought I'd see a bright ball connected to a tube but the rate of decay must mean there is no visible tube, I can only see the front end. The resolution is great, when I open up the spectrum to full band and overlaid the results, the whole conduit appears like a wide fuzzy line, this was the source of the positional inaccuracy. With the new scan overlaid the position is in no doubt.” “Good news Kariina thanks ... Could you this to Ra-Sian and ask him to extrapolate the path correcting for possible gravity induced deviations. I'd like to understand how fast the conduit is moving. Zero is slowing us down, in just over one Horon we will be on board. I will take two Horon to alter the sensors but it may be prudent to set some coordinates if we can, just a step ahead of the conduit. Oxull will take nearly five Horon to reset the plasma reactor, then It will take me half an Horon to perform a hard reboot. After this we will set the missile on course and step off. I think we can set the missile to a four Horon acceleration burn and lock it off before the threshold where our missile would form and enter a conduit ... That truly would be a fail. We need to travel sub-light. By my best

guess we can achieve roughly 26.5 hours of travel at full speed, I need Ra-Sian to check that this brings the expected convergence outside the Oort cloud. Can you get on it for me?” “Sure thing ... Will do ... I think we are up to 1 minute and 56 seconds of communication delay now; I'll have a look at the comm's too and see if I can boost our signal. Zero, keep checking the ultra-high frequency bands for our usual test signal ... Kariina out.” With this only static was heard, this would be the final message on a regular channel, Zero now went to UHF and set the communication gear on scan. The band would rotate until a signal was locked in. With his next action Zero cut the plasma reactor output to idle, verified his thrusters were in a forward facing position and applied his first burst of thrust, a two minute burn. This same procedure would be followed every six minutes for the next hour and forty minutes, with a final twenty minute ride toward the missile. They were close now, but despite the time constraint, they had a plan and a schedule to follow. Only if everything went off without a hitch, would they be successful. Now travelling at a much more pedestrian 12,000 miles per hour, the missile came into view. Initially just a glint as the sun’s light bounced off a leading edge. Minutes later the huge missile looked like a tiny grain of rice. Such was the size however, that as the tiny craft approached the missile it grew bigger and bigger but seemed to take an eternity to reach. Finally drawing alongside the construction entrance; a huge door, they found the much smaller lizard entrance, where the workers would enter. This door was only six and a half feet and spoke to the posture of their foe. Even tall lizards were known to only reach six and a half feet, but the postural stoop which affected the warmongering species meant that such a lizard would rarely best five feet tall; unless riled up to strike. Having consulted the record, Zero was aware that the stature of the lizards was the least of his worries. One feature he planned to stay well away from was the gaping mouth. This was able to hinge almost to 170 degrees and was lined with razor sharp serrated teeth, much like the Varanid species of Earth. Add to this a toxic saliva capable of slowing down anything warm blooded and Zero realised hand to hand combat should be his last resort. While not very tall the door was sufficiently wide, so the crew set about deploying the docking seal. Five minutes later and the vacuum sealed flexible docking coupling had been attached and then stabilised with a breathable

atmosphere. The two clones manoeuvred the large container onto its side and out of the hold through the tunnel aboard the missile. As a precaution all the Sphinx's inhabitants were wearing pressure suits with breathing gear. They couldn’t guarantee there was any kind of breathable atmosphere on the other side of the door. As Oxull broke the seal, the door as if brand new slid to the right. A small hiss of equalisation suggested the interior was at least pressurised. A few quick taps on the screen of Oxull's own device, the one which Geyldian had seen and wanted millennia ago, analysed the atmosphere inside the missiles access ways. Oxull gave a quick jerk of his helmet to the left, before removing it completely. Tossing the apparatus back over his shoulder into the Sphinx ... -We won't be needing these ... I'll be making my way to the rear then, that should be where the plasma injection plug is located ... See you back here in five Horon. The two clones nodded to each other, there was work to be done and time was tight. Zero watched both make their way in opposite directions. Oxull, last seen pushing his container of base ions aft, did not vanish from view until more than five minutes had ed; his huge frame was just a spec hundreds of metres away. This same access route ed the full length of the missile, nose to tail. By contrast, Geberus had disappeared from view almost immediately, having taken one of the stairways upwards to a higher position at the nose behind the sensor array control. Zero thought about tagging along with one of the clones, but realising he would only be in the way, he decided to stay with the Sphinx. Making his way back inside the hold, then up into the cockpit, Zero decided he would be far better utilised monitoring the communications for Kariina's next broadcast. This would give them the final coordinates and run time needed to set this missile on a collision course with the incoming conduit. Only one hour later and the comm's buzzed into life, as expected it was Kariina. This time Geyldian’s sister was far from her usual calm self. “Zero honey ... I'm still waiting for Ra-Sian to finish his calculations ... but ... I was checking the scanner ...” “Kariina, what is it?” “You have inbound ... And I don't mean the conduit ... This is a ship and it’s

coming in fast ... It can only be Khai ...” With no exchange of pleasantries, Zero cut the channel, then quickly made his way back to the missile main bay door. Pushing the door close button, he then made his way back into the Sphinx. Punching the hold close button, then powering up the engines and making best speed to push off the missile under thruster power only. He felt the jar as the explosive bolts broke his connection to the docking tunnel, while still in range of the missile he then explained the situation to the two clones he'd left behind ...

Chapter 15 - Zero swings the Axe.

FOLLOWING THE COORDINATES of approach which Kariina had sent to him, Zero engaged the main plasma drive to put as much distance between him and the missile. He would meet the threat head on. Engaging his reactive shielding and bringing the Axe online, Zero was not intending to take any prisoners. It wasn't more than three minutes before Zero was bearing down on the Khai vessel. Even though he'd never seen one in the flesh he was aware of the ship's type from his time in the record. Unable to speak to anyone or have any effect on outside events, Zero had put this time to good use. What was facing him now was a Mk2 interstellar cruiser, on board there was a crew of fifty. This was a very old class of vessel, so old it was not capable of reaching this space all by itself. This was a scouting vessel. The ship was at least twenty times the size of the Sphinx and was armed to the very back of its Lizard teeth with plasma type weapons. His options for attack were limited to several shallow angles, Zero took comfort in the fact that his main weapon, the Axe; was about to prove far more superior. Despite the power of his state of the art weapon, Zero was all too aware of its effective range. He would have to get within 400 metres. The Khai ship was probably around 90 meters long, with turrets down both sides and the median line on top. Not that Zero was trying for a sneak attack, but the Khai had seen him coming and were adequately prepared. Zero was now flying into a hail of charged plasma and despite his evasion skills, some of these rounds were finding their mark. So far so good, the shields were absorbing the rounds very well with no damage, if a round did damage the shield then the plates were rotating. Zero was putting the full gamut of the Sphinx's moves to good use, rolling almost without any fixed axis to ensure the profile he presented was constantly morphing, making himself much harder to target. The only downside to Zero's unorthodox approach was that the Axe, although mounted on a gimbal which gave an excellent field of fire, was unable to acquire a target due to the endless pitching and rolling. Zero was aware of this and approached the ship on its huge starboard side, as close as he dared in this unstable way. Finally and deftly he made quick control movements, stabilising the Sphinx and putting the Khai ship front and centre, right where the Axe could find her easily, and more importantly; could not miss. Instantly his targeting alarm began to sound and within microseconds Zero pulled the trigger. As before the shield disabler fired,

followed almost instantly by the high density plasma beam. Swift and precise manipulation of the secondary control joystick allowed Zero to make his own moves with the weapon. It was difficult to hold control of the Sphinx and the Axe simultaneously, but the task was made more possible by Zero's new Hexalobe brain. Even so, the Lizards weren’t slow to defend, pulling their ship away to allow multiple turrets to achieve a better firing solution. Zero moved quickly with the Axe from the initial breach point back toward the rear of the vessel, his target was the main plasma reactor. Zero knew that he wouldn't even have to hit the plasma reaction chamber directly. If he could get to the containment field emitter the reactor would breach within thirty seconds anyway, destroying the ship and the lizard horde inside. The final reaction was much more accelerated though as Zero sliced through the field emitter and halfway into the reaction chamber which was irreparably damaged as a result. Even as the Khai rushed to erect a secondary containment field, this worked to stop an explosion but could not stop the aft portion of the ship from being irradiated. None of the crew tried to leave; they couldn't. Khai ships were not equipped with escape pods. The price of failure to fight effectively ... Was death. The Khai ship was dead in the water, but there was no reason why this event should be a total loss for the forces of Earth. Zero was free to manoeuvre the Sphinx around the ship at will, the scanner showed what was happening on board. The lizards at the back of the big ship were all quite literally fighting their brethren to get to the front. Zero could see that in the ultimate act of shameless survivalism amounting to survival of the privileged; the bridge crew had secured themselves behind several bulkheads. As it stood now these seven lizards would just be the last to die ... But die they would, unless Zero could intercede. It was too easy to precisely remove this chunk of ship with the Axe; all the occupants would now be safely distanced from the blast as the bridge drifted into open space. The remainder of the ship succumbed to a huge blast three minutes later. Apart from clearing up the 43 reptilian loose ends, this did not help Zero; who was now lost for a way to bring his captives with him. There was no other way ... - I'll have to jump them aboard ... Sheeesh!... Look at me now ma! ... Rescuing lizards. Making sure his own cockpit was properly sealed off from the hold, Zero pulled

his ship over the bridge section of the Khai ship and began a full high definition scan of the excised bridge section. The Lizards were all strapped down at their stations. There was little illumination, but this would be to Zero's advantage. Using the scan to pinpoint a best guess of where the safest jump point would be, Zero cleared his mind and gently jumped the several feet across to the other vessel. Silently he looked around. The Khai were in a state of abject panic. Totally aware that they were drifting, and had been severed by the attacking ship, they were now powerless to do anything. Luckily, they still had some breathable atmosphere and the bridge fragment wasn’t venting. Beyond this the lizards knew they were doomed. As far as Zero was concerned, he was now stood motionless inside a den of cowards. These were officers, and yet every single one of these Lizards had shed his obligation to his crew mates, just as easily as they would an old skin. The first lizard was easy for Zero to see in the darkened light. Moving just a pace, his hands found the lizard’s shoulders, at least he thought they were. A second later and the pair were back in the hold of the Sphinx. Now in the light the lizard was stunned, and drew away from his captor, turning to find he was alone he began to pace; quickly accepting his surroundings. This was an active ship with an active life system, maybe now he would live. All too quickly he was ed by one of his crew mates. The other being was a bipedal type he wasn’t familiar with, but it must've been from the planet they were headed towards before they spotted their missile. Having been in space most of his life rarely finding any planets to acquire, their Khai ship had seldom seen action. This went a long way towards explaining their lack of galvanisation as a cohesive unit. In the next seconds the pair were ed by a third and then fourth crew mate. Zero almost considered this to be enough prisoners for interrogation, but he couldn’t stop envisioning the faces of the two clones once they realised he had left three Khai to asphyxiate in the hacked off piece of ship. This vision pained Zero who was fighting his baser instincts as they rose to the surface in a way they had never done before. He was a human, as such he had to act with humanity, or he was little better than the lizards. Zero's inner monologue now sounded sharp and monotone ... Just like Aelren. One by one the remaining lizards were all brought on board by a shadowy figure who none of them had a good chance to see. In the next seconds a whir said that

an engine was powered up and the slightest sway of their bodies told them they were moving. To where none of them could imagine as imagination was not a trait the Khai-mah possessed. Within ten minutes and at a vastly reduced speed Zero had drawn back to the docking hatch, midway along the side of the missile. He had already alerted the two clones who were still heavily embedded in the completion of their tasks. The clones were not happy that Zero had taken live specimens. As Zero set the Sphinx into a tracking mode to maintain distance and alignment to the missile, he jumped back to the hold. Taking hold of a lizard Zero then jumped them both to the access way on board the missile. Geberus was in the access way currently in between tasks. He’d set up the sensor array and was waiting to reset the missiles systems. The scientist almost jumped out of his skin as Zero turned around to reveal the lizard soldier. -Zero what have you done now, why didn't you just destroy them all? -Whad'ya mean Geberus, I've brought you information. The ship this guy was on was an old Monitor class with fifty on board. They were headed straight for us, but probably Earth before that. Our problem is that the Monitor isn't interstellar capable, which means?... -Something bigger dropped them close by, relatively speaking ... Yes now I see your point. Well if you wouldn't mind holding him, I can get started. Geberus towered over the Lizard who recognised the huge clone as a foe even before he approached. The scientist now dropped to one knee and stooped a little, coming to rest face to face with the Khai-mah officer, who was flicking out his pronged tongue to get a read. As the scientist placed a hand either side of the lizard's head and began a dive. This was risky as the Khai brain was substantially more basic than his own mind. If he stayed in there too long some of the Lizards more animalistic traits may well stick with the scientist. That would present a problem, being a genius already it wouldn’t take much to push him across the threshold of mad scientist. Within the lizard's mind, Geberus was in control; it hadn't been hard. This Khai at least was not accustomed to fighting, he was barely eighteen cycles old and had only made the position he held because his father was captain of the vessel.

It seemed that their ship had been brought to the edge of this system by a Komodo class; similar in size to Central, OFFright and Mona. By now this was systems away being fully hyperspace capable and vastly better equipped. The Monitor was a marauder, built to engage enemies in space only, this was a good sign. All indications were that the Monitor had been dropped off alone to investigate the signals emanating from Earth. En route they had scanned tech with their own signature, and deviated course to investigate. Geberus was possessed by a feeling of abject terror as the before this youngling had begun blaring alarms. He’d been ill prepared for this and even less trained to deal with them. This had been Zero's killer move, the was displaying a huge and catastrophic plasma venting; the ship was doomed, and he hadn't even had a life. Geberus went back further, quickly finding the origin of the Komodo class to be many galaxies away, but well away from Devine Prime; this was a conundrum for sure. Had the Khai now taken to living in space in pursuit of the Devine? As Geberus continued to watch, he knew that wasn't it, but nothing about the Komodo's voyage telemetry showed that the vessel was ever anywhere near Devine Prime. -This is scary Zero, these lizards appear to have been completely nomadic, and so far removed from our stolen home world that they don't even have any record of it. The Galaxy class ship which dropped them here, came from far away in the opposite direction to our old planet and was headed even further away. This one appears to have no knowledge of us, they were sent to investigate Earth before they saw activity here. - Should I go and bring an older one, having said that none of them are really old, no scars ... I really do think they're just scouts. So what do we do with them? ... Mona? Just then at the far end of the walkway, all three witnessed Oxull's huge profile sauntering back towards them; ducking beams and dodging frame hoops. His work was complete, which meant Geberus could begin his final task. - Maybe ... We can decide when I get back, see you in thirty ... Don't let Oxull kill him! With this Geberus left again to the top of the missile. It took Oxull five minutes to stride the distance back to where Zero was keeping an eye on the young Khai

officer. In all this time he hadn't made any attempt to run, in fact Zero felt that the youngling had no idea he was on an old Khai relic of mass destruction. After everything here was a teenager. It wasn't hard to see that this teen like so many before him had been forced into a fight which wasn't of his making, by a parent who could not let go of a feud. Of course in this case it wasn't just his parents, it was the sole purpose of his species to obtain land, but maybe the younger end weren't so invested in their life of battle. Certainly if there was a generational gap since the last action was seen, highly likely in space due to the vast distances between inhabited systems, then in effect some generations were only along for the ride. Zero was under no illusions though that when the need was there this youngling would rise up and fight. His instincts would drive him more than any momentary mood. Oxull had been with the pair for around twenty minutes and had calmed down some way from his initial anger. The pair circled each other at length. Zero had been preparing to get between the two had they come to blows. Eventually Zero asked Oxull to move away a few metres just to ease the tension. Now though Geberus had returned, the computer system had been rebooted and the reaction chamber seemed to be stable again. It was time to leave, there was no docking collar, so the two clones jumped back to the hold with the young lizard. Zero had prepared them for the other six lizards present in the hold who probably wouldn't greet them eagerly. Zero jumped straight back to the cockpit, firing up the plasma engine he pushed the throttle slowly to full in order to get clear of the missile first. Zero was now watching the missile in his rear view monitor, the tail of the missile began to glow a strange green colour. Slowly at first the missile began to move, then some changes were made to its heading. Then the green glow changed to a stream of green behind the missile which rapidly began to get smaller. Zero steamed for Mona. It would be eleven and a half hours before they entered the massive ships hangar tunnel, he hoped Oxull and Geberus could keep things calm until then ... Periodic updates from Kariina, provided by the watcher Ra-Sian indicated that the missile was right on course, and would meet the conduit around thirty light minutes outside the furthest edge of the Oort cloud in clear dark space. What the two clones had just accomplished was miraculous. Resurrecting a long dead enemy missile, then turning it against the next weapon their foe had launched against them ...

Chapter 16 - Aelren’s hammer falls.

ON SCHEDULE, ZERO MANOEUVRED the Sphinx into a landing path which would take them inside the nose of Mona. He’d already alerted Kariina, who had brought a squad of Thraten with her into the hangar should things get a bit sideways. Once landed with all systems shut down, Zero emerged from the underside of the Sphinx. Quickly moving to the hold access door he popped the button to reveal the occupants. The Thraten had moved into an arc formation behind Zero. Kariina was behind them as a backup. Not wanting to take any chances, Kariina too had called for backup; seconds later she was flanked by Geyldian and Wraith. The Khai stood in awe at the three giants. Standing down from their full height, the prisoners slumped into their more natural repose. Unarmed and against such numbers it was clear there was no way to escape, or they all would’ve begun trying to fight their way out. As the situation looked now even the Khai realised a fight would've been hopeless for them. Geberus quickly apprised Geyldian of what had transpired when he’d dived into the youngling’s mind for information. This was a good start, but it wasn't enough. The second in command surveyed the faces of the other captured crew . Anything to indicate a fighter, a lizard with experience of war. Surprisingly he drew a complete blank, just as Zero had indicated, none of the crew had scars and all were relatively young, except one ... Not quite as young. -You're the captain I assume? ... The lizard Geyldian was addressing slowly in the ancient Devine language closed his eyes and dipped his head even lower in acknowledgment. The universal translators which both species wore were now fully active. The two languages were like chalk and cheese. When the lizard did finally speak, the noise, akin to guttural growling and hissing was completely indecipherable to all, but the translator spoke for him. "Do you know who we are?" Geyldian's question was direct, he wasn't wasting any time. "We have had no interaction with any species like you before ... But if I had to guess ... You seem not unlike the Caretakers of legend ... Lapdogs of those most

ancient cowards ... The Devine!" "A simple yes would have sufficed; you do see that your situation is unwinnable don't you? What a strange insult to throw around after you practically laid down and played dead whilst our man cut your ship to pieces ... Now thanks to your cowardly actions 43 of your brothers are dead." "We will never bow to you cowardly blue dogs. Do with us as you will, no more questions!" "Bow ... We would never request such a thing from a band of blood thirsty thieving reptons like you ... But then we don't have to ask questions in order to get the answers we want either!" Now it was Geyldian’s turn to go on the offensive. Zero had never seen his friend so angry, as if the weight of all the ancient history between these two exbad neighbours were now rested squarely upon Geyldian's shoulders. With his face still angrily screwed up, Geyldian closed his eyes. Being far more skilled than Geberus, no was required with his target, all he had to do was push with his mind, exerting his will over that of the Khai. Very quickly the second in command had confirmed everything Geberus had learned from the youngling. He also saw the Komodo class leviathan which dropped momentarily out of hyperspace just long enough to drop the Monitor off, before it was gone again. Now though, such was Geyldian’s power that he was able to rewind this vision. The Komodo was back, the Monitor was onboard completing a few pre-launch checks. Rewind ... Rewind ... Now the captain was walking along a huge central corridor to the flight deck. Travelling even further back it was possible to reach the moment the captain himself had been born, in space aboard the Komodo class ship. This branch of the Khai-mah were indeed nomadic, finding trouble and land wherever they could. Skipping forward now years at a time, the Khai Captain was being promoted to his current rank, then it was straight off for his latest mission briefing. It seemed that the Khai technology on board this ship had stagnated much like their own had, before the clones had begun their preparations. Essentially there was a holographic astrological map being projected, but the scope was no more than 100 parsecs from their vessels current position, for missions further than this

they were essentially flying blind. No matter for a species always on high alert to fight or defend. Geyldian didn’t recognise the sectors of space on the holograph, but he would be able to show Ra-Sian later. So the conclusions were that some factions of the Khai were nomadic now. Even after the Devine had given them the ground they desired, some had taken to a life in space to track down their enemies and finish the job of wiping them out. Secondly, the Khai were widely spread through space, it would be generations between visits to a stolen Khai world or seeing another vessel. This could be an advantage for Earth as far as the time it would take for any Khai reinforcements to arrive. Thirdly some of the crew seemed reluctant to fight and were growing tired of the harsh life in space. It was clear from the dive that Khai elders were ruthless in their leadership, instilling fear into their subordinates with tyrannical levels of violence. This appeared to be the only way to maintain order and keep the battle going even in the long downtimes. It seemed that the leaders were from a branch of the original royal bloodline. Even so diluted by time, none of the lust for acquisition of land, survival or violence had been lost. The Khai chieftains were very well connected to their historical goals and had simply taken them out into the broader environment of space. Geyldian could not guess how many species and planets had been assimilated or worse, washed away by these ghastly creatures. The final conclusion and probably the one which gave Geyldian the most hope for victory, even in the face of massive numbers, was their technological stagnation. Whilst both the Komodo and the Monitor vessels were fully functional, they were not much past the generation the Devine had fought against to defend Devine Prime. These vessels, just like the Devine vessels, were eons old, but had vastly more mileage on their clocks. Who could say how functional or robust they would be anymore? The three Devine vessels had travelled for many generations and thousands of years to reach Earth, but had since then functioned at very low levels, life , heating, basic scanning systems etcetera, but no propulsion, no wear to the outer plating or frame had been sustained. By contrast the Khai vessels were all held together by band aids and superglue, venting gasses to space. Only major systems were maintained properly. Life for

a Khai-mah soldier was still as brutal now as it had always been on their old home world. Life and death amid the shifting volcanic lands had been traded for sudden bulkhead failure or hull decompression. Geyldian was by no means under any illusions though. If the Khai-mah had been in space for all this time, their numbers would be unimaginable. There was the chance that some planets would have yielded technology far more capable than their own. There was no reason to believe the Khai would have lost in the face of better tech, their own history told him that, but the final disappointment was when Geyldian had tried to find any information regarding the huge moon sized object which was less than a decade away from Earth. The huge Komodo didn’t appear to have any hall of records, and a small ship like the Monitor would not even keep such records. The huge object was still the greatest unknown ... And the greatest threat they would face. Aelren could not miss this opportunity to see the scourge which had driven their creators from their home world. Arriving on Mona with such heavy handed clumsiness that some systems in the hangar were rendered dead as soon as the Old Prime materialised. Once the fire alarm had been overridden and the Sparks dancing in the air had all petered out, an air of normalcy returned. The Old Prime quickly walked to the side of the Sphinx so he could see the captured crew for himself. Thanks to the hive, all Aelren really needed was a firsthand look. Of course, no beings except arguably Ra-sian and maybe Zero, was so acquainted with the record as the Old Prime. He knew what a Khai-mah warrior looked like already, but firsthand experience? Neither he nor anyone else had that. The battle was so long ago that the enemy should have been long forgotten. Yet the Old clones had always known, generation by generation; this day would come. It was only a matter of when ... Never if. Aelren took a long sniff of the air. The Khai captain flicked out his forked tongue, accomplishing the same feat he was mocking the old caretaker. The pair who had never met before this day but were already sworn enemies; one by history, the other by instinct. All they needed to get right into it would have been for Kariina to walk around with a number one and shout ding ding. Aelren knew he was past fighting this Khai. Maybe 20,000 years ago when he was in his prime. As a fit young Novus he would've handed the lizard its tail on a silver platter, but now he was weaker ... Though wiser. Aelren didn't need his hands to

break them all where they stood. The Khai captain caught Aelren's lip twitch subtly; almost the beginning of a smile. His senses told him even though this enemy was old, he was to be feared. The younger clones had already fully exhibited the gifts bestowed upon them by their ancient foe the Devine ... Mental warfare. Against this the Khai had no counter punch and no block, he would lose before he moved. The Khai captain figured that if he didn't make a move, he may yet garner preferential treatment from his captors. He was a captain after all, a hostage with some value, as such he was in possession of some useful information, maybe this was tradable. "No, that's one thing you wouldn't get from us even if you did have useful information. You know us as Caretakers ... Yes? Left by the Devine all over the universe. We've been on the planet out there for over a million years thanks to your species. In all that time we have never forgotten what brought us here ... A long time ago we decided that when this day came, it would be time to fight fire with fire. There will be no sitting around a table to negotiate peace and absolutely no more running away. Just as your race does, we will simply take what we want, when we want it ... But only from you reptons. You have already seen that we have not wasted any time and are now both technologically and psychologically ready ... To wipe you out." Though this threat was a blatant lie, it found its mark in the Khai Captain’s mind. Aelren knew the clones had not needed to prepare for anything; hidden away as they were, until the humans had shown their hand during the first lunar mission. Now the Old Prime sensed fear in his opponent ... That will do. "So if we have nothing to offer that would gain us any favour ... Then what are your intentions?" "At this point ... Honestly I don't know what sort of punishment I can levy against an enemy species who has not committed any act of war ... Yet ... I suppose I should kill you all, but that's not really our enlightened way is it? ... Wait ... There is one thing I can do. In the next months and years your kind will arrive, and when they do, they will try to take this planet away from us. But we will drive them back ... And you will watch us do it ... Unable to fight or help ... You will simply watch. What better punishment for a soldier than to be taken prisoner and made to watch his comrades die ..."

Not that he would ever utter the words but the Khai-mah captain was thoroughly beaten and utterly dejected. He was an age where he still ed his father and grandfather’s tales of grand battles which the Khai forces never lost. Though he had never seen any battle personally, he was ready. Embarrassed by the panic he had shown which resulted in him isolating the bridge of the Monitor as the rest of his crew were fighting, he was now spurred into action. With no warning whatsoever, the Lizard captain sprang at his own crew, first was his own son. He was the one who had brought this upon them. Grabbing the youngling officer by his head from behind, there was a sharp and merciless twist accompanied by a crack. The youngling was gone. Zero asked the clones to stand down, he would handle this. It would be the first true test of his new body in hand to hand combat. At this point Zero was the smallest in the room besides the Khai, if he could take the captain down it may sway the survivors. As the tall bluish clones all backed away, they were eager to see their agent at work as none ever had, save for some video captured by the network very early in Zero's Central days. Wraith was eager to in but honestly now he saw the Khai, he didn't think they would have taxed him so much ... Best let dad have this one. Zero sprang at the Captain, catching a hold of his arm just before he was about to push it through the chest of his first officer. The Khai crew were all a similar age to the dead youngling and though they knew this was the Khai way; death before imprisonment, they were still ill prepared to accept their fate. All were stunned and motionless that the captain would've killed his own son first, and in such a cold and merciless way. Zero was thinking he had spared the first officer a much worse fate. The superhuman soldier and the lizard captain twisted into a pile, sliding metres across the deck away from the others who simply watched. The Khai were twitching in unison as if every blow struck by their captain had been thrown by them personally. The few hits which actually struck Zero were also being met with a noise which was probably a cheer ... But sounded more like synchronised gargling. Zero was not being idle either, he had to stay away from the mouth and the

claws. These were easily long enough to fillet him even with his toughened body. Several mistaken attempts to grab an arm here and there had already resulted in a mass of deep wounds on Zero’s arms; but as expected these were already healing. Zero had to get inside the reach of his opponent, then get to work. Moving like a cat to avoid the tail, Zero jumped into the air twisting horizontally before crashing a huge hammer fist and kick to the lizard’s head and spine. This took the Khai by surprise, up to now he had considered he was getting everything his way. Now Zero would prove him wrong. Landing behind the captain, feet either side of his tail to prevent him turning so easily, Zero landed punch after punch directly to the captain’s spine and ribs. Zero was almost breaking his own hands with the force of the blows, but there was little time to worry about that. A downward swing of the left arm from his opponent embedded four long claws deeply into Zero's left thigh. Subsequent withdrawal led to a large chunk of muscle being flung at Geyldian's feet. - Come on old man ... Can you take him? Or do I have to show you how?! - A little bit busy right now Gill ... but thank you for the ... Zero would end this as quickly as possible on his own. The consequences of a lack of confidence on the part of the clones would see them wade in. The result would be a needless bloodbath. Zero quite liked the idea of Aelren’s, keeping the Khai crew contained at arm’s length from the battle to watch the way Earth would resist. This would show if the Reptons could be rehabilitated when faced with enough lost battles. Zero removed his mental limiter. The cold feeling taking over his body had been absent since his battle with Wraith. It was familiar and comforting. His breathing and pulse rate all slowed as his battle instincts took over. Geyldian’s voice could still be heard inside his head but was fading fast to nothing. The actions of the lizard captain now appeared to Zero as if executed in slow motion. Within seconds, Zero had dispatched the captain without prejudice. Of course, this was Zero at his full capacity, focused and sharp ... Movement without thought ... Action without fear, distraction or doubt. Seconds later everything went black ...

Chapter 17 - The shadow of the beast.

-Dad ... Dad ... Are you OK?... Can you hear me?... ZERO! Zero opened his eyes, things were blurry ... Zero woke shrouded in shadow ... Wraith, and the tall figure behind him ... Thin and gaunt with an icy glare staring at me ... That'll be Aelren! -I failed ... I can't believe it ... I was sure I could take him ... As his vision got steadily clearer, Zero lay back and relaxed. He’d failed to take down a single non-combat hardened Khai-mah warrior. The dim lights which lined the sides of Mona's hangar slowly phased into complete clarity. Zero remained unmoved, that was until he was forced to squint then close his eyes again completely ... It was Leren testing the dilatory reflex of his pupils. The light was so bright it felt as if it were being shone straight into his Thrall derived brain. Questions followed this bogus test, all seemingly irrelevant. Did he know his name? Did he know where he was? Of course he did ... A better question, one he was waiting for from an angry Aelren; would've been ... Why didn't you take decisive action? The answer to that one escaped Zero, no matter how hard he tried he couldn't even the blow that took him down. - Let’s get him back to my lab. Between them it was an easy task for Wraith and Geyldian to move the still weakened Zero onto a Levi-Bed. The scene which lay before Zero as he turned his head to look back towards the Sphinx, to the area where he fought the Khai captain was a grim one. There were Repton body parts all over the hangar, and litres of bluish blood. The hangar almost looked like a cowboy builder had been contracted to carry out a repaint, then botched the job utterly. As Zero surveyed the scene, he realised not one Khai body had been left intact. Blood splatter trails indicated dismemberment at high speed; suggesting each of the Khai had been ripped apart in quick succession. So this was the power of the clones when they put their effort in. This went a long way towards explaining why Geyldian had never liked to fight, and always left this to Zero himself. It was like the clones had been consumed by rage. A switch had been flicked, turning out the lights on the Khai-mah crew, quickly and savagely.

The Levi-Bed was hurried into the corridor, then to the lift; as if the clones were embarrassed to let him see their handy work ... There certainly seemed to have been a huge amount of overkill brought to bear, most unlike their usual peaceful selves. Zero speculated that this latent and suppressed savagery was why the Numbers felt some connection to the Humans, who even after all the millennia had still not evolved past this side of their nature. Once the Levi-bed reached Leren’s lab on Mona, identical in every way including the location to its counterpart on Central and OFFright, the broken super soldier was transferred to a Medi-pod. - Zero ... It's Leren ... I'm going to ister a mild sedative, just to help you relax while I check you out. Zero nodded, Wraith and Geyldian were still close by him. Great ... Zero knew what it meant to be checked out by Leren, needles and probing. While Zero didn't enjoy this, he appreciated far more than most that the more he stayed calm and just let the doctor get on with it, the quicker it would be over. Zero could feel the effects of the sedative. That was fast acting. As he waited further for the needles, they never came. The super soldier's brain was reeling, the room began to gently rock and then slowly spin, but still no needles came. Then the voices started inside his head. Not very clear at first, probably as an effect of the mild sedative. In fact Leren had made sure the dose was sufficient to keep down an Elephant. Zero was disconnected from his body and his thoughts; just as the doctor had intended. But this wasn't Zero's first time as a brain without a body. Slowly, utilising intense concentration, the super soldier managed to home in on the voices. Just as he had over a decade before when living inside the record to sense another interface device he could explore. Hearing the voices much clearer, Zero realised that the subject of discussion was the massacre, but not as he expected it to be. The subject was him ... - What happened to my dad?... Why did he go berserk? - At this moment I cannot tell. Of course I need time to take an imprint. Then see what is happening with his Ninurtan DNA. Geyldian sounded distraught, Zero had never heard his old friend this upset. Of course Leren had. Once before ... The day his friend had been cut down in Antarctica.

- What have you done to him Leren? Zer ... Gray ... He's a human, I've seen him in battle more times than I can , he's calm ... Yes ... Ruthless for sure ... Amazingly efficient ... Always. But THIS ... This was beyond anything I have ever seen Zero do. There was rage, extreme and rapid calculation, and that level of overkill is anything but efficient ... There was no restraint ... No hesitation ... It was monstrous ... His eyes. As I approached him to put him down ... He was ready to kill me too. There was no recognition at all ... Nothing ... THERE WAS NOTHING! This was way beyond some remnant of instilled Ninurtan behaviour. You know full well not even a Ninurtan wouldn't have gone that far. - Geyldian, please try to calm yourself and allow me time to work. Zero's brain is a complicated thing, but it has always proven to be infinitely reliable in the past. I'll retire myself to the record if this is a result of my work! It would be as if I spat on my oath as a healer if I engineered this ... These were very serious words indeed from the clone who’d never been anything else but a doctor and hadn’t failed to save a life since the first millennium after his spawning. His words though, allied to Geyldian’s painted a picture akin to a horrible and unrecognisable abstract, and Zero realised he was its creator. Clearly, he had blanked out into a battle rage so devastating that after dispatching the Khai, he had almost turned upon the clones. Geyldian had knocked him down. Thank the ancients ... If Zero had injured a clone it would've changed everything. Zero was sure his creative destructionism in the hangar would see him finished. One thing was for certain, Zero now knew why Leren had istered such a powerful sedative. None of them knew what happened or if it would happen again, and when. - I'll bring my mum ... She needs to know. - Okay Wraith. I'm sure Joan will want to see him anyway. In unison, both the clones instructions were clear ... Keep Joan away from the hangar. Joan must not see such things. Wraith was gone momentarily and did not return for some minutes. Never liking to leave things half finished, Zero realised Joan was probably busy. The moment Joan arrived on Mona, Zero felt her aura. The warm glow which could light up any room, now worked it’s magic again; easing Zero’s mind. On so many missions in the early days, fledgling Zero had gone what the clones

called ... Too far. Taking lives which had little influence on his mission objective or his ability to carry out that mission successfully. To the clones the situation seemed to be quite simple. Despite the fact that the people defending Zero’s target were emptying clip after clip of live ammo at their agent; the mismatch in skill and efficiency was enormous. As such the ever conscientious clones felt it was wrong for Zero to gun them down with extreme prejudice; like painted boards on a range. As a time served soldier, this had been the largest obstacle for Zero to overcome. This was also the single biggest factor which had retarded Zero's ability to form a friendship with Leren, who had sworn to save lives, not cut them short with stunning regularity. If Leren had threatened to leave his life's work behind then the clone doctor must've been convinced, beyond all doubt that neither he nor the pinnacle of his work, Zero's manufactured body; were to blame. The next week flew by for all except Zero, trapped in his stupor whilst Leren tested everything. The recycled Khai missile had successfully detonated directly ahead of the conduit only a second before its arrival, completely destabilising the anomaly. The missile had been dumped into space but lay too far away to be repurposed. Even the Sphinx wasn't that fast. It was at the back end of the week that Leren tabled his conclusions, gained after countless tests. First were all purely medical, blood tests, brain tissue samples and a whole lot more. Secondly came the non-invasive psychological tests. The imprint which Leren sent to Geberus for analysis by his mind bank revealed nothing pertinent in Zero's memory engrams, functional, learned or convenient. After this, Geberus had set his mind bank to work. By the end of their analysis the Thrall had watched every second of every memory which Zero had; confirming that there was no fault in the medical engineering. That said the reports from the node Chiefs, though completely detailed all appeared to be slightly confused. Geberus had the final node in the mind bank overlaying the engram maps from the various sectors within each of the six lobes, and for the most part the overlaps aligned perfectly. The mystery then; was why some memories appeared to exist not just in duplicate or triplicate, but many times. As if a new memory, with some similarity, had been written into blocks where the previous memory had been lost, simply to fill a long standing gap. Some memories were also linked to other memories which were topically completely

different, between which no link should have ever been formed. These two factors were inexplicable to the Thrall who had simply crunched the raw data from the imprint. The job of interpretation fell to Ra-Sian and Leren equally. The watcher took mere hours to catalogue the repeated memories, confirming the Thrall findings that they were all the same modern memory. Leren theorised that the latent empty engrams were a reflection of one of Zero's previous amnesiac episodes following his injuries in the Second World War. Leren had thought at the time that this loss of memory would eventually right itself, given the correct natural reminders. Or not, if the soldiers brain, which could be a law unto itself, deemed the memories too traumatic for Zero to need. If those memory engrams had remained empty for all these years and had never once been triggered by any event until now, both clones saw that as an ominous sign. The only action Zero had seen to their knowledge had been against human opponents. Whilst sometimes violent, these enemies had been quickly overcome; never requiring the level of violence Zero had used in the hangar. The trigger both agreed, was directly related to Zero flying in space against a Khai-mah threat. This had in some small way put Zero into a heightened state of battle readiness. Despite appearing completely normal to all around him, cogs had been turning and barrels had been aligning within Zero's mind. This readiness may have been something familiar to Zero, hence his ability to naturally cover. Ra-Sian preferred to think that Zero's memories of this heightened state had been lost in the empty blocks. Leren didn’t fully agree with this theory. If all his memories of the battle rage had been lost then Zero should have exhibited symptoms of unease. At the very least he should have exhibited a normal sweating reaction when faced with excess nervousness at an unknown situation. Yet all through Zero appeared completely composed, the very opposite of what Leren would have expected. If Zero had been off his game, every single one of them would not have failed to notice. Leren began to wonder if the trigger for battle readiness had come much later and washed over Zero instantaneously, completely involuntarily. What the clones in the hangar witnessed had not been Zero, not their Zero at any rate. The beast which had swiftly ended the lives of the six Khai officers, had been in an automatic killing mode. No reasoning or weighing of the threat level, no hesitation, no mercy and no looking back. Zero never used a knife or a sword;

preferring his bare hands to either. Yet his use of the sabre like sword liberated from the side of the Khai captain to commit these acts, demonstrated complete ease and endless familiarity. Zero had handled the awkward looking sword which had no counterpart on Earth with broad but smooth movements based around his centre. He had even used the pull of the sword which was weighted outwards towards the end of the blade for maximum cutting power, to transfer his own weight, allowing him to dodge blows from the fearful lizards; before quickly executing his intended target once planted on the floor again. The whole episode had taken less than twenty seconds and had ended as Geyldian said with a blood soaked Zero facing him down with sword in hand and no glimmer of recognition. The only saving grace was that their Zero definitely hadn’t been home. Geyldian's shock and disbelief after had been completely understandable. Zero had lined him up simply as the next target to kill, through cold eyes and a blank expression. Completely covered in blood and seemingly at home with the fact. Of more concern to the rampaging Zero had only been that his next target, was a non Repton. This had caused the smallest of hesitations which Geyldian thankfully had not wasted. In a split second Geyldian had jumped behind Zero, the momentary confusion had allowed his single blow to knock Zero out cold. The other clones had been rooted to their positions. Even Kariina, who was familiar with such scenes looked sickened by the sight. Her escapades were never so dramatic, nor were they accomplished in such short order. As the watcher and the doctor gave their report to their Prime, Aelren was also at a loss. He could find no errors in the data, nor in the way it had been gathered or assembled. He had precisely nothing to add to the theories of his two supervisors. Watching the massacre unfold, in the earliest moments he had instantly tried to halt Zero with his mind, but found it to be closed completely by the focused state Zero had been in. Ultimately the Old Prime had been powerless. In summation, Leren re-stated his position that he had never understood Zero's original physiology or psyche. It seemed this situation had not changed even though Zero was now in a manufactured body. - I need both of you to advise me of your recommendations, you too Geyldian ... I am an old clone and now I must face the fact that my best human asset in the coming war, and make no mistake; war it shall be is now beyond our control and

hence should not be used. If I have a weapon so devastating that it's use is unethical, what do I do with it? - That would appear to be an ancient problem. One our forefathers also faced; in the end they chose exodus rather than genocide. I think though my Prime, if you will forgive me for saying, these two situations are not alike. The Devine made a single weapon, so devastating it would have wiped out every Khai lizard which remained on their home world. Granted its use would have been beyond excuse, but Zero is only one man. It is doubtful that he could even take down the crew of a Monitor single handed let alone the entire species. Despite his vigour he would eventually fall to fatigue. - You saw him Leren, we all did. He took down five lizards in less time than it would've taken for his heart to beat eight times, and the captain in not much more. Zero was nowhere near tired or falling to fatigue. What would've happened if he'd started on us? All our collected muscle was transfixed, sitting ducks ... Thank the ancients he hesitated. - And why did he hesitate? Leren ... Anyone? I would say that no matter how far our Zero was pushed below the surface, he was still present in some part, HE knew you weren't a lizard, he did recognise the fact that you were not his usual target, hence the hesitation. The words of their Prime struck a chord. Everyone on the hangar deck that day was happy to call Zero their friend. The thought of him slaying them had never sat right, if Zero had somehow halted the attack on Geyldian by this new persona. It gave them hope that they too would've been spared ... maybe ... maybe not ... But that sat easier than facing their death by violent means at the hands of their friend ... Toward the end of their meeting the clones discussed the subject of removing the memories from the missile mission and everything which followed, to reset Zero's brain. Of course he may fall foul to the lack of synch between his timeline and everyone else's. One careless comment might no longer be brushed off. Leren feared it could send Zero into a defensive tailspin, the potential result could be very hard to deal with. In the end the good doctor recommended that as outlandish as it seemed, the best restraint for a recurrence of this event may yet be Zero himself. Geyldian and

Aelren scoffed at the recommendation, but Leren insisted that the behaviour was so out of character for Zero, the way to go was total disclosure. Leren was convinced that even Zero would find what his alter ego had done to be beyond abhorrent, and he would take steps to adjust himself, practice avoidance etc. Of course there was no guarantee that such an event would never happen again, but it was more likely to be in an actual battle situation. As such a repeat would be far easier to stomach for everyone. Aelren still didn’t like it, but Leren was right. Zero rarely used weapons at all, of course he trained with them even to battle the Khai-mah, but if the option of hand to hand had presented itself to be a fair course of action, he would always take it, defeating his foe with non-lethal force unless required. For this reason Aelren agreed to let Zero continue in fully active duty, but first he must be shown what he had done whilst in the safe stasis environment. Geyldian would accompany Leren in a dive to ascertain Zero's reactions and mental state afterwards. -Leren ... Set it up ...

Chapter 18 - The beast revealed.

-Zero?... Zero ... It’s me ... Leren ... Do you know where you are? -Oh yes Leren ... I know perfectly well where I am ... You really have outdone yourself this time old man. I've never been inside your lab for so long before without having the life probed out of me ... And that's saying something! I know why I'm here ... But for how much longer?... I mean before you learn what went wrong and then have me ... Well ... Decommissioned? Come on Zero, show a little understanding. It's not Leren's fault, he proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt ... More importantly it doesn't seem to be your fault either. You know we go way back and we're not about to sweep that under the carpet. If we were going to put you on ice, we'd have done it immediately. The tests were prudent given your actions in the hangar. We had to at least try to find out what happened, you know that. As it is the tests have raised far more questions than they've answered. -So when do I get back to work? -We need you to see what you did first, so we can gauge your reaction. -If you mean the bloodbath ... Well I from when I was being carried here ... I don't doing those things. In fact, at first I thought the Khai captain had beaten me so badly you guys had stepped in. I you guys having a pretty savage past ... From the record ... Before you became enlightened ... So I guess I assumed ... You know?... -That we still had it in us? ... Oh, we do ... To a point ... But we haven't had a reason since arriving to Earth ... And the scene still wouldn't have looked so ... Graphic ... A shudder ed through Geyldian as he spoke, which rippled into Leren just after; connected as the two clones were by the hive. Zero tried to lift the mood. - I expect the old man is pissed at me ... He hasn't been to see me since it happened. -Actually our Prime has been to see you a number of times, three I think. Twice alone and once with Joan ... You don't because of me ... Once we

realised you might be able to hear us talking about you, I turned the sedative up, all the way up ... - We've been discussing so many things which have been purely speculative, we didn't want you listening in needlessly and being tortured by your inability to respond or ... - Defend myself! Both clones nodded, even now Zero was fully conscious and aware, but this was all. He couldn’t move a muscle, not even a twitch. - So let's get this party started then guys ... Leren pushed a button and the bed which Zero was loosely strapped down to upended, feet down. Zero felt his body slide a small distance until his feet hit the bottom edge. Locked solidly as he was, his body stopped there without any bend or slump. - If this gets too much, say so and we can stop, honestly it's over very quickly, astonishingly so in fact ... Try to get to the end. On the viewer the recording of the hangar began to play back. Zero first saw how he'd flown quickly at the Captain, knocking him away from his first officer. The pair had come to rest very close to a bulkhead. The fighting began immediately. Zero watched the Monitor captain push his claws deeply into his own thigh, before liberating a large chunk, the piece had almost hit Geyldian metres away. What followed was all new to Zero, for clarity Leren zoomed the frame into Zero's face. The chunk of his leg being forcibly removed should've triggered a normal pain reaction. Instead there was only a small flinch as if he'd suffered a paper cut, then his face straightened before all colour and emotion had drained away to nothing. This was where Zero had initially assumed that he'd ed out, now though the super soldier was corrected. He could see the injury was bad, there was blood everywhere, but not enough to stop him fighting. Very quickly, almost too quickly for his eyes to follow, Zero had wrapped his left arm around the lizard's throat and gullet, just below his bottom jaw, then tightened his grip. This had all but stopped the captain in his tracks as Zero had effectively closed his breathing tube, but Zero had not stopped there. With his grip on the lizard now perfectly

secured, Zero wrapped his own large hand around the Captains upper right arm, gripping it tightly. Still unable to breath the loud gargling noise was a pure expression of the pain the Khai captain was now feeling. Zero crushed the captain's right arm, his fingers sinking into the reptons scaly flesh, finally a crunch was heard as Zero had crushed the bone so completely the arm was severed. In the next moment the death blow was delivered. Zero exerted his massive arm and shoulder muscles, lifting his left arm to pull the captains head backwards. It wasn't long before the vertebrae in the captain's neck were heard crunching, hyperextending to the point of dislocation. Still Zero didn’t stop, not until the leathery hide was the only flesh which remained intact. The Captain had been dead for a few seconds before Zero’s savagery would be aimed at the next lizard. Simply dropping the Captain’s body where it fell, in the same manoeuvre the super soldier liberated the Captain's sword. This sword was like an Arabic scimitar but longer and the killing end was vastly broader; between eight and nine inches wide. This would have been an awkwardly heavy weapon for a welltrained swordsman to wield, weighted as it was at the far end rather than close to the handle. Simple swinging at the wrist for small circular defensive strokes just wasn’t an option. The blade had more in common with a woodcutter's axe. The clones were both far more focused on their friend than they were on the screen. Witnessing the events firsthand had been enough for both of them; Zero's jaw dropped open in disbelief. The look on his face said everything, it was a replica of the expression Zero had made at the end of the slaughter as he'd been facing down Geyldian ... A complete and total lack of recognition. The fighting style was sloppy and massively heavy handed. The Zero on the screen was simply using brute strength rather than any fighting craft. As for the sword, Zero had as much skill with such a weapon as he did reading Braille. None. Concentrating on the recording, Zero watched himself silently jump through the air landing two feet in front of his next target. The young officer had no time to react before a well-placed kick had penetrated the Khai officer's chest cavity. Zero then used his right hand to take hold of the connective cartilage at the top of the officer's rib cage before forcing his two limbs apart. Stomping downward with his foot and drawing his arm up. The lizard’s innards spilled onto the floor. Zero withdrew his right hand to his left, around the hilt of the sword. Turning to face away and dropping smoothly to one knee, Zero quickly raised the sword in an arc matching the curvature of the blade. This sword was by no

means built for penetration. Being so broad the blade was far more effective for cleaving limbs from bodies, but that did not stop the blade entering through the arch of the lower jaw, straight through the skulls soft palate driving fragments of bone, along with the massive blade straight into the brain of the lizard which died instantly. Zero swiftly and coldly dropped both arms to one side and shook his arms away from himself, setting the body free of the blade where it dropped limply to the floor. Before this body had landed he had already snapped the neck of his next target. The fourth lizard officer was scared but at least steeled himself to a defensive stance, meeting Zero with outstretched arms to defend his own head. A wise strategy in normal circumstances but this situation was far from normal. Dropping the sword, Zero merely seized hold of both arms using an inside grip, again far too firm to be shaken free. The Lizard immediately began to try and bite Zero's hands to get free, but to no avail. Zero, flexed his own shoulders and wrists, turning the lizard's arms through 180 degrees. This dislocated both the lizard's arms and produced a torsional spiral fracture in the right forearm. Zero ripped the damaged limbs clean off the sides of the officer, throwing them asunder; before finally turning off this lizard’s lights ... Permanently; before retrieving the blade once more. The final lizard officer offered no defence except to turn away, striking broadly with its tail. This prehensile appendage was quite capable of knocking a person from their feet. This officer may even have been a female, Zero could not tell the difference even now. This hadn’t stopped him grappling the lizard’s tail as it thrashed about before him. Pulling with devastating force and lifting the tail above his own head, the final officer lost their footing. Zero pinned the officer to the hangar deck. Here he could easily position his left foot at the back of the officer's neck and pull further on the tail. A snap, carried with sickening volume was heard, the lizard stopped struggling. Its spine was broken. Zero's penultimate action was to embed the broad blade deeply into the torso of the immobile Repton. Death was instant and needlessly bloody. Zero would not forget the wet scraping noise easily as his alter ego removed the blade harshly, further widening the entry wound and scraping bones. Still not sated, the barbarian on the screen looked up only to locate his next target. Immediately resting his cold, emotionless gaze on his longtime friend, Geyldian.

Dropping the tail on top of its owner, the body looked to be almost folded in two. Zero wasted no time on evaluation. Only as Zero's trailing leg cleared this last carcass did something slow him. Not much but it was there. Geyldian appeared to disappear like lightning from a few metres ahead of Zero, instantaneously reappearing behind his protege. Towering above Zero who seemed confused at the loss of his target, Geyldian quickly raised his huge fist, dropping it without finesse on top of his friend's head. Zero went down in one blow and was clearly unconscious. The long shot gained from the hangar cameras viewpoint only served to perfectly frame and focus the watching eyes onto the trail of carnage which Zero had doled out. All too quickly, less than thirty seconds in total the footage ended, and the screen returned to black. So too Zero's face was reset, once more his usually expressive and warm face was blank and motionless. The super soldier was quiet. Beads of moisture lined his eyelids. A hardened soldier to his core, Zero avoided blinking. Just staring into the middle distance, he refused to allow these droplets to collect into a single tear. It was clear that as disciplined as he was, the scenes previously had rocked him to his foundations. -I don't any of that, it was my body ... But everything else was different. -We know that ... You don't think I know your fighting style by now, after all these years? I knew as I watched you commit these acts that it wasn't you ... At least not as you are now. Zero was about to retaliate by asking who the hell had taken over his mind, when Leren beat him to the punch. -We've spent the last week completely mapping your memories. The mind bank overlaid them all to build up a full picture of your memories and how they're connected. Where they are in the brain tells us when they were formed and what kind of experience they contain. Not surprisingly you have a lot of battle oriented memories. These carry huge numbers of links to the emotional centers. What we cannot understand is why you would have some memory locations which are connected in the same way, but until recently remained empty? Many of these are now full of very recent memories. The same one written into thousands of memory engrams ... As if you were missing memories or had them removed, and then your brain has tried to fill in the gaps using memories which

are similar. Do you have any idea what these may be? -Leren you know as well as I do that I saw a lot of violent action in WW2 and was even shell shocked into amnesia a few times. It's not surprising these memories weren't triggered to return after you guys practically forbade me from killing anyone, now is it? -Well we can't tell the age of the empty memory engrams, simply because your brain is not even fifteen years old yet. Your memories are set as they were in your original human brain after I imprinted it the day you died. The only thing we can speculate is that your personality before may have been a lot meaner than it is now. This may have been deeply repressed by amnesia or simply the way the nanites worked to unlock huge areas of your human brain. Repressed but not forgotten. Fighting the Khai captain this darker and more brutish side may have been activated as a self-preservation mechanism. Why? We can't say. You are the most psychologically balanced human I've ever met. You’re used to battle and more importantly, you’re able to win without the need for such measures. -When I've seen you go to work before, you were methodical, cold and calculated to a fault, but always precise in your application of violence. You carefully weigh up the need to be violent and then only go as far as you need. As far as I can this was the case even in the very early days, but maybe with the survival playing more of an important role. -You mean I killed more ... Just say it. -Well it is a fact even you would not dispute; in the early days you did kill almost everyone whilst achieving your objective. But that wasn't Geyldian’s point. His point was, even back then you were efficient and measured, just enough to succeed. The recording shows you on a much different scale, no sign of a limiter ... And very little actual finesse ... Like me trying to perform an operation armed only with a hammer, of course I'm going to get to the organs; but it won't be pretty. So we have to consider that there is something else in your past which we aren't ... And never will be aware of. For some reason this came to the fore in the hangar. Not out of control, yet uncontrollable. Not in a rage and yet so extremely violent as to convey nothing but rage ... And unparalleled brute force ... Maybe before the war, before your basic training? - Absolutely not ... I only ed the war effort because I could fight. I knew I

could make a difference. I was never so unpolished. After a few missions in the engineering corps, I was recruited into the SAS. Leren's eyes fell to the floor. He'd seen Gray Albern's British Army record. Zero was only half right, but he would never correct him. There were some things in their agents past which the clones had all agreed upon that he should not know or relearn. Zero couldn’t even events before or during the war. Even his proficiency in battle hadn’t been enough to put him in the networks spotlight. The clones knew little regarding Gray Albern. No matter what the man said he ed, which was very little indeed, there was only one piece of paper which made this legitimate. But even the birth certificate was suspect. The clones had thrown caution to the wind once they saw the value of their new tool. In time Zero became more than just this, he became a friend of immeasurable worth. Zero had seen the look before and even knowing that Leren was covering did not help him to extract any information from the Old medical clone. He could keep his lips and mind locked if the need arose. Leren’s mind was like the record, faultless. Yet there were two specific events in the last half a millennium which he could not recall. There was no explanation for the gaps and no hint of any degeneration. Leren didn’t like to it he was more than halfway through his lifespan. He was still active and useful. He was certain it was simple memory loss, without trauma amnesia could be ruled out. The only remaining reason which could explain complete memory deletion was quickly ruled out. The clone’s honour code meant that none would tamper with another's mind, it was one of the few laws of the hive. Such a violation was the worst offence one clone may commit against another. An act so heinous there was no record ever detailing such an attack. It was clear to both Leren and Geyldian that Zero was not lying. His memories of the events in the hangar were gone; just like the memories of his own life before the Second World War. Another thing was glaringly obvious, Zero was obviously upset. Whilst not nice to see; Leren drew comfort from this. His words to Aelren were proving to be correct. The video had been painful for Zero to watch, even bordering upon offensive to his pride as a soldier. If there was one person who would work hard to avoid a repeat of the hangar incident it would be Zero.

The two clones continued their conversation. It was agreed that they would drop Zero under sedation one last time whilst certain nerves around his body were surgically repaired by Leren. This would return the super soldier to 100% combat readiness in less than one day. Leren explained what was about to happen to Zero who was more than agreeable. A few light taps at his console and once more their friend was asleep. Leren got to work ...

Chapter 19 - Battle stations!

GEYLDIAN WALKED FOR some time with his own thoughts in the direction of the hangar. Now thoroughly cleaned by a team of Thrall, not a trace of blood or worse remained. The half alien clone and half human hybrid second in command would now try to do Zero's job as far as chair an engineering meeting with Oxull and Jer-mija. It was well past the deadline for Jer-mija to table his ideas in response to Zero's request for a bubble shield to allow a much more streamlined profile in water. All parties were aware of what happened just over a week ago beside the Sphinx. Oxull had witnessed the scene and was still suffering because of it. As the one least exposed to the actions of Zero whilst in the service of Central, he was ill prepared for the events he'd witnessed. For a short time, before the other Numbers had corrected him, Oxull thought that this truly abhorrent behaviour was just another day in the office for Zero as he tore the Khai limb from limb. This was the cause of Oxull's unease. Even though both Geyldian, Leren and Aelren had all quickly corrected him, Oxull still found the images to be burnt into his mind. After this his appetite to help Zero was completely lost; even given the engineering conundrums which Zero had set the Old engineer. Oxull couldn’t bring himself to trust Zero again. He was at a loss to understand how his colleagues could overlook such behaviour ... Wash it aside like it never happened, just because they needed him. Oxull was an engineer, blessed with engineer’s logic. There was always more than one way to skin a cat. He felt strongly that the numbers should have put Zero on ice, and then get on with erasing the blight which was the Khai-mah. This feeling was oozing from Oxull with such complete conviction that Geyldian could not fail to pick up on it. -You are wrong Oxull, Zero is our ally ... He still has Aelren’s trust and mine. Would you go against us? With so much on our plate you have to be able to move past this ... Even if you don't trust Zero ... For which you have absolutely no basis ... You must trust me when I tell you he wasn't responsible. There is much we don't know about Gray Albern, and we may never know ... So don't dwell on the past. Jer-mija! What are your ideas for the bubble shield? -Don't be mad but I made a mockup device a few days after the request. I was

able to extrapolate the data gained using a larger scale computer simulation. The results were favourable. Given the need to quickly return to normality and operational readiness, I finished installing the device an hour ago. Right now I'm waiting for the software subroutines to compile and then merge to the main Sphinx operating system. This will take another hour at the outside. -Perfect ... That's good work. Zero should be up and about tomorrow; please make sure you bring him up to speed quickly. Oxull, when Zero takes the Sphinx out next, I want you to ride shotgun with him. Fit a seat and strap yourself in, use your handheld terminal to record all the cockpit and exterior data. Once you see our Zero at work you'll move past this doubt. Oxull frowned and shook his head in disdain, he really didn’t want to get unstable with a pilot who was arguably even more unstable than the craft he was piloting. Geyldian made it clear this wasn't a request, it was an order so in this case the engineer had no right to protest. Instead he trudged away to find a seat to weld down to the floor of the Sphinx. Geyldian sensed his resentment but also his intention to comply and that was good enough. He knew if Oxull had some real exposure he'd quickly realise that Zero just wasn't the monster from the hangar, then he'd come back around. -I could have a word with him if you like ... Jer-Mija was making a gesture he had learned from Wraith to convey that his phrase had a double meaning. Raising and lowering both hands which were closed except for his first and second finger which he was opening and closing at the same time, like speech marks. Geyldian was not familiar with the hand signal, but he knew perfectly well what Eight was suggesting he could do. -Thanks Jer-mija, but no ... Oxull needs to move past this on his own. He's only known Zero for a few decades and he's never been on a mission with him. Not like me. I've had endless exposure and been saved by Zero more times than I can recount. -Gill you killjoy ... You're no fun ... It simply won't do. Don't feel guilty ... -Guilty ... For what exactly? Leren had made to say the operation to restore Zero to full function had gone well. As such, sensing Jer-mija was about to impart some of his

mischievous logic, Geyldian asked Leren to them in the hangar. Leren appeared almost instantly, his presence did not frighten Jer-mija, in fact it was like waving a red rag in front of a bull. -Come now Geyldian, you just told me Zero saved your life on numerous occasions, and you could've saved him once too, but you didn't did you? That one missed chance is the reason Zero is in one of Leren’s constructions. It's good, but it's not right. What if the body is slowly rejecting Zero's imprint? Ninurtan can be very strong willed. Them and Thrall would certainly make for the worst kind of bi-polar personality. Adding in Zero and relying on him to make the bridge was a nice notion, but if these three psyches are subconsciously waging war, any of the three could be responsible. At the end of the day the Ninurtan is only there for muscle, this would breed a deep resentment as his brain is never being utilised. The normally useless but now empowered Thrall is a failed clone, having the intellect but not the physical fortitude to be heroic, until now. So we have a powerless muscle bound killing machine trapped with a logical genius who would normally die at the thought of conflict. What would Zero try to do if they were three people in a room? -He'd be firmly between the two, he'd stop them fighting and get them around a table to talk. Maybe he would facilitate a truce where the Ninurtan would teach the Thrall to fight and the Thrall would advise the Ninurtan when required. -I know Zero the least well of all of you, even less than Oxull, but I agree with you wholeheartedly. Zero would try to be the bridge you intended him to be. I just doubt your estimation of his patience. I believe the Thrall and Ninurtan are just too different to ever play nicely, Zero has probably ... At some level been trying to settle a power struggle of the worst kind for around fifteen years, that's gotta take a toll on a man's subconscious eventually. Leren was about to defend his work with a rash outburst, but he stopped himself. Taking a step backwards mentally he reflected upon Jer-mija’s words. What if he was right? After all he had tried to experiment with human intellect thousands of years ago and he was not only an exceptional scientist and engineer, he was also well versed in psychology. Intended to be inflammatory as was Eight's way; at its root his statement was based in simple logic. He knew both the Thrall and the Ninurtan well and he was a good judge of human character and abilities. -What you say may be possible, though you have to know I tried my best to

negate the effects of melding the three personalities. Zero is the commander, the Thrall augments his logic and decision making, the Ninurtan is there to enhance his reflexes and battle strategy. Would you do me the honour of coming to check my blueprints, maybe you'll see something I missed. Humbled once more Jer-Mija agreed, Leren was an incomparable doctor, a creature had to be really unlucky for him not to be able to mend them. Ironically Zero had experienced such bad luck twice now. Jer-mija had not intended to insinuate any wrongdoing; and stressed as much. But he always became invested in his argument and was always convinced he was right. Mostly he was. Only once had he let himself and the team down, and he had paid the ultimate price. Jer-mija made a mental note to be less feisty and try to fit in, his compadres were tolerant and open minded to a fault. He didn't have to push in such an arrogant way. None had noticed Oxull who having found a suitable seat, had returned to listen. Hidden behind the Sphinx, now he was also thinking he might have made a huge mistake. As an engineer he could appreciate the difficulties of merging systems which might initially be incompatible. Sometimes bugs could go undetected for years until a certain set of events triggered its activation. Oxull knew well this error was the price of progress and was only put there to be overcome. It would never be seen as a detractor from the original design. Zero was such a melding, albeit a completely medical project. Leren possessed an equivalent skill level to his own. Oxull now considered he owed everyone an apology. Of course he also appreciated that a bug often had to reveal itself several times before a complete appreciation of the triggers would yield the solution. As unappetising as the thought was, Oxull knew that for Zero's bug to reveal itself again he had to get back to work as normal, with someone bigger present to stop him before anymore overkill was unleashed. This was Geyldian’s request in its essence. Oxull felt he owed it to Leren to watch over Zero, after all he was physically similar to Geyldian and could execute the same shutdown procedure if required. The next day started as so many had done before, Zero was coming around in Leren’s medical lab strapped down to a medi-pod to avoid any chance of him injuring himself or a Novus. Leren was performing one final high-resolution body scan, inspecting the

repaired nerve pathways. The Old doctor checked that Zero’s nerves were functioning at least as good as they had done before. Some of the surgery had been invasive, through some large muscle groups particularly at the base of Zero's spine, but now an onlooker wouldn't have been able to tell. Even giving the amazing healing power of this body, Zero would've been in bed for another week if Leren hadn't taken steps to reduce the scar tissue at the site with the assistance of more nanites. Stimulation of the repaired nerves with pico-electric pulses showed everything was normal. Almost instantly upon the medi-pod raising his vitals, it was as if Zero was simply waking from a good night’s sleep; something he rarely got nowadays. With all the training, coordinating and directing duties all over the planet and on board Central, a normal human might be a burnt out husk by now. Zero stretched without even realising that he was now reconnected to his entire body. The only thing not right, and it never would be, was the memory of what had been shown to him the day before. Zero sensed that the Novus were much more standoffish than usual. Chalking this up to their readiness to run should his eyes roll backwards signalling another killing spree, he attempted to put the Novus ... At ease. -Come on men, it's just me ... Plain old Zero, no need to worry. The Novus both tried to crack a smile to show they weren't really afraid, before the two of them glared at Leren. The doctor had refused any extra Novus so they'd both feel safer. The final tests which Leren performed as a function of his medical OCD, really grated on Zero who just wanted to get back to work. He knew that Jer-Mija had something to show him which would lift his week. Zero felt it didn't matter what came before as long as he finished strong. Anyway, today was Monday, a fresh week. Two hours and thirty-seven minutes later and Leren had finished. Turning towards his console, Leren began to give some advice to Zero. The small draft which hit him from behind indicated he shouldn't waste his breath any more ... Zero was already gone. Jer-mija ducked down and turned to under the Sphinx. He’d been installing extra shield emitters; these were variable in intensity and relatively low energy

compared to the main weapons shield. The only thing they had to resist was water pressure, nothing like the localised pressure exerted by high yield particle weapons. The Old scientist and engineer were both confident that the Sphinx could travel to the deepest trenches of Earth's ocean without difficulty; whilst making good time doing it. The new emitters were variable for two reasons, the first and most important was that the bubble created could change shape depending upon speed and depth, secondly and equally important was energy efficiency. Considering the drain on the plasma engine to charge the Shield Axe which was vastly more important. -All you have to do is to switch it on if you plan to head for the cover of water. -Jer' that's not acceptable. I run by instinct, but even then you can bet I'm still thinking, and firing all guns behind me. Please, just jerry rig it to the altimeter or something so if I go below the hard deck over water it comes on by itself ... I know I have a Thrall brain but after the week I've just had, maybe it's better if I don't have to rely on it too much. -Mmm ... Consider it done, but honestly on that score I think you'll be just fine. I've already ed my opinion with Leren and we're gonna look into it together. None of the clones want to lose you. It's not just that you're good ... We all know that you make us better too. We need you and that means we want to help you. I'll be able to rewrite the software to make the bubble automatic within the next ten minutes ... Then you can test it out. -Maybe ... A test is not essential is it? ... I've got faith in your work. You clones sure are a forgiving lot, on that score you can definitely relate I think. Me I'm not so sure that I can forgive myself ... I thought I could get back to work and normality, but now I just don't know. Before last week I had unshakable faith in myself as a soldier, you don't how long it's been since I've killed ... Hell I didn't even kill to save myself and look at me now ... Far from optimal ... What I did was way beyond killing and all the way to murdering. -Try not to think about it, I don't believe it's your fault ... And if you ever thought that you were gonna get through what's right around the corner without any killing, maybe you weren't optimal then either. A soldier has to be ready to kill, that's part of the job ... But the real problem would start the moment you began to enjoy it. You've never shown anything to that scenario, even on the

hangar you weren't enjoying it, you looked rough and ready ... Brutal in fact, but you weren't revelling in it. The last time I saw that much blood, it was all over my own hands ... Trust in Leren and myself, but you can't go around avoiding battle, have faith in yourself too. Zero watched Jer-mija finish up and before jumping away to meditate, he needed to take stock of what Jer-mija had said. He couldn’t a single time where he’d wigged out before going into action. He ed well the sense of calm that would wash over him. Rather than sweat, he'd be completely dry; instead of nerves, he'd simply be ready ... and then he'd fight. The other thing which bothered Zero was the ease with which he had handled the huge Khai sword. Had the weapon been placed into his hand right now, he would have simply swung it haplessly around his head; he had no experience, let alone a modicum of skill. Where had this ability come from? Zero knew the Ninurtan wielded blades in the early days, but not for eons here on Earth. The use of any weapon was never instinctual, skill came from learning. So where had his inner brute, unleashed in Mona’s hangar learned sword play? And with such an awkward blade? Zero was three days in relative isolation, he had a visit from Wraith and he mentally touched base with Joan who's list of daily tasks were only ever more, never less. Unfortunately a crack had been found in the airframe of the King fighter used for testing and she was now busy in consultations with Oxull to discuss how to quickly repair the fleet so the problem would not occur again. The Mk1 test vehicle had existed now for almost nine full years; thousands upon thousands of hours had been logged, doing nothing much but accelerating whilst performing very high G turns. There had also been a lot of dogfighting against a second King, the drone which Zero blew up during the first test of the Sphinx. Joan had been upset and annoyed when the pilot reported a massive vibration under application of full thrust in a straight line, and then visible wing flutter whilst making turns. The flight was cut short before the plasma drive broke loose from the frame; luckily for the pilot. Such a problem couldn't have been forecast by the designers or the computer simulations as the crafts frame had already well exceeded its design parameters for life and duty. Zero had already given Joan his prophetic opinion. Once the Khai-mah arrived in full force the King fleet may end up being flown in shifts,

rarely touching down on the ground for repairs. The main fleet would soon rack up the hours; no vulnerabilities or weaknesses could be allowed. The best the humans had at the moment was the F-15 Eagle. This multi weapons platform could fly higher and faster than most other fighter jets; only being limited by fuel load and range, 1,200 Nautical miles. The King had no such limits, a plasma drive would allow the craft to stay in the air hour after hour. In this instance the limit of the craft was the pilot, so Joan and Zero both agreed a limit of four hours per pilot. This was still much longer than an average mission, the pilots were being trained accordingly. The test craft had since been stripped out and de-skinned to allow a full inspection of the frame. The crack was severe travelling longitudinally from the plasma engine mounting plate on one side to the rear of the wing root on the same side. Oxull advised Joan that a reinforcement would suffice rather than any major change to the member arrangement. It seemed the member was adequate to locally restrain the plasma drive and the wing, but not both for long duties. Especially after the service life had been exceeded. Oxull’s idea was to add two which would help dissipate the combined stresses imposed by both functions back to other . The increased depth of the whole arrangement would mean a slight modification to the plasma inlet manifold cooler intake just before the reaction chamber, but this was no problem. The change was one part and could be done simply enough through a large access . The whole plasma drive was only held by eight bolts in total. This had to be removed from the rear before the frame was accessible through the hatch anyway. The changes began quickly and in well-ordered fashion at the malls. There was no time to lose. Adaptations were barely three days underway when the worst possible thing happened. Kariina was alerted by her Novus that the near proximity alarm had begun to sound. Near was a relative term, at the point the alarm sounded the unknown objects were still outside the solar system’s natural moat, the Oort cloud. It had not taken Kariina long to jump to her station and identify the threat. The craft was initially identified as a Komodo class which had buzzed in from deep space and was even now leaving again. What the Komodo had dropped off presented a much more imminent threat. Though smaller the craft was still immense and could not have fit inside the Komodo, it had probably been in close formation, maybe even docked and clamped to the larger craft, to allow travel inside the

same hyperspace bubble. This craft was a Dragon class carrier, bristling with offensive weapons and protected under very hardy shielding. Even this craft did not present much of a threat except to Mona, a ship so large and heavy could never enter a planet's atmosphere; the problem was safely stowed inside the four hangars. These were the Gekkoda, the smallest of the Khai craft; the three Repton fighter which Zero had been discussing only a few weeks before with Oxull and Jer-mija. There were records on Central which showed that a Dragon may carry as many as a thousand Gekkoda, such was the enormousness of the vessel’s hangars. Whether the one inbound to Earth now still had this compliment of fighters intact would remain to be seen. If any action had been seen, then it might be possible that this compliment would have been whittled down some. The scanner temporarily lost the Dragon, Kariina was pressing buttons and swiping at the screen trying to anticipate the Dragon's path towards Earth. The ship was moving quickly; sub-light but still fast and by the time Kariina had the scanner locked on again the ship was inside the orbit of Pluto. With so much distance already covered the Dragon would be upon Earth within a few hours. There was little time to prepare, her first call was to Joan. Joan did not call anyone, there was no one above her, all she had to do was press a button and the signal was sent to malls around the world. Pilots began to suit up, King fighters were readied for take-off. Whichever direction the Gekkoda tried, they'd be met head on by squadrons of King fighters. Zero, still in self-imposed isolation knew the instant Kariina had ed Joan. He experienced the chill as it ran down Joan’s spine as the news was delivered. It was time. For these last days Zero had gone through the hangar incident thousands of times in his head, but always from the external viewpoint showed to him by the video. Not even once had he come close to having a spark of actual remembrance. Now the whole thing needed to be put behind him; there was work to do. Zero had taken to wearing a simple wristwatch which also incorporated a heart rate monitor. In the same way a jogger would aim to keep his heartbeat elevated but not excessively high, Zero would now know if his heart rate dropped significantly. Leren was sure this purging of emotion, a sudden calming before the battle to come was the result of a massive spike of chemicals within Zero's brain. This event would always be accompanied by the slowing of his heart to less than his usual steady forty beats per minute. By how

far the doctor had not been able to say but the watch should be able to indicate the drop. Zero had only to heed the alarm and ister a special drug which the good Old doctor had prepared for him, this would even out Zero's brain chemistry within thirty seconds and he should be good to go without any more blackouts or visitations from his primal self. With this in mind, Zero rose up and strode confidently from his hideaway back to the hangar. Zero sat in his chair and strapped himself in, the chair instantly began to rise upwards inside the nose of the Sphinx, hearing both bulkhead doors close behind him Zero's eyes were drawn to a very elaborately written note stuck to the instrument in front of him. The note was from Jer-mija, the simple Caretaker numeral for Eight as the signature told him that. The note instructed Zero to put on a headband dangling from one of the few switches to his right. The band was a neural interface, it would activate functions on board as Zero had the thought. This would end the need for Zero to acquire targets whilst controlling the Axe in parallel. Jer-mija wrote that now Zero had only to look at a target and select a weapon, cannon or missile and the required weapon would be unleashed. The Axe control joystick which had been easy to control whilst stable, but a chore whilst in a multi axis roll had been removed; only a blanking remained. If Zero wanted to use the Axe now he had only to look at the position to target and say the word "Axe". No matter how the ship moved then the Axe mounting gimbal would track and follow the target maintaining steady fire. Even if the target was lost or blocked by the Sphinx itself the Axe would suspend fire and the gimbal would move to anticipate the next possible vector to regain the target. This left Zero free to pilot the Sphinx. The final part of the message confirmed what Zero had hoped. He could now paint multiple targets and the plasma cannon would log and strike each one in order. Zero knew what this meant, the Sphinx was no longer merely a craft; it was smarter now. Jer-mija had given Zero a wing man. Powering up and pulling on the band, a red bar on his display first turned Amber and then green as the band reached the correct location on his head where the brain waves could be sensed the strongest. Jer-mija was an enigma even amongst the clones. In a race which strove for efficiency, Eight was a cut above. He was perhaps the only clone apart from Geyldian capable of thinking outside the box. Zero liked the ex-treasonous Old clone very much. What the other clones saw as edgy and incendiary behaviour, Zero merely saw as a direct approach and an unwillingness to skirt around or sugar coat issues. The other clones could deal with this behaviour easily, Zero often pushed them in the same way. Why they

couldn't take it from Eight was maybe only a matter of clone pride ... Today Jermija had allowed Zero to up his efficiency with less effort than ever before ... A new week, and this one was already starting off better. Zero lifted the Sphinx barely millimetres from the flight deck and headed for the launch tube, thankfully Jer-mija had acknowledged Zero's skills enough to leave the flight controls outside the scope of the band. Zero was the pilot not the computer, whose only role in flight was to make the Sphinx do as he ordered. Punching the throttle to full Zero was almost hypersonic as he cleared Mona's hulking frame. The vibrations, and Zero's renewed spirit were felt throughout the massive vessel. All eyes would be on Zero's next battle, the faithful would watch in awe as he would once more fly their flag and bring some hurt to their sworn enemy ... Spread thinly throughout the hive, there was also a small group of Novus who were literally beside themselves with nervous anticipation. These few were connected only by their desire to see Zero spill Khai-mah blood; the more the better. This group of thrill seekers was a rare breed, so few and so far flung between the three leviathans; the nine of them had never even met. Only their excitement after the hangar incident had allowed them to ride the fringes of the hive collective to find each other. Communications were at different times and days apart, but they longed for their species to break free from the mold which the Devine had cast them in. They were all aware from the knowledge ed down within them that the Devine had started off much like humans. Warring factions, who fought spilling literal oceans of blood before reaching enlightenment and technological safety. This must have been such an exciting time ... Or so the nine of them thought. Compared to the humdrum of their never ending and never changing daily duties on the three downed Arks, they were all correct. The clones were not Devine, as such this manufactured species of caretakers had never even seen full scale battle. They were bred only for peaceful coexistence with whomever their creators left them with. In all this time these nine were the first who had shown anything akin to bloodlust. Confined within the rules of the hive, they could never express these violent urges; if they tried to attract more numbers Aelren would certainly discover them. Zero was not aware of all the eyes upon him, he never had been. Unless he was in the field with Geyldian, the only person he gave concern to was himself. Now he rushed to catch up to the Dragon carrier, which appeared as a speck in silhouette, back lit by the blue orb which was the object of the Dragon’s

attention. Zero's best transit time had been around twenty-five minutes from Earth to Mona. Today he tried hard to better this by at least ten minutes, the dragon was quickly growing larger in front of him. Enhancing the image to zoom in locally on the area where the Dragon was orbiting, he guessed that the craft was not quite as large as Central; but it was huge all the same. Zero became even more restless as he watched wave after wave of the tiny Gekkoda fighters, emerge from the double deck hangars on both flanks of the leviathan. Forming into waves of ten the Gekkoda broke up and headed to different points in the Northern hemisphere. Zero found Joan and ed on what he was seeing directly to her. Joan was already scrambling the King Squadrons all over the world having confirmed what Zero was seeing on radar. The closest malls could have Kings in the vicinity and at high altitude before the Gekkoda had barely breached the atmosphere. Zero watched the tiny craft light up as they powered into the Earth’s atmosphere. Tapping the console beside him he began to override the plasma engine safety locks; once this was done he moved the safe ceiling on the plasma reaction to plus twenty percent. A noticeable kick signalled that the extra thrust had engaged, but it still wasn't going to be enough. He wouldn't be able to go weapons hot for another five minutes. Thinking logically Zero reasoned that his first target ought to be the Dragon. If he could cause enough damage, the carrier might leave and abandon the Gekkoda. Zero was sure these tiny craft weren't a match for Joan and Earth’s collaborative fighter. On the other hand, the Dragon could breathe a stream of plasma to reach any target it wanted on the planet. As such Zero had a responsibility to see if his tiny ship could slay the monster which lay before him. Zero pulled back on the throttle, to almost nil. Zero only needed a few moments to analyse the hull, he'd never seen the outside of Central until the flight test of the Sphinx and it'd been smooth and clean. The outer hull of the Dragon was the polar opposite. Organised as chaotically as a teenager’s bedroom, protrusions bristled everywhere. Plasma cannon turrets, thruster pods, hangar openings, viewing decks, inlets, outlets, so many targets. Amazingly his scans indicated that her shields were down. Was the dragon really not expecting any resistance at all? Zero figured the fastest way to get their attention would be to make them vent atmosphere; maybe they'd not even seen him yet. If their attention was focused solely on Earth, the bulk of which was still firmly analogue, the Khai might be too confused by the various television and radio signals to know he was there.

Now would be the perfect time to test the headband, spotting several viewing portals on various decks, Zero painted them as targets for missiles. With the ordinance away, Zero would just hang back and watch how the vessel reacted. The missiles were far too small and fast to be seen or hit by the turrets, one by one explosions were seen ripping into the unprotected flank of the Dragon. Where once had been viewing decks only gaping holes existed now. Given the fact that she'd just been attacked her reaction to raise shields was pretty slow; well over twenty seconds. Zero couldn't imagine the logic processes at work. Was the decision subject to committee? Had they held a debate? Finally, their shields were up, Zero's targets were arguably dirty, until he reasoned everyone on board was a soldier. There were no civilian Khai; training started at birth. The next things which happened were completely incongruent with what Zero had already witnessed. Now he was being targeted, and not just by one turret, all of the plasma cannons on the outboard flank were homing in. Next came a hail of simultaneous plasma cannon fire, more than fifty streams. Zero had already kicked the Sphinx back into high gear and was taking avoiding action, just keeping ahead; but he wanted to keep the beast in his own sights. Dancing around the Khai plasma bolts, Zero was now painting target after target, but the shields were thick, not one of the Sphinx's shots reached the metal hulk. Next Zero would try the Axe, the Khai had no counter for that, he'd already proven that against the Monitor. The shields may be thicker, but they would only take a few moments more to breach. From this range there was no way to target the twin plasma drives, but he could take out the six attitude stabilisers and some outer thrusters. Glancing at the targets in quick succession was all he needed to do; the Axe would be directed by the neural interface. Once the firing solution had been computed the weapon began to work. If the Axe was taking longer to breach the Dragon’s defences then Zero couldn't tell. The Axe was just as devastating as it had been the first time. One by one the targets were excised from the side of the Dragon. Most cleanly but some were blown to pieces as the Axe severed the plasma accelerator tubes triggering the instantaneous release of bright red energy streams. These burned violently for a few seconds as the Khai attempted to re-route the plasma to other weapons. None of this carnage had stopped the Gekkoda which were still exiting the hangars en masse, as if the Dragon carrier was haemorrhaging the tiny fighters. Zero was painting them as targets as quickly as he could but more than sixty percent of them were still breaking through.

Checking in with Joan the news was good, the Gekkoda were being dispatched in short order not long after their emergence below. Others were proving trickier to dispatch. Some of Earth’s pilots felt like they were being schooled whilst chasing their targets, stating that it was a shame to take out such skilled pilots. Earth’s pilots were actually learning new moves during the dogfights. Joan understood their feelings, pilots could be an arrogant bunch, it was just a confidence that was in them, probably even before they became fighter aces. For them to openly express feelings of respect meant the pilots in some of the Gekkoda had some grit. They were probably at the older end of the Repton force, their greater experience was allowing them to adequately dodge the kill shots levied by her own forces. Joan reassured Zero that even the massive numbers were proving to be no match for Earth’s defences. After receiving the preliminary data from Kariina, Joan had been prepared for her forces to greet one thousand Gekkoda, but she had not been prepared to commit more than 250 of the available King Fighters which numbered in the tens of thousands. Joan saw this as a fair first test. With one of her malls fifteen miles below the main action she could easily authorise reinforcements and have them in the fray within ten minutes. Without too much effort it was looking like reinforcements would not be needed. The endless simulations and drills had been mostly sufficient to prepare pilots for the Khai fighting style. By the end of this first encounter three of Earth's collaborative fighters had been downed but were salvageable. These losses had been suffered after direct hits to the shield emitters had left the Kings exposed. Even after that the pilots had skilfully dodged the Khai Plasma fire enough that only the wings were holed. The three craft had pulled out, descended and landed at Joan and Oxull's facility, hardly a loss at all. The wing skins were completely totalled, but the frames were repairable very easily. When deg the streamlined variable control surfaces utilised on the King fighter, Oxull probably had the human’s greatest aviation achievement at the forefront of his clone mind. The B-17 Flying Fortress had become famous having often returned home at the very limit of holding together after suffering major damage from German air and ground-based fire. Oxull's creation recreated this robust character, and the pilots were all appreciative. None of Earth’s jet age fighters would have taken a plasma hit through the wing and made it back to base, certainly not with two feet lopped off the end of one wing. The adaptive skin, being comprised of one part which

covered the whole wing surface, proved much hardier under fire than a hinged swept wing design with control flaps. The main benefit was strength, even once holed the frame stayed together, there were no parts which could be blown off. The reflexive skin was excellent for localising the effects of plasma fire, from any angle almost all the energy of the hit could be diffused and dissipated. Many more than the three downed fighters had been hit, but the skins had broken only where hit. Remaining taught, there was no drag to bend or affect performance. The wing articulations were another stroke of engineering mastery from Oxull. When Joan had shown the human design team, some of aviation’s best and brightest designers, they had all scoffed. Now her stubborn and forceful nature had allowed them to be associated with something which no human had ever envisioned. In allowing the humans to ride his shirt tails, Oxull’s design had been realised only because Joan had directed humans from all over the world to forget their differences and work together. A monumental achievement, one which had brought the human species forward hundreds of years in less than a single decade. The lessons learned, the value of the battles not fought, and the lives not lost were incalculable. The Dragon carrier, having suffered major damage at the hands of Zero's Sphinx which was far too small for the huge ship to target accurately, began to lean towards the Earth like a drunken whale. Unable to correct her attitude, explosions began to fire out from the launch tubes. The carrier’s rotation was foxing the Gekkoda which were unable to match the rotation within the confines of their launching tubes. In the next ten seconds the explosions stopped; no new fighters appeared. Zero had an important decision to make. He could attempt to destroy the Dragon where she currently lay with the loss of all Khai still on board, or he could give chase to the Gekkoda which were making their way down into Earth’s atmosphere. The Dragon was a tempting target for sure, but it wouldn't have been very sporting. Deciding that the Dragon was currently only a low priority unless her orbital speed deteriorated to the point of her dropping to Earth, Zero set off at full speed to catch up to the Gekkoda. The tiny craft were ahead of him by maybe two minutes maximum, and as Zero used his own enhanced screen to zoom in on his targets, he couldn’t see them even with his hawk eyes. As he watched on the zoomed view, the last wave of

Gekkoda lay directly in front of Zero, who was on course to intercept. Without warning, one of the tiny craft pulled upwards away from the main pack. Their new vector indicated they were making a run directly towards Central. Zero figured the main wing were headed straight towards the clutches of Joan's King squadron and would be mopped up accordingly. Adjusting course Zero aimed at the Lone Ranger and pushed his ion drive to the maximum plus ten percent. As the Gekkoda plunged into high cloud cover, the Sphinx followed barely thirty seconds later. Zero's efforts to catch up had paid off. Dropping out of the clouds however yielded no sign of the small Khai craft. The zoom window on his view shield had closed down, which meant the Sphinx no longer had eyes on the target. Zero was flying at speed over the mid-Atlantic ocean all alone. Considering that he would not have lost the target, the Gekkoda was close by, he set the scanners to work again. Anything large and moving would show. Zero adjusted the parameters for speed to remove all ships floating on the ocean below. The only targets were below him, under the surface of the ocean. Three in close proximity, one was a Trafalgar class UK Navy submarine the Trenchant, the second shadowing this was also British, a Vanguard class submarine, the Vigilant. Normally two submarines would not be in such close proximity as this, a quick word to Joan and a minute’s wait confirmed the reason. The Vigilant was undergoing sea trials and the Trenchant was there to observe and . The third target was moving roughly ten times faster and was nowhere near the size of the two subs. This was the Gekkoda. Zero moved the Sphinx's into action, he had three hundred miles to make up. Examining the vector of travel, the Gekkoda was still locked on course for Central. Even considering the size of the small three lizard fighter, Zero had no idea what kind of damage the craft might be capable of inflicting to the huge Alculinium hulled leviathan; but it wasn't worth the risk to find out. Zero aimed at the water and plunged below, Jer-mija’s bubble shield activated without fault and Zero maintained a good speed to catch up to the Khai craft. Interception was going to be tight. On a sub screen, the course and speed of both craft was being plotted, Zero was only just going to reach the Gekkoda as the tiny vessel would itself reach Central. Zero attempted to Ra-Sian, to raise the alarm, but the Old watcher informed him that Central had been on alert since the lone craft had peeled off from its group 1000 miles ago. -Did you think I was asleep Zero? ...You know I never sleep. There is nothing

we can do to repel the fighter so do your best ... Our hatches are battened ... -Of course Ra-sian ... See you in a few. As Zero wrung the last few drops of thrust out of his engine, he was struck at how differently the craft was ... Or was not responding to his commands. Even as the water was not directly against the ship, due to the bubble shield, which was now shaped like an arrowhead, the ship's ability to make sharp turns and rapid corrections in course was severely hampered. He would catch the Gekkoda, but maybe not completely in time. As he watched the Heads-UpDisplay, a small return now moving rapidly ahead of the Gekkoda showed that a weapon had been launched at Central. Mere seconds later Zero made eye as the Gekkoda emerged through a stream of bubbles ahead of him. The merest sighting was all Zero needed to home in. Zero positioned the Sphinx firmly on the thruster nozzles of the Gekkoda. The small craft had sensed the larger as soon as Zero had caught up. For the last ten seconds the craft had been weaving around like a fish on the line, trying with all its might to break free. Zero however was glued in position, reading the erratic behaviour and making moves to intercept the new position almost instantly. Having slowed somewhat to match the Gekkoda, his own craft was now responding much more like it usually would. Despite its larger size the Sphinx was more than a match for the tiny Gekkoda. Through the mental interface, Zero selected a weapon and milliseconds later a small ship to ship missile was launched. This would target the propulsion unit directly by sniffing out the emissions. Upon reaching the thrust nozzle the missile would discharge its own rapid pulse of energy. This would effectively cause blowback inside the Gekkoda’s thrust nozzle. Nondestructive, but enough to stall the engine completely by throwing the plasma injectors out of alignment; the Gekkoda would be dead in the water. The three occupants glared on in despair as they all watched the Sphinx them by, leaving them submerged and alone. Zero had to stop the missile before it struck Central. He didn’t give the three Khai pilots another thought, he would be back to collect them later. Having once again set his engine to run past the limiters, the super soldier was now dead set on catching the missile. Once within range, and confident the race was now won, Zero selected the

appropriate missile. Punching the button, the weapon was away. All he could do was watch as his missile ate the distance to its target. The huge bubble which resulted was impressive but was sufficiently far from Central that she wouldn't be harmed by the blast. Humans have long speculated over the resultant effects of a butterfly flapping its wings, some people even theorise that a tree may be felled on the opposite side of the world as one eventual outcome. Neither the Gekkoda's, nor the Sphinx’ missiles could claim the delicacy of a butterfly's wings, as such there could be no doubt over the resultant effects of their combined detonation. Whilst the blast had indeed been far enough from Central that the ship suffered no damage directly; a large quantity of water had been displaced by the blast. This shock wave had been enough to dislodge loose debris, which had sat on the side of a mountain for many an eon prior to the arrival of Central. These rocks had sat forever overlooking their metallic neighbour before the sea had eventually swallowed the huge leviathan and the mountain whole. Exposed to a force like none before, the rocks were moved to march towards the huge ship. As the rocks rolled down the slope, other debris was collected. Gaining, in both mass and velocity until a much larger volume of material than was originally set in motion eventually slammed into the side of Central. Of course, even such a mass of material as this would not shift the ship beyond a slight rumbling as the material began to pile up in an area of no consequence along the left flank of the ship. Ra'sian observed the angular shift to be less than two seconds. On the grand scale of things the ship had not moved. But the Old Watcher felt sufficiently justified in correcting Zero when he dared to utter such an erroneous statement. No damage had been suffered ... None at all, at least that's what every Novus reported to their superior. A few hours later the life system of the Gekkoda was about to breathe its last. It was reasonable to assume the Khai would be ready for rescue. Zero towed them back to Central where Oxull immediately claimed first dibs on the craft ... for research purposes. The Old Engineer had studied a lot about all classes of Khai craft but was almost wetting himself at the chance to actually take one apart. None of his forebears had ever had the opportunity. Zero knew Oxull stood to learn very little from the exercise. He also appreciated that while the record was possibly the most detailed compendium anywhere in the known

universe, assembled and added to using data from every encounter; a Haynes manual of Khai technology it was not. Oxull may yet be able to add entries to the record from the very first piece of hull plating he removed. The Gekkoda was such a small ship that it hadn't even been capable of flying under its own steam from the Khai world to Devine Prime, hence the need for a carrier class. Encounters had been rare. In this respect the amount of data recorded was not as voluminous as for the dragon, still floundering in a high orbit above the Earth. Four days ed with Ra'sian fixing all his attention on the stricken dragon. The clones could barely believe the damage which Zero had wrought against a ship of such size. The Khai were in no rush to attempt repairs. In Zero’s quarters, a flurried discussion was being held by the Albern's "I'm going back up there for a look around." This was Zero's solution to the apparent lack of enemy action. "I'm going with ... I need a little time topside ... It’s been months. You keep Surayyah far too busy." Wraith's face said that while his mother could block the young man from one kind of action, he would not be blocked from the less enjoyable kind of action. Only a scuff round the ear from his mother diverted Wraith’s determined gaze out of lock from his father's own intense expression. "Don't talk with your mouth full! You might be huge, but you'll never be too big for good hiding." Nothing irritated Joan more than a lack of manners, especially from her own son. It had been a while since they had all sat down together and carried on an actual verbal conversation whilst eating a family meal. Wraith looked truly forlorn at the thought he may well have spoiled this rarest of respites. The thought that he was approaching his 24th birthday and his mother still treated him like he was six hadn’t escaped him either. Wisely, he didn’t communicate this thought to his mother. For all Wraith’s super accelerated healing and bodily toughness, this was only effective against physical wounds and broken bones. A swipe across the ear caused no wound. His ear would sting, and his huge head would ring like a bell, hence no quick recovery. Wraith bit his tongue, forcefully overriding the chance for mental seepage ...

Chapter 20 - The original beast awakens.

IT WAS OVER THREE YEARS since the arrival of the first missile which rocked Central, but it was only a few days since the first Khai ship had snuck in the back door, attempting to land a single direct hit on the huge ships flank. To date no damage had been endured. Deep in the bowels of Central some damage outside the scope of the Novus reports had nonetheless been sustained. The stasis pod containing the original body of Gray Albern had been compromised. This began when the first missile had arrived, but this had been worsened during the attempted Khai attack. The initial hole in the glass lid had completely removed the stasis environment. The pod, intended as a sarcophagus for the Old Ones super soldier, was not connected to any computer system. In all this time the tomb had been out of sight and mostly out of mind. Leren had never allowed Zero to know the location of his remains, nor had he travelled down to this room to visit them himself. Not that he would never have come to visit his friend, but the way events unfolded in the years after Zero's physical death ... He just hadn't needed to. Within nine short years, the blinking of an eye in a clone's lifespan; Zero had been returned to them. Needless to say events after that had grown steadily busier and always more serious. The initial crack and subsequent separation of a single shard from the cover had not really done much except to slowly vent the stasis environment into the room. The knock sustained when the pod fell off its trolley had been enough to render the pod inoperable. Coincidence? ... Or maybe fate, that such a small initial vibration to such a huge ship; would cause just the right damage to just the right pod to make the unthinkable possible. For the first eighteen months nothing much had happened, so slowly did the stasis environment leak out of the pod that it had only been two months before the Khai attack that normal air had been able to breach the inside of the pod. All this time Gray's lifeless body had been slowly but steadily warming up and rehydrating; so slowly that no damage had occurred to any of his cells or their membranes. This still had not been enough to achieve anything except allow a thick layer of black, green and white mould to form over the once unbeatable man. To any onlooker now, Gray’s body would’ve appeared not only dead and gone, but desecrated by the slime and stench of decay. Had Leren known, he would surely

have taken immediate action, though Zero would've probably told him not to bother ... An error ... Considering that if the Old doctor had examined the body closely enough, he would've realised that the smell of decay was not coming from the body at all ... But from the blanket of slime which covered it. By a process Leren had never seen and would have been hard pressed to explain, Gray's body was absorbing the mould as fast as it could form. His outer dermis was being sacrificed to the slime or it would never have had the sustenance to form and take root. Beyond this it was Gray, who just as in many situations before, had the upper hand. The spores were busy and the task which they couldn’t complete twenty three years before, was now well in hand and would be completed inside the next week. Although the mould spores were many orders of magnitude larger than the spores which were a part of Gray since his sparking. The ancient and adaptable spores within him knew what to do. The thick mould which covered Gray’s body only considered that it had been lucky enough to colonise such a tasty new habitat, just right for their needs. Had they known that their colony would be under attack from the inside, while ever it remained on the body then they may have set up shop somewhere else instead. By now the damage to Zero's torso had been repaired and a bud was forming which would eventually be an arm, it was only a matter of time. As if practicing their repair skills, the spores had first healed the wounds from Quinn's Katana, deep cuts all over their host’s body. Well it made sense to plug any leaks first. Communication between the outlying spores and the ones in the brain had resumed almost immediately upon their hosts body reaching room temperature, initially though this had been hampered by the lack of life their host was displaying. Now though, even the arm bud had enough arteries and veins to ensure no loss of blood which was being pumped slowly around their host’s body at one beat per minute. Not enough for life, but enough to effect repairs. In fact each time that the spores had resurrected their host this had been the case, with Gray never having achieved complete death, he had merely been returned to this regenerative mode each time. If they had lost control and allowed his heart to stop beating completely even once, then the spores could not have communicated or shared resources enough to rebuild him.

In just one week time, the spores would begin to raise their host’s heart rate before finally mustering themselves to shock his brain back to consciousness ... In a sequence of chemical exchanges akin to a committee meeting the spores were discussing a break from the norm ... "We have to leave them intact this time!" "I strongly disagree ... We all know the effect that may have on him ... He might simply try to kill himself again." "I think if host is confronted with the memory of all his death events, or at least has access to them, he may take stock and ultimately be more careful. It doesn't have to be like before. He can move past this ... how his brain activity was heightened by over sixty percent in the last 33 cycles. I'm telling you he can handle it ..." Never before had the spore colony discussed such a thing. A faction of them, small at first but gaining from all over the body, was eager to completely remove the shackles they’d placed on their host’s convenient memory. It was coming close to the point where only the spores in hosts spine, cerebral cortex and brain were resisting. They stated such a course of action was a complete outrage, totally contradictory to all the experiences of colonies past. Colonies, who had time and again, picked up the pieces of their host’s recklessness. "You have no way to know how host will react, you just don't want to relinquish the little control you have ... Break the bonds and move out of his head, we can use you in the peripherals and organs ... Just this once. If the experiment fails you can move back in and we'll carry on as before. We know host is capable of learning, more so than ever in these last thirty years or so, we have to give him the chance ..." This was a powerful argument from the only spore inside host’s Brain which thought that not overwriting the memory of his last death was a good idea. The spore was however, so persuasive that spores up and down the spinal column and inside their host’s Brain were even beginning to be swayed. As the healing process accelerated, the final days saw the thick mat of mould covering Grays body, host as the spores knew him, completely consumed. All

damage had been repaired, this final matter was the last to be addressed, and had been the subject of many chemical exchanges in the last two days since physical rebuilding had been completed. The spores had to be in complete agreement, 100% before they would spark him back into consciousness. Acceptance of a majority was not the way of the colony which always sought to act as one unified organism, for the benefit of its host. 23% of the spores were staunchly against the idea of leaving their hosts memory intact from the last death event. They felt that giving him access to all of his death events was an even worse idea. This powerfully positioned minority considered that they were only being mindful of the past. They all had access to the markers in their host’s bones which told how their host had, at the darkest point in his life gone on a suicide spree. This was just prior to their intervention to remove the memories which troubled him ... “Surely, you how hosts mind was altered by the mechanical cells? How much extra capacity for thinking and reasoning he has?” “Yes ... We the huge influx of knowledge ... It seemed to calm our host.” The spores speculated that this knowledge radically altered their host’s perceptions, making him stronger, but more careful. Some of this knowledge had in part overlapped with their host’s own memories. Appearing to be the same memories but from another viewpoint, these had stopped the sudden expression of leaked memories. Host Garic’s mental state was completely balanced after this, in spite of the huge amount of extra memories which had nothing to do with him. “Well this knowledge is the key ... It seems to have blocked the resurfacing of any memories which might harm host’s mental state. I am sure host could cope with all the memories of his lives ... All 2,187 of them. Another ive spore now ed his comrade... "You know how different Host became since he first arrived here. You have to at least acknowledge that. this planet which seemed at first to want nothing more than to invade and destroy our host, has also been a great learning experience for him ..."

"Go on ..." "I still think there is one set of memories which need to be not just blocked ... But removed completely if you can manage it ..." The doubting spores were now all ears ... Or would have been had they actually had any ears. "Our ancients records show that our host was sparked with memories of a family, which he felt the need to protect, but had failed to do so. This was the root of his anger, and what spurred him to fight so hard ... These simple memories fuelled his hatred ... And lust for war and killing." "Yes we know of these engrams, host thinks he had a wife on Ashlar-Gin..." "And three children too yes ... But these memories are false, implanted to ensure loyalty and obedience ... We all know host will never make it back to AshlarGin, so these memories are useless and counterproductive remnants." "How so?" "You are in the brain; do you not look at any of the memories as they come in?... Host had taken another mate, and days before his death, this partnership had produced a real son!" "So you're saying if host suddenly ed a fake family it may adversely affect his new family?" "Exactly." What the spokes-spore was now proposing was well inside their means to achieve and did have host Garic’s well-being as its foundation. Whilst the remaining spores were still unconvinced on all counts of the positive argument, they were willing enough to give the proposal a shot ... Just for one life cycle. Depending upon how long their host survived next would depend on whether this new experiment would become the new norm or not. The unconvinced spores had been slowly swayed to become conscientiously objecting approvers. They were mindful of what may lie ahead; but were willing to give it a try anyway.

"Give us a day to remove the blocks and try to remove the fake family and then we should be good to go. But I warn you ... If we remove the memory of his fake family and his loyalty to his new friends is tested, we have no way to predict what will happen ... And once deleted, these memories can never be returned." "Trust me, he won't miss them. He has a real family to fight for and friends he will stay loyal to ... No matter what." As requested, one day later and the spores were all ready to exert their power. Host’s body was warm, his pulse and respiratory rate were all functioning optimally, six breaths and forty beats per minute. The only thing left to do was spark their hosts mind back into the realm of the thinking. As Gray's brain began to function, he appeared to be sleeping; even turning over several times inside the broken stasis pod. Eventually sated and recharged, the long dead super soldier opened his eyes whilst simultaneously stretching outwards with his arms and legs, only to find himself trapped. Without panic Zero withdrew his limbs back into a straight line which fit the pod. Taking stock he instantly recognised the vessel which now constrained him. -A medical pod, that damned Leren. A few bumps and scratches and he gets all protective. Hasn't he learned yet that my bed is the best place for me to rest and recover. I wonder how long I've been out ... I told Joan I was gonna be two weeks ... I hope she's not too pissed. I can't wait to see Wraith; I wonder if his hair has started growing back yet? ... As he continued to lay in the pod, Gray thought it odd that Leren was not in the medical bay. For the first time ever all the lights seemed to be switched off, he'd never known this before, not since ing Central. As he lay in the pod semi awake and still partly asleep, Gray lay in quiet contemplation with his eyes closed. As he did so, the events of Antarctica began to return to him ever so gently. He saw the eyes of his attacker, the flash of the Katana. He watched Geyldian jump away to safety before calmly and clearly observing his battle with the unknown swordsman, dressed like a ninja. If he hadn't been reliving the pain in detail, Gray might have started to laugh. The guy looked like he was straight out of a Japanese martial arts movie, but his strikes were focussed; showing obvious skill. A renewed sense of panic washed over Gray as he realised he had been overpowered by his own failure to respond appropriately. His next memory was dying ... So this was what had led to him being in the

medi-pod now. With that much damage he may have been here for days, maybe weeks. -Surely Geyldian will have covered my absence with Joan and Billy? Well that’s enough time on my back; I don’t care what old boney fingers says. Reaching around Gray felt inside the pod for the override switch to spring the cover, flicking this meant he would be free in seconds. Now though there was no response ... Flick ... Flick ... Flick ... The pod was dead, the pod was dead and Leren did not know, this made no sense to Gray ... unless ... -I died ... And Leren wasn't able to revive me ... That shouldn't have mattered ... Now Gray was having random memories of other times he’d been killed. Each time, inexplicably the next day there he was, just like now ... but ... -Then this isn't a medi-pod ... This is a stasis pod ... Dammit Leren you tried to preserve me! For a moment Gray was awash with anger, then calming down he ed that Leren had never understood his body or why he had suddenly become the way he was ... -Of course ... He never knew ... Come to think of it neither did I ... So why this time? This was a mystery for later, if possible. Maybe this time was just an error, his first priority was to get out of the pod and make the clones aware he was still alive. One punch was all it took to completely shatter the already broken lid of the pod. Climbing through the frame, Gray’s eyes had already adjusted to the darkness. Finding the door he stepped out into a corridor. Unfamiliar with this part of the ship, the numbers on the wall of this dimly lit area suggested he was on the very lowest deck. -No matter ... I'll jump to the medical lab ... Leren is forced to be there ...

Clearing his mind, Gray prepared to jump as he had many times before ... The image was Leren’s lab, a place he was all too familiar with. The far corner away from Leren’s console was his favoured location. A small pop signified his attempt, but this was lacklustre indeed and Gray remained in the corridor. An ominous noise rose up from his stomach, Gray was now aware that he was ravenously hungry. -Food ... I have to find food. It would take him several hours to walk to Leren's lab and he couldn't wait any longer ... So Leren would have to ... As Gray exited the room he realised another thing, his mind was eerily silent. Not since coming aboard Central had such quiet existed inside his mind. Of course if he needed to jump he could close his mind to achieve the calm clarity he needed to focus upon his jump target. Now though was different. There were no voices in his head to block out. For the first time in a long time Gray felt alone. In a new twist he also realised that he ed every single detail of not only his death in Antarctica, but also many other death events stretching back many years. Maybe hundreds, maybe even a thousand deaths had already replayed. These early deaths were truly gruesome, and as these recollections flooded back into his mind; Gray was wracked by an overwhelming sense of fear. Antarctica had been bloody for sure but these new death memories were horrific. Yet here he was, alive again. The fear ed quickly, Gray's rational mind told him he was safe and sound on Central, but the one feeling had only been traded for insecurity. Gray was coming to with the fact that his life had been much longer than he had ever known. Maybe he ed less than five percent, everything else was new. Still something was missing but he couldn't put his finger on what it was, he just felt different. As Gray was having these recollections, he was still moving slowly forwards down the corridor, but not making any real progress. He was hungry ... Ravenously hungry. As he bumbled slowly forwards, Gray became aware that his hands were clutching the waistband of his tros, still covered in his own blood, they would have quickly fallen around his ankles if hadn't been securing them manually. Moving one hand to his stomach first, which was deeply inset, the progress of this hand was obstructed in its vertical path by the hollowed out

arch like structure above his diaphragm. This arch was formed by the bottom of his now fully intact but massively protruding rib cage. This memory was accompanied by a powerful phantom pain in his entire side which he clearly ed losing. When it was blown clear Gray reckoned a stone and half had been lost instantly. Drifting to a stop in the middle of this narrow corridor, he ventured to look downwards. Gray figured at least eleven of his original nineteen stone frame was missing. His muscles were mostly wasted away, his skin was greyish and had lost all its usual pinkness. Glancing right, there was the interface of a food dispensing module ... Finally he could eat a meal, shame it would be something resembling porridge which the clones ate; but with none of the taste. -Not to worry, I can eat as much of this gack as it takes to fill my stomach. It’s as perfectly nutritious as it is bland. Approaching the console and selecting which of the, oh so subtly coloured goop he desired, Gray was transfixed by his reflection in the shiny screen. The green text of the menu blurred, almost disappearing, as this shadow of his former self concentrated his gaze. The almost empty shell of a super soldier began to examine himself in minute detail. His eyes were sunken and almost none of their former sparkle remained. The sparkle which had conveyed his confident nature to everyone he’d ever met, was now almost burned out. -Why am I rushing to get back upstairs? I can't face the Numbers in this state. Aside from the fact that Leren may strap in him into a medi-pod for the foreseeable future, which would be boring as hell; Gray seriously doubted that the Old Numbers would even recognise him. His nutritious meal had been delivered to the hatch for some minutes before Gray snapped himself away from his memories of missions past, and his former self. In the next seconds, Gray was scooping up the meal with his bare hands and loading most it into his face. Considering how much he was trying to eat at once, Gray didn’t miss much. As these small morsels dripped from his chin down onto his chest, it was only a short while before they were cleaned up and ingested just like all the rest. Gray ate. He ate until his stomach ached from overeating, but he felt better on the whole. Deep inside Gray’s body, the colonial spores were ing the

massive load which had just manifested itself inside the stomach of their fortress. “He’s eaten too much, but we need it ... Make sure the chemoreceptor trigger zone is fully suppressed. We can’t have him ejecting it all back out. What on Earth is that stuff anyway?” This was one simple request followed by an unanswerable question. The spores in the stomach, triggered the CTZ to shut down and ignore Gray’s swollen belly. They were however at a complete loss as to identify what Gray had eaten. The response was hailed. “It’s ... Gack! But it does seem to contain everything we need to restock.” Gray began to sweat as the spores accelerated his metabolism to get the food processed quickly, as a reward to their host they released a copious amount of endorphins. This made Gray feel good about the Novus porridge. After this, it didn’t matter how full to bursting he was; Gray began quickly selecting another colour, almost pink. In reality the colour had no bearing on the flavour. It was only designed to give the clones some variation. There was no change in the recipe. Porridge equalled gack, which was the same as goop. Gray would avoid the blue, if only because in his mind blue was not a colour for food; at least not in his experience, which he now realised was long indeed. His guilty pleasure, at least for now, would be the slime green. Every second portion was this green coloured nutrient porridge. The spores didn’t any difference at all. They were just grateful for the fuel, and as fast as their host ate, they would ensure every morsel was directed to where it was needed. Absolutely none of this food would be used to rebuild their host’s once massive frame; he was far too low on fluids, platelets, bone marrow and many other elements which are supposed to be inside a body. At this point, exposure to the wrong pollen had the potential to make Gray sneeze himself to death, just like a tiny grey Thrall. Here was a paradox for sure. Gray knew of the Thrall but had never interacted personally ... Why would he? Yet a quarter of a million miles above his head, Zero’s cloned alter ego had ended up inside a Thrall as part of the most unlikely mental flat share ever. Neither Gray nor the colony had any direct knowledge of this weedy period of Gray’s history; the colony just knew how fragile their host

was. First, they had to balance the internals. Gray's engine wasn't just suffering from a few worn rings, he was missing entire Pistons. The whole colony had suffered to resurrect their host this time, dwindling after this last cycle of regeneration, only 93% of them had successfully replicated. This meant that inside such a complex organism they were spread thinner than oil on water. Communication was harder generally, with reduced hydration came reduced electrolytes, but in some nodes there was no spore to report, and no spore to listen. The system was compromised and would be hard to repair. Of course the spores replicated, each time like the last. Triggered by a death event, when one spore died off, another would replace them, single cell division at the slowest rate possible. There was no such thing as twins, there never had been and never would be. What was lost was lost forever and in all their time on this planet they had never been exposed to any micro-organism which could change this, but endure they would ... They had come this far and would not be dying out any time soon. As Gray remained by the console, still feeding his face, the memories of all his deaths were being linked together by detailed events which happened in between. Re-living all these events within a few minutes was a huge strain. Unable to take anymore, Gray collapsed to the ground in a heap; face down. The handful of green never made it into his mouth. The spores however were still very much active. "This food is all very well, but the liquid content is still too low to make any real difference to hosts hydration. We have to get him to water ..." With their host temporarily incapacitated, new dialogue was being opened up about the possible blunder which had just happened. "You have to find some way of slowing down the release of all his past death events, you're overloading his synapses ... There was no need to release the very early ones just yet. Can't you limit them to this planet only, before he regains consciousness?" "It's all very well you saying that, you're in main organ control. You have no idea what condition our host’s brain chemistry is in right now do you? Host’s brain has shrunk. With so little fluid in his entire body, it's impossible to generate the

right chemicals needed to close off memories in the way you are asking. For all our debating beforehand, this was probably going to be the result all along." Other nodes all began adding their weight to this renewed argument. They posited that host was offline because they had not heeded the lessons learned countless cycles before. Bad things happened before they sealed their host’s memory. A bad thing just happened again after they had unsealed his memory. “Host always functioned best without his mental baggage ...” “Well that’s not true is it? We all know that before the influx, sealed memories still used to bleed out, especially if triggered by a parallel event. So he has always been able to access his memories eventually.” “He had memory leakage yes, but never death events. As you say the leakage stopped after the influx.” All the spores credited the final security of their host’s mind to the sudden influx of knowledge. This was the accumulated knowledge given to him by Aelren upon ing Central. Following a death event, as usual Gray presented with amnesia, his memories were either disted, or missing completely. Some of the knowledge infused by Aelren, paralleled Gray’s memories closely enough to trigger recollection, but put in the middle of the knowledge, the context of these memories was transformed somewhat. At least some of this was by design on the part of the Prime. The final result was that Gray’s fragmented memories became stitched together so well, that Gray didn’t even realise the memories were his anymore. Convenient for Aelren ... Helpful for the spores. Before his final death their host had been taking much better care of himself than ever before. The final conundrum revealed itself ... "So what are you suggesting? We get him to water and then kill Host-" The node in the brain interjected. All spores situated there were in agreement. "Well it doesn't have to be violent, we let him drink, we let him sleep and then we slow him down to a stop. We can use what we need to close the open gates and get Host back on an even keel and sailing straight ..."

"OK then, so we are all in agreement that this is for the best?" Once again the spores were in harmony, and with this renewal of their best recipe for success; all were hopeful that Host Gray would move onwards to his former glory. They were however mindful of their host’s worries about emerging too soon, especially if he would have to die again one last time for the full reset to happen. None of them including Gray himself could have appreciated the shock the Numbers would suffer when they did allow Gray to emerge back into their midst. Two days later in engineering, something different finally happened. One of Oxull’s lucky Novus, sat at a console with his training partner of almost two thousand years, saw a light blinking way off to the right hand side of him; just inside the limit of his peripheral vision. The light indicated a malfunction. The source of the error seemed to be in the deepest bowels of the huge leviathan. -Hey ... Check this out ... -What? ... Oh ... That's strange. That deck hasn't been used for centuries, since Oxull implemented the power saving measures and began retiring the ship's unused decks. -I know ... So why would an inactive food station suddenly begin to dish out massive amounts of food rations? Ten an hour at first but now it's stopped again ... Should we report it? -Well if we follow procedure and report it, Oxull will get mad. It's an insignificant problem and he's very busy these days ... Where is he anyway? -In the Hangar doing maintenance to the Sphinx craft as usual ... Shall we check it out? -What and leave our post here? ... By the ancients you know I'd love to ... It would certainly make a change to being stuck in here ... -Mmm, I hear you ... It does get a bit monotonous. Let's wait until we get relieved tomorrow ... It'll take a while to walk down there though, a good few hours. I hate the lower decks too, they're dark and the ceilings are lower. -We could put the emergency lighting on down there at least.

-Someone would notice for sure .. What if they report it? -That's just a chance we have to take now isn't it? Novus were not given to needing adventure, but like most sentient beings they could easily fall victim to boredom; after all this was the very definition of life aboard Central for a Novus. Anything different from the norm became a huge magnet for them, drawing them towards a stern telling off. Thankfully, Oxull was not the sternest of the Numbers. That honour, probably fell squarely Aelren, with Leren, Geyldian and Ra'sian coming in t second. Both Novus decided that all they had to do was walk the few hours down to the lowest darkest deck and check out the fault. If they could repair the station they would've been fully justified. It would only be another nine hours before the pair would be relieved by the next shift. These final nine hours ed even more slowly, with the pair batting possible reasons for the malfunction back and forth at speed in the Old language. On such a low deck, the food station had been seldom used throughout the life of the ship ... “It’s nearly new, how can it malfunction like that?” “You’ll just have to wait, there’s no sense wasting thought on it.” Such devices would eventually have a full life, as spares for the higher decks. It was rare, but food stations could become completely unserviceable. The pair spitballed ideas; probably none of them applied to this situation. The fuse had been lit on the pair's under utilised but overactive imaginations ... At least the time ed ... Though no faster. If these had been medical Novus working under the expert tutelage of Leren, this malfunction may have raised an eyebrow for them. They would have immediately appreciated the location of the food station as the nearest to the final resting place of their fallen hero. The fact that Zero had been back with them for more than a decade might still have negated any connection, even from them. The engineering Novus were in no position to know. When their relief shift eventually entered the control room, the pair told their replacements in no uncertain of their intentions to check out the fault. -We will probably have to turn on the Emergency lighting for a short while, so when the indicator light flashes ... Ignore it.

-And please don’t report us to Oxull. This was a chance to gain extra credit. Stopping only to collect tools and a few basic parts, the pair began the long walk downwards ...

Chapter 21 - The endless climb.

SINCE REGAINING CONSCIOUSNESS, Gray was feeling much better. He’d picked himself up and begun eating again. Choosing not to repeat his mammoth eating feats of the day before, instead he only ate three more portions. Two nearly greens followed by an almost orange, only because Zero had never tried the orange before. In his own quarters there was one of only three food stations on Central which could deliver human food. Truth be told, Gray still felt weak; too weak to move too far very quickly. Despite several attempts, he still couldn’t jump there. This was just as well really as unbeknown to Gray; his old quarters were currently occupied by the three of the Albern family. Some years ago, the layout had been altered following the female influence of Joan. There was a strong possibility that if Zero had been able to jump, he would have definitely embedded himself into a couch or a lounge table, maybe even one of the occupants. That would not have ended happily. For now the original Zero resolved himself to just walking, in his current state it could take him a day, two max. He also had an overwhelming urge to find water and get a drink, his brain was rattling around inside his skull; the result was quite literally a massive headache. After an hour of walking almost straight upwards, climbing stair after stair inside the vertical shaft which, if Zero was correct would terminate at a middle deck, the newly hatched soldier to be was completely exhausted. Each step was equal to three human steps. The treads were configured for beings which were after all, over nine feet tall. With his legs numb from lactic acid, Gray could take no more; he decided to take a rest. -Holy crap ... I’m out of condition, I used to leap up these buggers. I feel knackered. This realisation was also made far worse when he saw the deck number on the stairwell landing just ahead of him. -FOUR ... Damn, I totally forgot that the lower ten decks are the equivalent of four decks high. I’m moving far too slowly. I can't even get off this stairwell until deck forty where it terminates. This would be Gray's last thought of the day. Overcome by exhaustion, Gray lay down on the step he’d been stood on. Built to suit the Devine, the steps were easily wide enough to be a bed. After curling up into a ball, falling asleep was

easy ...

TURNING OVER, GRAY’S head fell off the step. The momentary sensation of falling snapped him roughly back to consciousness. Still displaying enhanced reflexes, Zero had averted falling off the step and was now sat up, safe and secure. In the past, Zero hadn’t been prone to panic, he was always calm. Even now, avoiding a bump on the head Zero remained unfazed, and yet he was growing more uneasy by the second. The cause of Gray’s alarm were the voices approaching him, speaking the Old language ... This isn’t good. Gray wasn’t ready to be found, not yet. His pride wouldn’t allow him to be found in such a sorry state. The voices sounded only a few flights above his position. He had to hide, fast; but scanning the stairwell quickly Gray found his options for hiding were nil. The shaft was a smooth walled construction, all the light fittings were small and flush mounted. Zero shrugged his disapproval. -For the level of illumination these lights are putting out, why bother? The voices were descending steadily nearer but Zero would be damned before he’d escape by going back down the stairs. Having worked hard to get to where he was, Gray mustered his energy for a sprint up to the corner landing. As far as he was aware, he was still the only life form on board experienced in highly covert manoeuvres. Once on the landing, Gray melted into the dark corner, vanishing in plain sight. No light reached here; he felt secure in his gamble. The two figures, lit by their own small torch, were instantly recognisable as Novus. Their robes were engineering issue. The pair hadn’t stopped conversing once. As Zero watched them descend the stairs to his position, he hoped the Novus would be too distracted by their discussion to notice his shadowy form, secreted into the corner of the landing, trying to be small. “So you see there is no way that the power outage on deck 75 could ever cause this error. The power bundles feeding this food station come from the front of the ship ... Nowhere near the bundles which feed deck 75.” “OK, I take that on board but ...” The second Novus suddenly stopped talking, then he stopped walking.

Coincidentally he was inches in front of Zero who was now closing his mind and slowing his breathing. “What's up?” “Don't you smell that?” “Smell what?” “It smells like Wraith after a training session.” “What? ... Sweat? Impossible ... Wraith is on Mona right now with Zero. You know they're both interrogating the pilots from the captured Gekkoda again. You're imagining it ... Well come on! We have to be back on duty tomorrow. getting back up will take us twice as long.” “Okay, okay.” The second Novus now shone his light up the stairwell behind them, then he shone the torch down the stairwell in front of them. They were definitely alone. No one had been in this part of Central for Centuries as far as they knew. Zero was turning blue by the time the second Novus began to follow his compadre, who was now almost a flight ahead of him. This was the furthest distance Zero had ever witnessed a pair of Novus become separated, also it was the first time he had ever witnessed one of a pair become impatient with their partner. From the entire conversation Zero had only recognised two words. The first was Wraith, this had led to him biting down hard on his tongue in order to suppress an actual outburst. The second was his own name given to him by the clones ... Zero. Had they found a replacement for him? Didn't they need him anymore? Unmoving, Zero watched the shaft of torchlight and the silhouettes of the two Novus descend steadily lower. His own feelings of disconnection from the hive began to manifest themselves as fear again. Fear and loneliness. If Wraith was here on Central, or more to the point up above them all on Mona, this meant he too was now working for the clones. -What about Joan? How could Wraith leave her behind? The next thought was about himself and was a sobering one indeed.

-How long was I in stasis? Gray had no way of answering this question. He was just happy that the flashbacks from before seemed to have stopped. As scary as these memories had been, the thought that his family no longer needed him was worse. Deep inside the spores were missing nothing. Chemically converted, each and every thought was being piped straight to them from their host. Once again they released a subliminal message ... Water. Again Zero was refocused. Watching the torchlight fade below him he turned the other way, continuing to climb the huge stairs; more quickly than before.

WITHIN TWENTY MINUTES the Novus, ergonomically suited to the size of the stairs, were at the bottom of the shaft. A few more steps lead them into the head of the corridor where the malfunctioning gack station was installed. The pair instantly realised they were in the correct place. Shining their torch, a few scraps of nutrient jelly still remained on the floor. “That's odd ...” “Indeed ...” “The log shows that in the last two days this station issued over fifty portions. No one is here to eat them ...” “So where are they?” “Indeed ...” It took only five minutes to run a diagnostic which showed all the food stations systems were functioning optimally. As they had both theorised, the replicator was in dusty but as new condition. Looking closer, the Novus observed a two inch long fingerprint in the dust on the interface. Glued to this by some greasy residue, was a small hair. Evident across the print were three ridges. The two Novus were scratching their heads at this discovery. There were also residual amounts of green, pink and orange nutrient portions smeared across the keypad. At the end of one of the smears, there were five in all forming an arc from left to right, there seemed to be an impression. The Novus may have been engineers in training, but neither was that specialised that they couldn't recognise a human fingerprint. Both were used to being visited by Wraith. In his earliest days onboard, his tenacious nature had seen him pressing all kinds of buttons, which caused some unique problems. The least of these being large greasy fingerprints which the Novus had been tasked by Oxull to remove. clones did not have sweat glands, as such this was a completely new problem for the Novus. A problem the pair had almost cheated in order to solve. Far below the normal remit of the Human Network, the Novus had put in a request for one standard can of household furniture polish. It was actually

Geyldian who brought said product aboard Central. The Second was highly sympathetic to the Novus problem, having been exposed to Wraith’s grubby paws for the first nine years of Wraith's life at their family home in Sheffield. The young lad had been into everything. This was really the only reason Geyldian had kept his attic space locked, having never left anything which may expose him or the clones inside the space. “It's a fingerprint.” “Human?” “Well yeah ...” Holding up his own hand as evidence. “We don't have swirls and ridges see ... Tiny dimples. It's Human.” “Wraith or Joan then ... They're the only humans we have on board.” “Well there's another problem. Joan only has tiny hands and ...” “Wraith's are huge. So who's prints are they?” “I dunno ... But now I don't see how we avoid reporting this anymore, we have an unknown human stowaway somewhere down here. We need to let the Numbers know.” “Whoever it was you're saying they ate fifty food rations in two days? That's a huge volume of food. Maybe it's a family of Humans!” “Sometimes I wonder if you're a Thrall who hatched wrong. You don't think we'd notice a bunch of unknown humans running around in the bottom of the ship? OH and don't forget the fact they all seem to be fully conversant with how to use our alien technology. By the Ancients!” The strange curling of lips from the second Novus was showing his embarrassment at his earlier farfetched speculations. They were out of character; but then the whole situation was odd. Now twenty four flights of stairs higher than where he’d encountered the two

Novus, Gray was moving as quickly as he could, but he still hadn’t found a source of water. There were some food stations which could produce water, having been reprogrammed to do so specifically for Zero. They all lay dotted around the higher decks, more accurately they lay along routes which Zero would have been likely to walk along whilst conducting his normal duties around Central. There had been plenty of places on board where Zero had never gone. The sting of it was he couldn’t hide until after he’d found water, thereby risking all out exposure. Twenty four more flights and Gray knew he was somewhere around deck Nine. Once again voices could be heard. Finally he had reached decks with an active crew presence. After deck Ten there were even occasional exits, every couple of decks. Zero made sure to check for gack stations. None were equipped to produce water, but at least the coloured goop allowed him a meal and a small rest. It was never long before Zero would hurriedly move on again, ever upwards. Every two flights now meant another deck was reached; now progress would be four times faster. ing deck thirty-two, and Zero had to stop, he was tired, but that wasn't the reason. A sound had caught his ears. - The Novus! They must’ve finished what they were doing. Now they’re going back to engineering control. If Zero understood the Old language even a little bit, he would’ve known that he was the reason the Novus were on the move. If he hadn't felt so groggy since resparking due to his diminished reserves, he would've had the presence of mind to use more than one food station, thereby leading them on a merry old dance. The vanishing act Zero had pulled before couldn’t be repeated, these decks were in general use. Despite their low placement in the vessel, this part of the shaft was much better lit, not brightly; but there was certainly no way he could stand in a darkened corner and hold his breath ... Not this time. Rushing upwards to find the next exit, the work out was not appreciated, though the stairs remained the same regular giant pitch, the cramps in his legs were creating the illusion that they were in fact slowly increasing in both vertical pitch and horizontal length. Deck thirty four was a godsend, this deck had clearly felt the touch of Oxull's modernisation to improve power efficiency, there was no door, but there was a vent cover which Zero recognised as being of the new type with no fasteners ... -Phew ... That’s a relief.

Placing his fingers inside the grill and a sharp upwards tug, about as much as he could currently muster, and the cover was off. Climbing inside Gray tried to pull the grating back onto the orifice, he just didn't have the strength. The cover was finally seated just as the Novus rounded the corner landing. Still lost in conversation, the pair ed him by, as their voices faded, Gray fell asleep. For the spores deep within Zero, the efforts of their fortress had resulted in no net gains, but thankfully no further depletion either. Zero had taken on coincidentally as much goop as he had needed to keep going and no more. He remained dehydrated, but no worse so. The colony thought about completing their plan to force a reset of their host as he slept; but without enough fluid, the regeneration would only end with more colonial losses. This was unacceptable. For now the plan was simply to allow their host to recharge. They in turn would hasten this process and attempt to rob any excess fluids they could spare to take away the pain in their host’s head. Too many times in this day had he been stricken by panic. It was clear that their fortress was crumbling. Unless he regained his mental calm, tomorrow would very probably see him being discovered. In a new argument, some of the nodes believed that being discovered may actually yield the fastest route to recovery. In the forty or so cycles before the last death event, the spores had come to realise that they were not alone in their need to see host survive. The beings who shared this current habitat also seemed invested in his wellbeing. If they’d known that all host’s injuries since 1945 had been sustained in the service of these beings, maybe the spores would have thought differently; but this was the life of a spore. They did not see or hear any of their host’s experiences directly. They could never know exactly what was on their host’s mind, or what mood he may be in. Everything they knew was gleaned through involuntary chemical signals, over which their host had absolutely no control. This was all they needed, and after all this the nodes situated in the brain had become pretty adept at reading and catag memories, after the fact. They were never able to use this information directly ...

Chapter 22 - Can a Repton change their scales?

FAR ABOVE ON MONA, the young, manufactured and in amazingly good physical condition Zero MkII was with Wraith. They were getting to know more about the Reptons whom Zero had removed like sardines from their tiny flying tin can. Zero made no secret of the fact he’d been the one to take them down. This had only put the Khai pilots on guard and so the going had been slow. Not as slow Wraith thought, as his father's lack of judgement to goad the Khai as he had done. At the end of the day Wraith knew why he was there. Simply put he was bigger than Geyldian and no longer harboured any misgivings about the fact that his strength could hurt his father. Having endured so many endless training sessions against him, Wraith knew he was capable of bringing his dad down if needed, quickly, and with far more control now. Wraith's only problem was staying undistracted by the thoughts whirling round inside his head. These thoughts were many and wide ranging. At the lesser end of the scale, why was his father pursuing such a rash line of questioning? And in such an amateur manner? He was far more experienced than he was showing, which was more akin to the behaviour of a rookie in such matters. “Could you get me a drink son? ... A nice glass of water please.” The worst of these thoughts was that his father had single handedly torn his way through an entire bridge crew of Khai officers less than two weeks ago, and while he seemed calm and had carried out an excellent mission in the previous day's, his father seemed to be different today ... No focus. Take this morning for example, Zero had not been in their family room aboard Mona when Wraith had first woken. Checking nearby and not finding his father, a search ensued. Zero had been asleep in one of the main stairwell shafts which almost ran half the height of the ship from the base to the lower mid-level decks. When Wraith nudged him awake, Zero brushed past him into the first corridor he could find to grab some colour from a food station. His dad hated the Clone's food, almost more than he hated the Khai. There was another thing. His father had never laid eyes on a Khai outside the record. Not until the mission to repurpose the missile. To hate the lizards that much, seemed irrational. Like a person who hates something without trying it or even knowing it; just because they'd been told this object or person was bad. His

father was not normally so cut and dry, preferring to make up his own mind. Wraith knew that the Devine had beef with the Khai over their home world; but come to that, none of the clones had never seen Khai in the flesh before the hangar incident. The clones were caretakers only, not bred for fighting, this was why the Devine had created the Ninurtan, millions of them. The clones were strictly to form an intelligent interface for the coordination of these huge blue soldiers, then later to man outposts far flung throughout space so that following Devine ships had some , and crumbs to follow should they need. The final function was as an early warning system to get word to the new Devine Prime should any encounters with the Khai ever actually occur. Indeed Aelren and Ra'sian had fulfilled this task with the perfection of Thrall, after the moon landing incident. Wraith found their hatred of the Khai to be somewhat irrational too, based on the speed with which his father had levelled them all in the hangar. -Well dad was operating on some higher level of heathen during that incident, the Khai crew had no chance to show their metal. The final and possibly the single largest alarm bell for Wraith was the fact that the young man had been having these thoughts without particularly shielding them for over two hours. Ordinarily his father would at the very least shoot him an angry glance, worst case scenario would be a jab in the ribs, but always there would be an acknowledgment to mind his mental tone. Today ... No ... For a while, Wraith couldn't quite pinpoint for how long ... There’d been nothing. Wraith could not even sense his father mentally. It certainly wasn't that his father had closed his channels, far from it, every now and again there was leakage, so Wraith knew that Zero was connected to someone ... Somewhere, but who? It wasn't any of the clones. Wraith's mental enquiries were all answered with negative responses. Was his father being hijacked mentally. A new phrase becoming more common on the surface of Earth due to the boom of computer technology was “hacked”. When some nefarious computer would take over the functions of a computer which wasn’t their own, and subtly steal secrets from under the noses of the computers owner. The most notorious hacks were however far from subtle, normally what was taken was easy to determine and the message would be loud and clear. His father going berserk in the hangar seemed like a message so loud it was impossible to ignore. Your greatest weapon is under our control. Of course Wraith could find

nothing to substantiate his theory, which was just the mental ramblings of a young man with very little real world experience. Leren had performed regular s of Zero's mental print since the event and had found nothing to indicate any outside influence. The only brain waves present on the scans were those of Zero. Though even Leren had to it that the scans didn’t look anything like usual prints from the calmest human he had ever met. Given that Zero's new brain was more Thrall than human, Leren did not see this as any great detractor in the status of Zero's mental health. Who was Wraith to argue? Whilst the consciousness was his father's, the shell most assuredly wasn't. The scrapbook made for him when he was little, still one of his most prized possessions told him that. His dad had been a big man, but not the hulkian mish-mosh of species he was now. Leren and Eight both denied the fact, but Wraith thought maybe Zero's manufactured body was beginning to break down. It did seem to the lad that while his father kept performing his missions as expected with positive outcomes all round, Leren had no incentive to dig deeper. Wraith remained distracted, while his father paraded around the room with his arms waving around; raising and lowering them almost frantically as the stubborn lizards really dug their heels in. The whole scene was quite a spectacle, then in the side of Wraith's head was a tingling. The tingling emerged into a voice, that voice belonged to the Prime. -I tried to raise Zero but I couldn't get him, I know he's down here somewhere, I keep feeling him. Wraith felt obliged to correct the Oldest Clone. - Sorry Aelren, my dad’s right here, I don't know how you can sense him, I'm two feet away and if I shut my eyes it's like he's not there at all. This interview is a waste of time, my father has just about shot himself right in the A...... -Oh Dear, it seems like maybe Zero is having an off day. -He's off alright, and I've no idea if or when he's coming back. Something is definitely distracting him; I could've done this interview better when I was seven.

-Come now dear boy, it is not time yet for the student to become the master, you say your father is there with you? ... That's most odd, I would swear by the ancients that I can feel your father here on Central. Most odd indeed as he cannot be in two places at once now can he. -No, not even he can do that. -I'll send Geyldian, he can draw a line under whatever it is that Zero is doing and then the Lizards won't have to say much of anything. -Actually I already dove inside the Lizards minds, they aren't part of an organised force, the Dragon class ship was flagging as it ed nearby our system. When they sensed Khai weaponry they thought that they might be able to get hold of much needed spares. The Gekkoda were about the only things working aboard the Dragon. They need help or the remaining crew will be dead inside a month or so, and the damage Zero inflicted will only have hurried this deadline. All the indications I can sense from the pilots suggest they were all alone in this sector, we know that a Komodo class dropped them here, but the crew don’t expect that ship to return. They only hitched a ride for a few parsecs until they could bring their reactor back online. Currently it's down again. That's all I learned. -Well done my boy. Well before Wraith saw Geyldian, the familiar psychic tittering filled his gourd. This was annoying enough, but the young man who was himself extremely powerful mentally, couldn't understand how his human alien hybrid Uncle managed to get the sounds to echo. In effect it was like Geyldian was saying he was empty headed, which he knew was not the case. Geyldian appeared in a mid-sized pop and was clearly still tickled by Wraith's unease. -Oh calm down you know I'm only teasing, I used to do the same thing to your father ... In fact I was trying to again just now, but I can see you and the Prime are correct. Zero is completely off in another place. Now wanting to put the befuddled super soldier out of his miserable frustration at not getting any information from the Khai, the second in command resorted to speaking English, just to ensure he got his friends attention. "Zero, that'll do. We have everything we need now ... Well done."

"What?! ..... OK then, I'll be in my room." -I need to think about what just happened! Just like flicking a switch, Zero was there, both physically and mentally. To both his son and his best friend the sharpness which made Zero ... well Zero, had returned. In an instant he had shot a look of scorn at the Khai pilots and then disappeared with a loud bang and sparks. -He's upset, I don't ever seeing him like that before. Well once, the day you were born but maybe that was joy, the two appear to look the same on Zero's face. -I don't think he's upset so much as he is wondering what the hell is going on inside his own head. He is sharp now but the look he shot the Khai would seem to indicate he knew what he was doing but just couldn't stop himself, and he doesn't know why. The Khai pilots were getting restless, as the huge pair just seemed to be shooting knowing glances at each other. Occasionally they raised an eyebrow or frowned. The silence was only being punctuated, or maybe perforated by the harsh guttural grunts and hisses of the pilots themselves. The door to the interrogation room slid open and in walked three blue Ninurtan brutes. Now the pilots fell silent, they had all heard stories. ed down through endless generations, these centered around the huge blue beasts whose savagery alone should have beaten them back to their own ball of lava. They were at the finish only bested by the Devine, who had never let the Ninurtan run amok. Always needing to play the bigger race by staying enlightened, the Devine had again proven incapable of slaying an entire race. Nonetheless, the Ninurtan could have very easily overthrown their masters. These were the rumours ... Now the pilots wondered what was in store for them. They knew that even though this vessel looked and smelled exactly the same as where they had initially been rescued to, they had in fact been whisked to an altogether different place. It hadn't taken psychic communication or even words for them to realise the best prison was one which was impossible to run from. They were now aboard the ship trapped on the small moon with no breathable atmosphere. The Caretakers hadn’t shown any violence toward them but ing one deck

there had been the faint residual smell of the blood of their brethren. This only added to their frustration at being caged up. The not knowing how they might die, maybe only at the ing of a whim from some Caretaker who had never even shed blood or tasted battle was in itself almost enough to kill them. Geyldian was sensing everything, making a mental note to get the hangar scrubbed yet again. The Second jumped away to report to Aelren. Wraith followed the six others out of the room and down the corridor. Considering the Khai had given Zero no answers, albeit the questions had ranged from idiotic to irrelevant, their medium sized lizard brains were leaking their thoughts thick and fast. They were confused, how could a soldier great enough to take them out, be such a massive skink at interrogation? Were they about to be killed just because they couldn't find any answers to his silly stream of questions? Wraith put his hand on one of the soldiers, and while the two could not see the other as anything but an enemy, Wraith's touch had no malice, conveying only warmth. The sharp bordering on frantic look in the lizard’s eyes melted away. It was clear to the pilot now that even though the clones and their kind were mortal enemies of old, they did not want a full scale war. The pilots had never known peace, since birth Khai young were indoctrinated with the need to find land and seize it, war was a means to this end. Now though the pilot saw that even though this giant human was clearly a capable fighter, his mind was at peace and above all else this was his motivator. He would not fight because he wanted to, but because it was necessary to defend his way of life. The Khai pilot was a seasoned veteran, he knew from vast experience how to strike at an enemy. This was the reason he had lead his crew away from the main pack, alone in search of a more meaningful target. Now though even he found the Khai's current motives to be rooted in nothing more than pure greed. He'd never even set foot on the prize his ancestors had stolen from the caretakers creators. In fact most Khai commanders didn’t even know which sector of space their home world lay in. Yet he had spent every day after his thirteenth cycle fighting in some form or another, rising through the ranks to become a Gekkoda commander. He was tired of killing and of death, and not just because he gained nothing from it. For a long time he had simply been following orders, the wind had gone out of his belief in the fact that the Khai had any right or need to acquire more land. Every time was just like the last; their ships would surround a planet and demand complete submission. Most of the inhabitants on these worlds had been ready to die for their way of life. So much so, that in this soldier’s

experience, not one planet had ever actually surrendered, even as their planets grew ever more barren and polluted from weapons fallout, they had never given in. Was peace so great that people would rather die than give it up? This could be the Khai soldier’s only conclusion, but more than this; he wanted a taste. The fact that the enemy was capable of looking past their quarrel to find a peaceful alternative made the Khai soldier hopeful that he could change. If only he was lucky enough to be given the chance. Right now, as far as he could see, the enemy would give him all the time in their world; in stark contrast to his superiors who wouldn’t hesitate to kill him on the spot if he’d ever voiced such thoughts. Every second that Wraith's hand rested on the soldier’s shoulder, so his faith in violence began to fade more and more. By the time the seven had reached the cell where the Khai would be secured, he was ready to sit on his hands through whatever conflict followed. Maybe he could even find some redemption by helping to fend off his marauding species. That might be a bridge too far at this point, such a thing would take far more trust between them than existed at this moment, but maybe in time. -Maybe in time ... Wraith's words to the soldier had the Ninurtan turning to look, they had never seen a human or clone make such alien noises. Understanding could be reached through a translator chip, but with Khai-mah, no understanding could ever be had. This was the universally strong opinion of all Ninurtan ...

Chapter 23 - The Edge of Madness.

AELREN, STILL CERTAIN he could feel Zero on board Central was occupied trying to monitor the beings on Mona to see if he could Wraith's statement that his father was still holed up in his quarters there. Now wasn't a good time as the moon was behind the Earth from Central’s position just off the Floridian coast; but the Old Prime was doing his best. Besides his stricken super soldier, there were only a few beings with whom Aelren was directly concerned. Geberus and Kariina were still working, and sometimes frolicking their way through the miles of cabling which comprised the new deep space scanner array. The pair told Aelren that the scanner was a work in progress which they would keep moving when nothing else was a priority. Aelren wasn’t brought to Central on the last banana boat. He knew the array conduits were very private indeed. He also knew that for some time the two had been meeting up there; for a few moments of what Aelren preferred to call ... Togetherness. Truth was he didn't mind. Both of them were exceptionally talented, they deserved some downtime. That the two of them had now fallen in love was a first, but Aelren wasn't going to discourage it. In the past Numbers like his old Prime, Geyldian’s father, had always been curious about love, but seldom had the wits or opportunity to do anything about it. When they did it always involved going for a long walk around the planet. For the sake of convenience and perhaps, harmony; all clones were genetically male. They could never find a mate aboard Central, so they left. Most never returned and this presented a problem, sometimes leaving holes in the Circle of Numbers. Holes which Aelren had filled himself, this was why he’d taken to personally monitoring all the cloned souls of Earth and when he could, the ones on Mona also. For a long time such a gap had existed in the circle but following his system for selection the Old Prime had found the Novus who could step up. Currently he was stationed upon Mona. This elevation in rank and status had been halted only when the troubles with Khai Missiles became a real and terrifying prospect. Oxull had petitioned for the help of his old mentor Jer-Mija. Aelren had predicted nothing good coming as a result but had been pleasantly surprised by the performance of his old engineering and science officer, so much so that he had more or less allowed him

to reassume his position within the Circle of Numbers. That decision had made for a very awkward conversation. The Novus had been so close to ing the Numbers that Aelren had already allowed him to start looking through the book of names; from which a Novus would christen himself upon his ascension to the Circle of Numbers. Aelren was pleased that the Novus was gracious enough to step down and wait for another chance. Aelren saw this as the resultant benefit of the long held customs and beliefs of the Devine clones. In all this time the system had never changed, because it worked well ... After more time than the task really warranted, Aelren still couldn't sense Zero on board the lunar vessel, which was a concern ... It seemed like weeks that Gray had been inhabiting the vent, in fact it had only been a matter of days; most of these were spent sleeping. The sleep Gray was getting certainly wasn't restful, nor was it helping his recovery. Horrific visions filled Gray’s sleeping mind, but the problem was these visions were too well formed to be the random product of a tired or dehydrated mind. Gray knew they were much more likely to be actual memories. Trying to concentrate; to clear his mind, hard; yielded no results. Even drifting out of consciousness with a clear mind, Gray would eventually wake with a start; gripped by terror. The only plus side seemed to be that as hot as his body became inside the vent whilst in the grip of these deep psychological revelations, his body would never sweat. The quest for water, a desperate priority only a few days before had now become less so. First he’d need to find the strength to climb out of the vent and stand. The longer he stayed inside the vent, so this simple goal would slip further outside the bounds of his capability. If the Numbers could see him now ... Gray didn’t have the energy to laugh at such an absurd thought. Instead he did manage to muster a wry curl in just one corner of his mouth. With his energy newly expended, Gray sank back into a deep sleep. The curled lip still fixed on his face. It was impossible, the spores inside Gray's body knew that their host was trapped. Not only by his bodily weakness, but they also sensed an ever growing apathy. It was quite possible that even their host knew he was dying and simply did not have the energy left to do anything productive. Of course the colony did not want to lose any more . Being in such

close balance with their host, there was a threshold of operational stability. Below this full functionality was lost. At 93% the colonial numbers had fallen almost below that functional level already. Further losses would not be allowed, yet the colony were unanimous in their aim to get their host rehydrated. After this their host could safely die, by which they meant returned to his regeneration mode. The strain of them triggering horrific recollections, just to keep his heart beating was something their host would just have to put up with ... Since his interrogation of the Gekkoda Crew, Zero had remained on Mona. From inside his doldrums he replayed the interview in his mind over and over. Initially he found the memory of his idiotic actions so amusing he’d doubled over with laughter. This had Wraith and Geyldian rushing to his room. Unfortunately this levity was short lived, the laughter having automatically spawned a period of reflection, which was followed by abject disbelief. Currently Zero was in the final phase ... Hopelessness and depression at how useless he'd become; rock bottom wasn't far away now. Wraith continued to pop in but was in fact prepared to play second fiddle to his mother who had arrived on Mona the evening of the interrogation and hadn't left since. The pair had talked at length, but no amount of reassurance was able to crack Zero's rapidly diminishing self-image. Occasionally Zero slept, once he appeared so tired he could no longer string words together. During these times Joan was able to slip away to consult her mentor Leren, relating all the facts of the day to the Old physician. Leren was quite lost also it seemed. If anything he wondered if some of the controls which had been put inside Zero's Thrall derived brain after he ran amok had begun to become counterproductive to Zero's mental state. None of the Numbers had ever experienced Zero at any level less than his sharp best. It was difficult for them to reconcile their own growing feelings of helplessness at not being able to help their friend. Soon enough Joan was called back to Earth, it seemed her duties only increased, taking up ever more of her time. All were hopeful that Zero was still himself. As he said goodbye to his partner on the hangar deck, for the briefest of moments the pair held hands, cuddled and finally kissed. Both said goodbye as if the previous long week had never happened. The spark of their relationship remained undiminished.

Almost immediately after Joan's Caddy had taken off, Zero's own mood had changed. Ever the soldier, Zero was fighting to get better. The clones hoped that being in possession of the largest stubborn streak in the galaxy, Zero would be able to talk sternly to himself, as no-one else would; then drag himself back to the land of the mostly functional. In the next few days, progress was made in leaps and bounds with Zero even pulling into see Leren in the medical lab. It seemed Zero was having nightmares, typically Zero remained unaffected by these. Zero was only falling down in his analysis of these dreams by virtue of the fact that he couldn’t recall them once awake. These experiences, over time were slowly wearing Zero down through lack of sleep and the inability to shake off the feeling that the dreams were relevant to him; even though the dreams didn’t strike any chord with his own memory ...

Chapter 24 - Nice weather for lizards.

THE NEXT DAY, AND BACK inside her New York office on Earth, Wraith had brought the three Khai pilots to see Joan. Her son had then spoken at length to vouch for the three. His goal was to petition Joan to free up resources and launch an evacuation attempt of the dying Dragon carrier ship. The vessel was still listing ominously, in high Earth orbit. Oxull enjoyed assisting Joan, the pair made a great team. The engineer extrapolated that the Dragon would fall out of its rapidly decaying orbit in around two months. Of course with massive hull breaches, and failing power causing unreliable containment fields, the crew would all be dead about six weeks before that happened without help. Joan used a translator chip to converse freely with the commander and his two underlings; this was necessary for Joan’s evaluation. The Khai stated their intention to the forces of Earth's efforts to repel their marauding brethren. But were they sincere? Things were going well ... Too well ... Joan would not have considered herself to be thorough unless ... "What about your fallen comrades? The ones who were killed in the hangar up on Mona. You could smell them ... Correct?" The silence was deafening as the Commander, elected spokesperson for the Khai considered his answer. His face betrayed the slightest hint of anger at the ission, his brow furrowed to alter the shape of his eyes which became much sharper, darting around the room in frustration. "Of course we could all smell our fallen comrades. Their blood must've been thick on the walls to create such a stench. In my own mind I can imagine a great battle ..." "You'd be wrong commander, and I feel no reason to let you indulge yourself with such an error." Joan interrupted the commander in full flow, the furrows in his brow had already begun to flatten and retreat as he thought of the hell his fallen comrades might have wrought on the caretakers ship before they were brought to heel in the only way a Khai soldier wants to go ... battle. Joan continued to explain. "We tried to interrogate your comrades, they gave us no particular problem even though they were all taken from their ship, in space ... And by one man ... Their

ship, and the rest of their crew were destroyed." This was like Joan had pushed the nuclear panic button rumoured to be on the desk in the Oval Office of the White House. The three Khai were incensed at the thought of their fellows being abducted without a struggle. "If our Khai brothers posed no problem for you then why would they end up butchered?" "Good question, unfortunately I have no answer to that, but let me explain. You are here today because my own son vouched for you. He said you and your crew were ready to stand down ... maybe even to help us. You will understand of course that I cannot simply take the word of my son. Wraith is no fool, but he is young and as such can be idealistic. I on the other hand have to find out the truth of the matter, the consequences of not doing so could be most grave for this planet. I know the reputation of the Khai-mah. When I mentioned your fallen comrades, you were ready to murder me where I sat, that's the truth. Wraith here would have taken you out before you had even gotten halfway towards me. That's the truth also. The point is that despite your bold intimations towards peace, you are ready for war. Despite my son’s willingness to put his trust in you, he would still have killed you. Do you see our problem?..." "Trust ... There can be no alliance without trust ..." "Correct. Listen closely ... Your reaction to my next statement will determine your fate, by which I mean seal your doom or forge a strong partnership ..." There was a pause as Joan took a deep breath and thought deeply about revealing the identity of the man who killed the Khai crew on Mona. Wraith was mentally silent, but internally he was ready to pounce should this go the way nine out of ten people might have predicted it would. "The man who killed your comrades was one of our best soldiers ... You've met him in fact, during your interrogation on the moon. He was also the man who single handedly captured the crew and destroyed their ship. Now hear this!" The warm visage upon Joan's face and the direct tone of her voice changed now, to reveal a burning intensity, a look which cut straight through the battle hardened skins of the Khai before her. The three began to wonder again if their time might be about to end ... Before she spoke again.

"The death of your comrades was an unforeseen tragedy, for which I must apologise wholeheartedly. Zero showed no sign of his impending violent outburst. The episode happened completely without warning but was triggered by the commander of the Khai crew himself. In a last desperate act, with his probable realisation that there would be only imprisonment with no possibility of escape; your commander attempted to kill his comrades, right before our eyes. Zero stepped in to subdue him, but somewhere along the line he sustained an injury which ignited something within him. The rest is better explained if I show you ..." "Mother ... You can't!" "Wraith! know your place! We owe them an explanation ... The truth. Then these Khai will know that their men did die in battle ... Albeit a meaningless accidental one, but nonetheless instigated by the Khai themselves!" "It's not your place to make that decision ... The Prime ... If he finds out ..." "He already knows my intentions and has approved them. Please Wraith, I'm only a human, but I'm not stupid, neither am I feeling particularly rebellious. I talk with Aelren far more than you ... So indulge me." Joan now turned her back on the three Khai, picked up her remote and activated the screen in her office. What was shown was clearly identifiable as the hangar on the ship where the three had been interrogated. The three watched as the scene began exactly as Joan had described. The Khai commander had actually studied with his counterpart, in another Galaxy onboard a huge Komodo class ship where both had been born. As such he understood that this particular commander had always been a little yellow, never seeing real action to toughen him up. His last battle then had been fought with violent desperation to survive following his cowardly act of murder against his own son. Zero's action he confirmed, had begun honourably enough. The large human did not have anything but clarity and calm written on his face; a dangerous error against a Khai soldier who coward or not, had still been trained to kill. The human was gaining the upper hand until the commander had liberated a huge chunk of thigh muscle from the human. Then things took a dark turn, Zero's face had still been calm, but was now completely vacant. His human side was no longer on the premises. What followed was no more than twenty seconds

of carnage, or a masterclass of both the use of an awkward weapon, and the application of massive amounts of force ... depending upon which species you were. The Gekkoda captain now watched in awe and terror. Never had he seen any squad of Khai taken down so brutally or quickly. Despite his apparent ineptitude at interrogation on the ship called Mona, he was a formidable soldier and a definite killer. Joan pressed the remote to end the recording and turn off the screen. As she turned around the commander saw a solitary tear still tracing its way down Joan's face. The droplet followed the creases and undulations in Joan’s face, downwards until it dripped from her chin, onto her blouse. "You would cry for our men?... But why?" "You are only half right commander, yes I am crying for your fallen comrades, but you were not the only one who lost someone that day. My partner, Wraith's father hasn’t been himself since that day. He was able to capture you sure, but he hasn’t completely returned from the precipice you just watched him dive from. Something changed in him that day. He knows he went too far, but only because we showed him the same footage. He doesn’t anything after sustaining the injury. I cannot say that what happened was purely an accident, Zero is a soldier after all; but it was out of the blue and out of character for him. Now every day sees him living in great distress from which he seems unable to return." The lizard commander had been trained from birth to find and exploit weakness, and the Alien woman in front of him was making it too easy for him. He’d only known one of the other Lizards he’d just witnessed being slaughtered. Normally their deaths would've been the flame which lit his fuse for battle. Now though despite everything he’d been shown, he remained strangely ambivalent, he couldn't even bring himself to raise a temper. A glance either side told him that his crew wanted blood, their tongues were flicking rapidly, accompanied by a series of guttural moans and noises only he would be able to hear due to their frequency. The biggest challenge now of his already challenging life would be to calm his men and swing their bloodlust around. He wanted the bloodshed to end, but it wouldn't work if he couldn't convince his men to him. In the long run it might not work anyway. The Khai were almost infinite, and thoroughly dispersed throughout every sector of space. He could convince thousands to lay down their arms and the first two Komodo to drop out of hyperspace would kill

them all within the hour. It was hopeless, but nonetheless Joan's humanity and Wraith's calm were even now pushing him towards peace. Steeling himself to try, he asked the two humans for a moment alone with his men. Joan and Wraith complied, once Wraith gave a nod to Joan, the giant young man already knew what the commander was about to undertake. Wraith jumped to a nearby security console with his mother; determined to jump back to the commander should his endeavour hit the skids. From the console the pair could see and hear all, though there was no point to the latter as the noises being exchanged mainly by the commander were completely incomprehensible to the two onlookers. For a moment it looked as if the two subordinates may overthrow their leader, Wraith was preparing his mental image of the meeting room to jump back when Joan grasped her son’s hand to intercede. The two subordinate’s mood seemed to suddenly calm before their eyes, the commanders volume also dropped. After a few more minutes the three of them seemed to rest back into their familiar stoop with their heads hung. The commander turned to where he’d seen the camera with its LED blinking in the corner and raised his hand to signal the pair to return. A resolution had been reached. Once Joan and Wraith had returned to the conference room, the commander explained that the three of them had been through many battles together. In all this time his crew had never found reason to question his orders or challenge him. He had made the decisions which had kept them alive. If he thought that this next battle was worth the effort, no matter the outcome, then his crew was ready to follow him all the way. Initially the pair had questioned why he would want to throw down his arms in the name of peace. He had simply reminded them how formidable the Khai were, and that a battle against their own kind would truly be a battle worth fighting. In addition he had managed to make them question their indoctrinated Khai goals. The pair were even now mulling over in their lizard brains, the possible injustice of their lives work, and that maybe, just maybe the Khai struggle for land was no longer rooted in survival but just mired in greed. While they could not say this for certain, their commander had convinced them that finding out would be the mother of all battles. In short, the most fun they would have in their lives; where they may actually die for a worthy cause. The

commander convinced them that even though their enemies the caretakers were ensconced on this planet, and that saving the planet meant saving them directly also; his primary goal was to try and assist the humans to keep their planet. After the meeting, Wraith used all his power to jump the three Khai to an animal sanctuary in India. This was one of his most favourite places to visit on the whole planet. Wraith became aware of the Khai threat very soon after he and his mother had moved permanently onto Central. Following this the boy had become nearly obsessed with reptiles of all kinds. This reserve was famous for helping snakes which had become a menace within communities all across India. Sometimes they were studied, mostly they were milked to make antivenom to ship to local hospitals, but all were kept alive. “I wanted to bring you all here to show you how humans already live in harmony with reptiles. While they are sometimes a menace to us, this place offers a unique habitat for reptiles of all kinds, this is preferable to killing them. In the past humans have been responsible for wiping out species, but in the last century we are becoming far more concerned with the preservation of all Earth’s species. We are the highest form of life on this planet, but there are far more species who exhibit better cooperation and harmony, insects for example have a far better handle on this than we do. Humans are a fairly selfish species, goal oriented for their own ends ... does that sound familiar?” As the four walked towards what looked like an old school building, built before the land was given over to the reserve; Wraith informed them that now these buildings housed one of the largest herpetological research facilities anywhere in the world. The giant alien enhanced human continued to inform the three Khai that Reptiles were present on all the land masses of Earth apart from the coldest places. India was particularly well suited for reptiles, as the humidity suited their needs. Feeling very comfortable indeed, the three Khai nodded in agreement. Walking into the lab Wraith was met by the director of the facility, the two knew each other very well or Wraith would not have gained entry so easily. Coupled with the fact that Wraith was accompanied by three six foot bipedal reptiles similar to Komodo dragons and entry had been guaranteed. The Khai were pleased to see that in fact they had been very late arriving to Earth and it seemed as if many other species of reptiles had beaten them. This fact only seemed to ease their minds and convince them even more that they

could make their lives on this planet. Wraith took them to see the director’s pride and Joy, a relocated King Cobra. The Three Khai understood all the information about the huge six metre long snake, except one. The humans referred to the snake as King, but these reptiles did not seem to form any delicate social hierarchy. Wraith explained that there were a few snakes whose name was preceded by the word King, and that this typically meant that they feasted upon other lesser species of snakes and lizards. This the Khai did not understand, in fact the information seemed to fill them with both dread and disgust in equal measure. One of the Khai crew couldn't contain his contempt for the brother less beast, leaning forward to the glass and uttering a single word in English. The noise was guttural like a deep growl, but Wraith still understood the word ... Cannibal. At this the long snake reared up, spreading his hood to maximum width, all the time swaying slightly back and forth, measuring the range to this new foe. Wraith explained that the snake had no natural predators, he was at the top of the tree inside his habitat. At this point the snake was now sizing him up as a meal. The Khai pilot instantly recoiled backwards from the glass, as impossible as it would have been, the thought of being eaten by this snake was abhorrent to him. Wraith reminded him that the way this snake was acting was hardly any different from the Khai who would devour everything they laid their eyes on for themselves. Lizards and reptiles were all evolved to be tough, competitive and usually had voracious appetites within their respective ranges. The Khai commander felt obliged to try and gently correct Wraith, however convinced the young human was that he may be correct, the Khai had never resorted to cannibalism; one of the foundations of their society was brotherhood. Their daily life might be riddled with violence and violent struggles, but lizard never ate lizard, not ever. Wraith then countered..... “How can you be sure? Since we became highly evolved with society and social structure, humans do not consider themselves to be cannibals either. But every now and then some of us are thrust into a situation which is simply so extreme that these social rules become less important, then they fail all together. When this happens the only thing which can be guaranteed is that man’s baser nature, his primal urge to survive will kick in.”

"And then?” “Well then all bets are off! Human will definitely eat human, if it will allow him to endure and survive. How can you know that somewhere a troop of Khai did not get into a situation where a ship was downed, and the crew eventually resorted to eating each other? You guys do have an exceptionally strong will for survival. It might not happen in polite Khai society, but you cannot say it's never happened. I only know humans have, and still would.” The Khai commander could not really argue against this kind of logic and let the issue drop. He was quickly getting that disputes could be settled without any kind of conflict and that it was okay to walk away from an argument with no resolution at all, and no casualties. “Do all the reptons on this planet have no limbs?” Wraith answered in the negative, and he would show them the nearest thing to a real dragon, if they agreed to the director performing a few tests. “Shouldn't the doctor on Central perform such tests?” “Oh believe me he wants to, and eventually he will, but the tests I want to run and the tests he wants to carry out could not be more different.” “Oh ... How so?” “Leren is a good doctor don't get me wrong, he would not harm you now; but there are things he can learn from you which would ultimately be beneficial for us to know. However questionable the ethics. Primarily I want the director and his team here to examine your physiology, and check you are OK to be here long term. They'll take some blood, expose it to a few things which can kill lizards and reptiles here on this planet and see if you are also vulnerable. If not then there will be no need for you to be confined to Central. In fact, unless there is a need to, you shouldn't have to visit there at all. Joan has planned for you to be resident at one of our malls here in India ... The climate here is good for you yes? Our engineers will repair your Gekkoda and have it shipped here. I would stress that there is no need for you to help us, you can still be given sanctuary. In India people revere certain Lizards and reptiles, the people will not be hostile towards you. If more of your kind arrive it here, they will see this too ... Peaceful cohabitation. Once we rescue survivors you must vet them for suitability to

you here. Some may have been your superiors, but for things to work, that structure ends now. All Khai living here must be equal and respect this, irrespective of history. If a Khai cannot make this adjustment, you must surrender them to Mona, it won't be nice, but they'll live. In fact you weren't the only Gekkoda pilots to be downed alive. All the survivors are already in holding at India-7, the Mall where you will be stationed. Once settled in, I'd like you to get started with the vetting.” “Interesting, you intend to give us a piece of land, we don't have to fight, and we will finally have equality. I like the prospect of that ... No longer being told what to do.” “This is the definition of peaceful coexistence. Of course when the biologically processed food hits the fan and your kind arrives en masse to take over this world, we hope you feel sufficiently invested to help us preserve our world as she is right now. You should also know and understand that it is our plan to exterminate any Khai who seeks to change this situation ... Can you live with that?” “I think I can ... This is the most hospitable world I have ever set foot on. Some of the dust bubbles I have fought hard to claim in the name of the Khai were hardly worth the effort, yet we blindly followed our training. You can bet that when the main force arrives, they will come hard for such a prize as this world. What typically happens is that the world is totally transformed into a contaminated desolate wasteland. That would be such a shame in this case ... Do not worry Wraith ... We WILL fight hard for this planet. If this planet falls to the Khai, it will be over our rotting corpses.” With this the commander and his two crew approached Wraith with their hands outstretched. Without hesitation Wraith engaged each of them in a handshake. This was a contract of comradeship; they would stand shoulder to shoulder and try against all the odds to hold this planet. On Central, Aelren was in conference with Joan, following the meeting with the Khai. His direct manner, although much softer when talking with Joan whom he held as dear as an alien Clone could, was compounded by scepticism. This was beginning to tick Joan off; an accord had been struck. Doubting this based on mistrust, also intimated that Joan had made the wrong decision. So he didn’t fully trust her either.

- I don't see the problem! Wraith’s already taken the Khai to India-7. Introductions have been made. If no more them, at least these three can be useful. - Joan, I am sorry if I come off as complacent. I am as cautious as you are trusting. I am glad you were able to strike up an accord, I just think it would be prudent to keep them under surveillance ... For safety sake. - Do you mean extra Surveillance? ... For how long? Have you forgotten they will be inside one of our malls? They will be recorded everywhere they go ... All the time. They’ve agreed to our standard transponder beacon implants. Honestly I wonder if you will ever mellow. I already told you, I will be responsible for them and their behaviour. - Why India-7? - The climate ... Joan watched as the corners of her Prime's mouth curled up into the familiar grimace which was in fact a smile ...

Chapter 25 - Maintenance Shaft Malady.

IN THE VENTILATION duct, far below Aelren and almost a quarter of a mile along from him, Gray awoke with a start. Yet another violent dream. This time Gray was struck with a malodorous stench which filled the vent he was laid inside. 'That's torn it then, now I have to move.' With his arms by his sides, it took very little effort for him to bend at the hips a bit to slide his hands further down his thighs. The feeling which awaited him was not a pleasant one. Gray was developing sores which had already begun to turn septic, hence the bad smell. If he couldn’t muster himself to move, the fetid air ing through the vent would eventually trip a sensor at an air cleaning station. Central was not generally an ideal place where mold would grow easily. But given the right conditions and hardiness of these small bacteriological invaders, they were ever present and ready to colonise, as now, in the open wound developing on Grays inactive left thigh. He was already desperate for water, and now he needed antibiotics to fight off this infection. Gray instinctively felt at the edges of the sore, building up a mental picture of what was down there. In the dark confines of the vent he didn't have a prayer of seeing the wound; maybe that was better. His mind painted a much better picture, in which the putrid pang was a lovely happy orange colour. A lie but nonetheless, this made the welt easier to deal with. He attempted to burst the squashy tender bubble of puss which was just below the surface of the sore. This was a bad idea, no matter how much it needed doing, the pain burned through his entire body; only making it harder for him to attempt the task again. The good thing was now he was fully conscious, more so than in the last week or more, and alert. Pain ... Healthy in small doses, Gray thought to himself, but this was an overdose, he never did do things by half measure. A little sore would've been far too easy. At least now Gray got the picture, sleep equalled pain eventually. Being awake; equal pain instantly. Yet a small surge of adrenaline was beginning to take away the throbbing burn in his thigh, finally Gray found the will power to move. Like an old and neglected machine, his dehydrated ts creaked and groaned

into motion. His arms would not lift the vent cover off its locators. Managing a momentary burst of strength, an impact from both clenched fists sent the cover sliding down the stairs away from him. Like a caterpillar, Gray bent his knees. This put pressure on his sore thigh, but the pain was manageable and further focused his efforts. Sliding his shoulders and pushing with his legs saw his head and shoulders emerge like a wall mounted whack-a-mole. As quickly as he could, his arms were brought to bear, grasping the frame of the vent two feet above him with all his might. Just two days ago, Gray had thought this kind of effort was beyond him. In his own mind he'd been on the slippery slope to death ... Now though he felt a bit of his never say die, can do attitude returning to him. Two long and awkward minutes later and the tired body of Gray sat on a step recovering, but he was at least free of the vent. Screw putting the cover back on! I'm outta here ... Standing and turning with blistering speed compared to half an hour before, Gray continued up the stairs. Whatever happened next was guaranteed to end badly. He might climb the stairs and out from exhaustion, breaking a few bones as he fell back down. He might be discovered by some random Novus out doing random tasks. - Would that scenario be classed as ending badly? ... I’d finally get water and help ... Oh yes, I be hounded all the way by doctor jelly finger. Gray was amused almost enough to laugh, but his breathing was currently in rhythm with his stair climbing; a good chortle would affect this negatively. Managing a smile Gray focused all his effort on ascending smoothly without hyperventilating or inducing a cardiac infarction. After climbing ten flights of stairs, Gray was now two and a half decks higher than where his hibernation vent had been. This had taken more than an hour but had felt like a good pace so Gray resolved to continue for as long as he could. The water he desperately needed was still high above him. Another four flights later and another deck crossed off the “to climb” list, Gray found himself sadly falling off the curve he’d previously set himself. As before each step began to feel higher than the last; again Gray was beginning to feel overwhelmed. At the next corner landing, Gray took a rest sitting on the landing. It was quiet; the two Novus which Gray had diced with a couple of days ago must not have been related directly to him, as the pair had never returned. Gray

thought about how much effort it took to monitor systems all over the ship. Monitoring systems which hadn't been used in millennia seemed like a false economy. Here Gray was blissfully ignorant of true events playing out even now above him. Between his girlfriend Joan, and his own bio-engineered alter ego's poor performance on Mona, Oxull was dealing with a lot. The clone engineer had been running errands for Joan as she had been at Zero's side, holed up in their quarters on Mona. As soon as Joan had set him free from errands, Joan had asked Oxull to repair the downed Gekkoda a few days ago in anticipation of a good result which had now materialised. The Gekkoda was Khai-mah tech, and even as a devoted student of the record concerning all Khai craft, Oxull knew the record was stunningly incomplete. As such repairs would take a while. It was all these reasons combined which had kept the two Novus from presenting their case to the engineering chief, that something was amiss on board Central. So long had Gray's mind wandered, that when he finally felt the eyes watching him, he was startled out of his skin. Gray's pulse soon settled back to an anorexic thirty beats per minute. The eyes belonged to a little shiny grey skinned maintenance Thrall. “Little” barely began to describe this weedy specimen who was just about looking down on Zero as he sat slumped on the landing. The Thrall needed a double take, but he quickly realised who the gaunt man sat in front of him was. Quick as he could, Gray pursed his lips and put his finger to his lips, urging the little Grey creature not to make any fuss. Slowly the Thrall nodded. In his mind Gray imagined that the little Thrall, unskilled at most things, was probably a master at keeping secrets, covering errors, and maybe even slacking off. As he slowly dropped his finger, Gray smiled and winked to the Thrall, who seemed to understand. He couldn't wink back, and as weedy and pathetic as this one was, the insult was compounded by his lack of eyelids to return the gesture. Instead the infant like odd job clone lifted his hand to cover the slit which was his mouth, this sealed the deal. Gray now had the help he so desperately needed. Holding one hand as a plate and miming the gesture of eating, Gray used the simplest form of language to bridge the gap in intellect. Then Gray put up a hand, the signal to stop ... Forget that. Forming his hand into a cup, placing it to his lips and tipping his head slightly back he then swallowed a huge gulp of air. Again the Thrall nodded slowly.

"Water please little one ... As much as you can ... Go now ... Hurry and be careful ... Don't get into trouble." The little clone raised a hand as was the human custom, waving goodbye, before springing back up into the vent he’d been polishing the inside of. Then the Thrall was gone. Only a few scuffing sounds of rubbery grey hands and knees betrayed the Thrall, but these sounds quickly faded to nothing. Zero had sat still long enough, he knew the little one did at least have a good sense of smell. All being well he would track Gray and intercept him at another vent higher up the ship. Gray began his climb again with renewed spirit, he was less than an hour away from water now, so he hoped. Relief came much sooner though, as one deck higher still and there at a corner landing was a glass of water. Gray smiled, of course ... Such a small wheedling was probably overwhelmed just carrying this single glass. Gray had dreamed of a gallon canteen, but it wasn't to be. The little one hadn't stuck around either. Gray was aware of how the Numbers might punish a Thrall for a mistake. Gray downed the whole glass. Pure desperation for the one fluid which would save him, erased any need to savour the feel of the cool liquid in his mouth. As quickly as the water hit his stomach, a huge burp erupted from Gray's mouth. That hadn't happened for a very long time. Next came hiccups, uncontrollably massive spasms of his diaphragm, which almost knocked him backwards to the landing with each strike. After a full three minutes, and two suspected broken ribs, Gray took a moment. That one glass of water had lasted less than a second, but Gray was already feeling much better. Hauling himself to his feet, Gray turned and started climbing up the stairs once more, another four flights and there on the landing was another glass of water. - Man this little grey is fast and quiet; he's really coming through. Gray quickly, but not as quickly as before, downed the drink and climbed two more flights. From this side of the shaft, Gray was able to see the deck demarcation landings for the next deck and a few above that before perspective obscured his view of their top steps. There atop each landing in the corner at the edge, a glass of water. On the very highest deck he could see, maybe ten decks higher; Gray just caught a shadow of an arm, it waved once and then was gone. This spurred Gray on, with each deck and each glass of water, the persistent headache which had finally become like a friend who had outstayed their

welcome, began to fade. The lactic acid which had so plagued every movement of his muscles and even the creaking of his ts also began to subside. After five more decks Gray began to get a feel of his old self, he was now practically jogging up the stairs. While there was still pain, this was much less than in the days previously. Rounding the flight of stairs he was racing up, Gray could see the now familiar glass of water, beside it was a bowl or orange. Clever Thrall Gray thought to himself, the little grey clone must've realised that Gray was in fact still as hungry as a bear, and with his thirst now at the point of being quenched, hunger was the next beast to be tamed. The Orange tasted good. In reality it didn't taste of anything at all, but the proteins and nutrients would be much appreciated. Zero realised that after a shaky start, this day had been a productive one, he had fought through pain and hadn't even ed out once. The sore on his leg was also mostly healed, just in the last hour huge progress had been made. - You've still got it old man ... Gray tried hard to what 'it' was. Taking his mind away from climbing stairs, he could bounding hundreds of metres through the air, rushing gun turrets, stealing secret plans and decommissioning top secret equipment which the humans had not been ready to possess. This was 'It'. These acts, and the powers which allowed him to carry them out was what made him special. Every second deck now there was a bowl of goop waiting for him. Gray spent the afternoon climbing stairs like a demon and eating the entire colour spectrum which the clone food stations had to offer. By the time he neared the top of the shaft, a feat he thought he would never achieve, Gray was barely even out of breath. Pondering his next course of action, he needn't have bothered. In a vent to his left a tap was heard. Squatting down and peering inside revealed the little Thrall with his hand outstretched. Gray reached out and the little Thrall wrapped his entire hand around one of Grays fingers. A gentle tug, probably all the tiny being could manage, signalled Gray to follow him into the vent. As it turned out, this vent was the same sized aperture that Gray had spent so much time in. Much to his annoyance, Gray now realised that if he’d ed through the vent, a distance of no more than five metres, Gray would've been able to stand upright inside a fairly generous crawl space.

The little grey pointed down and then up, before holding up five fingers. Grey assumed this to mean that a crawl space just like this occurred every five decks. Gray nodded. Pointing along the walkway in one direction the Thrall made a noise like beeping and whirring; the front of the ship, Gray thought. Next the rubbery grey toddler pointed to what Gray assumed was aft and began making a loud noise like thunder. Gray nodded to signal his understanding. The walkway was lit at a low level but only just enough to illuminate Grays legs to the knees. He could see that the duct was dusty and decided to test the Thrall with a new game. Crouching down, Gray drew a horizontal line in the dust, then put a vertical stroke accompanied by a much smaller vertical stroke on the line. Off to the right Gray put a question mark. The Thrall closed his tiny hand then pointed out one finger, following Grays example he scratched two letters into the dust, "LI". Gray had to think hard what the letter meant, like most people he knew Roman numerals to around thirty or so before the series of X's, I's and V's became too lengthy to be bothered anymore. Then he ed the next number of any note was fifty, this must be the L so the pair were on deck fifty one. "Fifty one ... Nice ... Around another one hundred and twenty five left to go then." Gray was aiming for his old quarters, of course he had no idea of the events which had occurred on Central in the last decades since his demise. Nonetheless, the Thrall ed who Gray was. Gray was Zero; Zero died. Leren remade Zero and he and his family lived in their extended quarters near the top of the ship. Even though he knew these facts, the little Grey creature was simply not able to communicate them with any accuracy and didn't even try. He did appreciate though that it probably wasn't a good idea to go rocking up to his old quarters, the changes might have killed Gray again with shock. This would have made his efforts now completely meaningless. The Thrall knew all about meaningless death which was to be avoided at all costs. The tiny Thrall was only spawned after the events involving one of his kind, 8659 had become a vessel for the spirit of the man now sat before him. In doing so he also became the first Thrall ever to die for a reason. After this, things for Thrall got much easier, the harsh punishments stopped. Even though many Thrall could not and did not ever exhibit the same self-sacrifice as 8659, his kind

of life was one which all Thrall strived for. Now it seemed this tiny Thrall was finally breaking the mold too, in his own way. The Thrall shook his head, looking downwards at the floor; then began tugging at Grays finger again. Gray followed; it was a few minutes before he realised he hadn't actually drawn his quarters on the deck map. For now he was content to follow the almond eyed clone, walking down the tunnel for maybe five minutes or more; Gray was surprised that no effort was made to advance further up the ship. Eventually the Thrall stopped dead in his tracks and looked all around him as if he was about to commit some sort of opportunist crime. Involuntarily Gray's own head followed the gaze of his leader, trying subconsciously to see what the Thrall was looking at. Not surprisingly they were alone. The little grey felon now released Gray’s hand, and trotted toddler style, slightly off balance and quick paced towards an innocuous looking . Making a fist and swinging it around his head like it was a big deal, he spun his arm up to speed and launched at the . Just before impact he stopped his fist dead, opened out a solitary finger and delicately pressed the corner of the . The depressed and then popped off. Slick as oil, the Thrall who might have been completely crushed by the medium sized , danced to one side just in time. The , which fell to the floor perfectly didn't even make a sound as the air displaced cushioned the final stop. The Thrall had obviously done this before, the reason lay right in front of them. Six clear vessels, all containing coloured liquids, it was the back of a food dispensing station. This side of the machine there was no interface, but the goop bottles were interchangeable, fitted with quick release collars. Gray gave the internals a cursory once over to see how many alarms they just tripped. There didn't appear to be any around the access , nothing on the collars. Before Gray had chance to finish his checks, the Thrallian ne'er-do-well was straight in there like a lion on a Gnu. In seconds the green bottle was off and upended on its bracket, just tapping the collar broke the seal allowing the thick gacky gloop to drip downwards into the Thralls hungry mouth, now more of a hole than the usual slit. Gray watched on in awe as the Thrall was draining the bottle, to where only the ancients knew, and he wasn't even swallowing. Gray shuddered at the realisation that this tiny Grey would’ve been a legend on the spring break circuit playing with the beer bong. Soon though the greedy, now potbellied little Thrall was full, at which point he simply stopped tapping the collar, fell forward, stood then turned and upended the bottle which automatically reconnected to the circuit. A good thing too, judging by the thumps on the wall from the corridor at the other side of the

machine. Most Novus did seem to favour green. The far too satisfied Thrall gave a huge burp and patted his stomach, if it was possible with so few facial muscles, Gray could have sworn the look on the little greys face defined smug. A tiny victory, for a tiny creature. For a moment he’d gotten the better of the Novus, who despite the changes could still be cruel to the Thrall at will. The Thrall waved Gray on towards the back of the module. Yellow was Gray's choice this time, to the vexation of the Thrall who had stood clear of orange figuring that to be Gray's favourite, this had put the little guy squarely in the way of yellow. Gray picked the Thrall up by his hips and placed him two feet to his left, then followed the same procedure which the Thrall had just demonstrated, breaking only to swallow whilst trying not to choke. This meant the process was a lot messier for Gray who remained unconcerned, the goop was bound to cheer up the rather tired stench coming from his clothing which he had been entombed in more than two decades earlier. Once sated, Gray replaced the yellow inside the machine, no thumps had been heard the whole time, yellow was not favoured at all. This was odd Gray thought, as the yellow tasted at least as good as green, and looked way better. The point was moot as the only thing different about the fluids was their colour. The little grey Thrall now lead Gray further down the walkway, after a few more minutes the walkway opened up to reveal a chamber. There seated around a makeshift table were a few more Thrall who had obviously been out doing routine maintenance also. They appeared to be conversing, but Gray couldn’t get a handle on a single word they were exchanging. Gray's leader stopped him by the corner of the chamber, Bac-Vents loomed over Gray like demented hoovers. They weren't his first choice, but they would effectively clean him up. Gray assumed the position he ed being the safest, standing in the cleaning channel with his head tipped back and one hand pinching his nose closed. The Thrall flicked the switch and the Bac-Vent began its work. The programming would keep the air circulating through the scrubbers and back around for as long as bacteria kept on hitting the primary filters. Within ten minutes Gray looked sparkly clean, but the ordeal kept on. The old Gray could hold his breath for at least twice as long as it would take for an ordinary human’s lungs to implode, but in his weakened state he was as able as a fit human, this meant trying desperately to pull breathing air into his mouth against the flow of high velocity air he was stood inside. Tipping his head into the flow was like supercharging his respiratory system, uncomfortable at best, dangerous at worst,

so Gray just didn't do it. The idea of the Bac-Vents was to rid the body of bacteria, not force them deep into the smallest folds of your lung tissue. When one of the numbers stepped into the Vent, it was typically running for about thirty seconds, a daily ritual not to be missed. Gray hadn’t washed since before he'd been killed. Clearly Leren had been too busy trying to save him to wash him, even after death, then in the last week and a half he'd also gotten plenty dirty. It was another twenty minutes before the tattered clothes Gray was wearing were actually clean at the bacteriological scale. Within seconds of stepping out of the now still Bac-Vent, Gray began to churn things over in his mind. Gray beckoned to the little Thrall who hurried over to his famous friend. "Can I ask you some questions?" The Thrall nodded. "My son ... Wraith ... Is he on board?" The Thrall nodded again. "His mother Joan?" Gray hoped like hell the Thrall would shake his head, but no dice, the Thrall continued to nod. "Is she alone?" This time Gray was hoping for a nod, but the Thrall was surprisingly good at English, and Gray was disappointed ... The Thrall was slowly shaking his head, but then he paused. Raising his right arm he began to tilt his hand left and right at the same time as shaking his head. Now Zero realised this wasn’t a straight yes or no question. The Thrall was trying hard to influence the questions with accurate answers, at least as accurate as he could manage with non-verbal communication. Now slightly panicked, Gray continued his questions. "Who? Who is she with? Dammit scratch that, you can't be that specific!" Again Gray was surprised, the clone wasn't nodding or shaking, The weedy muscle-less, tubular grey arm was aiming straight back at him, with a smaller tubular grey finger outstretched to point.

"What that makes no sense, I'm right here, and I was dead. How can she be with me? Dammit you can't answer that either." Gray's frustration was beginning to show, but as he looked the tiny Grey placed one forearm vertical and crossed it horizontally with his other forearm, to make a cross. "A cross ... A cross ... Leren!" The clone was nodding steadily again, all the while the cogs were turning inside Gray's mind. "By the ancients, Leren ... He's cloned me hasn't he?" More nodding, but this time accompanied by the rocking hand again. Gray knew that while he'd been cloned, Leren must've had a tough time. That wasn't the half of it but the little grey Thrall simply wasn't able to elaborate. Amazingly Gray's pulse began to steadily fall towards its usual metronomic rate, he didn't know how Gill would've explained his death to Joan, but he did know she must've had a hell of a time after he’d died. He also knew that Wraith's treatments would have added to the nightmare, every three years and always on the boy’s birthday. Nor could he blame his friend Leren, as annoying as he could be at times, it made Gray feel good inside to know the Old Numbers thought that much about him, then finding a way to bring him back, and also bring Joan and Wraith aboard. It seemed even without him, everything had turned out exactly according to the plan he would've eventually executed on his own, had he not been killed. With his mind now fully at rest, Gray laid down on the floor and quickly fell asleep, there were no more nightmares. Deep inside, the twisting turning machinations of the spores, embedded in every fibre of Grays body, had also settled and were once again all in harmonious agreement. In effect as their host was sleeping they would perform a soft reboot, not a hard reset. The memories which had been plaguing their host since he had resparked, were annexed in a new area, as if partitioning a hard drive. Once again host would be in no doubt that he was Gray Albern, and he would have all his memories since the event which brought him to this place, over fifty years ago. The earlier memories could be accessed, but they would not surface again unless provoked by some similar events. The spores rationalised that in all their host’s time on this planet, no events had been similar at all. Host would probably

never access the annex. The food and more importantly water would be put to good use, muscle fibres were already beginning to bulk and the atrophy which had afflicted Gray was being reversed. It could take months for them to rebuild their host to his past glory, but they would manage. Host seemed comfortable in this little hidey-hole and hopefully would stay here until he was back to peak condition. Of course they were in no position to influence his decision, and he was the master of unpredictability. His knack for survival was matched only by his will to put his life at risk. He would certainly want to slot back into a useful role ... When the time was right.

Chapter 26 - The Novus who would be Prime.

TWO THIRDS OF A MILE away as the crow would fly, on a vector of roughly 20 degrees upwards and 2.45 degrees counterclockwise, Joan was back in the family quarters. Wraith had just said goodbye to the three Khai who were settling into India-7 as planned. The young giant had then swung by Joan's office to pick her up. Almost immediately upon their arrival back onboard Central, the pair, who had almost constantly been worried about Zero, began to feel a warm energy which calmed them both greatly. Joan gave a small sigh and set about preparing food for them. Any onlooker might think this was a bit much after the day Joan had just battled through; but in actuality Joan enjoyed cooking and derived great pleasure from doing so. Her relief valve was opened, and her mood improved progressively as a result. Instead of his usual worries and fear about his father, Wraith set about examining the specs of the dragon, floundering in high Earth orbit. The three Khai had been in one of the very last Gekkoda to leave her, as such they had been able to paint a pretty clear picture of the damage which Zero had wrought on their battleship. Executing the rescue of the remaining Khai would be difficult. The internal spaces of the ship were venting out into space, several huge bulkheads were known to have closed off. These divided the ship into five huge sections. It wasn’t clear whether or not any of the huge breaches had been sealed by physical shields or energy fields, but this mattered. Physical obstacles would be hard to , and the Sphinx was far too big to enter through a Gekkoda launch tube. This reduced their options and increased the level of risk. On the other hand, if energy fields had been used then the breaches were more than large enough for the Sphinx to enter through. Jer-Mija would be able to modulate the Sphinx shielding to match, allowing the craft to through without hindrance. Brief comm's had been established between the Dragon and Ra'sian, but Khai electronics being what they were, mostly without redundant backup systems, the circuitry had quickly become fried. The only thing established ... There were survivors, and they needed help sooner rather than later. In order to formulate a viable plan, Wraith also examined the onboard footage taken from the Sphinx as Zero had waged his attack. From this he’d seen the

clearest picture of the damage, but no clue what repairs or action had been taken since. His father, having dealt enough blows to render the huge ship inactive, had then turned his back on the stricken craft to chase the Gekkoda into Earth’s atmosphere. Wraith had also been in mental conversation with Oxull, regarding the important matter of salvage. Not specifically the Dragon, which if left in space would almost certainly fall to Earth inside the next two months, but more importantly there was still two entire flights of Gekkoda deep in the belly of the vessel. These all had plasma engines useful in Earth’s atmosphere, a fair array of weapons and were stunningly manoeuvrable. They would definitely be a useful addition to the forces of Earth. In a moment of mental clarity, when a natural break presented itself, Wraith was stricken by how much work he'd managed to get done without even a second spent worrying about his father. "You know mum, I've almost got this cracked, and I have this feeling ..." "I feel the same. It's your dad, he's gonna be OK, I can feel it too." Out of the shadows at the edge of the room, walked Zero. He seemed just like his old self, his face was glowing and his broad smile which had been gone for the last month or more, was finally back. The pair could see everything was back to normality ... The custom Hawaiian print shirt was all the confirmation they needed. "I hope you made enough for four my love, my appetite is back. Think I’ll eat today." "Hey now! How come he gets double portions? I'm a growing boy you know!" Zero burst out laughing. This was the first time in a while that the two had seen Zero laugh uncontrollably. Wraith was huge already, but at his last medical Leren discovered that the young man had indeed gained several millimetres. The facts were undeniable. Wraith couldn't see the joke. "Wraith my boy, get your album, let's have a look through. Tonight my mind has been flooded with old memories from before Antarctica, let's have another look."

The rest of the evening was spent laughing together as Zero recalled the funnier aspects of all his missions with Geyldian. Finally Zero pulled a new photo from the breast pocket of his gaudy shirt. It was a humdinger and Wraith's eyes widened, just as they had when Uncle Gill had supplied a tasty photo. The picture showed the faces of the three Khai Gekkoda Pilots just after Zero had stranded them on the ocean floor just a few kilometres from Central. The look on their lizard faces was a picture. Panic and disbelief. The picture had been taken in a hurry by Zero as he flew by them to stop the missile, yet it was crystal clear. Wraith hoped that one day he would be able to laugh with the three Khai about the picture. Later on once the two were alone, Zero explained that the nightmares he had been having had ceased, and the overwhelming feeling like death which had surrounded him, had gone. He still couldn't the actions he had taken against the first Khai-mah crew except when he had watched the recording; but he had reconciled the thoughts of guilt inside his head. The past could not be changed, and he still didn't have a handle on what came over him. The residual feeling was gone, Zero just wanted to get on with his work and his life. As the pair cuddled, Joan found herself clinging to Gray harder than ever before. Her own life had changed so radically since the pair met, but since getting Zero back he had been a rock steady constant in her life. Encouraging her and sometimes even actively pushing her toward new challenges which she could never have hoped to master without all her new friends; but especially her partner Zero. As she listened to his manufactured heart beating in his chest, the beat was familiar, almost the same as her Gray, loud and powerful, unstoppable no matter what obstacles were put in his way. With his strong manufactured body, Joan almost wished she had known Zero when he was a little Grey Thrall. She was sure that her heart wanted what her heart wanted, no matter what body Gray had been in, was in now or even might end up in. His personality and his light would not change, neither would her love for him. Joan fell asleep hypnotised by the sound of Zero's heart. Zero, was well aware of the moment Joan drifted off, and had been acutely aware of the thoughts running through her mind. One day he would tell her how wrong she was. Until he met her he'd been slowly drifting away from humanity, and not against his will. Against all the odds, this small framed woman had

hooked him, anchored him, and kept him human. He could never repay her, but he was indebted to her. This last bump in his road was only more proof. Despite his unspeakable act on Mona, Joan never ever doubted him, she had shown infinite patience and nothing but love. He would never have made it back without her to aim for. With his mind free and unencumbered by recent events, Zero also drifted to sleep ... This had been a great day for the world, but particularly onboard Central. Yet scattered around the hive collective were some faintly traceable waves of dissatisfaction and mistrust, in the strongest pockets these feelings were fully formed into anger, and even revenge was being contemplated. Three of the nine Novus who had become awakened by the stench of battle and death had actually found each other. Between them, they harboured a deep need to bring the full force of the ancients against the scourge which was the Khaimah. All that remained for them to do was locate the remaining six like-minded souls. In their minds any alliance with the warmongering, space pirate lizards was an affront to everything the Devine, their creators stood for. The parties responsible should be punished for such a treasonous act. As with all Novus, their intelligence was inherited; but where most accepted the need for them to learn by endless repetition, the nine of them felt they were justifiably on the fast track for leadership. It was time for a changing of the guard so no more gross errors of judgement were made. By coincidence these Novus were all less than three thousand years old, not that this made any difference. Novus were not usually given to rebelliousness. Strange that given the mundanity of their lives, unless they were promoted into the circle of Numbers. With the resurrection of Jer-Mija all the available seats in the circle were once again filled. Two seats, seven and nine would always remain empty for reasons the Novus could not appreciate. This had put the nose holes of at least one prodigious Novus completely out of t. The eldest of the seditious nine, was truly ahead of the curve for a Novus; at least inside his own head. Having initially studied under Leren, this Novus had eventually settled under the tutelage of the Prime himself. He only needed to be shown things once. In fact he had a wider understanding of all the processes on board Mona than all the other Novus under all the Numbers. The only thing

which made this Novus special was that the inherited knowledge had all remained clear inside this young clones mind. This was a rarity; normally once the Novus had chosen their speciality according to their level of interest and ability, the rest of the inherited knowledge soon faded away, leaving no trace. Not so with this Novus, he could've easily rose to fill the ranks of any of the numbers, in any of their fields. The resurrection of Jer-Mija had been the first insult, effectively closing the door of promotion for him until the old Prime felt ready to the record. Only this event would now prompt the Numbers to be shuffled. Everybody knew this wasn’t going to happen any time soon. Aelren seemed to be the first clone ever who was able to live off the dust gathered inside his mouldy old lungs. The Novus had been deeply considering names but had then been ed over. The result ... He could not be awarded a name. Considering himself a genius among sheep, he also believed the Numbers considered him to be just a clever sheep, in need of their shepherding just like the rest. The remaining eight Novus all had their interest peaked as Zero turned psycho killer in the hanger. One was supervising a Thrall refuelling team in the hangar at the time. As such he had witnessed the moment Zero extinguished the Khai crew with ruthless efficiency, albeit from a distance. This alone made him important to the rebellious young Prime, and while the witness had not initially wanted to him, the rebel leader had been sufficiently charismatic to turn him around. What the witness saw was important for many reasons, when the eight were doubting, their leader would put them all inside his new seconds mind and run them through the carnage again. This would be the fate of all Khai ... AND anyone else who stood in their way as they began their coup. The sight of death and the faintest whiff of blood as it had drifted through the otherwise clean hangar environment, even experienced vicariously was enough to fire them up again. This was enough to set the eight back on track with the fake Prime's plan. The other seven had all proven easy to recruit. More importantly, the young wannabe found them easy to manipulate. He had coincidentally formed himself a fully complete second circle of numbers, with a Novus from each of the inherited disciplines. It was perfect, while none of the Novus bar him were favourites of the actual numbers, they were all known to their leaders as being hardworking and reliable Novus. As such they were able to gain knowledge of

ongoing plans and preparations to fight the Khai. Above this, they were also privy to the missions which would test these plans. None of them was naive enough to think their actions now would ever see them inside the actual circle. They’d made their choice. With every meeting, annexed at the outermost fringes of the hive, their skilled young leader turned their backs slightly more on their accepted way of life. Soon there would be no going back. The Leader was a clever one, never allowing his followers to call him Prime. This moniker defined the established system. In his eyes this signified the decay of the original principles of the Devine. His mission was to make all Novus powerful, and give them power so they could rise up and overthrow the circle of Numbers. He could never paint himself as paralleling the Prime, he would act in direct opposition, so the name the leader must take was clear. He would be Nazir. The first opportunity to begin putting things back in order was already presenting itself. In the next few days, the forces of Earth would be mounting a rescue mission to free the stranded Khai from their Dragon tomb. Nazir wouldn't allow it and had already set his counter plan in motion. His own circle of Anti-numbers had fed him information which allowed him to strategise in parallel to Wraith who would lead the rescue along with Zero. He didn't need to make a big statement; he still had the patience of a clone Novus. If he managed to kill some Khai and interrupt Wraith's mission, he could take the small win. More importantly, it would be a springboard for bigger things. With his patience setting at infinite, he could even afford to fail. There would always be another chance, but his ego was far from normal for a clone, and right now his ego was telling him ... I cannot fail. The only sore point was that he, like all Novus, was incapable of spatial jumping. This was the only obstacle in his way, and he’d already begun intense meditations to prepare himself for the day when the need to jump presented itself. He was becoming acutely aware that at least some of the remaining six of his circle were on the other ships. If he couldn't learn to jump then meeting his Numbers couldn’t physically happen, and this presented a problem. If the only way for them to communicate was though the hive; even at the fringes, the chances of the powerful Prime discovering them was greatly increased. He considered that his careful manipulation of the hive was the only

reason they had not already been discovered, but the reality was more like dumb luck and cosmic inevitability. Aelren was indeed a powerful mental communicator and was at most times in touch with the minds of most of the clones on Earth. His signal to Mona was however not as strong and never could be as the distance between him and the moon bound ship was constantly variable, and so too was the amount of solid rock and other materials between him and the moon. His ability to monitor Mona was at its peak when the moon was directly visible over Florida. The rest of the time the signal would vary towards the weaker end of his ability. It was only by his exploitation of these cosmic obstacles that the misguided genius Nazir had so far evaded discovery. Aelren would surely be displeased to know that his favourite had turned against him and his kind in such a vengeful way. Nazir remained undeterred ...

Chapter 27 - Pulling the Dragon’s Teeth.

ZERO WAS PILOTING THE Sphinx out of Earth’s atmosphere, all the while Wraith had been present inside his mind, giving a very detailed briefing. This was probably the most prepared that Zero ever ed being prior to embarking on a mission. Back in his good old days Zero never really paid attention to his briefings with Geyldian beyond where he had to go and what his primary objective was. Now though he felt he owed it to his son to listen. The completeness of the information Wraith was giving him, was a vindication of all the times Zero had drummed mission strategy and risk management into his son. Clearly his training had paid off and was sticking in Wraith's mind. Zero was on approach to the Dragon, still listing heavily inwards towards the blue planet below. Even as they drew steadily closer the pair could see that small explosions were still happening, and plasma from the stricken cannons was still being vented to space in a stream of green. “That's odd ...” “Isn't that one of the areas we think survivors are?” “Wraith answered in the affirmative.” “Yes, strange that they haven't sealed off the plasma ducts which supplied the cannons in all this time, according to my information hangar 3 is directly behind the outer skin there. Emergency bulkheads should have sealed the breach at the gun turret. The hull doesn't look damaged there beyond the turret, so why haven't they sealed the breach?” “So we're going in via the rip above hangar two then? Swinging her around now, entry in fifteen seconds ...” As the pair ed under the hull again to pop up on the moonward side, a huge gaping hole appeared on the side of the ship. This would be their entry point. According to the scans done from Mona, this hole had breached the ship's hull and the three decks above Gekkoda hangar number two. A rudimentary containment field had, as expected, been put in place to seal the breach. “I can’t imagine how many Khai were vented outta that rip before they got the containment field up.”

As Zero aligned the Sphinx to breach the containment field, he pressed a button on the interface to begin scanning for the field frequency. A new development by Jer-mija would allow the vessel to remodulate her shields to match the frequency. Once done Zero would be able to edge his craft slowly inside the Dragon. Even though the breach in the hull plating was huge, the hefty deck structure and hoops which formed the outer frame of the huge ship were so massive that in its brief the Axe had not cut fully through most of them. “Dammit! That wasn't in the report either.” Wraith was beginning to lose faith in his plan, two items at the core of the information had been reported erroneously. The reality was that the rescue plan no longer had any foundation. “Do you wanna abort? We can come back again tomorrow, but if you want my opinion, we're here now. We can see the damage and act accordingly.” “Alright, you're the experience here. What do you suggest?” Wraith's tone was flat and even. On the surface he wasn’t the least bit upset that his father was having to bail out of his plan, but the occasional mental slip up told a different story; Wraith was frustrated. Not at his dad, but with the scan information from Mona. This should've been his chance to shine, now the mission outlook was very cloudy indeed. Wraith simply didn't have the mission experience to roll with the punches he was being dealt. “Well if you’re done wallowing, I'm still gonna breach as planned. It can't hurt. The hole gets a bit tight between the last deck and the hangar, but if I activate the proximity scanners we can slowly navigate our way through ... The hole doesn't really look Sphinx shaped though if I'm honest, we might need to find a way to shorten the beam on the Axe so we can take out this member here ... Hmmmm ... And then maybe this one ... Here.” All the information Zero was seeing on his screen was also being relayed to a newly added console in the hold. Seated at this console, Wraith wasn't solely an observer. He could actually perform the role of a rear gunner from this position, having control over the ship's gimbal mounted plasma cannons, positioned either side of the main body. Zero still had control of the main weapons, missiles and of course the Axe up on top.

In this instance Zero would've preferred to take his time, before excising the two beams which lay in the path of the Sphinx. His son had a different plan. With reckless youthful exuberance, and a renewed excitement that his plan may yet yield Lizard fruit, Wraith positioned the cross hairs of the two plasma cannons over his targets, then pulled the trigger to fire. Both the structural were blown to smithereens; simultaneously returned to the universe as raw atoms. Zero with his endless natural engineering skill, had predicted every possible outcome resulting from the removal of the ing struts, but only if he’d removed them in order one at a time. The scenario which confronted him now had never been considered; because he wasn’t stupid enough to remove both at the same time. The next thing the two of them felt was the sudden jerk and loud banging against the hull as the deck above them was no longer adequately ed. With clenched teeth showing through his grimace, Zero was fine as he was fully strapped down. The whiplash pain in his neck quickly faded. Inside the hold, a still broadly smiling Wraith was wrenched from his chair. Zero was just about to chew Wraith a new one, when the huge agent in training came over the comm's to apologise. His concentration had been jilted by the impact, and the sickening realisation that his actions had effectively trapped them there on the Dragon. “Well that's torn it! I'll tell your mum we won't be home for tea!” So far had Wraith's concentration been knocked off its axis, his next words were more like that of a child; not a twenty something soldier fully prepared for his first proper mission. “They'll come get us won't they?” “Oh sure son, even now they're probably mobilising the entire caddy fleet to come and pull us out backwards.” His father's tone was cuttingly sarcastic and wasn't wasted on Wraith. He knew exactly what he'd done. With his focus snapped back like over stretched knicker elastic, he tried to apologise a second time. “I said I'm ...”

“Can it Wraith! If you had bothered to listen, you would have heard me say the left one definitely had to go, but we wouldn't take the right one out unless we got caught up. I said maybe ... MAYBE. You went weapons hot without authorisation, without knowing what you were doing. Worst of all you had absolutely no appreciation of the possible effects.” Zero went quiet, all Wraith could hear over the comm's was the sound of heavy breathing. Mentally too his dad was seething. Except for the day they'd had their little hangar rumble, Wraith couldn’t one time where Zero had lost his temper at him. His father normally presented the perfect picture of calm, preferring a patient approach with Wraith over a disciplinarian one. Wraith was relieved as in the next five seconds, the heavy breathing faded back to silence. “Initiating an exterior scan, sit tight. There may be a way we can still use the Axe, though the angles are all reduced now we can't pitch or roll.” Wraith could hear buttons being pressed followed by beeps from the console, then a noise which said the Sphinx was performing the scan. It was dark in the position they were now trapped in, coincidentally the deck above had covered several of the cameras on one side. Zero was blind. The scan, consisting of a high definition matrix of laser light, confirmed that the deck above had pushed the Sphinx nose first into a large corridor. More than big enough to move a Gekkoda or several plasma engines from one hangar to another but not large enough for the Sphinx. Extricating their craft from this position was not going to be easy. The Sphinx was laying over 90 degrees out of orientation from Zero’s intended course to enter the hangar. Wraith was glad that his father had returned to his usual calm and business like self. The heavy breathing had momentarily filled Wraith with dread, a small part of him had expected Zero might be about to wig out again and start firing indiscriminately into the Dragon. This wouldn't have ended quickly as Wraith couldn't reach his dad from his own position inside the hold. He certainly couldn't override the bridge from his terminal. “Don't even think it Wraith. You trapped us; I should override you! Let me work.” As the raw data from the scan formed into a picture on the monitor, Zero began his analysis. The structure of the Dragon was a new one to Zero. To say that the

Khai-mah had designed the huge ship with an extremely scant regard for design efficiency was an understatement. Not so amazing then that such an apparent lack of skill had resulted in an overwhelmingly strong and hardy frame. At first look, Zero had been quietly confident that blowing just one of the would not have led to any collapse at all. Now though he could see that even though the deck had been left uned, this had only resulted in the deck above them sagging down, maybe two metres. The Sphinx was trapped like a small child, overzealously tucked underneath a thick, heavy blanket by a protective parent. No matter what monsters were about to appear, there could be no breaking free and no escape. The scan confirmed the deck pinning them was still very much intact save for the notch they had previously intended to scrape through. Now though, this notch was useless, the trapped Sphinx lay completely misaligned. The deck was constructed of a general framework with a top skin for the deck and a series of covers over the underside to hide all the power lines and various cable conduits. Zero had never seen so many. It was probably the weight of all these various attachments which was causing the walkway to sag. - The cables and conduits are probably the only things holding the walkway together ... Zero didn’t want to start hacking and slashing at the pipes and conduits. Their contents couldn’t be verified without a PUCK which neither of them had. Despite Zero's many attempts to bargain with Oxull to obtain one, these requests had all fallen on deaf ear slits. Joan kept Oxull so busy that the Old engineering clone couldn’t devote any time to making him one of the treasured devices ... There was a planet at stake after all. Zero pondered his next move. It occurred to him that jumping back to Central to get some cutting tools might be the easiest plan. His earlier jibe to Wraith about the Caddy fleet only being minutes away, raised a curl at the corner of his mouth. Zero knew that even if a tow cable could be found which could connect them all simultaneously; the entire Caddy fleet still wouldn't have the stones to pull the stricken Sphinx out from under the deck. As the super soldier was mentally compiling a list of tools he would need to bring back with him, he was somewhat startled as the loud noise of a smaller, but

fiercely struck impact rang out like a gong against the cockpit plating; less than a metre from his face. Focusing, Zero realised that a troop of Khai were now positioned around the Sphinx in the corridor. In less than a second, Zero had mentally taken over one of the lizards and had begun surveying the heavily armed lizard horde. - Wraith, it looks like we're about to be breached, ready yourself ... Zero had become so caught up in his thinking, a key piece of information on his console had been overlooked ... Atmosphere: 98% If he’d seen this his plan would have been vastly different, but how had this happened? When they slowly advanced into the breach, a force field had been sealing the hole in the hull, but no atmosphere had been shown. Zero could not believe that the Sphinx had malfunctioned, then it struck him. Clever lizards! Zero now ed his initial attack on the Dragon a few weeks ago. It had struck him then how long it had taken for the gunship leviathan to respond to his attacks; now he understood. Even whilst cruising by Mona, the Dragon had already been ready to launch all her Gekkoda to overwhelm the Earth. Maybe not the limit of Khai technology, probably more of an honest reflection of the vessels age, but all pilots had been safely installed within their tiny craft well before Zero rushed in to attack. The emergency bulkheads were probably already deployed. This allowed for the hangar to be decompressed and filled with space before Zero split the hull open like a cantaloupe. Showing incredible battle experience and amazing strategy, the Khai had found a way to promote both fighting readiness and prevent casualties if damage was suffered. Hence no rush was required to save either the Lizards or their breathable environment. All that was required it seemed was to preserve the central core of crew quarters, meeting rooms, armouries and other facilities with a permanent atmosphere. Situations like now could be achieved by the simple opening of a blast door having first annexed the main area with another door behind them. Such was the current condition of the Ship that the Khai probably had no idea they’d been boarded. Their curiosity probably peaked only after Wraith's little escapade with the plasma cannons.

Still possessing the lizard, Zero continued to weigh up the best way to corral the bulk of the thirty Reptons away from the Sphinx, then overpower the remainders. The temporary super soldiering lizard was shocked to see the hold door, positioned at mid-ships on the Sphinx, begin to open. A flummoxed Zero took a step back, then watched his own giant son jump out of the Sphinx, landing heavily on both feet in the corridor. Bending both knees only partially worked to lessen the huge thud. This caused a stir amongst the assembled Khai soldiers. Stylishly, Wraith finished his leap crouching at the same height as the Khai who were moving to surround him. Keeping his eyes to the ground, Wraith wasn’t going for a sunny hello. Instead the young man wanted to try dramatic intimidation. Remaining crouched Wraith inhaled deeply, held for a few seconds and then exhaled noisily, at the same time drawing himself back upwards to his true height. The curious Lizards were now caught like small children at the sight of something which inspired them with awe. Zero too was flexing his inner lizard as he was also compelled to watch the comedic antics of his son. Reaching his usual height, just shy of being twice as tall as the Khai onlookers, Wraith slowly lifted his head to gaze. Glaring out of the bottom of his eyeballs, Wraith stared straight at the Khai stood nearest to him. Looking up, the soldier’s head was almost lifted vertically, mouth agape. It was fair to say these Khai had never seen such a large alien species. Zero was shaking his Lizard head in disbelief. If Wraith managed to talk his way out of this without getting into a monumental battle, Zero would never hear the last of it. All too quickly the Khai curiosity was replaced by their more usual emotion. The troop commander made noises which must've been a call to arms; low frequency gurgling followed by a long vibrating hiss. This was it, the Lizards raised their huge curved swords and charged in, nearest first. To his credit, Wraith moved his huge frame with incredible speed and agility, dodging every blade resulting in a few Khai being wounded by the strikes of their crew mates. Wraith then picked up the worst of the stricken and hurled him at the second wave. - Some rescue mission ... He's gonna kill them all! Zero watched as his son used all the moves he'd been taught in their training sims, and a few he'd picked up training with the Thraten. Wraith was managing

to advance even against the numbers which the Khai had brought to bear. Far from killing any of the horde, Wraith was mostly hitting with just enough force to wind his targets. When less time was available to measure his force, Zero could hear ribs being snapped, but these were all injuries which the Khai could recover from. Zero didn't want his son to have all the action and was occasionally sneaking up behind a Khai before banging them soundly on the back of their head with the hilt of his own sabre like sword. This resulted in four of the Khai being knocked unconscious, but again they'd recover. When only one giant human and one lizard stood facing each other, the battle was over. Zero winked at his son, he couldn't say anything whilst inside the Khai, they didn't have true vocal chords; but he knew his son would understand. Behind him Wraith heard the cockpit of the Sphinx lowering down to the corridor. Seeing all recognition was now gone from the Khai warrior standing in front of him, Wraith knew his father had vacated the Khai. Landing a huge right fist directly atop the confused Lizard’s skull, knocked him out also. As his father ed his side, the two surveyed the Khai bodies strewn all over the inter-hangar taxi way. Most of the injured were making noises of pain, some were still knocked out. The pair turned to face the Sphinx; they could now see first-hand the awkward way their mid-sized ship had been stuffed inside the mouth of the corridor. Approaching a gap big enough to peer through, they could see there was no point continuing down to the hangar. There were only a few Gekkoda in various states of repair, and pieces of the tiny fighters scattered on workstations all around them; but no Khai. No work was being carried out. In the next moments their attention was focused again. At the far end of the corridor the bulkhead door opened again. There was barely any sound which explained why they probably didn't hear the previous wave approach the Sphinx. Turning around both expected to see another platoon of Khai-mandos, but the father-son team saw only one Lizard. This one was slightly taller and somewhat bulkier, alluding to the fact he was older, much older. His uniform was also much more elaborate. Most Khai fighters never achieved a rank higher than the equivalent of private.

They were just numbers to bolster the lines; little more than cannon fodder. If a Lizard could prove himself in battle, returning to his ship time after time, this would not go unnoticed. With each promotion in rank, new pieces of armour would be received. Most of the Khai they’d just met had rudimentary chest plate armour. The slightly more skilled had arm protectors and better swords. The one Zero had mentally controlled seemed to be the most senior. He had additional shoulder protection and a second sword with a much shorter blade, showing he was not unskilled at close quarter combat; this had been rewarded accordingly. In stark contrast the Lizard now confidently striding towards them had barely any of his scales showing at all. Not only was his armour complete, but it was a different class of armour completely from the lower ranks strewn around them. Thicker, shinier, and from the Lizards deliberate stride, the armour was also much heavier. Looking akin to a five star general in all his splendour, the lizard limited his approach; stopping roughly six meters away from Zero and Wraith. These two had just given a full platoon a sound beating, so now they would receive his respect, and his caution. Clearly the reason why this old Khai had managed to live so long. The first vocalisations out of the generals mouth were garbled and unrecognisable, typical Khai speech. In unison Zero and Wraith both moved their right arms upwards, each banging on their own left pectoral. This was to turn on their universal translators, but the Khai General misunderstood. Thinking this was some kind of Earth greeting, he quickly followed suit, banging his right fist on the thick metallic covering his left breast. Inside the pair were deep in conversation. This gesture made the general seem like a Khai whom they might be able to deal with. Wraith became more comfortable, what seemed like a mission gone off the rails, may yet achieve its objective. Zero took a step back, this was Wraith's party. He would have to finish what he'd started when he emerged from the side of the Sphinx. Wraith himself had not been thinking much at all beyond his dramatic entrance, preferring to wing whatever came after. Now he would try to follow his original plan. They had successfully boarded, and established with a figure who appeared to be high up the chain of command ... They'd even bumped their chests in mutual respect. A small stifled snigger came from a few feet behind Wraith, and his head was ringing with the sound of psychic tittering. Wraith shot a straight-faced

glance at his father ... Silence was restored. “We are not here to hurt you or this ship any more. We know you have suffered major damage and we wish to offer you a safe haven on the planet below.” Having spent much time around Khai in the last few days, Wraith was beginning to get a feel for the expressions which might appear upon a Khai face. They were subtle, but he was starting to catch what some of them meant. The look now on the general’s face wasn’t one Wraith had seen before, but if Wraith had to guess, pretty much all he could do at this point, he would pick disdain. The General’s words confirmed as much. "You think just because we can understand each other that this will make me more likely to listen to what you have to say? Well now you must listen to me. We are the advanced fleet of the Khai-mah invasion force, I have come to receive your unconditional surrender. Anything else would be unwise ... Merely prolonging your own agony." At the sound of these words, an ashen expression washed over Zero's face, and he slowly stepped forward ahead of Wraith. One translated statement was all it had taken to set Zero into full on battle mode. Wraith began considering the complete abandonment of the mission, he knew his father was already maybe a hundred moves ahead of him for a strategy to break the Sphinx free and escape. Wraith also knew that if he allowed that to happen, his father wouldn’t rest until the dragon had been converted to base metallic particles veiling the Earth for all to see. Wraith had to keep pushing the general. He had to wade in, if only to form a blockade to stop Zero. There was no doubt in Wraith's mind that Zero was ready to kill his way off this vessel. That combined with the hangar incident on Mona may yet see him disowned by the Old clones, Wraith did not want to see that happen. Maybe things would be okay, at this point his father was still broadcasting mentally ... Very loud ... Very clear. "I'm sorry that you feel that way. We were ready to share ... Unconditional surrender? ... That's a little rich don't you think? This Dragon only has a few more weeks left in her, so any battles which will be fought, you guys are gonna miss. I mean seriously look at the state you're in. We can just return

to the planet below and enjoy the show as you burn up. Of course we’ll have to break you apart a bit first." All the while that Wraith had been issuing his firm response, he’d been slowly covering the distance to the outer hull plating. Once there, the huge alien enhanced human wound up his less able left arm and swung freely at the side of the ship. The impact, far from ringing like a bell landed with more of a hollow crack, then a very loud hiss. In a single punch Wraith had added one more hole which needed to be plugged. This was a bold move from Zero's apprentice. As the breathable air rushed out into the vacuum of space, Zero's face raised a smile. The hull plate was maybe two inches thick and notwithstanding the age, the skin should've had some strength to it. Zero knew instantly that for Wraith to puncture the hull with relatively minimal effort like he just had, the alloy wasn't anything as sophisticated as the Alculinium used on the Devine vessels. The look on Wraith's face said that it didn't matter to him that the breathable air was being evacuated; the general pulled off the nonchalant look far better though. Wraith resorted to extending an olive branch, opening his huge hand he plugged the hole, just as effectively as he'd punched it out. The hissing stopped; it was the general’s move. As the environment stabilised, he took a deep breath and began his charge at the young human. Zero flinched to intercept, but the air of calm he was receiving from Wraith told Zero ... HOLD! Wraith had effectively doubled the distance the general had to cover when he'd moved to the outside of the corridor. In addition, the young man had never fully retreated from the head of his foe. Wraith had known exactly when the general made up his mind to move. Zero began to clench his teeth though as the large metal clad lizard was almost upon his son; the latter having still to make any move to defend or prepare himself. In the last few paces, the General drew his short blade, his intentions were clear. Wraith had effectively wasted any chance to end this mentally, from the inside. He needed the fight to be a fair one, on Khai . Making a huge stabbing thrust with his blade leading the charge, the lizard tank closed the distance to nothing. Wraith barely moved, but it was enough. The lizard missed him completely. Wraith swiftly and precisely raised and opened his still free right hand in perfect time to reach the generals throat. As soon as Wraith struck, the general realised his error. Here was a young but overly powerful human. The way he’d punctured the hull was something the general

could never have done; even with all his power applied to the hilt of his sword. In his haste to attack whilst the human was seemingly pre-occupied, the general had failed to observe the level of Wraith's confidence in the face of his attack. The general now wished that he had taken more time to observe his opponent. The human had known how to evade the general’s thrust, even before the move was executed. Wraith now had a firm grasp of the one part of the general’s body which he could not afford to be damaged. As with most similar organisms on Earth the Khai breathed through a tube which emerged inside the mouth below the tongue. This independent snorkel like tube was what allowed the snakes on Earth to spend so long swallowing prey without suffocating. The mouth led to the stomach while the breathing tube led directly to the lungs. Whilst being an overwhelmingly advantageous adaptation, this was to be the general’s Achilles heel now, and Wraith knew it. Without the assistance of his left hand which had never moved from sealing the breach, Wraith curled the general, a significant weight including body armour, until he was more or less eye to eye ... Nose to snout. Normally, Wraith might have ended up dead as a result of such a flagrantly fool-hardy move. A younger, lesser ranked Khai with a never say die attitude, would’ve been free to bring the huge claws on their feet to bare. These could rip open the gut or chest, or maybe they would've been kicked into his throat. Wraith would’ve quickly bled out. Today though, the outlook was a little less terminal. Wraith had suffered no such defects whilst observing the full garb of the general. This could’ve only been a rank or two below Khai-mah royalty and included a rather nice set of boots. - Hmmmm ... With a little tickling they might even fit me. Wraith had a broad smile plastered all over his face as he projected this image into the Mind of the general, who for a few brief moments had begun to make peace with the ills of his life. All his brave and fierce deeds had led him to this; the most lacklustre ending to a truly epic battle of a life. He was about to be suffocated to death by the weight of his own rank, and without barely a struggle. - It's a little bit embarrassing, isn't it? The general was unable to breathe and was powerless to respond; but even on

the brink of ing out, he was battle hardened enough not to surrender. The general would respond ... Mentally. - This isn’t how I thought my life would end, but maybe it will be much less painful. Despite this, I could never be embarrassed, you are a formidable warrior and I gave you my best. That it wasn't enough to put you down is no fault of mine, you are the biggest foe I've ever faced ... And my first failure. - Our offer of sanctuary still stands, your pilots are all still alive, they are our guests. They only had to agree to one condition. Wraith set the general gently back down on his feet and removed his hand; replacing it over the general’s shoulder whilst the wind returned to his lungs. Two minutes later ... "I can guess, you want us to throw down our arms and give up. You expect an old war bird like me to surrender ... Even If I wanted to ... I doubt I would be capable." "Consider it a battle of imposing your own will power over everything you have been taught. I'm guessing in the early days you were just ordered in, it's only by your own skill and ability to think that you lived this long. I still don't believe you grew to enjoy the endless fighting, the bulk of your Gekkoda are currently in our facilities on Earth. Our personnel are working with your men to restore them back to operational readiness. You see ... and this may be the hardest thing for you to believe ... The last thing we want is for you to surrender ... You can live on our planet for the rest of your days without ever fighting again, if that's what you truly want. But I suspect that wouldn't really cut it for you. We want you to help us keep our planet safe and pristine. How many worlds have you destroyed beyond habitable? And with no benefit for you or the original inhabitants. When you get to our world, you will see that it is unlike any planet you have ever actually successfully set foot on. Clean air with no weapons residue, creatures which are a lot like you, an entire country where you can live comfortably with respect." "So if you don't want us to stop fighting, what was the one condition you mentioned?" "Simply this General. You can fight with us or not at all, your choice. But if

you are to set foot on our world, you must renounce your rank. When you step amongst your crew it must be as a brother, not as a leader. In this way you shall find that the respect you receive shall be ten times that which you had before, when you ordered them with Khai indoctrination. We are NOT asking you to stop being Khai, and we will not press any laws upon you which are not for the benefit of all, including you ... So what do you say? There is room enough for everyone on board, and we would like to salvage as much of your equipment as we can ... You know ... For you to use in your most epic battle yet to come." "It might be good to get out of space for a while. I’ve lived a life of conquest, maybe I should put my feet up ... This armour gets heavier by the day after all. I should like to end my days similar to the way my ancestors did, when they found the new land. My feet have never set foot on solid ground even once.” The General had been stopped in his tracks, maybe swayed by Wraith in the first instance. Wraith preferred to think that maybe the general was given pause by the weight of his circumstances. Boredom at a life in space, dissatisfaction at his life and deeds, and this young human who was telling him that it was okay to think freely, for himself. With all the time in the world and no pressure being applied, the general made his decision quickly. Rather than re-holster his short blade, the general tossed it aside and began walking towards the far end of the equipment transfer corridor, where he had entered less than ten minutes before. Though no more words were exchanged, Wraith knew instinctively that he should follow. The General’s next move would be risky indeed, but he’d calculated a favourable outcome. By virtue of the fact that their lives right now we're very hard and dangerous, the wily old Repton was confident that his crew would listen to him. Zero stayed back with the Sphinx, continuing the formulation of his plan to salvage the craft. His last words to Wraith were telling of his level of trust towards the Khai. - Be careful Wraith. On the other side of that bulkhead are likely a couple of hundred Khai guards, insurmountable numbers even for you. Consider the possibility that this could be a ruse to separate us ... And exact revenge. Whilst remaining mindful of Zero's words, Wraith proceeded with an open mind.

He could sense turmoil from the general, conflict replacing his earlier confidence; this was to be expected. The general had made the leap to turn his back on the disorder of the Khai-mah, to try another way of living. This had probably been a huge decision, but Wraith had to give the General credit, he had made the choice remarkably easily, jumping in with both feet. Now the young giant only hoped the general could convince his crew to him as easily ... Installed back into the cockpit of the Sphinx, Zero now tried to Jer-Mija. The image was heavy with static. Through the interference caused by the thick shell of the Dragon, Oxull's Old mentor turned colleague came into view. A few words were exchanged to impart an update of the mission which had strayed far from the book, before Zero began his own enquiry ... “The Sphinx is currently trapped under a massive load. I'd like to shorten the range of the Axe to make local cuts in the walkway holding her down. I can't afford to cut a plasma conduit; the ship would never withstand such a mistake. I need to dial back the range and the power to cut six milli' plate at a max range of twenty feet. I also need much more precise control of the interface, maybe even remotely so I can point to where I need to cut. What do you think? Can you make the Axe follow a torch beam? I have my Mag-lite with a red filter.” “Give me a few moments to think, it's only a few extra subroutines to alter the power. In theory I should be able to get the Axe target acquisition camera to follow the torch, it's only a different kind of target after all. The transducers are already more than precise enough to follow small movements, but if you nicked a plasma conduit at that close range, I doubt even you would survive.” “Try not to concern yourself with that, if Wraith is successful I will ask the Khai engineers for their help identifying the cables and conduits ... How much time will you need?” “Give me an hour, I will try to relay an through Mona so the signal can be cleared and boosted.” “Thanks Jer-Mija, maybe Kariina can help you pinpoint us a little better?” “In fact that might be the only thing I cannot do. All my hails to Kariina these last few days have gone unanswered. I will ask the scientist.” It wasn't that Jer-Mija didn't like Geberus, for obvious reasons Jer-Mija saw the

clone in charge of science as very much his intellectual equal, trying often to engage Geberus to help him or Oxull. The problem was Geberus. In much the same way that it took him a long time to trust and warm up to Kariina, Geberus had not yet allowed himself to fully trust Eight who had caused so much trouble for them, eons ago. Until he did, the situation could be likened to the chicken and the egg. Geberus would not trust Jer-Mija without more exposure to him. Nor could he make himself more available to working with Jer-Mija, without a basic level of trust and respect. This wasn't Zero's problem to deal with, and right now he couldn’t offer any help even if he'd wanted to. “As you wish ... Zero out.” As Zero killed the comm channel back to Central, he pondered when it was that the Old Ones stopped existing for logical planning and designed outcomes. Even though they were his friends, Zero wished that he could avoid being a sounding board for all their emotional woes. He ed how simple things had been when he first came aboard Central. The Old Ones cold treatment of him had come very close to completely ironing such emotionality out of him. It seemed their two species had first mimicked each other, then crossed roles completely. Zero always tried to remain calm and clinical, but his mind wandered to the disarray Geberus and Ra'sian suffered as the missile had been coming in. Even though the situation had been new to them, and even though they had the skills to deal with the problem, the pair had showed none of their cloned alien installed calm. This hadn’t been easy for Zero to deal with. Of course the only Clone who had never changed, to Zero's recollection, was Geyldian. He could always be relied upon to form a bridge to channel communication. Had he been in the midst of the clones for so long that they had become dependent upon him? That couldn't be true, the clones were after all used to dealing with processes which happened over countless eons ... - They couldn’t have grown this way in less than sixty years. That’s like blinking an eye to them. Maybe what Zero was debating was purely circumstantial. Anyone thrust into such an intense situation, with no ability or possibility to change the outcome, might easily fall victim to their own self-doubts and feelings of powerlessness.

Zero just hadn't expected the clones to display these insecurities so visibly. Maybe Geyldian was so even-keeled because he’d lived almost sixteen thousand years amongst beings he couldn't help directly and had long come to with any possible feelings of inadequacy. Had this been the fuel which powered Geyldian’s rise to Second in the circle? He was proof that if channelled correctly, even seemingly counterproductive energies could eventually yield positive results. Zero was glad he'd met Joan, or he might have eventually become lost to cold hard logic. The fact remained that beyond her and Wraith, the display of a wide range of emotions was simply not required in order for Zero to function. In fact for him to function properly, many of these mental burdens had long been cast off as redundant. He never fought or planned any mission or battle with any hint of emotion, to do so would've seen him killed a thousand times over by now. Calm, clarity and logic were essential to analyse data and perform adjustments quickly with no fuss or ill effect. This was just how missions had to be performed if a successful outcome was to be reached. Of course Zero did have friends and could enjoy all the benefits associated; but this was all secondary and could be quickly put in a mental drawer when the time came for action. More and more, Zero had felt the weight of his position, and all the expectations which were resting upon him as a result. This was why he had taken to solitary meditation again, something he hadn't felt the need to do since learning to spatial jump, decades ago. Sometimes finding a resolution to a situation or problem; required a focused dedication to one's self, through reflection and consideration, without outside interference or influence. Zero found many more solutions silently inside himself than he ever could have involving every Clone and their dog. Despite Joan and Wraith, Zero always ran toward solitude, rather than away from it. This was something which remained of him from before the Second World War. Well before Central and the clones had come into his life, with all their rules to be obeyed. Even these were not such an upheaval to his normal modus operandi as Zero had originally anticipated. Having access to more of the functions of his brain and almost limitless strength and stamina, he was on another level from the soldiers and mercenaries he faced in the course of his missions. Even he had to concede that it wasn’t a fair fight. Him against a full battalion equipped with heavy artillery still wouldn't be a fair fight ... For them. Putting Antarctica in his ever dimming past, Zero was resolved to break this “No Kill” rule in the name of self-preservation. In the nine years Zero had been out of

the game, nothing had really changed except him. It had at best been a major inconvenience for him and his family. At worst it had been a harsh lesson, of how arrogant and complacent he’d become in his years of enlightenment. In the end he had been felled like a giant redwood, by a normal man; notwithstanding all the time and training which Khaalida had invested. The whole episode served to remind Zero that he was human, albeit a higher functioning one. As such he was resolved to act accordingly. Since his rebirth, Zero had made great leaps, exhibiting the same benevolence as his friends the Numbers. Before Antarctica, Zero either acted alone, or solely with Geyldian. Now he trained with Wraith, the Thraten Army, and the survivors of the super soldier project, the latter now being firmly installed into the Earth Defense Force. Zero continued to close the gap between the humans and the clones, who had in past millennia pulled far away from human . He, and maybe even more so Joan, could always find a way to garner more direct help for the humans, where none would've been forthcoming before. The clones were invested and willing to help now, as if recent events had reaffirmed their original purpose for being on the planet. The only thing which didn't fit with all prior predictions was what was happening today. Back in 1973 neither the clones nor Zero could have envisioned the role which baby Wraith would eventually play in the coming events. If Zero was a bridge between humans and clones, then Wraith was attempting to go one step beyond, by bridging the massive cultural gaps between, human, Clone and Khai. Extending a hand of friendship where all others would withdraw their hands in fear. While this endeavour had yet to be proven definitively as a serious course of action, Wraith was in no doubt about giving it a try. It was after all the solution to several major problems, reducing the needless loss of life, extinction of species and planetary pollution. If all this could be achieved mostly by talking and a few minor introductory skirmishes, history would record it as a resounding success. After all the alternative was unthinkable ... To be avoided at all costs. Yet Zero had faith in his son. Wraith had a massive heart, and not just to power his massive body. Zero knew his son was no idiot, and that he and only he would be able to make his own unique mission work. Against the tide of popular opinion, his personality was large enough to give it a damn good shot. It would take a dire

turn of events to make Wraith abandon the simplest path to peace, even if he had to fight hard to get there. Now it seemed that Zero's faith was not misplaced as, still staring into space deep in thought, Zero heard the bulkhead door rise again. This time the door stayed open. Zero turned around to see Wraith walking toward him waving, the broad smile still across his face. By his side was a Khai who looked like the General, but now his armour was gone. The pair were followed by six columns of Khai Guards, pilots, engineers and general staff. There wasn’t a sabre among them. An inventory had been taken which revealed twenty seven Gekkoda, five in pieces, three Monitors all in good working order with full crews, 231 pilots and active crew, 83 remaining engineering staff, and 150 general dragon staff. These consisted of s and caterers, none of whom would hesitate to pick up the nearest object, blunt or sharp, to achieve a kill should it be required. It seemed that the general had swayed his crew by delivering an excellent speech, at the same time as stripping off his armour and throwing it asunder. His final statement was to renounce his rank as general before thanking his brothers for their hard service; both past and still to come. This single act had effectively set the entire crew free, allowing them to choose for themselves what would happen next. It hadn’t taken much conferring to arrive at universal agreement. The small blue orb rotating below them was the kind of Jewel some had fought over more than ten times in their lives; yet none had ever set foot on the irradiated wrecks which these planets had all been transformed into. Now would be the first time many of them would even set foot on Terra firma. Odd, considering the Khai-mah prime directive, to find and acquire all land, wherever it may be in the universe. It took Jer-Mija a little over an hour to begin the of the new subroutines. A short time after, the Khai began loading themselves onto Monitors with skeleton crews. These shuttled them down to the Earth before returning to collect more. Zero began training his torch on the underside of the platform. The head of engineering managed to divert plasma flow away from that section, as there was no way to sever the deck which trapped the Sphinx, without severing the plasma conduits. After this the Axe worked quickly. Minutes later the Sphinx was deftly piloted out of her impromptu resting space and down into the hangar. Zero began to ferry Khai crew in convoy with the Monitors. Wraith,

not having any ship or indeed piloting ability, could not assist; so he jumped the general down to India-7, to meet the rest of his crew. The general could barely believe his Repton eyes as the first sight which greeted him was a Gekkoda being repaired by Khai pilots and human avionics engineers. As the dust settled on a mission which had ultimately been a success, a debrief was held in the circle on Central. It was clear that several glaring errors had been present in the original mission brief supplied by Mona ...

Chapter 28 - One of our hybrids is missing.

KARIINA WAS CONSPICUOUS by her absence from the debrief, no one had successfully raised or spoken to her for several days. This was so out of character that an immediate search was launched to find her. As far as anyone knew Kariina was now completely comfortable inside her new persona, for sure she would never forget Quinn, and Zero had long since made it clear that he harboured no ill will toward her. The pair had been like old friends since their first meeting in Khaalida's lair. It was considered odd amongst the numbers that they had not heard from her for the last three days, but for some it was approaching a week. It took a little positive reinforcement, but eventually Geberus itted he was worried. Zero doubted that a clone would even know what it meant to worry but was happy that Geberus had found a deeper friendship with Kariina. A full sweep of the three ships would take place, whilst this was underway, Zero and Wraith took their leave to check Kariina's old lair in the Doon region of Tibet, as usual the door was unlocked. Within her domain Khaalida had been somewhere between urban legend and colourful local character, crossed with real life local goddess. This meant that while the huge alien human hybrid woman always welcomed ersby who sought refuge in a harsh situation, the reality was that for the most part, local stories dating back over a thousand years suggested that most locals knew better than to just drop in. As a result, her front door cut into the side of a huge cliff face never needed to be locked. Offerings were frequently left but treasures were never stolen. As Zero and Wraith entered the deceptively massive dwelling, carved out by Khaalida's press ganged slave labour and began to seek out their friend. There was no answer to their calls. Disappointed and worried, Zero led Wraith back out into the open air, and closed the door behind them. It was late summer now but at this altitude, the heat from the sun carried little force against the cold. The pair decided to make the ten mile hike down the long valley to the nearest village so they could at least enquire if any of the local shepherds or guides had seen anything. In little less than a mile the pair had reached the memorial for Quinn, Khaalida's adopted son and full time assassin. Zero had not stopped by here since testing his new body, how time had flown. He couldn't say who, but someone had clearly

tended the grave very recently, within days judging by the recently fresh cut flowers which were probably harvested lower down the same valley. “Maybe we're in luck Wraith, this tomb only has any significance for Kariina. Most likely we've just missed ... Hmmmm that's odd ... Come look at this.” Wraith back tracked a few strides now to his father, who had himself only stopped because something had caught his eye. “Look here. Is it me or does the cover look like it's been moved? See the moss hasn't grown here, it's only minimal but it's there.” “It doesn't look like the cover was slid sideways, the moss at the other side shows no sign of damage ... If the cover was moved ... They must've lifted it. I doubt Kariina would be able to lift this, not on her own at any rate ... Why would she even want to?” “All good questions son. I know the big girl's been busy recently, but she generally stops by here every six months. See the pile of compost over there at the edge of the grass line? That’s all the old flowers. Kariina doesn't need to see Quinn; she'll never forget his face.” Zero took a slow walk around the tomb, for the third time. The movement in the cover stone would have been indiscernible to almost everyone who viewed it, not that many ever would. To lift the heavy red granite cover stone off would've taken more than ten men, a ten metre tall A-frame and a three-fold purchase. This was the way the human network had fitted the slab originally, due to the remoteness of the location. The Network hadn’t bothered to remove this lifting equipment, after installing the slab over Quinn’s stasis pod. Every other time Zero had visited here with Kariina, the frame had been lying on the ground, folded up, just outside the grassy clearing. Now though the fact the frame was missing gave Zero another clue. A wider inspection of the surrounding ground did not reveal any new indentations in the soil. There were no scratches on the granite slab or the lower body of the sarcophagus to show anything had been touched. This suggested someone had taken great care, but not quite enough. The only give away was the slight absence of moss around the slab ... Something and nothing. Still Zero

couldn’t shake the seed of discomfort free from the pit of his stomach. This seed quickly grew into a serious concern for his friend. “Come on Wraith, let's crack it open, something’s amiss. The lifting frame is missing.” “Stolen?... How are we gonna do that? There aren't even any handles.” Wraith and Zero tried together to move the slab ... only to be disappointed, neither being able to get a good footing on the wet grass. If Zero was right, they were running out of time. Zero suggested something extreme ... “I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it in this body, the last time I did this was in Antarctica, to stop this guy here from killing me. I'm going to meditate for a while, once I'm down, come and me. I’ll try to teach you, if I can't do it, maybe you'll have more luck. Wraith didn’t have to ask; he ed his visit to Antarctica a little over a year and a half ago. The mess had been incredible. His dad hadn't needed to tell him, Geyldian had long before. Zero rocked the cave so hard the tremor was ed thousands of miles away at seismic sensors all over Australia and Indonesia. Wraith also knew that Zero had never sat down and attempted to hone it into an actual ability. His dad was always the master of picking his moments. Now Zero thought he could just sit on the grass and lift up what amounted to a five Tonne lump of granite, using only his mind. Zero was as ever, tuned into his son’s mental seepage. It was strange that a boy with so much talent for telepathy, and from such a young age, still hadn't the sense to mentally switch off before dissing his own father. As Zero cruised past Wraith, he dug his knuckles into the lads kidney, just to let Wraith know he'd heard everything. Sitting down, Zero first thought back to his service in the war. Some of the action he'd experienced had been epic in scale, basic technology which wrought awesome devastation. If Zero had just settled himself to listen to the grass grow, he would never have been able to reach the same place. True peace just wasn’t powerful enough. Usually preparing for battle involved divorcing his emotions to become calm and clear. Replaying some of the most brutal moments in his life enabled him to reach a place of calm, then his meditation would begin. Ironic, as the last thoughts which went through Zero's mind as it finally plateaued was the

figure in the black ninja suit hacking at him with his Katana. Wraith felt Zero drop off his mental radar, his father was deep inside his own subconscious, there would be no communication now unless he ed Zero inside the Zen state. It didn’t take long. Just a few deep breaths; Wraith was nowhere near as burdened as Zero, his mind was still relatively new. Free of bad memories which might trip him up. - Hey - So what now? - Well I'm no expert, last time I was fighting for my life. If I'm right, it might be Kariina whose life is on the line. We can use that. Zero was still in the grip of the feelings he had as he lay dying in the Antarctic cavern, the most evocative being the thought that he may never see his girlfriend or his son again. The feeling was anger, sadness, and sheer frustration all at the same time in equal measure. In the end Zero didn’t try anything, he opened his eyes to focus directly on the cover stone, this was his target now. He gazed upon the tomb stone as he had the cave wall and concentrated, hard. A low rumble was felt which signalled that some movement was occurring, but merely rocking the stone onto the floor wasn't the result Zero was looking for. Zero now began to apply the most useful skill he knew from another of the mental disciplines, spatial jumping For a spatial jump to occur most readily a state of clear minded calmness had to be reached ... This box had already been checked. Secondly a clear, well defined image of where you wanted to go had to be visible in your mind's eye. This was slightly more complicated as a static image was useless in this situation. Zero tried to visualise the huge granite slab floating as if it were as light as a feather, but it was tricky. His focus on what he needed to happen, was being interrupted by what his eyes were seeing, causing a glitch, a stutter in the image. Zero closed his eyes again. That’s better. The image in his mind was clear, he would just have to trust that his image was being mirrored by reality. Now with complete mental focus on the task at hand, the rumbling stopped completely. Wraith's curiosity was getting the better of him, returning to his own body, he gingerly opened his eyes. What he saw filled him with excitement, the cover stone was lifting silently into the air and was already over a metre clear.

His father was the picture of silence, but the exertion was telling. Zero’s forehead was beaded with sweat, which was running in several streams down the contours of his face. Wraith could not bring himself to look away from the floating cover stone for long. Zero had now begun slowly shifting the block sideways and was making some progress; but now he was visibly steaming in the cold mountain air. It wasn't good for his father to be in this state, the time since starting was just coming up to three minutes but the stone still had to be lowered to the earth. Blood began to run out of Zero's nostrils, then his tear ducts and finally his ears. All the veins in his temples and forehead were stood far out from their normal level; the pressure inside Zero's head must have been staggering. The worst part was that Wraith knew that even though the stone was now clear and even if it dropped to the soft ground, would remain intact, he couldn’t simply shake Zero out of his trance. Clearly his health was suffering under the strain of the task, Wraith dove into try and talk his father out. - Stop now ... You've done it. There was no sign of a response from his father. Worried, Wraith reached out to Geyldian, who promptly arrived with a loud popping noise. The scene was familiar, and yet not. This was the second time Geyldian had arrived at a scene where his best friend was sat still, at death's door and suffering. The Old Clone completely missed the fact that the cover stone was still four feet above the ground, slowly moving downwards. Scooping Zero up gently into his arms he jumped straight to Leren's medical lab on Central. This left Wraith alone to look into the grave of Quinn, but where there should have only been one body, now there were two. Draped over the top of Quinn's stasis pod was the huge female frame of Kariina. Immediately Wraith leapt down to check his friend. There was a very shallow pulse but Geyldian’s sister was unconscious and not breathing. Wraith only had to touch her body and with a boom he exploded into Leren's lab, still hunched over his big Aunt's body. Geyldian had already put Zero into a Medi-Pod, which had bleeped into life and was beginning to connect various attachments. Now he rushed to help Wraith lift his sister into another pod. Five minutes later and Leren had his diagnosis. Zero had pushed his hybrid brain

too far yet again. This time the doctor couldn't be sure if Zero would recover. Leren was only sure of one thing, Zero's body was not yet beginning to heal the damage from several large aneurysms, one of which was very close to the brain stem. Initially Zero had been in control of his actions, but as his brain became overloaded, this control had been lost. Still obsessed with finding Kariina and lifting the cover stone, Zero had been powerless to stop, trapped in the well of concentration. Kariina's injuries were far easier to diagnose, the huge Alien clone human hybrid had clearly been attacked. Leren cited a long open gash on the back of Kariina's scalp. Someone had brained her hard with a large heavy object. Kariina was strong, but this kind of blow would've floored any of the clones. There were also various scuffs on her knees and bruises around her wrists which suggested she had been dragged some distance. Crush injuries to her ribs, a fractured collar bone, and a dislodged neck vertebrae all suggested she had finally been shoved into Quinn's grave headfirst. As Geberus arrived to visit his girlfriend, Geyldian was fuming angrily, an attack of this kind on a clone had never been known. No entries existed in the record. Out of all the clones, and despite her violent history, Kariina was an easy target. This was because since coming aboard to her kind, Kariina had renounced violence. In spite of this she had designed weapons systems for the benefit of Earth, and assisted Geberus to upgrade the long range tracking scanners on Mona. Another reason someone may choose her in preference to one of the pure clones was probably because she was far less mentally skilled; having only begun training in this discipline just over a decade ago. This meant Kariina's go to method of communication was always verbal. Kariina had become an accomplished speaker of the Old language, far more so than she was at mental communication. Her senses were extremely acute compared to any human, but a clone who was able to cloak their presence, moving slowly and quietly would be able to get the jump on her. Whilst enhancing deep field scanners, Kariina was unprotected. In her past most threats had been detected and then subsequently dispatched before any harm was ever suffered. Kariina's final problems were a bad case of hypoxia and dehydration. Wraith suddenly returned with a small canister of oxygen in his hand. - I found this down the side of Quinn’s pod. Someone is playing with us.

They knew we’d find her eventually ... - Yes ... The problem is that they underestimated her lung capacity. Is it? - Empty?... Completely. Would Kariina have come round from the blow ... Inside the tomb? - Most likely ... I believe Kariina was taking the shallowest breaths that she could manage. That is why she lasted so long. - Hmmm ... Well nearly not long enough. Having been trapped unconscious inside Quinn's tomb, even with the canister and breathing very shallow, it had not taken Kariina long to run out of good quality air. Such was the quality of the seal provided by the cover slab, very little fresh air was able to replenish the supply inside the tomb. Zero's possible selfsacrifice had revealed the foul play, and the location of their friend just in the nick of time. Kariina had been mere hours from expiring. Joan was next to arrive, Zero was now in a medically induced coma, not his first but this was just another indicator of the trouble he was in, again as a result of his own stubbornness. Geyldian stood with Joan, his hand placed gently but firmly on her shoulder. Far from inconsolable, Joan automatically understood why Zero had gone this far, and she knew that any one of the clones would have done the same for him if it were needed, and if it were in their power. This was the reason Zero existed on Central, to make a difference whenever he could. It wasn't just a job, it was his purpose, deeply written into his character. Leren's lab became even more crowded as two teams of Novus monitored the two patients around the clock. Joan and Wraith hadn't left since the pair had arrived. With the smallest pop anyone had witnessed from him in centuries, Aelren arrived to survey his two valued team . So gentle was the Prime's arrival that none of the equipment was damaged, a good thing considering. Aelren's mood dropped like a stone through water. The Prime was confused by the actions against Kariina who was well liked; he couldn't even begin to imagine who had harmed her. There were no clues in the sarcophagus, but Aelren and Wraith hit the same conclusion together.

- Mona! - Mona! The pair concluded that for the last decade Kariina had left Mona very little, and even when she had occasionally returned to Earth, these events were completely unscheduled. This meant that Kariina was probably the most static of all the clones. Even when she was busy on Mona, ninety percent of the time Kariina would be tackling the deep space scanner, or in the Astro-metrics lab, tracking the incoming objects. Kariina had been an easy target indeed. Wraith and Aelren jumped away together, a challenge given the current position of the Moon on the opposite side of the planet. Aelren was on a mission, hence his arrival on Mona was typical. The boom was so loud that it shook the entire craft, echoing up and down inside the huge Alculinium shell like ripples in a bathtub. Equipment on five decks above and below was caused to temporarily malfunction, with older pieces of kit being utterly and catastrophically overloaded. Aelren was met by his favourite Novus, the only Novus who was to be found alone most of the time. Having a broad grasp of all the disciplines gained from the inherited knowledge, he acted mostly as a liaison between the Prime and various departments to expedite tasks and improve communication. The Novus, perfectly in tune with his mentor, met his Prime at his jump point in the main Caddy launch hangar. Pre-sensing the Old One’s temper, and in order not to incur any further wrath, the Novus arrived accompanied by several pairs of Novus, to whom tasks could be instantly delegated. - Get me all the data logs and videos from the deep space scanner housing and conduit tubes for the last month, and the same from the Astro-metrics Lab. Then I want to see every piece of footage which has Kariina's face on it from the same time period. I want to know what she was working on and when. Four Novus were instantly dispatched leaving Wraith slightly in shock. He had never seen the Novus respond so quickly to a request. Usually patience was a virtue, all results came in time to the patient clone. Aelren wasn't so patient, he wanted to get a handle on the saboteur quickly. Anything else was just giving them a head start.

Aelren made it clear he would walk to his quarters, the Novus had this long to deliver the information to the terminal inside his room. Wraith accompanied the Prime posing tricky questions. - Has this kind of thing ever happened before? - Probably but not since we became enlightened. You know our history; there were some bloody times with much treachery afoot. I've never known it. The fact that a clone could sink this low ... The fact that I could miss it ... - Whoa now! You mustn't blame yourself; this is on them. Whatever troubles they are experiencing, they must run deep; really deep. Most Novus are placid to a fault, with a deeply ingrained sense of duty, that's the only way they could take being so long in training. And let's face it, that's their lot most of the time ... - What do you mean? - Well it's obvious isn't it? They spend eons training, eons ... At the end of it all, most die having never made it into the circle. But they all dream that it's possible. Beyond this there is no incentive for them to do well. Most of the Numbers have a favourite team and you have ... Well ... This one ... Wraith was looking deep into the eyes of Aelren's favourite now, his impersonality wasn't personal. It was just an illustration of how Novus mostly remained nameless. - I'm sorry, I don't know the designation of your Novus, but you get my point. If they aren't the favourite Novus, they have no chance of reaching the circle, and as such they have very little chance of their Number ever recognising them or praising them. - I don't think you understand quite how it works my b ... Sorry ... Wraith. When we are young we inherit the knowledge, for most a single discipline will stand out ... like a calling. The rest fades into obscurity, but along with that around sixty percent of the knowledge of their chosen field also fades away. We aren't just spawned knowing what our predecessors knew, instantly ready to move up to the circle. Although it's only one subject, such are the complications of what we do, that it can take thousands of years to master. Most clones do not live much past twenty thousand years, I am the

exception for a long time. The clones who do reach the circle have usually shown exceptional mastery of their chosen field, taking only around four thousand years. Some do much better even than that ... Now Aelren was also looking at his favourite, he had the look of a proud father in his Old Clone eyes. Never having had a son, this Novus was the closest he would get. This warm leakage was not wasted on Wraith, who had felt similar feelings from the Old Prime towards him during his short lifespan. Wraith was feeling cheeky. - So I guess the next question is why hasn't your favourite, an acknowledged genius across all fields, taken his position in the circle yet? He has all the boxes ticked to take over from you someday. Wraith was saying all this right in front of the Novus, who despite his poker face was burning like the fires of hell inside. Wraith was a skilled telepath, very skilled considering he was mostly human and so young. Despite the fact that Wraith was looking squarely at Aelren as he delivered his question, it was not beyond him to monitor the mental reaction of the both of them. Aelren was still open, he was used to being asked pointed questions by Zero's son, and he had never refused an answer ever. The Novus by contrast was closing shop ... and fast. Odd as there should have been less reaction to his words from the Novus than there was from his Prime, which was close to Zero. The Novus taking himself offline was a major alarm bell ringing inside Wraith's head. Aelren now showed his own skill at telepathy. Together the pair stopped side by side in the corridor they were traversing, turning towards one another they were clearly thinking the same thing. Continuing to turn around to confront the Novus as to why he needed to disconnect from the hive. Neither got the chance to ask; Nazir sensed that he was about to be caught and instantly jumped away ... Perfectly.

Chapter 29 - The ghost and the shell.

TWO WEEKS LATER AND Kariina was fully recovered, not even a scar remained to show for the assault which had seen her left for dead in Quinn’s tomb. Kariina still hadn’t left Leren’s medical bay and had remained a permanent fixture at the side of her friend Zero since her discharge a few days before. -Isn’t there any sign of recovery Leren? -Not as yet. You can see the monitor for yourself, there are the occasional signs of nerves firing, but no brain activity. Leren was calm in his demeanor as he delivered these words, but on the inside his brain was swimming. When Zero had been killed in Antarctica, the Old clone doctor had diligently managed to take a posthumous brain imprint from the downed super soldier. This had been ed to the record, with the result that Zero had been allowed to live again, albeit nine years later. The problem was different this time. As Geyldian had placed their friend into the Medi-Pod, all the biometrics being displayed had shown that whilst the core lobe, which acted as a connector between the six Thrallian lobes did still have function, all the other lobes were fried deeper than a Cajun crawfish. This meant that to the casual observer, the large man laid on the bed was perfectly fine, flushed skin as usual accompanied by the slow rise and fall of Zero's normal respiration. Everything was functioning on autopilot, but the cockpit was most definitely deserted. Leren had first performed microsurgery to repair and strengthen the ruptured blood vessels within Zero’s brain, this had taken a long time but was well within Leren’s skill set. The doctor had then attempted to use specially programmed Nanites to seek out severed neural connections and rebuild them. This had been quickly abandoned when Leren observed that even connecting the core lobe back to the first higher lobe, apparently perfectly within a finite tolerance, had not resulted in any actual brain signals between the two lobes. It was getting harder and harder for the doctor to look upon his broken masterpiece with the impartial eyes of a physician. Leren was beginning to succumb to the reality that his friend was gone again. Wraith had asked the only question he could think of. Why couldn’t Leren

regrow that permutation of body and Zero’s last living imprint into it. Leren’s answer was weak, but truthful. The Old Doctor cited the many times when a clone had an incomplete imprint loaded into a nice warm fresh body. The disparity of the lost time, where the subject’s last memory was not up to date with everyone else's present could not be covered up by the subject’s friends, not forever at least. Eventually the subject would find out that they had died, and this would always result in massive depression, and eventually in most cases, suicide. Herein lay the problem. Since Zero had been ed back into a fit body, Leren resolved to never let their super soldier get more than one week out of date with his imprints. Overzealous maybe; considering before they realised that Zero could in fact be killed, Leren was barely bothered if the imprint went six months out of date. The inconvenience of Zero being killed meant Leren had to become a bit more proactive, taking an imprint from Zero became top priority. This caused another problem, taking an imprint required Zero to lay immobile for anything up to two hours. This was an interruption to a busy day for most, but for Zero it was impossible. The busy super soldier about town always had somewhere to be and two hours inside Leren’s lab hooked up to a Medi-Pod was out of the question. It took more than a simple flat out refusal for Leren to be dissuaded from an important task, so the clever doctor invented the Hexalobic - Encephalo Anamnestic - Data - Scanning – ing - Pillow. A Pillow which wirelessly scanned, synchro-merged and ed an imprint from Zero's Thrall derived brain each night. Leren considered himself the winner of this battle where nine times out of ten his stubborn opponent wouldn't even show up to the battlefield. For Zero it was rare that Leren gave him anything other than a puncture wound. So it was easy to accept any technology which removed the need to voluntarily venture into Old Boney Finger's lab. Leren's lipless hole first elongated and then slightly curled up to a half smile as he ed the words from his friend as he bolted out of the lab with the device under his arm. - Thanks for the HEADS-UP Doc! Leren always felt happy when Zero addressed him as Doc ... Deep in the bowels of Central, Gray was filled with a feeling of coldness, like a part of him was being shut down. For the last month he had been silently

ensconced within the little chamber at the intersection of the service ways. Here the Thrall could hide away to find moments of peace away from the nippy Novus. Gray was well down the road to recovery and had made meaningful inroads into rebuilding himself, now at 78 Kilos he still looked far too skinny for his still six feet six-inch frame. This was the only aspect of him which had remained unchanged by his death and almost failed regeneration. With regard to that, Gray's earliest memories from after he broke free from the pod were long gone and had never returned, not even fragments. Only one thing remained. That was the feeling of fear which had been evoked within him as he’d suffered the nightmares ... Or memories, whatever they were. The feeling Gray was experiencing deep within his gut, was an instinctive alarm that something bad was about to happen. Gray got this feeling all the time on missions, although his reaction was usually hyper awareness, nothing more. Today the knot inside his stomach felt much more ominous. Not that they had ever exchanged words, but the little grey was never far from Gray; the chamber was the Thrall’s hub of operations. As such the alien maintenance toddler had become acutely aware of Gray's mood and how it changed. Gray had learned that when he wasn't stealing the green so the Novus couldn't have it, the slippery little Thrall did actually pull his weight. Unbeknownst to Gray his little helper had eaten a few times at the Albern residence. At such times the entire family would eat the full rainbow of goop, gathered from a nearby dispenser. This had given the tiny maintenance worker plenty of time to observe the giant personality of Zero. In this regard the little grey felt eminently qualified to draw comparisons between the original and his alternate. Physically the two were far apart but this was only a matter of time and nourishment; mentally the two were remarkably similar. Not such a surprise as the one personality was the other, just ed into a standby body, but the Thrall considered that it was strange that the alternate Zero ... hadn’t changed at all despite having over two decades of extra experience under his belt. Another, stranger thing appeared to be that the two, only one of which knew of the other, the second considering the first to be long dead, were perfectly synchronised in of their moods. Though the tiny one could not be in two places at once for an exact comparison, his observations based on a one hour separation, spent travelling from the first back to the second or vice versa showed that if he left Zero in a good mood, he would find Gray also in high

spirits. Of course the same was true for negative and neutral moods too. As Gray sat on the stool in the middle of the chamber, the Thrall knew that something might be very wrong with Zero. Gray looked to be under some great weight, his breathing was heavy, and the normally cool man was sweating profusely. Zero was so deep in thought that he never even noticed as the grey silently slipped away. Making his enquiries it seemed that his earlier suspicions were correct. A friendly type two, the largest kind of Thrall at nearly five feet, but no less weedy told him that Zero was in the Old doctor’s lab, having been injured on his last mission. The information dried up there. No Thrall knew how Zero had been injured, he looked to be in good health but was actually on life . The little Grey made the trek to Leren's lab to see for himself. Of course he could not and would never dare to actually set foot inside the uber clean environment of the lab which was cleaned by Novus. Thrall were actively kept out of the lab for fear of germs. As the weedy worker looked down upon Zero from inside a vent, his friend’s report was confirmed. Zero looked perfectly like Zero, and yet he was fully connected to the Medi-pod. Mostly the pads were connected around Zero's head, but there were others lower down around major nerve centers. Odd then; that there were no signs on the monitors, apart from the occasional blip to break up the flat lines. The looks on the faces of the people standing around the Medi-pod also told a pretty bleak story. Joan was staring blankly down at her partner. The little grey felt most for her as he knew she had already lost Zero once before. The large half clone woman was there too, silent in her of Joan, with her huge hand resting on her friend’s shoulder. Joan looked ashen, like she hadn't eaten or slept properly for days, like she wanted to be there in case Zero perked up. Perhaps it was more likely she wanted to be there when he expired. Being accustomed to taking instruction from Numbers, but perfectly incapable of ever questioning them, the little Thrall could tune into the mental exchange below him all too easily. - Joan I don't think he can ever come out of it, his body is functioning perfectly, but that's only because the central cortex of his Hexalobe brain is taking care of everything, but Zero ... Is gone ... The only question is what do you want me to do now? - You're sure Leren?

- Yes Joan, quite sure. If there was any possibility of change, we would have seen it by now. - Then disconnect him Leren, he was so full of life, you're right ... That's not Zero. I can't look any more. Joan began to cry uncontrollably, in seconds Wraith jumped into the lab to find Kariina was already comforting his mother. Kariina was also crying huge tears. Nobody had pressed her, but she considered that just like before, she had been complicit in the demise of Zero, now her friend. Whilst not employing anyone to do the job this time, Zero had simply gone too far to save her. “Oh Joan ... How did I allow myself to be attacked? How could I not notice?” “Just a sign of how safe you feel I guess. You should have nothing to fear from your own kind after all. And you have been working very hard.” Kariina felt the attack was a sign of how much she’d changed from her earlier self. Clearly so much of a change had been a mistake. The little Grey Thrall was interested to stay and see what else happened but even he knew this wasn't the right thing to do. The look on Gray's face when the Thrall had left him said that Gray and Zero were somehow connected, and the original was now suffering just as much as a result. It could be that their two psyches were so similar that they were able to sense each other without realising it. Leren pressed a short series of buttons on the Medi-Pod control module, this initiated two processes to begin. With core function intact the doctor knew that the functionless body containing his friend would continue to "Live"; a fact he had kept Joan conveniently unaware of; to spare her any further distress. The first process would be to shut down the core lobe of Zero's Thrallian brain with a series of well positioned micro shocks. These shocks were completely out of phase with the core lobes normal operational parameters and would shut down the core very quickly; but more importantly painlessly and without any outward display of what was occurring. The final press had only been to withdraw all the connections from Zero's body back into their home positions ready for next use. However the speed of Leren's actions had led to Zero's apparent death occurring as soon as the connections had

been removed. As far as Joan was concerned her friend and mentor had been sustaining her partner’s life. Once she had given the word to cease, the removal of had caused Zero to expire immediately. Leren knew different, but for the sake of Joan's sanity, this way was better. The little Thrall had just observed his friend Zero die, from something which he could not see. There was no change on the monitors after disconnection. The only change the little Thrall noticed was that the occasional blips had stopped. All the biometric traces stayed flat, along with Zero's chest which showed no sign of respiratory intake anymore. With that the little Thrall slipped away to re Gray, after half an hour of walking and clambering the little one made it back to the chamber, but Gray was gone ...

Chapter 30 - Dissatisfaction and deception.

AELREN HAD KNOWN THE moment Zero’s Medi-Pod had been turned off. Leren was also suffering. His massive intellect was unable to stop his brain from folding in two from the distress. No one spoke about what happened, the hive made such things needless. Both Aelren and Wraith knew who the culprit was, but only one of the two was handling this information rationally. Aelren was for the first time ever, thrown into a complete tailspin. How had he missed the malevolent dissatisfaction bubbling over inside his favourite Novus? When his rise into the circle had been temporarily suspended due to the return of Jer-Mija, the Novus had taken the development without protest. All had seemed as it should have been. Now it was clear that the genius Novus was far from happy with his lot. The only good thing was that as the self-named Nazir had made his escape, Aelren had caught the glimmer of distress from eight other souls inside the hive. Knowing instantly that Nazir had been in the process of setting up a second circle of Numbers filled the Old Prime with dread. It wasn't enough that their old foes the Khai-mah were homing in on them thick and fast; now they had to fight a civil war with some rebellious clones too. Aelren was in uncharted waters, never before had any Novus taken such actions. Inexplicably, considering his father was dead, and having almost caught up to the culprit by fluke; Wraith remained calm. He was also sure that given the chance, he would take Nazir down with extreme prejudice. His father's training was still ringing loudly in his ears. Never go into battle angry, maintain a levelheaded strategic approach. In living memory a few clones had set foot into the human world outside their ships, most notably was Geyldian's father; the previous Prime ... Then there was Jer-Mija, also a gifted genius in many of the fields of study, but not all. The latter had also created an unbridgeable distance between himself and his brethren. After literally killing his experiment dead upon exposure, Jer-mija had taken no more hostile actions than this. Sharp as his mind was his only instinct had been to run, the thought to harm another clone had never happened. For a couple of hundred years Jer-Mija was ... at large. Even then, he hadn’t sought to live amongst the humans.

Seeking some insight into Nazir and where his overactive ego might have placed him, Wraith questioned Aelren about his favourite. He also invited the exiled Eight for his thoughts. After much questioning Wraith could only form a diluted picture of Nazir and his character. The Old Prime still could not relinquish his pride when he spoke about his favourite and was in classic denial about his number one Novus. - You have to understand Wraith, I could not see this coming. Nazir as he calls himself has never faltered at any task set to him. Accusing him of the sabotage of the rescue and the attack on Kariina which even she has no memory of ... Maybe we aren't in possession of all the facts. He has never displayed any signs to me that he was suffering rebellious thoughts..... - Prime ... With respect ... Nazir is suffering far less than most of our number right now. You guys don't suffer with rebellious thoughts. It's simply a choice he’s made based on what the Old system dictates not matching up to his ideals. For sure I can think of at least three events recently which might have unseated him from the right path. Jer-Mija now sought to weigh in. Connected to the hive as he was the quick witted Eight had not needed to invade anyone's mind. - They are easy to deduce .... If I may. The first would be me, if you hadn't needed me to extract the reactor core, I would still be on ice, Nazir would have taken his seat in the circle. This is my guess for the main stressor. Second would be the carnage committed by your father on Mona. This was the first sign that we would defend ourselves and not run like last time ... The wrinkly blue flesh of Aelren's face began to flush, almost reaching purple. This was anger about to breach into rage. Jer-Mija was hitting all the Prime's buttons as he basically accused their forefathers of being cowards and suggested that what Zero did was send a message. A message no one but clones could hear. - Finally, and I suspect the most effective event which could have turned Nazir against us was you Wraith. So much negativity was levied at Zero for the massacre, the death of a few Lizards, but only by the circle. The Novus are not allowed to vent or comment of any kind, not even one so strongly willed as Nazir. Forced to be silent when he wanted to rejoice. The final nail then ... So to speak, was you striking up the alliance with the Gekkoda crew. This resulted in

the subsequent rescue of a few hundred more Khai which are now living amongst us. Make no mistake Wraith, I do not think for one moment that this course of action was erroneous, truly I believe you have proven beyond a doubt that many Khai wage war against their own will, forced to follow orders, but to Nazir ... - I'm a coward, inviting the enemy in like a potential victim, scared of awakening the enemy, keeping on their good side. That's balls. At any stage I was ready to fight and on the Dragon I did just that. The results speak for themselves; we have Khai on our side now. Who better to interpret Khai battle strategy and counter at will? I know this is for the best, even if things do get worse before they get better. The question is now, how do we track down the remaining eight Nazirians before they get their claws into us from the inside and disrupt our Defense? And where the hell would Nazir have jumped to? Would he be with humans? Here too the Prime and his subordinate differed substantially in their opinions. - He would never seek out the assistance of humans. He wouldn’t cope well with prolonged exposure to them. None of us would. He will want solitude. Jer-Mija stated the contrary. - Apologies Prime, but I disagree. This Nazir has a massive ego. I believe he is likely to seek out human , not only to show off, but more importantly to him; to earn their respect and adoration. Maybe even loyalty. By now the whole world had been told that the crew of the Dragon had defected, and for the most part, this news had been met with relief from the humans that their enemy could be reasoned with. As always though there had been pockets of resistance to the idea. - Before recent events overtook Joan, all her efforts were focused on gathering intel on some of the more extreme groups ... So she could crush them. I believe that one of these groups is where we will find our Nazir. - If that is the case gentlemen, then he has more to fear than he could possibly imagine ... My mother wants a head to put on a spike. Since dad ed she’s not the same mild and comionate person. I haven't seen her for a few days now, which is unlike us. I imagine she’s trying to fill the

void with work. After all she is the busiest one of us; and now she wants revenge. - I have faith in Joan ... I don't think she will be a problem. Wraith rolled his eyes. They were in this situation because Aelren hadn’t seen a problem develop inside one of his most trusted staff. Wraith was under no illusions; his mother was acting most out of character. While he loved her, he definitely expected her to be a problem. Jer-Mija nodded to Wraith, the hive was in full effect, Aelren averted his eyes in embarrassment, maybe his age was finally getting the best of him. - More likely you're going slightly colour blind Grandad. Seeing everything with a rose coloured tint. - You calling me Grandad is hardly going to help now is it? Wraith took his leave back to the Albern family quarters, but he did not arrive alone. With a mid-sized pop and a few exploded molecules of oxygen, Jer-Mija arrived to him. - So ... You just became the new Zero. I don't envy you ... - Oh ... How so? - Well you're first mission is to find your mother and stop her. Tell me Wraith ... Is Joan connected to the hive? - She is skilled at mental communication and is highly receptive but no. Usually though I can remain connected, it doesn't take me much effort. That's why I'm pretty worried at the moment Jer-Mija. This is the longest I have been out of with her in years. Mum can’t consciously disconnect, yet I can't find her anywhere. I have a bad feeling, just like my father did when we reached Quinn's tomb. - You think Nazir has her? - I think she'd make the perfect bargaining chip if someone wanted to a shady organisation. One which shared Nazir's goals.

- I get you, how can Joan shut down a problem group if they're holding her prisoner? You can bet that if Nazir does approach a group with Joan under his arm, he's in, and he'll be in deep. He knows much about our systems, which means he knows exactly where to hit us in order to hurt us. We need to identify the group Nazir intends to make his new home in. Then we task the network to surveil them, gather Intel and who the main players are. Maybe we could have a bit of fun after that? Geyldian had also been unreachable since the ing of his friend Zero, but he was still connected to the hive. If there was a mission topside, then the Second wanted in. Especially if it meant protecting Joan without him getting directly involved, which he felt no particular need to do. He had satisfied his thirst for hunting the last time. Wraith and Eight would easily be able to handle this little task. He would drive the human network and gather information. To up the ante, Geyldian wanted to find every human who was against the idea of uniting the Human and Khai forces. This was a big ask, even for the long established human network. The problem was not skill, the problem was that the Network was not the largest at this point in history; its eyes were mainly focused inside the governments of nations. The human network simply didn’t have the numbers to start investigating normal human society for a few bad apples. Herein lay the second problem, just because a human did not want to give sanctuary to a bunch of homeless war mongering Reptons, this did not make them a bad apple. They might be the most down to earth people on the planet. Of course this wouldn't be the case for all of them. Some would stick out like sore thumbs as being much more militant. The stranglehold which Joan had placed upon law and order post reveal, meant that the crime wave which had been anticipated, never happened. The elements of major organised crime which had proven to be an unstoppable problem to the long arm of the law for decades effectively shut up shop, practically volunteering their distribution networks to move men, materials and anything else Joan had asked them to. This led to crime stopping almost immediately. There was no longer a drug pipeline, so drug supplies quickly ran out. The appetites of s on all major continents could not be curbed by alien invasion it seemed, causing shudders amongst the clones regarding the state of some areas of humanity. Needless to say a lot of unhappy people soon became a whole lot more unhappy. This was another area of society which Joan managed to improve. Hospital

efficiency, and care for those people who needed to kick a bad habit. At Joan's request Leren had put his medical brain to work, resulting in a pill which could fill the holes left in a drug addicts brain chemistry once the specific target areas were no longer being stimulated. This simple pill, if taken from the beginning of withdrawal reduced the whole procedure to two weeks, with no pain and relative calm. This allowed the brain to completely stop all cravings for such stimulation in the future. Joan then sent the remissive addicts to work, men in construction or the armed forces weapon assembly facilities. Women would also be drafted into assembly work, specifically components for the King fighters and electronic components to control them. Those with special skills which had for so long been under-utilised were put into less menial jobs. There were plenty of tasks, and soon there was nearly enough clear headed people to tackle them all. It was a widely held belief amongst many ordinary civilians that the stern little woman from Yorkshire might just be able to turn the Khai-mah away with nothing more than an icy glare. After achieving relative peace and harmony for the first time ever since humans stood up on two feet, Joan might have been expected to sit back and relax a little, but this just wasn't possible. Time for planning had quickly run out and the Khai missiles had begun to arrive as predicted ...

Chapter 31 - “Where am I?”

AS JOAN CAME TO, IT only took her a few simple twitches to realise her hands and feet were bound. She wasn’t gagged or blindfolded, she didn’t need to be. Further movements told her she was in a box, metal judging by the smell which was familiar from the halls of Central. Panic set in as Joan began to evaluate her situation. "Gees Joan get a grip! You're alive, he doesn't want you dead. You're far more valuable alive." Further calm analysis yielded an air vent at her feet, Joan could feel the draft on her ankles. The air was warm, a little damp and had the distinctive smell of having been recirculated. A chill rushed through Joan who speculated that the box could be anywhere if it was connected to a recirculating air supply. “Dammit. He’s buried me alive.” This was the stuff of Joan's nightmares. For some people it was drowning, others it was falling; for Joan it was being trapped unable to escape. Joan had long reasoned that this was her subconscious telling her that she was working too hard and needed a break. Even so the temperature and smell of the air ... It was distinct enough for Joan to further speculate. "You're still on Central, don't panic ... You just need to think. Think Joan. THINK HARD AND HELP WILL COME." While this thought did help to ease Joan's mind, she could not have been more wrong. As hard as Joan thought, no signal was being received by anyone. Nazir had her well tucked away. He didn't even mind that Joan knew she was still on Central. In reality, Joan was in a deep sleep inside a stasis pod deep in the bowels of Central, coincidentally less than a few hundred metres from where her partner had been put into cold storage back in '73. The thoughts Joan had were illusory, within the program which Nazir himself had constructed. This environment was being piped directly into Joan's mind. The longer Joan remained awake, the sooner she would realise her inability to properly interact with her surroundings. Each touch she felt as her body touched the box was realised by the brain but would not be felt by the actual limb or digit. Joan just

hadn't realised yet that her body was in fact perfectly motionless. This was to be Nazir's ultimate insult to the clones and their human lapdogs. He had stolen the one human who had managed to carry out their plan of uniting humanity to fight the Khai-mah, revealing the existence of aliens in the universe whilst completely avoiding mass human panic. Joan was very clever; Nazir knew the little woman was irreplaceable. Not only as a strategist, but also to ease the mood of his former superior, Aelren. Robbing the Prime of Joan's company and level head would unsettle Aelren’s ageing mind. If that occurred, Nazir was sure that the Prime, unable to loosen his grip on command, would begin to make bad decision after bad decision. Nazir’s followers were still entrenched in their everyday humdrum duties. This was where he needed them to be. They would be his eyes and ears. The antiNumbers all assured their leader that the Old guard weren’t looking for him on board Central. They suspected he had taken Joan topside, not that he was still right under their noses. Cut free from the hive, Nazir had to trust his circle. Nazir was very active for a fugitive on the run, jumping to both Mona and OFFright. It was prudent to talk with his followers face to face rather than risk connection to the hive. All the Novus knew their actual Prime was actively searching for them. With every jump, and every meeting, Nazir’s confidence grew. This led him to believe that he was uncatchable. In this game Nazir aimed to prove he was Aelren’s master, and that he was moves and moves ahead ...

Chapter 32 - Gray goes living in the past.

HAVING FELT SICKER than he ever ed feeling in his life before, the feeling had suddenly ed about five minutes ago. Hot and ringing wet through with sweat, Gray’s addled mind suddenly cleared. Once his breathing returned to its normal rate, Gray began to take stock. Turning around on the stool, left and then right, the little Thrall was missing. - Funny. I never saw him leave. I hope he brings orange this time, I’m done with green. Like a break in the clouds on a wet overcast day, Gray’s outlook became brighter. In his previous stupor, he had been unable to string two thoughts together. As if his head was filled with static. He had no idea how long this mood had lasted for, but it had felt like he was being crushed under a massive weight. - I’ll go and see if I can find him. Though massively underweight compared to the way he used to be, Gray felt much better in himself; progress was being made as far as his recovery. As such a walk unsupervised to the back of the food station his greyling friend preferred was not unusual. Gray was spending less and less time in the Thrall lair. Having gorged himself on orange, and not finding his little helper, Gray returned to the crawlspace chamber to find the Thrall waiting for him. Even with so few facial muscles, Gray could tell his friend was unhappy. Kneeling down so he was face to face with his minion. Then, in near fluent Thrall, Gray enquired ... “What up T?” “Bad news ... Sorry.” “No worry little man ... tell me.” “Joan alone again ... Zero dead. You OK? ... Yes ... Good.” Broken in such an innocently direct way, much of the sting was removed from the news. Whilst at the food station, Gray had been wondering if Zero was in trouble. This was an understatement ... Zero was dead. This certainly explained

his recent malaise. Gray was almost happy, though he hadn’t cracked a smile. The Thrall whose language consisted of facial tics, was not slow to see the glint in Gray’s eyes. “You happy Zero dead?” “No little man, that not it. Joan not happy yes? I not happy too ... Gray not want Joan alone. Gray want be with Joan ... Before Gray would not interfere ... Now there is way ... Yes?” Now Gray frowned. “What wrong? ... now you go Joan?” “No ... Gray cannot go Joan ... Gray not ready ...” Over the next week Gray became much more mobile; redoubling his efforts to rebuild himself. He only ventured back to the Thrall lair a few times after the death of his alter ego. His mood was by now more or less stabilised and Gray realised that whilst he had been deeply connected to the doctor's cloned concoction of him, the ing of this vessel had not taken anything away from him. Gray was now using the Thrall lair as his own personal gym, by the end of the second day his body was sucking up goop like a Kirby vacuum cleaner and converting it into lean dense muscle. Zero put this down to blessed genetics and Leren. In actuality the rapid muscular gains were completely down to the fact that the spores were on their game, absorbing, converting, and packing muscle fibres full of protein. Gray did wish he’d been granted the chance to speak with his replacement agent, so he could fill Gray in regarding the years he’d missed. Now that wasn't going to happen. Then Gray ed the clones penchant for recording even the most menial of tasks for later scrutinisation. For sure there would be recordings of Zero and Wraith carrying out their duties. There was no rush. Gray considered himself to be back to operational readiness ... All apart from one aspect ... Spatial teleportation. Since the last failed attempt, Gray had not tried again, but now he thought, might be as good a time as any.

“T” the little Thrall rogue who Gray could tell any secret knowing full well it would be secure; had informed him that Joan had been abducted by a rebel Novus. There was no Thrallian word for “Nazir”. This was all the incentive Gray needed to try a jump and make it work. He’d been forced apart from Joan for so long, but he still didn’t feel ready to re the fold. Gray felt loathe to blame Leren, he was a clone at the peak of his game. Gray figured that once Leren had failed to save him, the doctor's machine like efficiency had probably seen him frozen like an ice cube within the hour of his death. If there was any way he could catch Nazir and save Joan, then he would. Sitting down in the Thrall hideaway, Zero explained his intentions to ‘T’. Immediately the tiny one looked to the floor, a sure signal that he was going to miss his new friend. Gray also explained that once this mission was over he would return to Central. This seemed to cheer the little fellow up. In the next moment, ‘T’ toddled off toward whatever the next task was on his list for the day. Gray was already beginning to calm his mind. Ceasing all thought, he dismissed any further sensory input his body was receiving. So strong was Gray’s ability to meditate that all over Central, the clones, Novus and Wraith all began to feel the same level of calm. The Numbers immediately began to speculate that their Prime was ing his human soldier. This wasn’t uncommon, but it was rare for the Prime to let his private thoughts leak into the hive with such intensity. For several moments many of the Novus felt unable to work, the calm clarity halting them as if in a trance state. For a few minutes Wraith put Nazir and vengeful thoughts out of his mind, bathing his own mind in a wave of nothing. This not only washed over Gray, but throughout the hive ... Everyone was still. Gray began to feel numb, but warm. There was noise around him as there always was on Central. Even if everything was silent, there would still be the hum and slight vibration of the huge reactor banks in the lowest deck. Now though Gray could hear none of this noise, he couldn’t even feel the deck he was seated on, cross legged and still. The image Gray was focusing on, his intended jump target, was a clearing in a generally green area. That said there was a hillside with a massive tunnel entrance, what looked like concrete buildings and hastily erected hangar structures. This image was one of a series of images within Gray’s mind which held a special significance for him, by reason of the fact that none of the images

had any root in his memory. The images, currently around twenty or so although new ones had surfaced since Gray respawned; were just random landscapes. In each case though there was at least one feature which made the image interesting. In this particular image it was the tunnel, and Gray was taking particular time and care not to be drawn to focus solely on this feature. Jumping with an unknown image was risky business. Gray didn’t know where this place was, nor any of the topography surrounding the area. The site might’ve even been developed into the centre of a modern city. Gray was trusting in the image. As Gray finally had finally cleared his mind, apart from the jump image. Taking a final pause, before moving backwards from the image in his mind. The clearing was getting smaller and smaller framed by nothing but blackness. In moments the image had been compressed to a singularity, a shining dot like a lone star slowly dying to nothing. As quickly as he could, Gray rushed back to the clearing inside his mind ... All at once, the millisecond Gray ceased to be on Central, the Novus all came back to their senses. Stunned, but only for a moment by the fact they had lost track of their tasks, the Novus hurriedly began to continue their business. Wraith watched the odd scene, which whilst alleviating his previously bad mood, had not affected him as deeply as it had the Novus. A smile crossed over his face. In his mind Wraith imagined that someone vastly more almighty than them had just pressed the pause button on life, just for three minutes ... In this time he speculated the being could have made a drink of tea, before returning to watch the scene and pressing the play button. Wraith’s spirits were further lifted to see the moment of simultaneous confusion. Though brief, this was a first, and it may never be repeated. The distinct lack of any disturbance to the huge vessel or its systems, signalled to absolutely no one that Gray had used exactly as much force as was required to achieve his goal. Unlike their Prime who habitually used rather too much force rather too often and had no particular compunction to quit doing so. Taking a rare moment to sleep, Aelren was also affected by the wave. Inside his slumber the Prime had been transported to a wooded clearing with concrete buildings and a tunnel entrance. Waking gently, the image faded as quickly as his eyelids lifted.

No further mind was paid ... As Gray landed alone in the middle of the clearing, a mere three feet away from a piece of collapsed concrete. The fortunate spatial traveller quickly realised that reality was vastly different from his mental image. As such Gray quickly made a mental update, archiving the previous image to the depths of his mind. Scattered all around him were similar pieces of concrete from collapsed structures. The concrete was very old and weathered, it didn’t look to be a very quality. Gouges from some kind of machinery had eventually caused the downfall of this structure, but these marks were also old. A few paces away from the clearing and the ground became ridged in two parallel tracks. The pitch of the ridges and the spacing of the tracks did not suggest earth moving equipment. Gray’s memory had another flash of recollection. ... Tanks ... Old style tanks ... WWII ... Russian. Gray had a growing suspicion that he was in Poland, but why? He knew the clones had never sent him to Poland on any mission, yet the image had been in his subconscious all this time, a sure indicator that he’d been in Poland at some point. Probably during the Second World War. Turning around on the spot, Gray compared the rest of his surroundings to the image from his memory. The Tunnel was still there but now huge iron gates blocked the entrance. An obvious safety precaution given that the tunnel was probably as hastily constructed from the same crumbly concrete. The hangar building had gone from the left hand side of the image, probably the materials were salvaged or stolen decades before. Gray walked over to the concrete base which was the only remaining indicator that the large high structure was ever there. Now tall patches of grass were growing; rooted into soil which had blown onto the base over the years. The whole site was in disarray, Gray had been lucky to hit his jump spot without getting his leg entombed in a block of old concrete. In the distance, Gray could clearly see some more structures which looked to be barracks. These had not been in the original jump image and were probably for the soldiers and officers who had worked here. Maybe as many as a thousand men given the size of the complex, and Gray still hadn’t walked over all of it by any stretch.

Drawn to the Barrack block on the right, but with no understanding of why, Gray strode nearer following the feeling in his gut. By the time Gray entered the block the feeling had grown to be mildly uncomfortable. His insides were knotting up. Continuing onwards along a corridor maybe fifty metres, Gray then climbed a staircase to the first floor. Heading automatically back towards the front of the building along this new corridor brought him to a window. Either side of this were two door frames, the doors were long gone. Without hesitation Gray headed left, as he made his way into the room his eagerness saw him graze his arm on the rusted remains of the door hinge. Such was his haste to enter the room that Gray never even noticed as blood began to seep into his shirt from the lesion. Pretty soon the accelerated healing capabilities of his body had the blood flow stopped and the skin repaired, only the stain on Gray's shirt showed that there was ever a wound. Looking around the room, Gray quickly got his bearings. There was a desk on one side of the room, now mouldy and rotten, the super soldier didn't even try to pull any of the drawers open. Gray was on autopilot, if he wasn't specifically drawn by an object or pulled in a particular direction, then he wasn't interested. There was a rusting steel bed frame at the other side of the room along with a nightstand, a wardrobe and another door. At the end of the room was an imprint on the wall, close to the top in the middle was a rusting and broken wall hook, scattered around were shards of glass and a broken picture frame. Gray grunted with indifference, ignoring all these dusty, rotten and broken features as he made a bee-line through the other door. This was a bathroom complete with toilet, a shower faucet in one corner, and a drain grate below. On the inner wall was a sink and above this was a mirror cabinet with its door hanging from the frame, which was pulled away from the wall. Gray reached out and ripped the remains of the mirror cabinet away from the wall, revealing a cavity in the stud work. Gray didn’t know what he would find as he reached into the cavity, but he knew there would be something hidden there. As he felt around his certainty changed to confusion. His hand didn’t find anything. Then Gray felt a gap where the lath and plaster had come away from the timber wall frame. Gray couldn’t push his large hand through the gap, but he knew what had happened. Withdrawing his hand he grasped hold of the edge of the cavity to stabilise himself and then kicked the wall hard just above the skirting board. Without even checking himself, Gray withdrew his foot just as swiftly before crouching down and reaching in ... Grays hand clasped around what felt like a book, closer examination revealed a leather bound journal. The

leather had dried with age and lack of care, then become green with a covering of mold from damp as the integrity of the building had been lost around it. “There you are ...” Gray couldn’t explain what had drawn him to find the journal. In all his time on Central he had never kept one. So what was the significance? The damp slimy journal was as much a mystery to him as the image which had drawn him to this place. Just the feel of the leather in his hand, the weight of it ... All these feelings felt very familiar and there were some seeds of recollection beginning to germinate. He could examine the whole journal in detail later, but now the fastest way to find out if he had been there long ago was to turn to the last entry. Ominously, the note was vague, it simply read: -Day 3. Found the Tall Client. A.H. has him in Tunnel. Heavily guarded. Must attempt . The mention of the Tall Client sent shivers down Gray's spine. It was significant but he didn’t why. Gray knew he had been a soldier in WWII. Fighting for the allies, he’d climbed up through the ranks in the engineering core. He also knew that he had ended up in a field hospital in , having been heavily injured and suffering from a bad case of amnesia. There was a pattern emerging, Gray began to realise that much of what he knew about himself from before Central was told to him by the clones, particularly Gill and Leren. His best friend had seen how Gray had begun to disassociate himself from humanity after ing Central and becoming enhanced. In an attempt to bring him back down to earth, Gill had done some digging into his war record and family tree, but he hadn't found much. It seemed as if Gray's performance in the engineering core had been adequate enough to progress, but not exemplary enough to warrant any special note. Leren, ever more perplexed by why the treatment might have worked upon Gray but not one single candidate after him; had also dug into Gray's past. He also found nothing significant. Gray was proven to have been born in England in the very late 1800's to a German father and an English mother. He ed nothing, growing up, his

parents, living through World War One, nothing remained. Gray didn’t even enlisting to fight the Germans, but his military record left no doubt. Gray hadn’t just been injured once. Leren discovered that on at least five occasions Gray had seen action which resulted in hugely traumatic injuries, and some equally impressive recoveries; but always the soldier would suffer amnesia to some degree. Leren speculated that Gray only had a very thin layer of encephalitic fluid around his brain, leading him to suffer head trauma very easily. Leren had also noted that Gray's brain was 12% larger than an average human. This wasn't unexpected considering that at a hair over 6 feet 6 inches and heavily muscled, Gray was at least 12% larger than the average human in every other dimension too. Leren concluded that Gray was spectacularly human ... And large. Gray had never done any digging himself; he had no reason to. After the two clones had filled him in on what they knew, Gray believed that this was all there was to know and had never dug any further. Then he'd met Joan and any curiosity the super soldier had regarding his past had been forgotten completely. The rest was history, but now the events of today showed that there might be a lot more history than Gray had appreciated. Whilst acknowledging that this was important to him, this voyage of self-discovery was not for now. Gray was itching, the tunnel was calling him to investigate. He could afford to indulge himself just this once, but after that he had to set his sights firmly on Nazir and the recovery of Joan. Leaving the block, Gray was curious about the other rooms along the corridor, all of which seemed to be internal to the building. The room he had been in had windows and was at the front of the building. Maybe his room was an officers quarters, but this was obviously a Nazi base, and Gray could only speculate as to the significance of the reference to A.H, in the journal. Could he really have met the most notorious Nazi ever. Gray's mind was racing, how would a soldier in the British army engineering core come to find himself in a Nazi officers' quarters in some kind of secret base in Poland. As he walked back through the wreckage of the base towards the tunnel entrance Gray stood before the gates. Made from vertical bars of steel, braced at thirds by flats of half inch gauge plate. This put the first section at about five feet high, the tunnel entrance was tall enough at the centre to drive a large vehicle down. With his left hand on a t between flat and bar, he then grasped one of the inch

thick bars in his right hand. As he began to pull hard, Gray built up the force he was applying with total control. Soon the metal was groaning as Gray was stressing the bar towards its shear limit. The heat affected zone from the weld to the flat bar was working well in his favour. A little more force produced a loud pinging noise as the bar broke. Releasing his left hand and stepping to the side, he now used both hands for the much easier task of bending the bar downwards to the ground. Seconds later Gray squeezed his not quite as massive frame through the newly made gap and began walking into the dark of the tunnel. After only one minute the entrance was a small speck of light behind him, but this was no issue. Gray's eyes adjusted to the dark very quickly. As he reached the end of the tunnel, Gray couldn’t proceed any further, the roof of the tunnel had largely collapsed. The pile of crumbly concrete was completely blocking the width of the tunnel but wasn't quite up to the full height of the roof. It wasn't as damp down here as Gray had expected and the tunnel appeared surprisingly well ventilated. Even at this depth a draft was still evident. Gray leant down and grasped a handful of concrete dust in his hand, tossing it high into the air revealed that the air was flowing past the rubble. This showed that the tunnel continued behind the collapse and that at least one more section of fifty metres or so existed to the next ventilation shaft. Gray had come this far, and he knew the tunnel still had not given up its secrets to him yet. Gray took his time to evaluate all the shadows and rubble in order to see if there was a route over the blockage. Having found the quickest route possible a few quick leaps were taken before Gray reached the top of the pile. In fact, the main tunnel did end here, and Gray now speculated that the collapse might have been done before the German forces evacuated the bunker to conceal something. Maybe the tunnel was blocked by Russian forces after they found and stole a treasure. Either or neither of these scenarios might have been true, the super soldier didn’t know. He could just make out the corridor which continued on past the end of the main tunnel. Scrambling down the other side of the rubble pile Gray moved much slower. No light penetrated from the open end of the tunnel. Gray was confused by the way the corridor was apparently lit at its very far end, maybe another 300 metres away. Hurrying towards the light only took another two minutes and was rewarded with massive disappointment. The corridor opened into a chamber, maybe fifteen metres squared, but much higher considering the roof had been removed and

whatever had been stored down there had long since been removed. Gray was now looking from the bottom of a shaft outwards. At least fifty metres above him was a forested ridge. Gray was upset to have wasted so much time on folly, but he knew there had been something at the end of the tunnel. There were still bolts embedded in the concrete floor and some encased pieces of steel in the walls on three sides appeared to outline the size of a structure which had been formed inside the chamber. The logical conclusion to draw was a vault or storage facility for something top secret, a laboratory maybe, or a cell for the containment of a significant prisoner. Aside from the steel remains there was only one other object at the bottom of the shaft. This was a small empty bottle, the type which might have been purchased from an apothecary, similar to an old medicine or poison bottle. The Label was faded so badly that Gray could not make out any words or even the logo, but the shape was familiar to him for some reason. The residue on the inside of the bottle had dried up but was black in colour with a fishy smell ... Ink maybe? Gray decided that he’d had enough fun for one day. Crouching down he had assessed the height of the shaft to be around fifty metres or so. Jumping upwards he was soon above ground in a mass of undergrowth spread between tall trees. The weather was closing in and Gray didn’t feel like getting wet. He was ill prepared for such an excursion as he didn't even have a watch. Stuffing the journal into his shirt, Gray calmed his mind and jumped again, back to the Thrall break room in the bowels of Central ...

Chapter 33 - Hackers for hire ...

ELSEWHERE ON THE HUGE vessel, about seventy decks up and a few hundred metres further towards the nose, Wraith and Jer-mija were on the case. Now alone, Geyldian was talking with one of his agents inside the network. It had been a few hours since the task had been specified, as far as the second in command saw it there should have been something to report by now. Even if it was basic facts and a plan on how to continue. "I have one man from each office diverted to the task, as strange as it sounds the humans new super library and data storage network ... I think they are calling it the Internet or Web for short ... Well it's proving to be useful for all kinds of things. Of course what the general populous can access is only limited but we are piggybacking on the old military lines ... Comms with other section chiefs is much faster than the way we used to carry on. Also it seems as if a few unsavoury characters are doing the same thing. We are currently following a few s in Russia and China as well as several here in the states ... And one in the U.K." "s? ... I'm guessing they are a bit more skilled than the average Joe if they are accessing the original network ... So call them what they are ... Hackers!" "Yes ... Sorry boss! Well these hackers seem to be for hire by anyone with the smarts to find them and enough cash to line their pockets. A bunch of them are discussing the movement of a special package. The movement will be from America to India ..." "Well!?... What the bloody hell are we waiting for ... Swoop in and round them up." "There's a problem ... They haven't actually mentioned exactly where the package will be moved from, nor where to. In fact even the details of the package itself are sketchy. We have no idea what is actually going to be moved. Following our normal protocols, we are doing our best to infiltrate, but the hackers all seem to be independent messengers and haven’t named any specific organisation. While ever they rotate their I.P. addresses ..." There was a loud moment of static as Geyldian cut the link. His dissatisfaction would be enough to tell the agent what he should do next without the Second in

command losing his cool with him. Geyldian began to think why Nazir might want to move Joan to India, there wasn't any place for him to hide there. Just to be sure Geyldian reached out and was soon ed by Wraith and Jer-Mija. The two didn’t need to be informed directly about the network involvement, the hive was in full effect. Geyldian quickly brought the two up to speed with his agent's report. - So in conclusion I think this information is a red herring to take us away from what Nazir is really planning. - It’s possible that this could be misdirection, but the military information network is very hard to crack even for a skilled hacker. The difficulty and skill involved to accomplish this, notwithstanding the risk to a hacker if caught inside this area suggests to me that something may indeed be going on. There isn't much we can do without more information. - The details are vague; we can make some assumptions. The lack of from my mother at home and at her office suggests that Nazir has her. Even if Joan wanted some alone time from Central, she wouldn't abandon her duties. This isn't an assumption ... It's a fact. Perhaps the biggest indicator that Nazir has her. Why Nazir would want to take her to India is another question entirely. Is he sufficiently powerful that he could infiltrate her mind remotely and himself off as her? -He is a genius; it’s best we assume ... No ... Believe that he can do anything we can ... Only better. The only things we have on our side are numbers and resources. We can think through more scenarios faster and we don't have to rely on hackers or secret supply networks, which means we can move and react faster. If Nazir moves anything personally he gives us his position. - But he is also only one jump away from leaving us in his dust again. I how hard it is to chase down quarry which has a plan. With a plan and a little skill the task becomes nigh on impossible! Geyldian's words focused the three, who all agreed they had a big task ahead of them, but the clones knew they could achieve great things with a little time and effort. Wraith was eager to prove this and was ever ready to get on with the search, whatever it took. Geyldian saw his best option as helping the human network to look for more leads, time was not infinite. Above all, the three of

them agreed that nothing should change and the implementation of the next aspects of Joan's plan should all still be carried through. They would force Nazir to realise, even though he had Joan, they could continue without her. Joan’s plans would remain unchanged. - Of course there is one aspect of my mother's plan which in the long run, might prove troublesome ... - Yes ... I agree ... Can we really afford to provoke him further? - You know what Joan would say ... And do. So we should see that her wishes are carried out. Don’t we want to provoke Nazir? After all if he has to react to something unexpected, which he hasn’t planned for ... Maybe he’ll make a mistake. At the very least he will give us a bead on his position. - OK ... In line with mum's plan, launch is set for 07:00 tomorrow. We’ll have to see how things pan out ... As the human network knuckled down and attempted to follow the package, their task was made infinitely more difficult. The clever Nazir, fully capable of anticipating the clones every move had set not just the one package in play, but ten. All were being discussed on the military sub-web, more than forty black hats were involved, and their conversations were also being cleverly interplayed, as if each package was being overseen by any of the hackers at any given moment. Nazir had set up a hacking hive, with each hacker in the loop and connected. These connections were hard to track, after all the human network was a little out of its depth as far as the relatively new field of information tracking, they were far more capable when following a person or objects through the usual channels. As such this was the tack they now took. Having identified the ten rogue packages, which had no trail in of either paper or money, the network now mobilized to swoop on them, en route. The next phase of Joan’s plan, which the three had been deliberating, was a master stroke of planetary defense and had always been on her to do list. A new class of fighter, space capable was now beginning to roll off the production line at Malls all over the world. This craft would form Joan’s welcome mat for any further Khai-mah who happened to stumble across the tiny blue planet.

Envisioned by Joan but brought to life dually by Zero and Oxull years ago, the manufacture of these ships had been shelved in favour of the King fighters. As the last line of defence, Joan felt the Kings were a priority, needed in huge numbers to react to any threat in Earth’s atmosphere. The Kings had already proven more than useful, but enough had now been produced to cover predicted losses and then some. Now it was time to put the troop carrying battering rams into full production. Named the Cobra, this craft was ten times larger than the King, but taking design modifications from the development of Zero’s Sphinx craft, the thrusters, shields and weapons systems were all far more up to date than the original design. The Craft featured a twin deck hold, each kitted out with seats for the Earth Defense Force Infantrymen who would be ferried to their target. Each spot had a locker for their armour kit and racking for the array of weapons they would eventually leave the ship with. The craft also had a fully functional galley and canteen with each of the soldier’s seats able to lay flat if required with entertainment on tap. Not part of the original plan but a useful addition, two of the newly allied Khai refugees would be stationed aboard each vessel. This meant that the alliance could be demonstrated directly and communications with incoming Khai would also be smoother without the need for translators. Joan felt the Earth’s words would be less open to misinterpretation if spoken in the Khai native language. The plan was to hail any incoming Khai vessel and open up communication with them. The Khai would announce themselves as part of the Earth Defense Force, warning the ship to stand down from battle readiness or prepare to be breached. Hopefully the response would be a “What the?!” moment in Khai, with the surprise halting any plans the vessel had ... At least temporarily. At this point the Khai would explain that an alliance had been reached and that in return for safe sanctuary on the pristine surface of Earth, the Khai had dropped their usual methods. They would then offer the same chance to which ever Lizard was sick and tired of a life in space with the endless fighting, death and destruction which that life involved. The ex Khai General now stationed with his brothers at India-7 had previously speculated that most if not all the Khai infantry men would cave at this point. Being within the merest tongue flick of solid warm land underfoot and a sun’s rays on their scales, they might just start a revolt. The officers would either fail

to maintain control and end up dead; or they would do as he had, standing down to their men. By his own ission this chain of events was far easier to say; some fighting was almost guaranteed. This would be as much a test of the allied Khai soldiers resolve to end invasive conflict as it would be the Cobra and its crew. If a negative reply was received then Joan had equipped each Cobra with an entirely new surprise for the Khai. In addition to the gimbal mounted Axe, proven so effective already, the front of each Cobra was equipped with a second generation shield axe. Solidly mounted in the heavily reinforced nose, it performed two functions. Kill all communications and visual feeds, effectively blinding the target. Secondly was to automatically recalibrate the Cobra’s shields to the same frequency as the vessel being breached. This would allow the Cobra to through the enemy shielding and ram the ship as close to the bridge as possible. The ship had been designed specifically to penetrate its armoured nose cone into the thick hull plating of a Dragon carrier, allowing an entry path into any Khai-mah vessel which they might encounter. The soldiers would spew from the forward hatch in the nose to subdue any resistance and force a submission. The offer of sanctuary would then be levied again. This time, emphasis would be placed on the fact that no Khai would set foot on Earth, without first declaring themselves as an ally and laying down their weapons. The first ship to launch was already minus one crew member, Zero. As a mark of respect for the super soldier the crew had refused a replacement, stating that he would be sat with them in spirit, guiding them towards victory and a safe return to Earth. The Cobra fleet would continue a long tradition of enlisted vessels. Acting very much like a naval submarine, each Cobra would be assigned a route to follow. Consisting of an angular vector and distance to follow, before any indicated course changes. These routes would take them to the inner boundary of the Oort cloud but no further. Mission durations would be around three months. The Cobra fleet were fast but not fast enough to be hyperspace conduit capable, not even by accident. There was only one reason why a Cobra would return to Earth early, this was to escort a Khai vessel which had been pacified, back to India-7. There was no rush. The Thraten soldiers sat in the deployment decks were itching for one thing ... Battle. Afterall, to a man none of them had anyone back home to send a postcard to.

At some point Zero had brought each squad of Thraten along personally in group battle training sessions. The ferocity of the training pretty much followed the aptitude of the squad as a unit. No one member would be shown favour. The need for, and importance of teamwork was impressed upon the squads from the first training session to their last. Zero was a much tougher man to bring down than any lizard, but a squad wouldn’t be posted to a Mall until they had effectively shut their super soldiering trainer down together. Zero figured they would then be ready to cut their way through lounge after lounge of Lizards, like wolves through sheep. Developed from a combination of Ninurtan physique and Thrallian multitasking abilities, the Thraten was the perfect soldier. Tough and strong, each would carry multiple weapons and be far better suited to teamwork than their predecessors the Ninurtan, who had their uses but could be ... bloody. Compared with this each unit was like a scalpel, and had they been at the beck and call of Zero they would have been applied with surgical precision. In his absence they would have to rely on a combination of training, teamwork and simulation experience. But this would carry them far; they had the durability to weather a few unhappy skirmishes, in which time they would learn quickly ...

Chapter 34 - Disrespect and Destruction.

AS SHE LAY CONFINED in complete darkness, Joan was beginning to make certain mental connections. She hadn’t once tried to kick or punch her way free due to the limited space inside the vessel in which she was trapped. Joan was becoming aware that she should have been starting to suffer the ill effects of her prolonged confinement. Dehydration, headaches, cramps and even basic boredom, yet Joan wasn’t even suffering any pain in her pelvis or shoulder blades which had been pressed against the metal all this time. Not once had she been fed or given water to drink and yet Joan didn’t feel in the least bit hungry. - I’m asleep, I think I’m awake but I’m not feeling anything, I’m not even sweating despite the temperature. He has me in stasis ... That’s why I can’t raise help. Damn that blue bastard ... - Finally you figured it out Joan, well done. Not as quickly as your reputation for sharp wittedness would have suggested, but not so slowly as to suggest averageness. You will be pleased to know your tight grip on this planet is beginning to loosen. Aelren your foolish fossilised Prime is nowhere to be found and the remaining numbers are concentrating so hard on finding you that they cannot see or comprehend where I am or what I’m doing. - This isn’t a game ... You’re playing with the safety of everyone on this world, even your own kind. If you can’t see that what you’re doing is wrong ... Maybe you’re not the genius everyone thinks you are. You’re a small minded and selfish soul who didn’t get to play with the big clones toys and now feels the need to lay on the ground kicking and screaming ‘till you get your way. - Please ... Don’t feel obligated to taunt me. At the end of the day you are also being prevented from exercising your own free will, so your lashing out amounts to the same thing you just described. I know we are both above that sort of thing. - I won’t play your game ... - You have no choice, consider this a game of chess, moves are made which provoke counter moves. I am a genius and so I take on all the roles for the black pieces except that of the pawn. Consider you are the white queen, the most important piece on your side after the king, but now I have you ... And so early in the game ... The king is nothing without his queen ... OH and silly me ... I quite forgot. Joan ... One of your knights has also fallen ... Only one more to go.

- Wraith ... You wouldn’t dare! Nazir was shocked to see a sharp spike of adrenaline from Joan, such an increase might well have jolted her out of stasis as the pod would be unable to compensate quickly enough. Realising he had struck a nerve, or more likely the deep streak of love which ran through her; not only for family but also friends, the Anti-prime quickly istered a shot of Dopamine to assist the pod. Joan’s vitals stabilised as he watched, before continuing to gloat... - Steady there Joan, I can’t have you up and around just yet ... For your information ... My move is made. Now we’ll see how capable your second knight is ... Between me and you, I’m not holding much hope of success. My move is a bold one ... Maybe too bold ... There will be serious fallout if he can’t counter ... There was an ominous tone in Nazir’s voice now as he purposefully stretched out the word fallout. Joan quickly realised he was talking about a Nuclear strike, if this was the case there would only be one target ... India-7. Joan was aware that if her plan was still being adhered to, any day now the Cobra long range intervention fleet was about to be launched deep into space to hunt out Khai Vessels and try to reason with them. - Joan, please let me apologise, I consider myself to be directly responsible ... You may have lost track of time ... Well it is dark, and you don’t have your planner, so it’s understandable I feel. Don’t beat yourself up. The Cobra fleet is launching today from Malls all over the globe ... Well that’s not quite accurate ... I don’t believe any Cobra have left yet from India-7 ... Nor will they ever! Now the sadistic Nazir was watching a satellite feed from one of the U.S.A’s intelligence gathering assets which his network of hackers had been tasked to reposition. They had not quite finished the job but the result was even better than Nazir had imagined. The satellite was pointed at India-7 from space at maybe a thirty degree inclination from horizontal, a very low angle. Nazir wanted complete repositioning but hadn’t allowed enough time. The best they could provide was a sideways oriented view of the Mall and lush forests which surrounded it. Worst of all, Nazir was encoding a live feed into a micro electrical signal which he was piping directly into Joan’s visual cortex. What he saw, she would witness with him.

- five ... Four ... Three ... Two ... Nazir’s voice faded as he prepared to watch. Joan was horrified as a bright light exploded from India-7, then a huge blast wave expanded like an almost invisible bubble containing the bright light within it. The fire ball quickly rose high into the atmosphere, well past the thin layer of clouds which had all been pushed aside by the blast to create the ultimate view of the destruction. - Over so quickly, it’s not that hard to kill Reptons after all ... As Nazir revelled in his ultimate victory over the Khai, Joan’s body was numb; but her mind mirrored the fireball and was also melting down. Moved to tears she was aware that Nazir was talking to her again, while she was unable to block him out, she gave no priority to listening. All her commanders, all the Thraten, all the workers, and most inauspiciously, all the Khai who had sworn their allegiance in return for her protection were gone. This wasn’t a punishment ... This had been a cleansing. - I have done what the obsolete numbers could not. This is the beginning of our victory over the Khai-mah; our revenge which has been far too long in the coming. Now is my time. There is no room for the pomp and indecision which afflicts the Numbers. This is what we need ... The ultimate reaction to the ultimate injustice. I’ll teach them not to negotiate with our enemies. Nazir could not be quiet; his plan had run its course faultlessly and without answer from anyone who sought to challenge him. Of course Joan felt differently, only human as she was, her philosophy was still far more aligned with the numbers than it ever would be to Nazir. The Anti-Prime would now receive a piece of the small woman’s mind with a venom even the Khai could never hope to equal. - Despite your youth and intelligence you are mentally worse off than your supposedly stuffy old brethren, and this act proves it. - Don’t insult me wom........ - You’ve insulted yourself! No one can help you now. There are only a few actual rules in the hive, but you have broken them all. Your hatred of the Khai is no different to that of your masters ...

- My Mast ... - But unlike you, they managed to be progressive enough to move well past this hatred in favour of peace. They realised that the Khai are not all united in their bloodlust. They are as tired of chasing and fighting the Devine as your kind are of running and hiding. But you! ... So young, so naive, so inexperienced and so bloody stupid, were not able to honour your enlightened origins. Your fear of the Khai has you trapped in a mind-set abandoned by the Devine millions of years ago. You resort to violence to make up for what you lack in intellect and patience. - I am not afraid of the Khai, I will take the fight to them. You will watch as I wipe them from existence. - No ... I refuse ... No one will watch you. You would destroy the planet just to wipe out a few Khai and stick it to your masters? Your fear is fuelling your folly. I am grateful Jer-Mija was able to return to the seat of Eight, you were never worthy. You came so close, but even the attention of your Prime could not extinguish your arrogance and hate. All your inherited knowledge has done nothing for you; an arrogant self-obsessed Novus. Now you’ve done something so stupid you will never come back from it ... You’ve signed your own death warrant. Aelren will never let you live; you won’t even be exiled to Mona. You’ll be executed on sight with extreme prejudice; just like you deserve ... Nazir would not stoop to doubting himself, his actions were righteous. The clones were turning their backs on their duty. They should have been eradicating the Khai enemy who stole their home world. Allowing themselves to be guided by mere humans, then offering their hands in friendship? These were all mistakes; weren’t they? No ... Nazir was not at fault ... He was convinced ... And if his actions hadn’t been enough to steer the Numbers back to their correct path, then he would convince them some more. With the flat tone of an unbreakable Alculinium ingot beating against his head, Joan’s next words found their target. - You are simply a dead Novus walking. I am sure in your excitement you forgot to block your mental leakage to the hive. Annoying I know but by now the clones will surely know you’re here ... Where will you go? There is nowhere they can’t find you. What will you do? ... Indeed ... What can you do? ... I’ll wager you never informed the hackers who acquired and moved that Nuke for you what your plan was. Now even they will be outraged. The nuclear bomb is

an outdated weapon of legacy, a symbol of the lowest point in human history. A point even we heathen humans would never seek to willingly return to. There hasn’t been a leader on Earth who would consider using such a weapon in generations; you have shattered an unwritten human rule. The clones will post your face on every screen and billboard in the world, everyone will know who you are and what you have done. - I want them to ... Nazir’s mental words were whispered, as if directly to the floor, like those of a severely chastised child stubbornly trying to be right. Only now did the Novus begin to evaluate his actions against the inevitable repercussions. Joan was right. No matter what had inspired his actions up to this point, right or wrong, one thing was sure. Nazir didn’t know what he would do or where he would hide. He couldn’t if he had shielded his thoughts as the missile struck India-7. He wouldn’t take the chance. Nazir set the stasis pod to release Joan, but setting a timer, Joan would be unable to re- her family for the next year. Nazir realised there was value for him in the Numbers confusion without Joan. He could make good his escape. In one last attempt to get at the Numbers and slow them down a little more, Nazir tampered with the fail safes on the stasis pod. If anyone did find Joan and attempt to release her before the moment he'd set, the stasis controllers would go into overdrive. The stasis effect which prevented cellular damage would spiral out of control, leading to cryogenic freezing. The buildup of ice crystals would blow every cell in Joan's body apart. The final nail in Joan's coffin would be a rapid awakening procedure, again with the body monitors turned off. The result would be Joan melting like an ice cube with nothing left to hold her together. Nazir was almost done ... He had to get to a Mall and steal a Cobra ... Quickly ...

Chapter 35 - A Novus in the shadows.

ON THE MAIN CONTROL deck high above Joan and Nazir, the scientist and the watcher were beside themselves at the footage which seemed to appear all by itself on one of the main monitors. Floor to ceiling at a height of two full decks, this monitor showed in high definition the full scale carnage happening live at India-7. Aelren, finally spurred on by the urge to find his most important assistant had coincidentally been in conflab with Wraith and Geyldian. They’d been discussing other possible ways to follow the packages when the mystery feed had begun. At first all had been calm, clearly footage being shot from space. India-7 had rolled into view after only one minute. The clones and Wraith had exactly as much time as they needed to absorb the scene and achieve recognition before the nuke had detonated. The clones had then suffered through witnessing the heinous act of murder and destruction at the Khai sanctuary. At first the clones had wondered if the footage had been faked, but Ra-sian had quickly ruled this out after scanning the footage for anomalous video artefacts to suggest a faked addition ... His check revealed nothing. The feed was live, and the footage was authentic. - Was it Khai? - There is no chance Prime, I've not seen one in a long time, but even from a thousand miles away, there is no doubt that's a mushroom cloud from a nuclear detonation. This is Nazir ... I'm sure of it. Ra-sian confirmed Geyldian's summation, flashing a handful of stock mushroom cloud photos up on the screen to illustrate. Less than ten seconds later Geyldian's in the human network popped up on a smaller terminal monitor. "Geyldian it's me San Andrini. There's been a development." "Nico Ciao, I'm here, can it wait? All hell has literally broken loose at one of our Malls in India." "Well I thought you might like to know that we just caught up with two of the hackers in the UK after we intercepted chatter that one of the ten packages has been delivered, but maybe you already know ... Package 9 ended up in India. Any ideas what it was?"

"We have an idea yes ... Nico, I'm sorry but I have to keep on this thing at my end. I think you will see what the package was if you turn on your T.V. Ciao for now ..." Geyldian cut the line. It was a struggle to absorb the whole image. Even taking several involuntary steps backwards to fit more of the screen into his field of view, his brain could not accept what it was seeing. It did not help that Ra-Sian had the three minutes of mayhem on loop as he scoured over the satellite footage, enlarging the image to find the warhead on its approach. The problem was that according to the watchers search of the intercontinental warhead database, no country was missing a warhead. -Come on Ra-sian there is no missile on approach. You already confirmed that no missiles are missing. Nazir has the smarts to build his own device of that payload, and he would also know how to make one much smaller than any human effort. It looks like the force was around 200 KT, I would be able to make one to fit into a standard 600mm cubed shipping crate. Correctly labelled it could easily be ed off as Cobra parts for assembly. Nazir could probably make one even smaller. Everyone paused for a moment to listen to Geberus talk, initially it sounded as if the scientist had relapsed to his former braggart self, but then his final statement showed how humble he had become. Geberus just acknowledged that a Novus could have bettered his skillful best. Unlikely as it might have been, if Geberus had turned rogue, he would be tricky to stop. Nazir was the next level of rogue, a fanatic. He believed his cause was righteous and couldn't see his error at all. If Nazir had read the Devine doctrines correctly and then stripped away all the poetry, symbology and rules, he would have found the root of their belief system. Violent feelings and violent conflicts brought nothing but more violence, as such, concepts like war, revenge and hatred had been abandoned, for so long as to be completely forgotten... Far below them, Nazir was still rigging Joan’s stasis prison. In a momentary lapse of conviction, he was also replaying events. Somehow Nazir had become hyper frustrated by watching the Numbers bumbling over decisions. In most cases they would then defer them completely to be made by the likes of Zero or Joan. Nazir felt that this was a betrayal of the Old ways.

The clones had protected the Earth ever since they arrived, after leaving the Khai in their hyperspace wakes. The humans didn’t know what was best for them, they never had, and they never would. Nazir believed enlightenment was beyond Human grasp, he was never on board with playing the role of shepherd. Though he did consider humans to be similar to sheep. They flocked together getting in each other’s way, this led to nothing but violent conflict and endless struggle. For the bulk of humans enough was never enough. Frustration and insult had forged Nazir, but he did ire one person, Zero. His massacre of the Khai on Mona was base and animalistic. The decisions had been taken easily and Zero wasted no time. His actions had been a refreshing glimpse of life and death in a single moment. It killed Nazir inside that he couldn't do the same. The genius Novus wanted to rejoice at the ease with which the Khai had been dispensed. Having fully accessed the record at the behest of his ultimate er Aelren, Nazir had become conflicted by the old teachings. In his mind, sometimes a decision required no thought. As long as the outcome was favourable, this was justification enough. Micro-management was the enemy of smooth workflow, all decisions taken by the Numbers were made by committee; they took too long. Only once tasks were set into the hands of the Novus would the result happen. Zero had opened Nazir's eyes, but his reward had been guilt, piled on by the Numbers. Nazir had tried to be close to Zero, his idol. The Novus had even tried to show his , but Zero never gave him the time of day as he’d wallowed inside his own remorse. Zero the ultimate weapon became flawed by the same self-doubts which afflicted the Numbers. Nazir saw what the Numbers never could. Zero could no longer be relied upon to vanquish the Khai-mah. The clones had heaped mistrust on the man they should have hailed as their saviour. The result had been dilution and pollution, until Zero was no longer effective. This was the moment that Nazir decided Zero should be sacrificed. That said when the moment came to commit, Nazir had also stuttered in his convictions, missing his chance completely. This was when the idea occurred to the AntiPrime to place a friend of Zero's in jeopardy. Nazir knew Kariina was one of Zero's greatest friends. As predicted Zero went the extra mile to save her without a second thought. Nazir envied Zero's ability to quickly act without any apparent need to weigh up action against consequence, this was what he sought to

emulate. At India-7, Nazir had succeeded in his goal, he had taken the ultimate action, done what had to be done, gone the extra mile to eradicate the Khai-mah. In a coincidental mirroring of events, Joan had levelled the playing field. Verbally lambasting Nazir and listing his many errors. More worryingly, Joan had easily split his resolve. Nazir had been quickly overtaken by the weight of his actions. But where the super soldier had shouldered this burden of guilt and moved forward, Nazir's first instinct had been to run and save himself. Nazir might have been nine feet tall, but he was nowhere near the man Zero was. Zero had been forged in fire to deal with all the clones inconvenient problems. He was the solution to situations which required a certain dirtying of the hands. Zero had even adapted himself to meet the clones strict no killing policy; eventually become enlightened, mostly forgetting why killing had ever been necessary. Minutes earlier Joan had challenged Nazir, but one statement had thankfully been inaccurate. Though he couldn’t , Nazir had remained disconnected from the hive and the Numbers were still oblivious to how close the rogue Novus was. This was probably because their own reactions of horror flooded out into the hive, drowning out any small burst of excitement leaked from Nazir.

Chapter 36 - The beast returns.

AT THE SAME TIME, MUCH closer to Nazir's current location was the Thrall break room, empty all apart from its single non Thrall occupant. Zero was examining the leather Journal which his subconscious had mystically guided him to recover in Poland. Having read the Journal Japanese style from recent entries moving backwards further back in time to the start it was clear that the author of the Journal had been in the SAS, tasked with infiltration of a Nazi base to recover a high value prisoner. Before this at the very start of the Journal, entries all seemed referred to manoeuvres in . The missions seemed to be mostly crossing rivers, rigging high value bridges and other targets to explode etc. These actions were the work of someone in the engineering core, the same core of the military which Zero knew he had served in; yet these facts sparked no glimmers of recollection within Gray's memory. The handwriting was the only evidence that the journal was his. Even more confusing were the notes on the inside of the front cover. Three groups of numbers indicating map grid references, each comprising longitude and latitude and what seemed like a name but not one like Gray had ever heard before. GARIC. Maybe it was an acronym but there weren't any dots, and again Gray could not think what the letters might stand for. Gray had expected some pangs of recognition, if not then what was this farce all about? The disappointment was instant, and Gray was pretty fed up with the whole deal. The painful headaches suffered after he had re-sparked had all been replaced by burning curiosity. He liked how things were now, but he couldn’t ignore the images in his head. Lost in his own feelings of confusion Gray was no longer immune to the hive mind. Over the last week he’d been tuning in as his physical strength and mental prowess began to resemble his former levels. Now Gray was snapped back to reality as he felt a wave of anger pulling at his mind. The feeling was strong but isolated, this wasn’t the hive then. Feeling compelled to tune in there was nothing but anger bordering on raw hate. Gray tried to get a directional bead, calming his mind to zone in. All too quickly the feeling subsided and was gone. Minutes later a second anomalous feeling washed over Gray, this time it was

excitement. This feeling was weaker, much weaker and there was no way he could get a sense of the origin. Within seconds Gray was washed over with a feeling of terror, this was the hive, there could be no doubt as Gray realised the feeling was all around him. Something terrible had happened and Gray’s first instinct was to jump straight up to the main control room. Getting a grip he managed to stop himself. Gray quickly felt the hives horror turn to focus as they tried to investigate whatever had caused them to be shocked. This was typical clone behaviour. So logical and in control of their own emotions had they become in order to reach enlightenment, that any immediate shock they might have suffered was soon replaced by a need to rationalise and investigate. They realised no purpose was served by wallowing, far better to reach a quick resolution, though quick could be a relative term. Gray listened in as the Numbers all investigated the event. The crescendo of mental activity soon subsided, but some residual hum was still apparent, again this seemed to be the feelings of a single clone. At first there was anger, this burped out amongst all the other noise from nowhere, but this feeling transitioned smoothly into a deep regret over a period of one minute. This time Gray seized his chance. He hadn’t spent months in Thrall-ville without learning all the best secret paths to get to places which no one else ever used apart from the odd Thrall. Thrall brains never leaked, and if he did happen to come across one of the weedy ones, Gray was careful to ensure that he had been seen, so meaningless death by shock wouldn’t occur. Gray began to jump between a series of similar chambers, so similar that Gray had placed Clone objects into the chambers so he could tell them apart, this also gave him something specific for a jump image. The alternative would be getting lost in Central. Each time he reached a new chamber he took a quick moment to zone in on the feeling before jumping again to a nearer chamber. It took Gray fourteen jumps in two minutes before he popped into a room very low down in Central, Deck 2 right above the reactor deck. The temperature down here was at least five degrees hotter and the air was stale as the conditioning scrubbers had little need to circulate the air in such a low deck. Only three meters away was a stasis pod, obviously out of place as it wasn’t anchored down to the floor like normal. This room was never made to receive a pod. Alarm bell number one went off inside Gray’s head.

Alarm bell number two rang out milli-seconds later as he saw the tall cloaked figure behind the pod, frantically programming commands. Gray couldn’t see what the clone was doing but he knew the figure wasn’t Leren. His thoughts were beginning to retract from the hive again which was something Leren never did anymore. In the Pod was Joan, motionless. This was all the incentive Gray needed to rush the Novus. Such was the perfection with which Gray had jumped and the level of pre-occupation Nazir was suffering, the clone hadn’t even realised Gray was there. The rogue Novus was entering the last few keystrokes on the pod, before he took his leave from Central forever. Gray didn't know for sure that this was the rogue Novus. The information had been given to him by his little Thrall assistant in nothing more than a series of hand gestures, winks, clicks and grunts. Zero was only fluent to a point. Even so Gray would not let him leave. Moving at top speed the super soldier rounded the stasis pod and leapt into the air, all Nazir saw was Gray’s arm as it ed around his neck from the side. The next moment he was having the life choked out of him. Nazir was not given to panic, but now he could do nothing else. Unable to breathe, the weight of his assailant was almost too much for him to remain balanced. Despite a typical clone’s tall and spindly frame, they were remarkably strong, and Nazir knew he should be able to defend himself against a human without too much effort. He only had to calm himself and begin to act. After all this was what his attacker was doing to him, panic was soon replaced by confusion as to who this human could be. He was large but not large enough to be Joan’s son Wraith who wouldn’t have needed to hang from his neck because he was almost a foot taller than Nazir to begin with. Wraith would have been a different attack style completely, as he was given to planning before acting. The man hanging off him now and so far winning was unknown to Nazir. The Novus somehow managed to raise his arms up to meet his attackers. Once Nazir began to slowly disengage his brain he began to feel much more at ease and was actually able to unleash more of his strength. He was however sorely lacking in control as fighting skills were never included in the inherited knowledge. Following his instincts, Nazir determined that all he had to do was land blows on his assailant, and his superior strength would do the rest for him. This proved tricky too as Gray, the very definition of both fighting spirit and ability, was able to read Nazir’s subtle body movements with great ease. His body position and the way the Novus was shifting his balance over the leading

foot was a sure indicator which way a punch would be thrown from, then it was all too easy for Gray to duck below the reach of Nazir. The Novus was beginning to become frustrated by his failure to land a single blow, at least he had broken his attackers grip. His relief was short lived though as Gray, determined to win and excited by the prospect of testing a clone in battle, stayed low. Targeting Nazir’s legs the Novus howled incoherently in obvious pain as his thin skin and musculature did nothing to protect his bones from this direct assault. Gray realised this was the way to bring him down and now began to perfectly execute his karate kicks, striking just below the knee, each time with more force. Within a few kicks Nazir’s face looked like he’d had enough and might be plotting how to escape. Looking up had been a mistake as Nazir found the strength to lift his injured right leg and plant it squarely in the middle of Gray’s chest. Pushing quickly with all his remaining strength, Nazir sent Gray flying over the stasis pod and crashing into the wall at the other side of the room. Gray was temporarily unconscious, after making a skull first with the wall which allowed his following body to crumple his neck. Seeing his foe motionless on the floor he assumed that he had by some miracle, broken his attackers neck. Pressing the final series of keys, Nazir finished laying his traps to hinder the clones recovery of Joan. Turning around to check, Nazir was shocked to see Gray stirring. - Dammit, who is this man? He’s a tank ... For the time being Nazir was lost to his natural flight response and figuring that this man wouldn’t stop until he was dead, he picked a jump location. With a carelessly loud pop, the clone was gone. Gray who had been coming to, heard the sound and knew instantly that his target had left the vessel. Springing to his feet Gray rounded the bed quickly and stood in Nazir’s last location. Quickly calming his mind, Gray was trying to sense any residual traces of Nazir’s chosen jump location. He had never tried before and he knew it was a long shot, if he had Aelren’s prowess, following Nazir would’ve been child's play ... But he didn’t. Even clearing his mind the traces were faint, barely enough to show the rogue Novus had been there in the first place let alone follow him to where he was

now. Gray was mindful of the fact that Nazir had been playing with the stasis pod, which might be about to wake Joan and let her out, and the time wasn’t right just yet for her to come face to face with her old love. He still had work to do, focusing once more on the task at hand an image did form faintly. Gray knew what to do ...

Chapter 37 - All control is lost ...

FOR A SECOND GEYLDIAN halted. On the screen in the main control room the scene of devastation was still fully developing. It was clear that nothing could have survived within a mile radius of the blast centre. Every tree within this radius had been obliterated, outside it they were scorched, felled or badly broken. Instinctively Geyldian looked around to find Aelren and receive his orders, but the spot where Aelren had been stood with himself and Wraith was now empty. The Prime had seized his opportunity during everyone’s distraction to withdraw back to his quarters. As he studied the control room, Geyldian realised that the Numbers gazes were now all fixed on him. He was the one they were expecting to issue the orders. The clones had now fully regained their composure and so Geyldian set them the task of guiding his Network to swoop on the remaining nine packages. There was no reason for the Numbers to assume that these packages were decoys, ignoring their existence would have been a huge gamble; not one the clones were willing to take. Nazir was trying to outsmart the Numbers, to change the way they thought. He wanted to justify a changing of the Old guard and sit himself at the top. Geyldian would set Nazir straight. He’d rally the Numbers and together they would prove there was no need for change. To do this, security forces all over the world were now being directed by top branch from the human network, in unison they were all tightening their nets on the remaining nine packages still in play. Wraith was frustrated, and unusually for him, was quickly losing his cool. As he stood a few meters from the back of the room, the young giant watched the huge monitor, slack jawed. He had just watched people he knew, some of whom since shortly after ing Central, die on the whim of a psychopath. It seemed Nazir was wholly incapable of valuing life no matter what species it was. In order to express his rage at the Khai, Nazir had just wiped out of the human network, two thousand Thraten soldiers, eight hundred human soldiers and ranking officers in addition to over two hundred and fifty civilian workers. The entire complement of King fighters, all the Khai Gekkoda and the new Cobra fleet stationed at India-7, were reduced to twisted husks of melted metal ... Utterly beyond repair. The entire Mall was a total loss, even equipment in the lower subterranean levels was destroyed as the base appeared to have collapsed

in on itself to the hangar and assembly areas. Wraith could feel a vein pulsing in his head. Trying to ignore the endless throbbing he wanted to stay calm, but the thought of what he had just witnessed and the impromptu exit of the Prime now filled him with rage. No longer able to contain himself and having no one else to vent at, the Numbers and Novus in the main control room were about to suffer through an explosion of their own, at point blank range. Wraith let out a huge roar and simply began to lash out at a nearby control desk. Without any care for the importance or possible function of the desk, Wraith hammered it to a broken pile of components in seconds. Not knowing which way to look now the Numbers were stunned again, twice in ten minutes. None of them felt capable enough to get in Wraith’s way. After the destruction of the desk Geyldian was brushed aside like a feather pillow as Wraith then charged into the offending monitor. With an enormous Wraith shaped hole at its centre, the devastation at India-7 was gone. Shattered pieces of Chromataphoric Plasmate lay everywhere. Even the thick bunches of cables which transduced the picture, lying immediately behind the screen were not enough to tether Wraith for more than ten seconds. Flexing himself, the cables were snapped free of their anchor points one by one. The repair bill was stacking up quickly. Sensing a plea for help from Geyldian, Ra-sian and Geberus simultaneously, Oxull jumped into the control room. Oxull didn’t jump anywhere very often, only needing to occasionally hop from engineering on Central to engineering on either OFFright or Mona. The moment he materialised Oxull felt pain. Landing a gnat’s hair too close to a control terminal he realised quickly that the end of his foot had melded with the desks structure. Seeing the scene of destruction and chaos unfolding before him, Oxull watched his comrade’s backs as they charged towards Wraith who was now systematically dismantling the ships main viewer from the inside, without the aid of an instruction manual. The big engineer felt a sharp pain, accompanied by a loud crunch as he snapped the bones of his foot free of the control terminal. Without a second thought, and the end of his foot, Oxull span on his heels to follow the rest of the Numbers as they rushed the young enhanced human wrecking ball. The three Numbers in front reached Wraith with only seconds to spare before the youngling was about to jump back out of the screen to demolish something else. Like linebackers hitting an opposing quarterback the three of them dove the final three metres,

hitting Wraith with force enough to knock him backwards onto his ass inside the screen. Each attempted to pin a limb but leaving one arm free was in effect leaving Wraith completely unimpeded. Such was his strength, well in excess of a single clone that he began attempting to simply remove the clones from his body. The sight of the three clones writhing to remain clamped onto the limbs of their young comrade was like watching some sort of malfunctioning bucking bronco machine. Wraith was physically lifting the three of them off the ground. Soon but nowhere near soon enough as far as the three clones were concerned, the hobbling engineer, now slightly less weighty than before, landed full force on Wraith's free arm. Oxull was no taller than any of the other clones but he was at least three times the mass, gained after almost 15,000 years of lifting, climbing and other heavy work. Oxull was the only Clone who had the mass and strength to assist Geyldian in slowing Wraith down. About a minute more and the writhing was finally brought to a stop. Having prepared a cocktail of muscle relaxant and sedative, exited his lab, then travelled the fifty meters from his lab to the main control room, the spindly blue doctor appeared. Leren was hesitant to approach the dog pile which occasionally trembled violently, in case he stuck the needle in himself by mistake. Such a mistake would have been the doctors last, there was more than enough kick in the syringe to make him drop dead more or less instantly. He now hoped, seeing how the four clones were struggling to hold Wraith, that the cocktail would have enough potency to merely knock the big lad out. As the Old doctor saw his chance, he sank the large gauge needle into a bulging vein in Wraith's forearm, then hoped in his confusion, he had hadn’t stabbed Oxull by mistake. - Leren ... So glad you could us! Geyldian's tone was acidic enough to melt through Alculinium, he knew Leren was the only one of them who could actually bring the ordeal to an end, but channeling his inner Louis Armstrong, the Old doctor had taken all the time in the world to actually do what needed to be done. Leren smiled, half closing his slitty eyes to make them even more slitty before ... - Come now where would you be if Wraith had fallen on top of me and squished me like an overripe melon? Careful action was required, also I had to synthesise the formula very precisely not to kill him outright. We should hurry and get him to a bed and strapped in, I'm hoping we have about 30 minutes but look at the

size of him, we might only have minutes. Come on clones ... Grab an arm and a leg and Queeick March! Climbing back to their feet and each taking a limb, the four Numbers did as the doctor asked, with some straining the now delirious Wraith was extricated from the monitor housing, marched out of the control room and into Leren's medical lab. The Old doctor turned just in time to see his four associates fall inwards on top of each other. Wraith had used all his mental prowess, focusing his mind enough to jump away. Geyldian who had landed most uncharacteristically, at the bottom of the pile was now so angry that he couldn't breathe, but that might have been the weight of Oxull, Geberus and Ra'sian. - Where did he go? I swear that boy will see me to my spot in the record! Did anyone feel his image? The clones, all climbing slowly back to their feet and dusting themselves off, replied in the negative. Even half out of it, Wraith had astonishing mental power, and an insane amount of confidence. Each of them appreciated the difficulty of jumping in a hurry but doing so whilst heavily sedated was a risk none of them would have dared to take. Leren tried to calm Geyldian, but the second was having none of it. If Wraith had been in front of him right then, Geyldian might have torn a few strips off him. - They were his friends, we all watched them die, but Wraith was personally involved at India-7. Our inability to show our emotions is what has pissed him off. - Believe me when I tell you this Leren ... Nazir won’t be getting any forgiveness, nor will he be getting any mercy ... Not from Aelren and not from me. He has committed too many crimes, and the heinous ... NO ... Monstrous nature of those crimes harkens back to a time long past in our history. Past but never forgotten. There was a time when we also sought an eye for an eye, but a life lived for revenge is a wretched life, unfulfilling and wretched. The best way ... The ONLY way we will track Nazir and take him out will be by following our proven system. Wraith must learn this lesson ... Yes we’re calm, but we have an infinite focus and an even longer reach. The rogue Novus will not escape us. Leren, please prepare Kariina to go and

take readings at India-7. I have hope that there will be a few survivors in the lower subterranean levels. The network has taken down the hackers, and eight of the packages have been recovered. Two of the black hats are in lock up at Scotland Yard, Molis of the network will interrogate them and report back. Soon doctor this day will be a memory and we can concentrate on the Khai. - I probably don't have to say this to you Geyldian, but we have to try to think like Wraith and evaluate his next move ... Surely you haven't forgotten who trained him? Wraith feels responsible for the lives lost, especially the Khai warriors who were only there because he lobbied on their behalf. Wraith is young and wants revenge, in that regard, he has a way to go before he can truly be considered his father's equal. You’d better be sure that if Wraith has left Central, he already knows what he's going to do ...

Chapter 38 - The giant, the detective, his prisoner and her brother.

THE SUPER SPAWN WASN'T even the least bit dizzy as he materialised in the usual spot in London. The middle of the bandstand in St. James' Park. Yes it was a public spot but at this time of the night there was seldom anyone around. From here it was only a short walk, accompanied by some long stares from of the public who lay along his route to New Scotland Yard in Victoria. Wraith was trying to be inconspicuous but at over 10 feet tall, hiding would’ve proven problematic if Zero hadn’t taught him the art of illusion casting. From the moment Wraith saw a person on the street, he had to broadcast an alternate image of himself into their mind. Of course he then also had to give them a wide berth, if they brushed against him, the illusion would be ruined. Zero used this technique all the time, especially at airports, to fly where he wanted whenever he needed. Upon his arrival at the Police headquarters, Wraith did not enter through the public entrance. Instead he stood across the road from the building. Over the next five minutes Wraith took a mental read of the building. In the upper floors at this time of night there was only a skeleton crew. In the lower levels the desk sergeant and a few other officers were monitoring the holding cells. It was fairly easy to isolate the detective who also served in the human network. A man named Molis, who was right now preparing an interview room. Further towards the other end of the building was a holding cell with two smallish figures inside. The pair were mentally connected in a mini hive, often the case with twins. They were young, younger than Wraith who was now in his mid-twenties. The clones agent was stricken by how two young lives had managed to wander so far from a normal path, descending into the seedy underworld of crime as hackers for hire. Molis was picking up a phone, a second later the desk sergeant answered. He then left his desk and beckoned the officer stationed outside the cell of the twins to take the pair to the interview room. Clearly Molis was now on the Network’s clock. As soon as the twins were seated, he sent the officer accompanying them away to wait outside with strict orders not to let anyone in. Wraith now crossed the road and descended down a stairway to a front door which looked to be unused. A tramp who had been occupying the space up to that point watched as the huge figure walked to the end of the entry past him. He was then overcome

by a strange urge to get up and move on. It had taken him the last two hours to get cosy and he didn't really want to move away from the warm imprint his body had made on the brickwork. However, the feeling soon became oppressive, so the tramp hurriedly ascended the stairs. Wraith listened as his footsteps faded out of range, before returning his attention discretely into the mind of Molis who was just getting his interview started. Detective Molis' family had been of Nobility but had let this slip in the 1700's when the family began their service within the network. The network required all new to give up their names and any titles for a period of 200 years so that they could be forgotten in time. Molis' mother and father had been the first of the line to be allowed to readopt their family name after this period had elapsed. Both parents had retired two decades ago when their son had been inducted by Geyldian. The Second still presided over such matters, as he had done since the inception of the Network. Julian Molis had been a beat policeman in his early twenties when his mother and father introduced him to Geyldian; announcing their intention that he continue to work for the unusually tall, blue skinned man. Julian’s transition had been difficult. His time was filled with police work and the red tape which ensued. Extra work resulting from a secret second life was just an added burden. The issue raised some animosity between himself and his parents. Neither had ever been particularly strict, so Molis hadn’t understood why his parents would make such an imposition in his life ... And at possibly the worst time. In the 1970’s Julian had conducted house to house enquiries regarding a serial rape case. During the investigation the perpetrator of the crimes had escalated to subduing his victims with brutal beatings which had left three women in hospital with varying degrees of brain damage. Whilst working so closely with the detectives in C.I.D. Julian had his eyes opened to the brutal reality of the world. More than this the young constable decided there and then, that C.I.D. was where he wanted to progress in his career. Developing a keen eye for detail which was reflected both in his notes and his ability to and recall relevant information, Molis had been taken under the wing of a more senior detective sergeant. Taking various exams for rank progression had all been a breeze, but always in the back of his mind had been the possibility that someday his life would be turned upside down on business for the large bluish skinned man with long jet black hair and shades. At which point his life would get difficult. The cases he worked were becoming increasingly more high profile, as

such Molis felt his concentration should not be split. That said the last twenty years had ed in a blur. The now middle aged Molis, having the rank of Detective Chief Inspector had seldom heard from Geyldian the network head. The few requests for information or to merely keep an eye upon certain people and report back had all been easy to achieve. This was made easier by his current rank, which made his sometimes secretive nature easy to explain away. For the last few days, information had been flowing upwards to Molis from civilians in the human network. His task had been the examination, evaluation and compilation of all this data, with a final report to his Network superior, in Europe this was Nico San Andrini. San Andrini hailed from Italy originally, but now travelled so often as to rarely spend more than one month each year in his homeland. When the final evaluation had been made, it had been Nico and the other branch leaders’ job to formulate the raid. Performed across four continents, the raid saw all Nazir’s hackers arrested simultaneously. Very good information had been compiled in the London office, certain leads had been developed and then followed by Molis personally. This all resulted in a successful outcome. Talking with Geyldian, Nico had rained high praise on Julian who also led the raid in the UK, arresting the twins who were now in his custody. This kind of sudden data acquisition followed by rapid sorting; then the formulation of a plan which was acted upon with clinical precision and speed was one of Geyldian’s original reasons for the formation of the network. He knew humans could be relied upon to complete tasks which were important, and even to make decisions to shorten the time to action. This relieved some of the pressure and removed any need for the Numbers to micro-manage human affairs. Now as Wraith watched the interview through the eyes of the detective, he had to be careful. Whilst connected to Molis he could have taken over the interview completely if he'd wanted, but at the end of the interview Molis would've had no memory of what had transpired. This wouldn’t be good for his reputation within the Network and could see him reprimanded by Nico. Wraith didn’t want that and decided instead to act as the voice of Molis' conscience, interceding by subtle suggestion. In this way Wraith's instructions would occur to Molis as if they were the result of his own intellect. This would ensure a seamless interview

from which Molis could compile a report, and Wraith would have his information. The first suggestion by Wraith came immediately. His read of the twins’ mental attitude indicated that together they were determined and acted as a tight unit. The girl was stronger ... the leader, while they stood together, Molis would get nothing from them. -The twins seem too comfortable, you need to separate them, no more until after some answers have been provided. The suggestion obviously took as Molis left the room, moments later a uniformed constable entered and lead one of the twins away to another interview room. Molis re-entered the interview room, took his seat and ruffled some files which were completely unrelated. This seemed to spike some curiosity from the sister who attempted to peer over the top of the files. This was good, Molis had the girl's attention, he’d interrupted her closed mind. Just a little more and he would begin his line of questioning. Force of habit saw Molis breaking out a fresh tape and putting it inside the recorder. As the detective was just about to press the record and play buttons together, Wraith stopped him. The detective dropped his head, a smile on his face. This is network business ... Of course I can’t record it. This mental hiccup from the older detective also raised the girl's curiosity, but more than this, she physically shifted in her seat. Molis realised at the same time as Wraith did, now the girl was feeling uncomfortable. Her curiosity had been sured by unease. The detective had been about to record the interview, a fairly standard procedure which she knew she could survive with little stress. He had then smiled a wry smile as if formulating a more clandestine plan. This indicated things were about to get grim and he shouldn't leave any evidence. To cover this, he had now straightened his face and was looking her directly in the eyes. For the first time the girl felt out of her depth and in trouble; but she would continue to put up a front as Molis spoke his first words to her. “Alright love, let me have your name please, no matter what you’ve done at least we can be civil.” The girl in front of Molis was small framed but her clothes suggested she was indifferent to the opinions of others. Decked out in a new trend called grunge, her garments were all dark tones. Her makeup suggested that she either didn’t go

out much, or the places she did frequent wouldn’t judgement on her appearance. After a short pause ... “Keicia.” To try and get some handle on the girl’s mind set Molis removed a Walkman jacked with headphones from a clear evidence pouch. Pulling on the headphones, Molis surmised that like their owner the ‘phones were also not mainstream trendy, they were designed for listening power and fidelity. If the detective was honest, he found it laughable that a pair of headphones so large and bulky should ever be connected to a latest generation Mini-Disc Walkman, a masterpiece of modern miniaturisation. Pressing play, Nirvana began to drone into his ears ... Nothing new about them. Recently they had found fame with their edgy music and even more bizarre antics on stage and off. Relatively mainstream now, the band was adored by hordes of disaffected youth. Such was their appeal, even a good girl from Chelmsford might be listening to this music in her bedroom whilst painting her nails. With a volume which allowed the detective to hear his own words over the music but was in essence far too loud for the otherwise quiet room ... “I prefer Veruca Salt myself, though I don’t think grunge will last too long.” Clearly the girl was very clever. Quickly Molis decided trying any kind of child psychology would be a waste of both their time. Despite their youth, chatter within the hacker group suggested the pair were prodigies, envied by their peers. Their young age had allowed them to build a killer rep’, whilst also providing an excellent cover, affording them some protection from discovery. The twins were known to be somewhere around sixteen, but their exact age wasn’t known for sure. The Network, having diligently followed their trail through proxy servers all around the globe had eventually suspected their father, the only remaining adult at the family home. Molis and his accompanying SO19 team, waited for the hacker to be active. Kicking down the door and storming into the property, the father hadn’t even been there. He was chief executive of a large shipping company, the family had some wealth, and probing by the network revealed that the shipping company used to be owned outright by the family, but that was back in the 1800’s. The family

retained a position on the board following the sale and were still active in the operation of the company to the present day. The only people Molis found in the house during the raid, and who were caught red handed at a state of the art laptop computer, were the twins. Neither had made any attempt to run. Putting the headphones down on the table, the dulcet tones of the music could still be heard in the room. “Sorry about that, got a bit carried away there. Keicia you say ... What a lovely name. If I correctly from when my wife was expecting our daughter, it’s derived from the Acacia tree, Arabic I think. We called our daughter Casey, which is a more common derivative.” The girl shrugged, knowing her rights better than a teenager should, having not been cautioned, she was under no obligation to answer. Paranoia began to show. Mirroring the tin foil helmet brigade whom the twins had gotten mixed up with, Keicia’s mind was racing, full of questions ... Why haven’t they cautioned me? Everything about this is off book. I think I might be about to fall off the earth into a dark hole. Will they let me see Lewis again? Now the fun could begin, and with Wraith listening to her every thought, he was then able to feed Molis with the same information in a way which appeared to be his own intuition. Molis wasn't slow, all indications suggested he wasn't far off the curve on his own. Wraith was just accelerating things a bit. “I know what you’re thinking Keicia.” The girl shot Molis a look which screamed don’t make me laugh! “What!? ... You a bleedin’ psychic now then are ya?” Molis was a little taken aback by her choice of words, had he misjudged her? -She's putting on her best tough girl act ... Plough through. Poker faced, Molis started ... “Come on Keicia, I know you’re not a gob shite proper ... Drop the act. You’re wondering why we’re questioning you without putting you under a caution first.

You’re correct ... This is off book, and yes ... The people you’ve upset could make you and your brother Lewis disappear very easily ... if they wanted.” Keicia’s face now looked grave, she prided herself on her unpredictable nature, never saying what she really thought or acting how other people wanted. This copper had done what no one else ever could and gotten inside her head. Now her fear and confusion were obvious for Molis to see. Trying to salvage the situation and keep her talking, Molis continued. “You were hired to do a job, with a bunch of other black hats around the world. This we know to be true. You covered your tracks better than most, but then we looked harder than most too. In the end all paths led us squarely to your door. Packages ... You were playing a shell game with certain items, for a man named Nazir. He wanted the items moving discreetly, under the radar, through back doors ... in the shadows. Well we have the packages, but we need to know if you were a part of his plan.” “What plan? I don't know anything about nine packages ... We were contracted to hide two packages, one from Sweden and another but we were only the middlemen on that one, we just moved it without knowing the origin or destination.” “What were they?” “We never knew, we were paid a lot of money not to know so we didn’t ask. Upset a man like that ... And ... Well y’ know. You found us, so could he.” “You never met him?” “NO!” -So far she seems to be telling the truth. She is scared but not so much for herself. She loves her younger brother; she's probably trying to protect him ... You can use that ... “I believe you, but I have a problem. I can’t appear to condone your actions; someone has to pay for the bombing. As yet your brother hasn’t said a word so it looks as if you will walk, but Lewis? ... Well he may not.” “Bombing? What bombing?”

Keicia’s tone turned frantic. The pair only moved packages, she knew nothing about what they were, or what they would be used for. “Don’t you watch the news Keicia? That’s a shame, I expected you to be a little more adult. You certainly like to play mature beyond your years. Well if you had seen the news you would know that one of the packages you hackers had been moving around, was delivered ... To one of the Earth defense Malls in India. A Nuclear bomb no less. It was detonated a few hours ago with the entire mall and its occupants lost, not to mention the craft which were supposed to be our defense against the Khai-mah ... Or didn’t you know about that either. Honestly you seem pretty naïve to me. After all, what’s the point in getting paid mega bucks to do a super illegal job if it leads to global destruction?” Keicia now showed the first signs of her humanity. Rendered dormant through her teenage years, maybe buried by a lack of love and affection from her absentee father, it began to bubble to the surface. Crying ... “How many people?” “Just over 3,000 souls including the Khai who defected to help us. Not to mention the nearby villagers.” “I ... We ... None of us knew. The packages were like Nazir himself ... anonymous. Except the package from Sweden they were all no bigger than milk crates.” “And the one from Sweden?” “It was 60 x 50 x 180cm and weighed a little over 120 kgs. I think it started in Florida but I couldn’t confirm it.” -Molis ... That sounds like a coffin. It could be Joan Albern! ... Did we pick up that package? With the human network heavily engaged in looking for Joan Albern for a few days now, Molis was acutely aware of the dimensions of the package Keicia described, and the possible implications. Even before Wraith’s interjection the detective moved to check the results of the other raids. Reports in hand showed nothing like Keicia described ... Was this another package? One they didn’t know about?

Out of nowhere the detective became filled with a sense of urgency which was most uncharacteristic of his usually careful, steadfast nature. Nico had filled him in shortly before he'd begun the interview of the events which had transpired on Central. Joan Albern’s gargantuan son had run amok and then vanished. Shaking his head slowly, Molis realised that maybe he hadn’t been conducting this interview alone. He certainly wasn’t prone to addressing himself personally inside his own mind, this was a big indicator of what was happening now. Wraith’s anger was beginning to spill out and was infecting the detective who was ill equipped to deal with such a full on expression of emotion. No matter how hard Molis tried to remain calm, he was being overtaken ... consumed. Molis dropped his head. His face had flushed beetroot red, contorted by uncontrollable feelings of rage. No longer able to look Keicia in the eye, he feared the girl might scream. So much blood was in his screwed up face, he felt his eyes would explode. Afraid that maybe Wraith would take control of him and do Keicia some harm, Molis slowly and carefully extended his own arms downwards to reach the frame of the chair he was seated in. Gripping the chair seat hard his hands went white, then numb. No matter how he tried Molis couldn’t recover his calm. Like a spectator looking down on himself, this was not his finest hour. Acacia, still crying and somewhat in a state of shock, remained oblivious. It wasn’t unusual for people to avoid eye with her; such was her aura that it often pushed people away. The detective’s face was in the shadow of his own head and so Keicia was fortunately unaware of the time bomb sat only a few feet away. The next voice Molis heard inside his head was one he hadn’t heard in roughly twenty years; but as uniquely calm and powerful as it was, he instantly recognised Geyldian. Not there in body but reaching out across the world to reach his young agent, the older man talked to calm Wraith down. After some minutes, Molis felt he was alone inside his own mind, once more the detective was calm. Begging his leave without waiting for any acknowledgment from Keicia, Molis attempted to flee the room. Forgetting momentarily that he’d locked himself in with the girl to avoid interruption; he pulled the handle with such force that he ripped the handle off in his hand. Shaking uncontrollably, he pushed the handle loosely back onto the tang, then turned the lock below. Pushing the now free handle downwards, dizzy and off balance, Molis fell into the corridor and began

to collect himself. Thoughts were occurring steadily, as usual. Molis replayed the interview to try and determine at what point Wraith had ed him. After a few minutes the detective felt a chill which suggested his face was no longer flushed and he might be suffering a small degree of shock. Pressing on, Molis reed the girl ... “Sorry about that love. I can’t explain what came over me. I believe you, but the package from Sweden is still in play and it’s important, so let me come clean. The dimensions you mentioned roughly resemble a box which could be used to transport a body. Your client abducted Joan Albern, head of the Earth Defense Force as his hostage a few days ago. Nazir is one seriously disturbed individual who is trying to stop us from granting asylum to the Khai. He just wiped out the Mall in India as a show of his power. He can strike anywhere at any time. You must know how important Ms. Albern is to this planet, how could you not. I have a proposition for you. Let’s grab Lewis and go back to your house. If you can tell me where the package is right now, you can go free. That’s all they really want, Joan Albern back where she should be. Come on lass, stop crying, you got mixed up in something much bigger than a paycheck this time ... Let’s go.” Keicia looked up, wiped the tears away from her eyes and smiled. The twins left the side entrance with Molis in a fast car, blues and twos announcing to everyone that they should get out of the way ... On Central ... -Where is he? We were lucky this time, if he had begun to tear Scotland Yard apart, people would’ve died. -It wasn’t ever going to happen, Leren. Wraith knows better than that, the rage was internalized this time, he never entered the building to begin with; and never moved to do so. The detective in the network might have done more damage but even he seemed to withdraw rather than explode. That is lucky. I believe Wraith is now following my man Molis, he’s taking the hackers home to try and locate the final package. -Ok the dimensions are suspiciously like a coffin, but why would Nazir kill Joan? She’s no good as a bargaining chip for him if she’s dead. I hope I’m wrong but maybe it’s just a bigger bomb. Then again I can’t image what kind of target would hold any significance for him after India-7. Florida is a red herring I

think, it’s far too obvious, of course we would think it’s Joan and go chasing after it. He could be targeting OFFright. I’m not Oxull but I think a nuke made by Nazir the size of a coffin could probably blast OFFright back into orbit. -As dust, maybe. Thank you doctor, I’m glad to see your optimism is undiminished. I doubt it’s another Nuke. Even though Nazir hates us deeply, even he would have the sense to stop short of annihilating one of the three ships. -To cap it all off, there's been no word yet from Kariina. If there were survivors surely we would know by now. What could be keeping her? -Who can tell, since Nazir got the better of her, my sister has closed her mind to heighten her senses. She thinks she’s mellowed far too much. Maybe Kariina’s just waiting for the ground to cool, I know you shot her full of anti-radiation chemicals but even so ... A few hours after detonation, maybe it was a bit soon. Back in his own quarters, Geyldian attempted to his sister but to no avail. The second in command had no idea how his father could have sired two such different beings. Next he established with Nico, which was easy enough. “Nico, my apologies for earlier, it’s been a hell of a day, quite literally. Molis has the twins with him, they are going to track the last package. The girl is confident she can find it again.” “OK Geyldian, Molis is solid, he usually gets results but with Nazir still at large maybe this time will be different. With everyone concentrating on the raids and then the interrogations ... Maybe Nazir already took delivery?” “We have to hope not Nico, Aelren has fully withdrawn, it’s the longest he’s ever spent in his bed. I honestly think his love for the job has gone and he might be about to resign himself to the record. We need to find Joan. Keep your eyes on Molis and be aware Wraith is on a hair trigger right now somewhere near him. If the girl can’t relocate the package we might have to go and extract him.” “Understood ... Nico out.” The picture disappeared from the monitor again and Geyldian was left to reflect

on how they had been put into this situation, by a Novus. It seemed to the Old clone human hybrid that every one of them who was afflicted with genius, was compromised. Eight, who was only a genius at three of the disciplines had gone against Old doctrine and the Prime to cause massive trouble. Nazir was on another level and Geyldian was secretly thinking what the other Numbers all wanted to say. -How will we ever reel him in? On the face of it, with Aelren licking his wounds and trying to rebuild his dented confidence, Geyldian appeared to be in charge. The other Numbers were certainly coordinating their efforts through him, and though he wasn’t looking forward to it, the time might be approaching when Aelren would make him Prime. To Geyldian every day was a learning day, this one had been no different. He had learnt that maybe not all Novus were as happy with their lot as they appeared; maybe this was something which required a little digging into. He’d learnt that Wraith was not like his father. When it came to family, the young giant could be unpredictable, even dangerous; anything but calm without Zero to keep him in check. Maybe the biggest lesson of all was that apart from the huge disaster, today had been conducted much like every day had before there was Zero, Joan or Wraith. The Numbers had performed irably, he had used the Human network and results had been seen. None of their long term plans had been interrupted, by Nazir or the Khai-mah. Geyldian’s only real worry was his sister’s failure to properly communicate the situation at India-7. Maybe no news was good news and she was busy rescuing buried survivors ... Soon the lessons of the day fell victim to the hybrid’s usual analysis. Generally Zero, Joan and Wraith served to speed them up; allowing them to rationalise without procrastination, neither side sought to change the under riding system. Theirs was a symbiotic relationship with each party complimenting and enhancing the other. Though both parties might deny this, citing the benefits were in fact one sided, in their favour. Zero was a soldier whose life was turned around and given direction. He couldn't much of his life before Central, but he’d felt life hadn't been so good.

Enhanced with super strength and healing, his mind forever expanded, the benefits were all his. For Joan, the clones had given her a second chance at a life which had been cut short with the man she loved, with no need for secrets like before. Having also seen massive personal growth since ing Central, in her mind the little woman from Yorkshire would never be worthy of the gifts bestowed upon her. The clones who had every mental and actual tool not yet known to man, had for eons attempted to watch over the human race, accelerating and slowing their development as required. The whole time they were clinically disassociated with their little project. Human emotions and struggles were as alien to them as they were to humans. Zero, Joan and Wraith were an excellent bridge to create understanding. Geyldian also bridged the two species. His human network underpinned the foundations of this bridge even further. Only the humans self-destructive tendencies spoiled the whole arrangement. Zero was the first human who seemed immune to power. He’d remained loyal, respectful of their ways, and was mostly humble even when dealing with humans despite his enhancements. Zero had been unique, and Joan had only made him better. What made the whole thing work was that the Albern's were on board voluntarily, not as part of some lab experiment. Both parties knew what the other could offer and there was finally a mutual respect which had never happened either time before. Even the genius Jer-mija had slipped up in this regard, controlling the humans, training them like pets until he was found out. That particular day ranked at number six on Geyldian’s list of worst days ever. So much blood, even more than had been spilled on Mona the day Zero ran amok. Now Geyldian could chuckle about it, that was thousands of years ago and time truly could heal most things if you let it ..

Chapter 39 - Aftershocks at India-7.

AFTER LEAVING JOAN entombed in the rigged stasis pod, Gray arrived at the scene of devastation which the Novus had been feeling so triumphant about. The sight left the original Zero cold. He’d never witnessed any of the nuclear bomb tests which the U.S. had conducted in the 1940s, neither whilst in the armed services or the employ of the clones; but there could be no other explanation for this scene. A pit opened up inside his stomach, gripping Gray. Temporarily the super soldier was bereft of any plan to proceed. To stay here placed his body at enormous risk of radiation poisoning, which even he had no idea if his enhanced physiology could heal from. At the center of the crater which was at Gray’s best guess, over a kilometer in diameter, the ground was reddened and still hot from the fire ball. Above him the enormous mushroom shaped cloud, looking like Yggdrasil was beginning to drift; taken by the winds high above the ground. The cloud looked like a fourteen kilometer tall tree whose branches were easily spread to the same dimension. Slowly though, this tree of death was beginning to snap under its own weight, falling back to the ground. Broken equipment was scattered everywhere, some pieces were ground based, but most were large and didn’t look like conventional aircraft, space craft maybe? The memory hit Gray like a train, back in 1973 he’d been key in formulating a plan to enhance human children as key leaders in the fight against an old enemy which had tracked the Devine halfway across the universe. Gray pondered now if the Novus had left the image of this location as a red herring. The Novus had been plotting his escape from the moment Gray jumped him, but there was clearly no means to do that here. Having come this far Gray decided that some investigation was absolutely justified; his curiosity was piqued by these strange craft. All the remnants of paintwork showed each had been decked out in military colours. Surveying the crater from its rim, which offered a slightly elevated vantage point, Gray could see a field of lighter debris at the outside this would be easy to traverse. He would then have to cross piles of heavier debris which had been thrown outwards from the epicenter, but not as

far due to the larger mass of the chunks. This wall of debris was formed from hundreds of craft and pieces of concrete, huge great slabs with re-bar protruding from them. This was young concrete, high density, fibre reinforced, quick drying and hardening. Whatever purpose this structure had been serving, it had clearly been erected in a hurry and was significant enough to the Novus that he had chosen it as a target. The military nature of the vehicles suggested that it was a base for military power on Earth. Zero didn’t any such bases in India before 1973 but reminding himself how long he’d been benched for allowed Gray’s imagination to fill in all the preparations which might have been made to defend the planet against the Khai-mah. Clearly some massive developments had been made. Looking at the thruster vents, even the smaller single seater fighters were powered by Clone plasma propulsion units, not jet engines. The craft had no ailerons, no tail plane and the wings were fused to the fuselage with no t visible. Even though mostly destroyed, the few remaining pieces of skin hanging from the airframe of the craft still appeared to have a sheen and elasticity which Gray had never seen before. The material felt and behaved like a fabric, yet Gray found the toughness of the skin to be exceptional. Several attempts to rip some free all failed. The craft were true marvels, such a shame they’d all been destroyed in one go. Gray’s mind wandered for a few moments, imagining what the craft was like to fly, even though he’d never been a pilot some vivid images ran through his mind’s eye. Examination of the larger craft showed them to be different again, taller than double decker buses and three times longer. Evolution of design was clear to see in the exposed airframes. The way one craft had been thrown apart by the blast suggested a huge belly broken into two decks, with four rows of seats and equipment holds running along both decks. There were charred bodies everywhere but interestingly, they were not human. To a man they were all the same size, huge well-muscled frames with a slight bluish tint remained on uncharred remains of clothed skin. Zero had examined several bodies before making this realisation. The remains of their armour had fused to their bodies ... A clone army! ... Again Gray marvelled at the Numbers ingenuity. In an incredibly vivid moment of imagination, Gray was stopped in his tracks as he seemed to experience the feeling of being burnt up inside a ship as it exploded; then still being conscious as he expired in space falling back towards an emerald blue planet. Shaking his head clear of this ridiculous notion, Gray

realised that no such event had happened here. These craft had been lined up in rows, with full compliments of crew and cargo when they had been caught in a nuclear attack. The craft had never even had the chance to launch let alone get blasted in a space battle. The number of craft which had been destroyed was literally uncountable, there were over a thousand in total by Gray’s very quick estimation. His count was hampered by the fact that towards the middle where the building had been, the craft were melted such that several ships had practically merged into one twisted blob and were still too hot to approach; let alone touch or investigate. In these craft there were no traces of the crew who Gray assumed had been vaporized in an instant by the sheer heat of the blast. Walking a little further and a natural tunnel loomed in front of Gray, made from the remains of what appeared to be two or three collapsed levels above ground. Now they would allow an entry point for Gray to investigate inside. All the time Gray had been on alert with his senses scanning for other traces of movement which might show if the Novus was somewhere watching him. His concentration was only being sapped by two things. The sharp pang in his stomach reminded him how low his own energy reserves were after his jump to this location. This was the biggest indicator that although things were progressing nicely, the once impregnable fortress which had been Zero, still wasn’t back to full strength after weeks of recuperation ... Secondly, Gray hadn’t sighted the clone he’d fought with; despite practically riding his shirt tails to this location. This was another indicator that the image had been fed to Gray to mislead him. Gray ed that in normal circumstances Novus could not jump. The skill was learned through long sessions of meditation once they had ascended to the Circle of Numbers. Some Numbers like Leren never jumped even once taught. Gray couldn’t seeing the Old doctor even leave his lab in his sixty years aboard, let alone jump somewhere else; although theoretically it was possible that he had. Maybe the Novus had been intending to come here to examine his handy work but simply didn’t have the skill or power to reach so far from Central. Gray chuckled, thinking maybe the Novus had become encrusted into a magma chamber somewhere very hot within the Earth’s crust. The harder thing to ignore was hunger, the pit in Gray’s stomach was now

begging to be filled; it would have to wait. Even if he did come across a canteen or mess hall, the food would’ve been irradiated and would probably kill him within hours. Gray tried to distract himself by extending his earlier thought. - Around any corner I might find half a Novus stuck out of some destroyed concrete. Wishful thinking ... Damn I could eat a burger right now! Down here corpses were everywhere, there were trapped bodies; bodies hung over structural beams all with a plethora of different injuries. None of these poor souls appeared to have died painlessly. It was clear almost immediately that for anyone caught in the above ground levels, death had been swift. It was inconceivable that anyone had survived. Finding what must have been a main stairwell, the only way was down, and the gap was a squeeze even for a slimmed down Gray. Things were much more open on the lower levels, notwithstanding the huge blast which devastated the higher levels; the building was put together like a fortress. For a moment Gray forgot his hunger, down here survival was a possibility if help came fast. Gray was help, and he had arrived quicker than anyone else could have. Optimistically, Gray began to call out to anyone who might be trapped in a room. Gray would have saved his breath if he’d known that all craft had been assembled above ground for a red letter event in the Earth’s defense strategy. All hands had been ordered topside to watch the fleet launch as one into the big black beyond. The bodies which Gray had ed, littering the inside of what remained of the entrance atrium, had simply been the ones who had remained at their posts the longest. Having been spared reduction to ashes in a fraction of a second, they had been crushed under tonnes of falling concrete instead. Much slower and more painful, not exactly a fitting reward for their extra efforts. There was barely any light in the subterranean levels. All light was invariably shining through holes in the collapsed structure above. Gray could scarcely believe the size of this building complex. Feeling he might have lost track of time somewhat; Gray was sure he'd been traversing the corridors for a few hours at least; so long he had completely gone through his hunger pangs. Gray was no longer hungry, but the feeling was replaced with an urge ... To find someone ... Anyone ...

At almost the same time as Gray, but a few kilometers to the other side of the crater, Kariina had materialized in the centre of a village she and Joan had visited briefly during the construction of India-7. Kariina had been very familiar with India a few centuries ago, in her more troubled time. She was acutely aware how slowly village centers changed, simply because they would be a meeting place for everyone, traders and buyers, village elders and the like. Now the village was in shadow. The huge mushroom cloud was still blotting out the sunlight in this area. Most of the villagers had been killed as the blast wave washed through the village. By some miracle a few had survived with minor burns. Kariina could only guess they had been inside or shielded out of the direct blast. None of the villagers even looked up as the huge figure ed them. Kariina sent out a mental message to Leren but could not seem to raise any response, maybe she was out of practice. Truth be told Kariina was not so skilled at mental communication. Maybe she just wasn’t good enough to reach all the way back to Central. It was only a short walk to India-7, another few minutes after breaching the village limits and Kariina had found the huge entrance gates to the massive compound. As with all Malls, the designation was emblazoned in huge stainless steel lettering across the gates. Both were still hanging which inspired a few brief moments of hope within her, until she realised that the letters had been visibly blued by the heat from the blast. Before the gates had stood in the midst of lush vegetation, the huge mall and surrounding land had been hidden completely from view, not so now. In the distance Kariina could clearly see what was left of the main building; previously so imposing. Now the five levels had been reduced mostly to one by collapse. The gate on the left was slightly ajar but not enough for Kariina to squeeze through, attempting to force the gate open wider; she found the brass bushings inside the hinges had been fused to their pins. Wanting to leave the gate standing, as a marker, Kariina abandoned her attempt and simply walked around. This hadn’t been possible before and even in this situation the notion of bying the gates made her feel uncomfortable; as if she was breaking the rules, tresing almost ... No matter now. The gatehouse was almost flattened. The charred remains of the poor soul on guard at the time were still inside. Kariina almost choked on the smell of cooked flesh and melted plastics from the computer equipment. Mixed with badly burnt wood which formed the gate house; the smell was overpowering. The swing gate had melted, forming a long

puddle on the ground, but was still connected by melt to the pivot point which being steel had mostly survived intact. Kariina traversed the half a click down the entrance road to the main building quite quickly, having only to make detours around huge slabs of concrete which had until a few hours ago been ing the floors of the various levels. Strange that there were no bodies here at all, not like in the village where death had been everywhere, staring her in the face. It was only the absence of bodies which made the scene before her bearable. The way Kariina had lived her own life for the last decade and a half, in a mode of preserving and respecting all life forms meant the memory of terrible painful death was not readily accessible in her mind. This was different and Kariina found it relatively simple to tell herself that these could be ancient ruins, thousands of years old, all inhabitants long dead. This was preferable to accepting the fact that earlier this very day, the Mall had been teeming with life, a hive of activity, pristine in both function and form. -Damn that’s torn it ... Kariina only had two modes. The first, little used nowadays, was anger with the focus and drive to kill in cold blood, no matter the reason or the opponent. The second stood in stark contrast but was equally born of her human upbringing. Overt humanity; worn on her sleeve like a badge, almost like a cry for acceptance from her human peers. Kariina could be a warm, happy, welltempered and emotional being. Like any other human but dialled up to eleven. Now in a rush of distinctly feminine emotion, Kariina could not stop her eyes from welling up with tears. It was as if her body was accepting the senseless deaths of the Mall’s occupants autonomously, even if her mind did not want to agree or allow them. Standing still to try and calm herself, Kariina listened for any signs of life but there were none, no birds, no oxen in the fields surrounding the village. There was simply nothing left within earshot. When the breeze altered direction Kariina could hear faint cries, but these were from the village behind her not the Mall before her. Probably they heralded the death of another villager from the wounds they’d suffered. Being in the Mall at ground zero; during the blast now appeared to Kariina to have been a small mercy. Death for those at the furthest reaches of the destruction ... Would take longer. Gathering herself, Kariina could see no quick way for a being her size to enter

the main Mall building; so she began to meander counterclockwise around the demolished structure. The grounds were huge but the path around the mall had been kept relatively tight to the foot of the structure. This was now mostly buried so Kariina cut her own path in and out of the piles of rubble and huge blocks of fallen concrete, all the time scanning for bodies ... None had been found yet. It took a little over an hour for her huge stride to carry her around the end of the building to the launch ways at the rear of the Mall, the scene here was on another scale. The huge ships were strewn everywhere, some had been physically fused together by the heat of the explosion and subsequent fireball. Kariina was now practically in the geographic centre of the devastation. The debris had been thrown away from the blast, and to some extent had been sorted by mass. The lighter material having been thrown furthest could be seen scattered around the rim of the crater, whilst nearer to Kariina lay the huge craft which should have been launching on their maiden voyages today. Between the two bands was another comprising of destroyed, melted blobs which she assumed had once been King Fighters. As Kariina steeled herself for a walk out into the debris field, all around were Thraten corpses, along with their human pilots and Khai chaperones. Further out the corpses were all human; still sealed inside their crafts. The King Fighters would have definitely been deployed as a ceremonial accompaniment to the Cobra as they lifted off into space. -Poor devils ... They never stood a chance this time! ... All that skill gone to waste ... It was then that a slight sound of motion, not unlike someone scrambling down a concrete ramp, followed by a few tell-tale echoes of footsteps faintly rang inside Kariina’s well-tuned ears. Spinning quickly on her heels she tried desperately to see what made the noise, but nothing seemed to be moving now. From this vantage point though, Kariina was able to see something she’d missed before as her route to this point had largely obscured it from view. Several metres to her right was an opening in the ground. Kariina had to pinch herself as the reality hit her just how large the subterranean levels were. Comprising hangars and assembly bays where craft were stored and repaired, these stretched a little over halfway out into the grounds away from the main block. Fortified even beyond

the strength of the main building such that direct plasma hits from several Dragon turrets could be weathered simultaneously. It was a testament to how large the blast was that a roof slab almost 20 feet thick with steel reinforcement at 40mm diameter could be broken even a little to reveal the inner workings of the Mall. Kariina now speculated that this may be where the noise she just heard originated. Deciding to investigate she took out her head torch, placed it around her head and adjusted the straps before switching the light on. Looking down into the hole, all was dark, but ing the endless tour with Joan, Kariina knew the ground was at least a hundred feet below her. The sight of King fighters being transferred through the air on a massive gantry crane, over the top of fighters still being assembled had been quite a spectacle. Kariina had no point of reference to know exactly where she was in relation to equipment. That wouldn’t stop her jumping it just made her ready for a rough, possibly painful landing. Standing at the edge of the gaping hole, Kariina took a step forward allowing herself to drop into the darkness, within four seconds was made with the ground, instinctively Kariina absorbed the shock by bending her legs and leaning forward, her speed of impact still saw her body crumple, forcing her jaw bang into her knee. No lasting damage would be suffered. -By the ancients ... That was lucky. Examination of her landing spot by casting the torch light onto her surroundings revealed that she’d landed on one of the main taxiways between the three large assembly lines. Everything down here was pretty much intact except for roof debris scattered locally around her, even the smallest chunks were a meter cubed with rebar splayed out from all sides, like giant hedgehogs. Landing on one of these would have seen her stranded and alone, injured in ways Kariina didn’t even want to think about. It was clear that there was only equipment down here, no staff. There was no consolation either in the fact that better than ninety five percent of the equipment was fully intact and ready for operation. Kariina was sure that if Joan could see this scene she would have scrapped the Mall and all its equipment as a mark of respect to those who’d died. In the interests of not wasting any more time, Kariina ed why she came down here. Even now in the distance, far beyond the range of her head

torch’s beam of light she could still hear the sound of solid footsteps, advancing slowly. Kariina stealthily moved to intercept, with her torch beam fixed firmly to the floor Geyldian’s sister used her massive stride to full advantage, picking where to put her feet so as not to disturb anything which might alert the other person. After a quarter of an hour, Kariina had reached one of the massive bulkhead doors. Still open, this allowed age from the assembly bay to one of the equally large hangar bays. With a brief look up with her torch revealed this hangar was at least a quarter full of the small Gekkoda craft. About a third of the way down the hangar away from her current position, Kariina could see yet another hole in the roof. One of the huge Cobra craft was perched ominously at the edge of the hole. Enough light was shining downwards into the hangar that even without the torch Kariina could see the Gekkoda well enough to navigate her way through them. This was good as now the foot-steps, whilst still sounding with almost metronomic constancy were getting no louder and no duller. Her target had deviated and was now moving more or less parallel to her, maybe a little towards her. Kariina determined that now her best tactic would be to wait patiently beside a derrick turret. Large enough to make even her seem insignificant, she was easily able to conceal herself within the shadows ... Just over an hour ago Gray’s underground odyssey had taken him through a massive door. In the dark his eyes had adjusted almost perfectly to reveal a series of assembly lines in parallel. This was where all the fighter craft lying destroyed above him had been put together. Following a wide walkway in one direction another huge door had revealed itself. The bay Gray was progressing through now appeared more like a hangar. Finished fighters were positioned diagonally in rows. It had been some time, maybe ten minutes before Gray had noticed an entire squadron of much smaller craft which despite their size, appeared to seat a three man crew. Gray had eagerly climbed aboard one of these craft to find there were three seats, none of which were equipped to rest a set of human gluteus maximus muscles. Instead the seat had a hole almost large enough for his behind to fall fully through. Odd, that the seat would be for such a wide pelvis. The buttons and controls were also detailed with an odd concavity. None of the original markings were intact as all appeared to have been scratched off. Sitting fully back in one side of the seats revealed a very strange postural , and the foot controls were so close to the seat that Gray’s legs were far too long to fit. It did not take long for Gray to

assimilate all these features. -Short legs but a long spine, and this hole ... A TAIL! These are Khai-mah fighters ... What the hell is going on here? Has there been a truce? Did we win ... Without a fight that doesn’t seem likely ... Defectors! Some lizards don’t want to fight! Gray was immediately incensed by this thought, so much so he was unable to climb out from the tiny cockpit. He simply couldn’t reconcile the concept of a warmongering species such as the Khai-mah, NOT wanting to fight. He didn’t know why but the feeling of hatred rising within him was strong. War was the Lizards entire reason for living, acquisition of land by conquest ... Or flat out annihilation. Several minutes seemed to roll into nothingness, never to return as Gray rolled the thought over in his mind, he was beginning to do what he did best ... Rationalise. ing his service in WW2 he could certainly put himself in the mindset of a career soldier. Gray’s service record showed he’d been involved in many missions, in the engineering core and even more after his special selection. He knew how rapidly one mission would begin to melt into another as the endless need to push the line or defend it would leave little time for rest or recovery. The endless killing would have even made Genghis Khan sick to his stomach. Luckily Gray didn’t much, but the trail of death in his wake had sometimes been long. Gray never revelled in death or relished the act of killing, he was simply so far ahead of his adversaries that the number of enemies he faced was practically irrelevant inside Gray’s mind. -If they’re a lizard they are going down! ... Gray let out a long unstifled laugh, before stopping suddenly to question where his last thought came from. Gray had never seen a living Khai, if not for the craft he was sitting in right now, Gray would never have believed that the Khai forces had reached Earth already, whilst he’d been napping. Back before he was killed, Zero had shared a certain apprehension with the clones at the prospect of such a daunting enemy rocking up to claim his home world. -Home world ... What an odd choice of words ... It’s the Earth! Gray you fool ... Now though, since his respawning, the initial nightmares which had been so intensely vivid; enough so that Gray began to believe they might be memories,

before they faded beyond his reach, didn’t make Gray so apprehensive anymore. His death had changed him, or maybe his rebirth had changed him, Gray didn’t care which. All he knew was that whatever the threat, he was ready and more than capable of taking action. His previous wavering and self-doubt were the very things which had gotten him killed. He would not make that mistake again. Gray was resolved to take a step backwards towards his darker past, should the need arise. He could not die again. The clones won’t be bent out of shape if I kill a few Reptons in their defense. Gray’s calm returned and following the same twisting motion he’d used to get into the small alien craft, he now extricated himself and returned to the hangar floor. There were so many of these tiny craft, and in such good condition. Walking back up the hangar towards the massive bulkhead door he examined each one in turn. Hardly any showed scars from battle. A few showed the marks of plasma fire which Gray recognised very easily, again despite never having seen marks like them. Gray was absorbed in his examination of the Khai hardware, the features stirred his imagination, momentarily fixing his gaze and halting his progression. Gray completely missed the huge figure stealthily approaching from behind him, until it was almost too late. A single noise, a sound like a piece of rubble being kicked several feet, echoing as it bounced, triggered Grays hypersensitive fight response. Turning on his heels, the first and only thing he could see in the bright light which now blinded him, was the huge incoming fist. The owner of the fist was obscured completely. Gray could see from the height of the head torch that the wearer was huge, over ten feet. ing the Novus were typically nine feet tall and weaselly in build, Gray knew straight away that this was not his previous foe ... A minion then? As the pool of light was narrowly focused forwards, forming a penetrating beam which dragged Gray’s eyes out of night vision mode. The pain was momentary; the form behind was rarely highlighted. The odd glimpse of an arm here and there confirmed that this was not the Novus Nazir. At this size the figure was definitely a clone, but not one of the Numbers or they would've surely recognised him by now. This signalled the release of the beast within. Gray could hardly be blamed for defending himself against such a large enemy. Even in the darkness, targeting the legs told Gray that these were also very muscular,

there would not be any bone strikes this time, but there was one anomaly. When Gray landed a blow on target, the cries of pain were distinctly feminine. This was bizarre, whomever Gray was fighting was landing blows with the force of a silverback gorilla, but something was missing ... commitment?... The blows were skillful and precisely targeted, but a clone of this size and apparent muscularity should have been hitting harder. Kariina had known very quickly that the man she had glimpsed moving slowly through the hangar couldn’t have been a survivor. As such she had questions for the man and the tall human Clone hybrid wouldn’t be denied answers. Attempting to gently knock the man out with a well-aimed single first punch, her quarry had taken it on the chin like a heavyweight pro, relieving the blow of all its force by simply swaying backwards until her arm reached its fullest extent. Over stretched, her blow was completely lacklustre and might as well have missed. Having opened up the can of worms, her adversary now sought to land kick after kick on her shins until they actually started to get sore from the assault. He was like a busy bee, bobbing and weaving, slipping her blows and trying to land his own, which amounted to a light tickle on her battle hardened frame. More troubling was her targets maneuverability and hitting force which were both off the chart for a human. He appeared tall but was only averagely muscled, no way should he have been coming at her like this. When the fight wasn't over in the first few minutes, Kariina slowly started to amp up her own power, but this was met the same way. This man was strong. Very, very strong and much quicker than a man his size should have been. This man’s moves made her think of Quinn, but it couldn't have been. They’d both trained together so often that she knew Quinn’s fighting style intimately; this wasn't it. Though they might have been equally matched, Kariina felt some recognition in her attacker’s moves though. Every fighter had their own style which in time would become a unique signature, but that was impossible ... her friend Zero was dead ... Even his original had been a far bigger man than this and was also long gone. The pair were jumping around in the darkness, at the far edges of the light provided by the roof collapse some forty metres away. Gray felt alive as he jumped backwards, somersaulting to land on a small alien fighter. He actually began to chuckle as his adversary with her huge size, temporarily lost him. Relying on the head torch instead of her own senses would be a mistake she

could ill afford to make against him. Gray quickly ducked behind the canopy bubble of the tiny craft to hide. As hungry as he was now, hiding was a much more preferable strategy than going all out if he could manage it. A huge impact on the craft behind him which rocked heavily on its gear told Gray his opponent had also jumped. That was fast ... Move it! -I can smell you ... Bathe much? Gray attempted to pull himself over the canopy glass to leapfrog away, but the feel of the huge hand clamping around his still depleted calf muscle to effectively tether him, only resulted in him head butting the bubble. Dammit!... That’s gonna leave a bruise. This was the least of his worries as Kariina dragged Gray sharply backwards, the rear wheels of the Gekkoda definitely lifted off the floor as she slid herself off the nose of the craft back to the hangar floor. Once on solid ground Gray’s weight was insignificant to the huge Clone Hybrid, it was easy for her to suspend him out at arm’s length. Gray knew he’d been caught and now he only hoped that this clone was an enemy as he thought, in the employ of the rogue Novus. The alternative might be getting hauled back to Central to face the Numbers, Gray wasn’t ready for that. Kariina began to shine the light downwards towards Gray’s face, only to find him hung like a bat, unperturbed with his arms folded and his eyes shut. Luckily the beam of the torch, shining from such an acute angle at the underside of Gray’s jaw created very Rorschachian shadows. Gray was happy that the person holding him would see very little detail of his face, except maybe for the stunning view she must’ve had up his hairy nose. Her quarry was calm and only slightly out of breath, impressive considering the previous battering he had levied against her. “Who are you? What are you doing here? Do you work for Nazir?” Silence ... Frustrating silence. Shielding his thoughts as best he could, Gray had to avoid thinking about Central, the clones, his family ... Everything. Silence was the best policy now. Like a child with a dead animal, Kariina began to shake the man dangling before her, as if this would provoke him to talk. Swinging him far too close to the craft

she’d just slid off, Gray seized his chance to escape. He had already spotted the forward folding gear cover on the underside of the small fighter seconds before and now his captor gave him the perfect chance. Reaching out both arms and hooking his hands up inside the cavity, Gray quickly folded his body, utilizing all his core strength to quickly jerk his leg free of Kariina’s tight grip. It was a shot at nothing, but Gray was relieved to find himself swinging right way up below the craft. Continuing to swing around before releasing his grip like a cat his feet found the floor. Immediately Gray took off underneath the craft. In shock at the audacity, and then a little miffed that it was her mistake which allowed her quarry to escape, Kariina attempted to chase the man under the Gekkoda. That wasn’t working so she shifted quickly to round the craft, by which time Gray had already covered the distance to the hole in the hangar ceiling. -Dammit he’s fast! Whilst hanging upside down Gray had again been reminded that despite the brave face he’d put on, he was very low on energy. For sure his attack before had not been as effective as usual and now he ed he hadn't eaten in the last day. Added to this, Gray was surely suffering from radiation poisoning. Gray decided he couldn't win against a target that wasn't capable of feeling pain and had already decided before moving that if his plan to free himself worked he would bolt through the hole in the roof and make his exit upwards. With this plan realised, Gray had already evaluated the best takeoff and landing point at the rim of the hole, leaping in one single bound back to ground level. Mustering one last feat of incredible strength, Gray unsettled the Cobra hanging at the edge of the hole enough to make it fall into the hole to more or less where he had been previously stood; where the big female Clone might now be if she were attempting to track him. -By the Ancients!... As Kariina dodged the sixty Tonne craft now falling towards her, Kariina was confused. Humans could not jump like that. From out of the cloud of dust, instantly she moved to follow. It took her seconds longer as she had to clamber most of the way up the pile of fallen rubble before a short jump to reach the same point where her target had been stood. Once above ground, it was easy for her to track his course and the Clone hybrid quickly caught Gray up. Now in the cold light of day, memories from the record sprang back into her

mind. Despite his gaunt features, untidy hair and dirty appearance Kariina did recognise the man who stood before her. He however would not recognise her and couldn't possibly know what good friends she'd been with Gray’s cloned self. The look on Gray's face suggested he was in his famous battle mode; every move would be calm and calculated for maximum damage. Kariina gave thanks that the Number’s weapon obviously had not been fighting at full strength or she might have been in more pain and less able to deal with whatever happened next. Having caught up with him, Gray was not running anymore, and now stood toe to toe with her. As he stood there, Gray seemed to be having an out of body experience. Here was a female clone, two feet taller than Geyldian. There were no female clones on any of the three ships, Gray knew this to be fact. Then something strange happened, Gray was having tunnel vision; then he was having no vision at all. He was losing his mind to recall. He did not know how but he knew exactly who this tall woman was. Gray spoke to her in Mandarin, another forgotten skill. "Pirate! So you finally managed it, you saboteur!" Kariina looked stunned, not for a few centuries had anyone addressed her as pirate. For hundreds of years since being dethroned, Kariina's evil alter ego Khaalida had waged war on humans, then calming considerably she had approached her father, who rejected her. This caused her to seek out her own kind but seeing how they appeared to stunt and control the humans for their own ends, Khaalida attempted to undo all their hard planned endeavours. For a few hundred years, Khaalida had indeed lived as a Pirate in the South China Sea. But for all her efforts, she had barely even ed as a thorn in the side of her unknown brother Geyldian’s industrious activities. Gray couldn't be aware of her Pirate past; it simply wasn't possible. Rather than deny the facts, Kariina tried a different approach. "I used to be a Pirate, a long time ago, but no more ..." Kariina’s eyes fell to the floor, she knew she was a much better person now, but she would still feel pangs of remorse whenever her past was mentioned. Now Gray would start a war of words, he was weak, but he couldn’t let the huge warrior in front of him know that. He would now use her distracted mind against her. It didn’t take him long to get a good deep read of Kariina’s mind. What he

saw made him instantly forget his weakened state. “Antarctica ... It was your fault ... Joan ... Wraith ... You had me killed ...” Gray was quickly reaching a point of no return in his mind. His recognition of an old foe despite them never having met. Memories of tales about a huge warrior woman, and an immortal blue witch kept coming forward from the depths. The emotional reaction to these memories, which it seemed had at some time haunted Gray in another life did nothing to pull the once super soldier back from the brink of a full on battle frenzy, the scale of which might also become a legend. Kariina was not adept at mental communication let alone reading people’s memories by mind diving. She had only felt slight blips of the memories Gray had been accessing, which were by coincidence the old Zero fighting her adopted son Quinn in the cavern in Antarctica. After this Kariina did not need to be able to read Gray’s mind to know what would happen next. Backing away, Gray began to slowly pace after her. He was cursing her, still in Mandarin. She prepared to turn and run as Gray swung his arms and bobbed, indicating he was about to run at her. The man in front of her didn’t know her, but she knew him, and now as she looked at his body she could easily see that he was displaying signs of radiation sickness. He was probably far too weak to inflict any real damage on her but if she defended herself properly, he would probably be killed. Kariina didn’t want that on her conscience, not again. As Gray set off on his charge, Kariina stopped her retreat and sank to a kneeling pose on one knee, right before her attacker. “Read me again Gray! ... Please read me again! You can trust me!” The sight of his quarry in complete submission before him made Gray come to a stop right before her. Kneeling now, Kariina was eye to eye with Gray, even though he was not ready to acknowledge it, there was a tear of sorrow in her eyes which said she was not his enemy. Reaching up his arms to place his hands either side of her head, he could feel the radiant heat coming from her, this wasn’t normal for a clone. The hands weren’t really needed except the amount of information and the speed he could access it would all be increased substantially if he did.

“You’re hot ... Most of you are cold and clammy ... You’re a hybrid.” As he began to wade through time as Kariina had lived it, his fears were confirmed as he saw her training with the man who had attacked him. Trying to remain calm the next memory seemed to be a Thrall on a chaise longue, having a very deep conversation with her. Forward some more and Gray was now watching the story of the Devine and their escape from the Khai-mah. After this the memories were coming thick and fast, they were happy, Joan and Wraith were in them all, finally Kariina appeared to be kissing the scientist Geberus. “You’re Gill’s sister.” This was spoken as a statement not a question, Kariina breathed a mental sigh of relief as the old Zero now knew who she was and what she was involved with on Central and Mona. “I get flashes of memories ... from before. From when I have no idea, but long before I moved to Central. It’s hard, sometimes my mind is not my own, I get taken over but I cannot make sense of any of it. I saw you and I knew instantly who you were, clearly there’s been some atonement going on from your side, and with good reason too I might add, you were clearly murderous back in the day.” Kariina gave a little smile with her eyes half closed, as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth and finally in English “Why Gray that wasn’t me, that was Khaalida.” Gray now slumped into her; this final deep dive had sapped every last reserve of energy which Gray had. He knew now that Kariina was his friend, even though he didn’t know her, his clone had obviously been very fond of her. Anyway he figured that landing on her would be softer than ground covered in rubble. Kariina could just make out muffled words from Gray as his face was pressed into her neck, then he fell limp. “Sorry for the intrusion.” Kariina lay Gray down beside her still smiling, this was the real Gray, the original Zero. Clearly even in human form he was the same strong personality which his clone had inherited. Seeming no different to the Zero she knew, yet

again he had gone too far with no thought to his own safety. -Well to be fair, he did try to run. Kariina checked for a pulse but none could be found, and yet for some inexplicable reason this didn’t bother her as much as she thought it should have. Lying down beside Gray she finally became aware of how long she had been away from Central, almost ten hours and the only person she’d managed to find alive defined “survivor”. Of all the people Kariina expected to run into ... Gray Albern had not even been on the list. Her brother would be expecting a report, but right now Geyldian would have to wait, at least until she had decided what to do with the much irradiated Gray. Even so, she would soon be forced to return to Central to see Leren for a top up of her own anti-radiation serum. Scooping Gray up into her arms, Kariina would go to the place she always went to when time alone was required ... her lair in Tibet. An hour and a half later, right on Schedule Kariina arrived alone in Leren’s medical lab. -Think happy thoughts ... Happy thoughts ... -It’s understandable my dear, after what you’ve seen ... to feel a little down. -A little down hardly cuts it Doctor. What I saw was death, to which I am no stranger, but not on that scale. Not with such instant finality. Most of my victims took a while ... This last comment was again said through a smile and with eyes half shut. -You know, the most distasteful humor is often the best indicator of a psychological trauma. You are trying to cover up what you saw but the full horror is leaching out in your jokes. You can talk to me if you like. Nobody ever tells me their problems ... I am a doctor you know. But people usually can’t get out of here fast enough. -Thank you Leren, but now I think your full horror is leaching out of your face. To back up his words of comfort, Leren had attempted a smile which as usual had been more like a snarling grimace. When allied with his cold and clinical

precision, and his almost pathological need to probe a body, Leren’s comforting smile truly was the final nail in the coffin which contained the remains of the Old doctor’s bedside manner. Having received her latest dose of anti-radiation serum, Kariina determinedly stood up from the bed amid a series of “unfinished” gasps and “ahem” coughs, which suggested Leren was about to have an asthmatic episode. -Thanks for your concern Leren but oh dear ... Are you OK? Here doctor ... Your probe. Still smiling, Geyldian’s sister waved goodbye and swiftly made her exit whilst the befuddled doctor was still trying to gesture her back to the bed. As he exited the door to follow her, Kariina was already gone. -Oh my. Well there is a turn up for the books. I’ll have to look into that ... The medical Novus only noted in the log that Leren had then continued down the corridor and was not seen for the rest of the day ... Their numerous personal speculations as to why the doctor might vanish were not entered into the log. Reaching his room Geyldian found his sister's report. After almost a decade of not readily acknowledging his sister due to her previous efforts against him, followed by a decade of seeing Kariina regularly ... Maybe too regularly, the pair had found common ground. After all there were thousands of years to be caught up on from two very different but ominously intertwined lives. The recounting of Geyldian’s actions would often prompt a recounting of Kariina’s countermove; the whole thing became a bit like chess. Both parties agreed that it was good to clear the air. Gradually bit by bit the pair were beginning to know each other better. Geyldian’s negative comments regarding his sister were only related to her lack of discipline. Not her ability to follow orders or get the job done; but afterwards procedurally, reports and such. In addition to a mandatory and detailed written report, was the requirement for a mental imprint for the permanent visual record. This was always carried out by Ra-sian, as the finder and compiler of all data. Geyldian had already been told that his sister had failed to show for the imprint, this was no matter and could be completed any time. Unfortunately, the written report was sadly lacking also. Better might have been expected from a six year old human. Seconds later Kariina's concise report was easily committed to

memory. Not hard considering it read ... VISIT BY KARIINA TO INDIA-7 MALL FOLLOWING ATTACK BY NAZIR (NUCLEAR). ALL OCCUPANTS DEAD. ALL EQUIPMENT DESTROYED. UPPER STRUCTURE TOTAL COLLAPSE. SUBTERRANEAN STRUCTURE REMARKABLY INTACT. MINIMAL DAMAGE SOME BREACHES TO SURFACE LAND UNUSABLE FOR 500 YEARS. RADIATION READING 857 REMS. LOCAL VILLAGE DECIMATED. NO SIGN NAZIR. INTENTION: TO KEEP LOOKING. The scant detail almost focused Geyldian’s resolve enough to make a visit to India-7 himself. This thought was however soon blown away by the need to visit Leren first for anti-radiation serum. After his experience a few hundred years ago, Geyldian had resolved to make that his last long stay in Hotel de’ Leren. His resolve weakened, the second in command stayed sat in his quarters ...

Chapter 40 - The hunt for Nazir begins ...

KARIINA HAD BEEN GONE from her lair barely three hours; the scene upon her return was much the same as she had left it. Gray, now freshly bathed, was undressed and covered to his neck in plush red silk sheets in a bed massive enough to hold Kariina’s weight. Gray’s discoloured skin was the only indicator that he wasn’t actually asleep but dead. Playing a hunch Kariina once again checked for a pulse, and again none was found. -I guess no-one is immortal after all ... That’s a shame. Over the next three days Kariina resolved to visit her lair, displaying a stubborn streak which would have made Zero proud, she couldn’t get the thought out of her mind. -He’s already come back once ... The morning of the third day, Kariina entered her lavish boudoir to find the sheets thrown back over the end of the bed, an act which Joan had continually sought to curb with clone Zero. For a brief moment Kariina doubted herself, wondering if her lair had been breached by locals. It never had been before and the notion was quickly dismissed. With the body gone, Kariina was left to ponder what Gray would’ve needed. Unbeknown to her Gray had again respawned with an appetite to rival a clan of rabid Hyenas. It had not taken him long to sniff out Kariina’s well stocked larder, where he ate his fill of cured Yak and berries, which grew locally. Gray hadn’t tasted the food whilst jamming handfuls into his mouth. Reaching her larder, Kariina was shocked by the trail of devastation. The hungry super soldier had engaged in some kind of personal eating contest judging by her sorely depleted stocks and the half eaten food everywhere. Holding her nerve at the sheer untidiness of it all, Kariina was only upset when she found her finest chocolates had also been raided indiscriminately ... Clearly Gray didn’t like Brazil nuts. Following the crumbs of the biscuits which Gray had obviously topped himself off with to sate his appetite, Kariina followed the trail of destruction to her treasure room. How Gray had opened the vault was a testament to his ingenuity. She ed how Geyldian was always qualifying Gray's skills as an engineer, and how well Clone Zero had acquitted himself to aid Oxull in the

design of the Sphinx craft. In the face of such a keen eye and intellect for mechanisms, the few tumblers, counterbalances and the eye of the statue which guarded the vault would have offered little resistance against Gray With a quick précis Kariina established that Gray had not plundered her treasure room in the same way as her larder, a stack of US greenbacks and another of Sterling were missing. Basically Gray had taken only what would fit inside his pockets. The alien clone human hybrid who had once been titled the immortal queen of death had to quickly retreat from the vault after this. Inside were stored ancient golden figurines, some crafted by the earliest civilised humans. All these trinkets had reached her possession by non-peaceful means. As such, these treasures which Kariina would never be parted from, were also a great source of personal embarrassment now. She could not brag about them or even give them back; their significance was long forgotten in the mists of human history. She had ensured that personally when she’d ordered the great library at Alexandria to be burnt down. Only recently, Kariina had learned that one of the Cabal, specifically a young Leren had been seeding humans with secret medical texts. These manuals of anatomy and surgery were however typically cryptic and would hold mankind back for millennia. As the tumblers of her vault all rolled back into place, Kariina found herself subconsciously shaking her head also, as if to reset her brain. The clarity which followed served only to fill Kariina with discomfort. With no more reason to duck her daily duties, and with her self-proclamation that the Mall at India-7 was a total loss, her brother would expect her next port of call to be Ra-sian’s records annex. Here he would crack her melon open to record the last day’s events for perpetuity. This would be a bad thing. Clearly the super soldier Gray felt he could be more effective and react faster without the Clone’s guidance, and she had to try to respect that; but if she sat in Ra-sian’s imprint chair, the jig would be up. Worst case scenario Gray would be considered a rogue and disavowed, then targeted for capture. Kariina knew first-hand how persistent the clones could be once they’d placed a target in their crosshairs. Meanwhile ... Gray was progressing further down the mountain. As seemed to be the norm he had again re-sparked with very little memory. Strangely, the

mountain lair he had just escaped from was wholly unfamiliar to him, but in an odd turn of events, some photos beside the bed had triggered memories. A group portrait drew his attention, triggering the memory of Kariina whom he previously met in India, her brother Geyldian and Joan. With them in the picture had been a huge looking young man and a well-built man who closely resembled him. This triggered the memory of his clone, and his now grown up son Wraith. By extension memories of Central were also beginning to flood back in their droves. Kariina had made for the door of her lair to give chase, she had already decided to assist Gray until the time was right for him to reveal himself. Not having the mental prowess to sort and lock off even a small insignificant memory, she knew this was better than being discovered covering for Gray. Reaching the door, a note was impaled over one of the faces carved as embellishment into the door frame. Halting her for only a second, the spike actually drew blood as she ed with her hand outstretched to gather the note. Reading Gray’s scribblings on the move, Kariina realised the note was a list of instructions for the recovery of Joan. These had to get back to Central, but maybe there would be a more convenient time. Right now the fresh overnight snowfall revealed Gray’s path perfectly. Kariina focused on catching up to him rather than making a pit stop to Central, and the inevitable inquisition which would follow. It wasn’t long before Kariina began to feel close, the footsteps vanished ahead of her around a boulder, into a narrow . Quickening the pace more, Kariina heard something land behind her. Thinking she was about to be caught in an avalanche, Kariina dove for cover beneath the huge boulder, once there she waited for the rumble which would see her covered over. Instead she found Gray, far more mentally attuned, he had realised the moment Kariina had begun to read the note regarding Joan. “Why are you following me? You’ll get in trouble. The Numbers like regular updates ... I guess Gill is still in the habit of cutting you all some slack.” “It’s my decision, Nazir is out there somewhere, so is Wraith. I’m like an auntie to him you know. Physically he could rip Nazir limb from limb, mentally he would normally be strong enough to resist the urge, but with you ... Sorry, your clone gone, and his mother abducted, he’s displayed some

rebellious traits which have the Numbers a little worried. I’m already in trouble, I haven’t been to see Ra-sian ... I guess you know what that means?” Gray now bowed his head. “That’s good news Kariina, thanks for that. We will be much faster on our own. Come one then, let’s find the boy. If we can do that and get him to acknowledge me, maybe we can catch the Novus.” The pair headed down the mountain es together back to civilization, as they did the pair chatted at length. “So you were a bit mixed up then? ...... Before I mean.” Much as she had with little Thrall Zero, Kariina proceeded to bring Gray up to speed with her turbulent history. Eventually ... “... Not like me, who stood among them trying to make a difference. Trying to help them improve. How could I know ... I was rejected ... You know there are no female clones?” “I know, but I don’t think that means anything. There are female Devine aren’t there? The clones were meant to be caretakers, they’re manufactured in pods. Why would they need to procreate? Be honest, women can be ... well ...” “A distraction!” “Yes, a lot like you’re being right now. I can’t anything about my old self but there is a lot to . I found a journal, makes no sense yet though, so eventually we will need to see Ra-sian. I need to find more of them first. At the moment most things I see now trigger a memory, and not all are recent. You’ve decided to leave Joan in the pod then?” “For now Joan would seem to be safe enough. Nazir wouldn’t dare kill her. The clones don’t even know where she is.” “I got that impression too, but I worry that the pod might be booby trapped. Whilst I was fighting him, he was desperate to leave, but he’s clinical and precise. There’s no way he’d leave the pod without making Joan into some kind of insurance. He misled me completely; I would’ve sworn he fled to India. That

was the image I saw. Maybe he was still flushed with excitement at his plan being realised. Though I have to say he didn’t seem excited once I got into it with him, he didn’t know what hit him.” “He got you though didn’t he?” “A lucky kick.” Gray rolled his eyes and picked up the pace, such that even his long legged assistant struggled to match him. “I need food ...” “What? More?” “I need food regularly. If you let me finish, I am about half recovered. It was a good sign that I was able to push so hard with you the other day, but I got the impression you weren’t at one hundred percent, I wasn’t hurting you. If I’m gonna go again against Nazir, I need to be back to full strength. I don’t want to kill him, but I need to subdue him quickly. I’m sure Aelren will want a word on Mona. Anyway I can get stronger, much stronger; Nazir is screwed on that front. The next time we meet there won’t be any lucky kicks ... Trust me.” “So when will you need food again?” “I want to eat at least every six hours, sooner if we jump again. I have to keep up my fuel levels. My body seems to naturally convert anything I eat back into muscle. Unfortunately the Clone dross you guys eat mostly seems to right through me now; nothing much sticks. The food in your larder was the first real food I've eaten since re-spawning ... Either time. I already feel bigger. It's like my body is burning hot as if I’ve just completed ten ultimate reps with every muscle. Sheesh! Leren must've really done a number on me after the war." "You still think this is Leren's enhancement? I'm not so sure; in my experience Leren always has a plan. Then he follows that plan unwaveringly regardless of the outcome. He doesn't adapt easily, why would he? A change to the original plan part way might cause a failure. With him a process either works by design or fails because of a lack of input data, never an error." "Come on you can't be that cut and dry. Your analysis of Leren is exactly like his

analysis of an experiment. You have to appreciate that a plan can mostly work with some small deviation, or it can mostly fail yet produce some favourable data for the next iteration. Science is totally exploratory. It's quite possible that the original process to rebuild me after I saved your brother is the reason the enhancement process worked on me, and me alone. I know Nanites were used, what if they didn’t all dissolve after they rebuilt me?" "It's also completely possible that Leren achieved nothing either time. You died in Antarctica and yet here you are after re-growing an arm. If Leren expected you to come back to life as quick as you like, why did he put you on ice. No ... He doesn't have a clue about you, after all his analyses of you, hundreds of hours, he found you to be ..." "Spectacularly human?!... I know, and yet it is possible he made some small change to me, expected or not." Kariina stopped walking, her face was flushed, and her mood was growing darker by the second. "Gray, you called me a pirate ... I haven't been a pirate for over three hundred years. I'm telling you now, you ARE special, but not because of Leren. If anything I wouldn't be surprised if Old rubber gloves hadn't held you back. We know he did for the last twenty years if nothing else." "Either way Kariina, I can't blame Leren, evidently I am human, something's off but I don't know what. I may never have known. I know I’m most skilled at survival and combat but even they’re two things which can be learned." Gray began to crack a smile at the rippling angry face Kariina was pulling, clearly the way they had just talked, no matter what had gone before them in eons ed, showed that now the pair could be friends. Kariina looked away trying to maintain her cold expression, but it wasn’t working. Her face cracked and she began to laugh. Gray was stricken by the way Kariina could manage a full on hearty laugh from her belly, a laugh that grew with each breath and caused tears to roll down her massive face. In all the time he’d known Geyldian, say sixty years, all he’d ever gotten was psychic tittering inside his head. He’d never seen Gill break down in an actual fit of laughter. Despite both being sired by the same distinguished father, the pair were very different. Probably these differences were borne of the lives they’d lived. Gill was a part of a mini hive

with his father for around fifteen hundred years before his father finally collected his tickets; triggering Gill to march back to the clones. Kariina had not had this formal upbringing or pre-indoctrination. Having been knee deep in humans since birth, her moodiness and emotionality were a direct reflection of this exposure and may have been the root cause of her inability to deal with it all. Her brain was half clone after all, and human events moved at such a pace that Kariina was left only half equipped by simple genetics. Her clone brain had been dragged kicking and screaming through each event the humans hit her with. Gray imagined the internal conflict this caused within her was probably what sent her rogue for a millennium or two. Even after all this her clone brain was able to eventually dial back and make the best of the cards she’d been dealt, even if her pack had been loaded with jokers. As Kariina finally settled her face once again ... “You know that survival and combat are two things which can definitely be programmed too right?... Like I did with Quinn.” Gray continued to walk, inside he reflected upon Kariina’s final words. They were correct. As the pair walked into the nearest village at the end of the valley over which Kariina’s lair presided, they had covered almost fifteen miles. The villagers who had been tending to their stock, weaving blankets and making bread all stopped in their tracks at the sight of a local legend. The story of the giant blue woman was not unknown to Kariina. She had after all seeded the legend when she moved her lair from northern Africa to Nepal to escape the hordes of men seeking to either court her or kill her. Attacking a few villages and inflicting minor damage on the properties of such peaceful people was always going to lead to a story. This story was then ed from generation to generation, growing ever more elaborate. Kariina’s lair was not particularly well hidden, it wasn’t at an uncomfortable altitude or on some unreachable ledge, but no one had ever disturbed her peace. In the old days Kariina had to walk or physically travel everywhere, much as Gray had prior to his days at Central and becoming enlightened. This meant an occasional sighting of the huge blue woman only fanned the embers of the legend, ensuring that her lair remained safe from robbers. Khaalida had never been a completely violent force, at times she had helped certain villages through tough seasons by giving away her excess provisions, meat and such gathered during her favourite hobby,

hunting. This was one such village and even though the last time she had helped was more than eighty years ago. Her benevolence was still ed, and she was still revered. The legend would never die. Now the villages were all running into their shacks, but Gray could hear no slamming of doors, instead the villagers were simply gathering offerings to return to their idol who had yet again graced them with her presence. The night was spent in the village; Gray was deep in meditation whilst Kariina sat at the head of a village circle watching dancing and other merriments, including a short opera depicting her own legend with the largest man in the village playing the part of her. The play was as comedic as it was unflattering and Kariina could not help laughing as the man crashed through hastily constructed models of their houses and livestock pens. At one point a small shack attached itself to the man Kariina’s leg and for some seconds he struggled to shake it free. So loud was her laughter that soon the entire village was infected by it, laughing along with her. The party ended late when the wood for the fire had all been burnt out. Gray having finished meditating, had found what he was looking for ... Wraiths location ... Somewhere in southern England. He'd get a better fix once they’d jumped there ...

Chapter 41 - Lies and Half Truths.

-WELL THEY DO SAY IT never rains but it pours. -You know there is never really a right time to tell you that Khai missiles are on approach, but yes ... It is a bit much after the week we’ve just suffered through. Ra’sian was tireless in both effort and efficiency, and as such Geyldian could not lay any blame upon his comrade for interrupting his down time. As always the Watcher was running right on schedule. It was time to put plans in motion, to avoid a repeat of the conduit strike in Russia. The only difference this time was that the plan had to be adjusted to defend against three missiles which would all arrive within a few days of each other. The only problem was that the executor of the plan had died half a month ago, without ever forming a plan. -I probably don’t need to tell you as I believe you actually do read my reports, but we are talking about three missiles this time. I’ve run calculations and simulations as confirmation. The missiles are travelling in a tight knit grouping and were probably launched within days of one another. This grouping presents us with our biggest problem. -Which is? -Well I suppose what’s obvious to me may not be to you. Please allow me to explain. The missiles appear to have been launched with a regularity which would suggest a schedule. The Watcher was now waving his right forearm from side to side, metronomically to indicate the regular time interval. -The Earth is also turning with the same level of regularity ... Now Ra’sian paused; seconds ed before he saw a micro flinch in one eye of the second in command. -So if the missiles are following the same trajectory, at the same time but offset by a few days, that means the same area of the Earth will be hit three times. The tone of Geyldian’s normally stable mental voice had steadily risen as his

exclamation went on, suring the top limit of surprise all the way to panic. Neither was worried about the missiles exploding; all would arrive inert as usual to become embedded in the crust of the planet. The problem they faced now had already been clearly illustrated in Russia during the second missile strike. The sustained presence of a hyperspace conduit in with any physical matter like ground or sea had proven catastrophic to everything in the area, living or otherwise. Though the physical effects of water borne were far harder to examine, the scar in the middle of the Atlantic was a lasting testimony to how destructive the conduit had been. The ongoing plan which Zero had been working on had been to attack the first conduit in space outside the orbit of Jupiter. This would drop the missile somewhere in deep space, but as yet no reliable method had been found to pinpoint the conduits exact location before their strike could be launched. Until her abduction by Nazir, Kariina had been working tirelessly to further enhance the enhancements already made to Mona’s deep space scanner. The pace at which events had moved since Zero had rescued her, including Zero’s subsequent death, had seen this work fall somewhat by the wayside. If the clones next strike failed by any degree to disrupt the conduit’s course then a touchdown on Earth would follow in the next seconds. This would be a failure of the highest order, with no time to adapt. Whatever happened would do so with no further action from the clones ... Just the way Russia had started off. At this point, neither the second in command nor the Watcher had any idea what plan they would levy against the arrival of a single missile conduit; let alone three inside a fortnight. In particular Geyldian felt like he was out of options and couldn’t even spitball ideas without his human aide Zero. -Even if our first strike is successful, we still need to repeat this feat two more times ... You’ve already checked planetary alignments I take it? Ra’sian nodded in the affirmative ... -The inner nine planets are no use to use in this scenario. The way they’re set to move in the next month sees some moving away from us, and the ones moving towards us aren’t close enough to provide any cover. There is a slim chance the first may get scooped up by the proto-planet lying in twelfth position, but if such a small ball of rock isn’t destroyed outright, then it too will be out of the way for

the second and third conduits. -Twelfth you say ... Eris? ... Well that’s no problem is it? Low cosmic influence, and the humans don’t even know she exists yet. -Actually Geyldian, there is computational evidence from Geberus’ Thrall mind bank that Eris has a denser core than either nine, ten or eleven. She is agglomerating rocky material from the Oort even as we speak. Point one seven of a percent each year, her orbital transit is slowing down also, currently it stands at 285 years, but when we first found her it was more like 267 years. Of course that was eons ago. Geberus has even lobbied for Eris to be a refuge planet should it be needed when Solaris begins her expansion. -Which is no time soon ... So, what are the chances that the path of the conduit could be distorted by Eris to miss us? -Maybe the first missile if it doesn’t hit Eris outright, then it might be bent off course a little, but the transit of her moon Dysnomia coming around will reset the conduit as it es between the pair. By the time the second missile gets here Eris and her moon will be out of the way. We have at least two conduits to deal with, maybe three. Geyldian needed time to process. Three missiles might even have been too many for Zero to handle, but the second in command could be sure of one thing. Zero would’ve been putting together a solution which gave him at least a slim margin of success. Now was no time for Geyldian to falter, all eyes were upon him. Even using the reactor cell, liberated by Oxull and Jer-mija, was a one shot deal, there simply wasn’t the time to split off two more. -And dropping the first conduit around Jupiter will see the missile dumped outside the Oort cloud. So we won’t be able to repurpose the missile either. -Why does it always have to boil down to nuclear missiles? -In my opinion they are our only option, we have no delivery system for the reactor core. But also we have to let the conduit touch down on Earth. I already ran a simulation of a twenty nuke strike in space. It suggested the conduit would be more than capable of deflection without rupture. Unless the end of the conduit is tethered to the Earth, there is no shearing effect. Anyway, how would you propose we get twenty Satan class nukes into an orbit around Jupiter, in the right

area of space to intercept a conduit we can’t properly see? -That’s it then, our plan is to sacrifice another area of the planet ... Twice. We need to pinpoint the exact area topside and alert my Network. They will have to run the evacuation in the absence of Joan -Well if we use nukes on the first conduit, we claim the missile and send it to destroy conduit number 2. This missile we never see. We would then have to use nukes on missile number 3 ... Unfortunate. Of course the last time we had Zero, without him the Sphinx is unusable by anybody else, so reactivation of the first missile would be ... -Difficult ... It seems the Novus has hit us harder than even he planned. Ra’sian nodded in agreement. -At least this way we maintain full control. We could probably retro-fit a Cobra to deliver the reactor cell to the general location, but my feeling is unless we get within one thousand miles of the conduit, even the reactor cell wouldn’t have the force ... On the ground, we know the timing and we know the result. And at the very least we will have a missile in hand, for next time. -We should assemble the Numbers, maybe Geberus or Oxull can suggest something. Have you seen my sister? -No ... Kariina seems to have taken her leave of Central lately, since India-7 to be exact. I’m still waiting for her to submit for her imprint. -Right then, I’ll put a stop to that ... I will get the network to put all nuclear missile silos on alert. Once we know where this barrage is going to hit us, we should get extra missiles into range. This will be Russia in triplicate but this time I plan to act immediately ... No head scratching ... Understood? Ra’sian nodded in the affirmative, then left ... Inside the Medical lab. -Can you fill out the log please Three?... It is ... Incomplete ... Leren shot an icy glare back at his Novus. The request was completely

legitimate, but Leren did not want to comply. Where he had been, none could know. The Old doctor was almost genetically pre-destined to follow the physician branch of the inherited knowledge after he very quickly realised he had a rare empathic ability. Most clones communicated through the hive; secrets were shunned within this temple of communication. Not long after spawning, whilst still an undisciplined Novus, the young Leren had realised that clones all around him felt one way, whilst communicating that in fact, they felt another way. The rules of the hive were simple; Leren could not understand this lack of correlation. The young doctor was akin to a clone lie detector. No matter what a clone said to him, Leren could tell very quickly if the statement was true or not. After becoming a physician, his empathic ability quickly helped Leren to wheedle out imagined or false ailments, whilst reaching the deeper root cause of other nagging afflictions. Over the millennia Leren had learned to switch off his brain to whatever the patient was telling him; instead he would concentrate his efforts on the body. Now after countless millennia there was no way a patient could cover up something they did not want to share with him. This skill, which was almost like second sight, immediately allowed him to sense that Kariina had been covering something up. Following his own rule the doctor had not actually delved into Kariina’s mind, but he had strung together a series of minor mental leaks. These combined with her general demeanor of discomfort had all hinted to the doctor that Kariina had been covering up some pertinent information ... Very pertinent to the doctor. Kariina had given the Old doctor a bread crumb about the only patient who had ever confounded him ... Zero. So excited had Leren become that he had felt compelled to visit the storage room where his friend had been placed into cold storage. Of course Zero had not been there, only the broken pod. This was key to the whole conundrum. The pod looked to be intact, and yet the legs had given way at some point and the canopy was shattered. -Maybe as Central shook from the attack by the Khai Gekkoda a little over a year ago, or maybe the missile which touched down before that? Leren would never appreciate how small the chip in the glass had been, which

had allowed Gray to regenerate. But the clever doctor correctly assumed that the pod had become compromised in some way. Even so, after the pods rarefied atmosphere had been lost, Zero should’ve begun to decompose ... -What happened after the pod failed? Leren could only speculate, a stain on the bed showed the outline of a man, cast in thick black mould. The outline followed a more slight profile than Zero’s previous well-muscled physicality. Nor did the outline match the exact profile. The black mould Leren could see was still alive, scrubbing what it could from the air to eke out an existence. The mould in the one inch band which exactly circumnavigated Zero’s new thinner profile was all dead. Under a microscope all Leren had found were the outer shells of the organisms. These had clearly attempted to live off the rotting corpse of his old friend and ex-super soldier, only to be preyed upon themselves ... -But by what? What mechanism inside Zero allowed him to assimilate nonindigenous organic matter into building blocks to repair the damage to his body ... Osmosis?! Leren didn’t know, in fact he had no clue. The clone doctor had never imagined such an occurrence to be possible. The imprints Leren had gathered from Zero numbered into the hundreds, and there was no evidence to suggest this on a single one of them. The thought never entered Leren’s mind either, that by putting Zero into stasis, he had quashed this mysterious repair mechanism. Had the Khai ship not attacked causing Central to rock, the pod would still be intact; this data would still be awaiting discovery. Leren now excused himself from his own lab, again leaving the log blank as to his intentions, much to the chagrin of his Novus. They would now oversee all treatments in his absence. Once back inside his own quarters, Leren tasked himself with scouring over data from Zero’s collection of imprints; all but two being living records of his friend. More so than ever before the doctor was slowly beginning to crush himself with a self-exerted pressure. Leren knew that if he intended to be away from his lab for a prolonged period for any reason, he would inevitably have to justify this with results. Leren’s empathic ability had maybe molded his apparently apathetic bedside

manner, but this extreme mental control also allowed him to disconnect from the hive at will. In truth Leren was a shining example of the rigorous discipline which it took to become a Number and the Old doctor had rarely ever disconnected. He never felt the need ... Anymore. This exit brought his disconnection totaliser to six. Now, to count the number of times he’d disconnected, Leren would need the aid of any finger on his other hand. Breaking another of the doctor’s personal rules. In eons past when the additional mental noise of his ability had become overwhelming, the young doctor had almost become addicted to solitude from the hive. In most cases it would take far more events than six before Leren would classify a simple habit as an addiction. Back then, Leren felt that he should stop disconnecting before it became a habit at all. After quitting his bad habit after four events, the doctor had only felt the need to disconnect one more time in the ensuing fourteen thousand years. Five ... That was definitely his limit ... Until today ... -Six ... The last time ... definitely. In his own mind, disconnection equalled dishonesty. Despite him hearing more chatter than any other clone, Leren had simply decided to shoulder this burden. It had become one more tool he could use to save a life, or at the very least achieve a correct diagnosis in the face of a stubborn uncooperative patient. All bar his friend and medical nemesis Zero. The thought of checking his work regarding the subject yet again filled him with dread. Leren had poured over Zero’s imprints thousands of times already, trying to find any explanation for the remarkable results seen after istering his nanite treatment to a battle broken Gray Albern. These intense investigations, which amounted to Leren having a complete lack of faith in himself, and his abilities, had all as yet revealed nothing. The dread came now because he was finally convinced that there was something to find, and he had missed it. Not just once, but every time he’d examined the data. Leren found this unacceptable. There were no more tests he could run without inventing new ones, which he had done almost a hundred times already. Leren could have used the Thrall mind bank to crunch through the data, but this would mean revealing everything to Geberus. He could not simply lie and proclaim the exercise as a personal

research project, Geberus wouldn’t buy it. Mind bank time was precious. If the scientist did not think the task worthy, he would simply deny the request. Right now even though his mission was clear, Leren couldn’t focus. From down the corridor he was picking up frustration. The Old doctor could feel Geyldian’s mental unrest leaking ominously like fog, from under the door to the Second’s quarters. Hurriedly, Leren tried to make his way to his own quarters, but as he ed Geyldian’s door a shushing noise told Leren he’d been sensed. -Doctor. -Second ... Can I help you with something? I am actually in the mid’... -Yes, I’ve called a meeting of the Numbers in the circle. We need to discuss our plan for the impending arrival of the three Khai missiles. -I am sure the circle can manage without me. I am only a humble doctor after all. I work on Bodies not missiles, ailments not trajectories, I can deal with conjunctivitis ... -Not conduits yes, yes I am aware. I still think we should all be in the meeting; when we’re together we tend to think more like ... You know ... Him. -I seem to his name was Zero. You’re that desperate you actually think if we put our heads together we can be Zero’s equal? What an odd assertion. I am sure Zero’s own modesty would see this pedestal you’ve cast for him reduced to rubble so he could stand with us, not over us. Do you really think so little of our capabilities? You know my being there would be a huge waste of my time. -I don’t think so, there is something I want to ask you, but not here. Full disclosure requires that we be in the circle. The prolonged sigh and several tuts conferred the doctor’s unhappiness. But he would comply with his Second’s request. With no more words between them, the pair walked to the circle in the chamber of silence. The conference which followed went much as predicted by Leren, with him standing silently. The clone doctor could not even indulge himself with a daydream targeted on his own goal, lest his companions within the circle pick up on his mental absence and challenge him. A perturbed voice wrenched Leren back to the moment.

-LEREN! ... Would you please us, and answer Geyldian’s question? Aelren had been informed of the new information Leren had learned and had approved the keeping of this information from the general populous aboard Central. This would allow Leren some time to work on his investigation as to how Zero was now running around topside. Right now though Aelren’s tone was displeased, but maybe more disappointed as the doctor failed to compartmentalise his private project from his everyday duties inside the circle. Pretenses were after all, everything, as Aelren himself was about to illustrate. -Geyldian asked you why we cannot put Zero’s last imprint into another of the cloned bodies you prepared? This is where you answer. Leren felt like he’d just swallowed a huge boulder. Suffocating him as it fought to reach his stomach, then breaching his belly with a plop so massive it almost knocked him off his axis. Leren and the Prime had already agreed that if the real Zero was out there, and working for them, the last thing they should do was reincarnate a clone version. Whilst being a cinch, it would be completely unnecessary. Now the Prime wanted Leren to come up with a plausible enough reason to endure the triple missile strike without the assistance of Zero. Even so, any reason Leren could offer would amount to a bare faced lie. The glare his Prime was giving him was as much a lesson in being political as it was a signal to hurry the hell up. -Ahem yes Prime ... My apologies to the Second. My answer to his question would be simple ... There is no reason for us to re-clone Zero. We are all well versed in how versatile Zero could be at formulating a plan, and how adaptable he could be when variables changed, but this is not outside the scope of the souls gathered here now. We have Ra’sian who can crunch numbers, two excellent scientists in Geberus and Jer-mija and between you my Prime and your lieutenant Geyldian, a plan should not be long in coming. Oxull can provide anything you require to achieve that plan. Do we not owe it to Joan and Wraith to leave Zero dead, let her grieve, and allow Wraith to develop? In time he will become the new Zero we need him to be. When did we become so impatient? Time used to be not only our friend but our greatest tool ... If you want actual reasons then speak to Oxull.

With the glare now mellowed and the slightest upturn at the corner of his mouth, the Prime showed his iration. After all their immersion with the humans and hybrids, Aelren knew Leren at least could be relied upon to act like an Old Clone. All other eyes swung almost violently about, coming to rest upon the engineer. Oxull had just been dropped unceremoniously into the Clone nutrient goo, by the now smug Doctor. Oxull considered his answer for a moment. -I can only imagine the ‘good’ doctor is referring to the location of the stasis pods containing the other nine bodies ... Sorry eight bodies. We suffered a back-up battery failure on body three during the power outage on that deck during the rewire. This is still ongoing along with two decks below and above. I have Novus monitoring the other pods just in case. That said the battery back-ups don’t have enough power to re-spark, they’re only for maintenance mode. -How long Oxull? -We are currently 43.5 percent complete, with the tear down, and 13.7 percent complete with new wire installation. So, about another eight months, exactly as per schedule. We could ... -No ... Thankyou Oxull that won’t be required. The best thing for you to do is concentrate on getting power back to those decks as quickly as you can, that said it sounds like that won’t be within the next month. Geyldian had the look of a spurned child, for anything less the doctor could usually be relied upon. Now in this time of dire need, the doctor was standing in his way. More worrying were the subtle glances and awkward body language being volleyed like a tennis ball between his Prime and Doctor No. This was Geyldian’s biggest hint that something else pressing was happening, something he had no knowledge of. Strange he thought to himself considering secrets were not allowed within the hive. So the doctor is disconnecting again? The smug look was wiped off Leren’s face as his eyes met Geyldian’s. The pair were as close as clones could be to brothers, as such the same turbulence could be experienced between them from time to time ... like now. The look on the Second’s face said bold as Brass coated Alculinium ... What are you up to? The expression Leren fired back suggested, I’ll never tell. Geyldian knew better than to ask. If Leren was on a task for the Prime, he would only get to know when

Aelren required him to know. An annoying trait which Geyldian had experienced before and was sure had been taught to Aelren by his mentor ... Geyldian’s father. Geyldian knew that no matter how tough Leren was acting now, on the inside he was probably wilting under the guilt. He didn’t really have to apply any pressure at all. One wrong move and the doctor’s vague attempts at subterfuge would collapse all on their own, like a house of cards. Geyldian, normally a skilled strategist, and with a track record of success spanning countless millennia, could not begin to consider that he was about to make his first mistake. All the doctor really wanted was to be left alone, by doing nothing the Second had, in this instance anyway; sorely misjudged his brother from another pod. As he accepted the way things turned out, Leren turned and began to walk for his quarters, his mouth slit unable to contain first a sigh of relief, then a smile of success ...

Chapter 42 - Ghosts.

SOMEWHERE IN THE SOUTH of England, Gray found moving around with his new assistant to be increasingly difficult. Gray pondered how and why, with all the information Joan had disclosed to the general populous, she had missed the most important revelation of all? That a nine foot tall race of alien clones lived amongst them and had done since man first climbed down from the trees. If Joan had revealed their existence, Kariina would at least be able to walk around freely. Instead the huge hybrid needed to remain out of sight, jumping to wherever Gray was. In that regard, for the last four days tracker Gray always seemed to be one or two steps behind his son. The cloned version of himself had obviously taught his son well, but Gray knew that if anyone could track Wraith down, it was him. With the number of times Gray had located Wraith from the depths of his meditations, Kariina suggested that by now Wraith was completely aware he was being tracked. “Maybe Wraith is only running because he assumes it’s his cross Uncle Gill.” Kariina urged Gray to reach out a little more completely, not just to locate his son, but to try and converse with him and let him know he could stop and allow himself to be found. “At the end of the day honey, the lad’s only running because he’s still trying to find his mother. We already know where she is and that she’s completely safe. Stop this wild goose chase, until you do we won’t catch up to him. He was trained by the best after all. The other approach would be to jump to him directly and show yourself.” “I can’t do that, not until I’m back to full strength, he won’t recognise me.” “Honestly! What a ridiculous assumption. How many normal looking human men do you assume Wraith thinks exist who can jump spatially and communicate by telepathy? Not to mention that you still look like you, just a bit thinner. Continuing to try and track him whilst hiding is an unnecessary waste of time ... time we don’t have. My brother is looking for me, I can feel him. He’s pissed, but not just with me ... There’s something involving Leren.”

“Old Jelly Fingers has that effect on people. He probably stuck Gill with a needle. Did you know your little brother hates needles?” “Well I can associate with that ... I’m not a fan myself.” “Seriously! I look at your body, the scars tell me what weapon made them. Even what hand they were being held in at the time, the weapon used almost dates the wound too. Some of those scars are old and must’ve been painful at the time, and you tell me you’re afraid of needles?” “Come on Gray, you know how it is. You’ve had your share of battles, though I didn’t see a single scar on you. Adrenaline often results in huge injuries without realisation or feeling ... Until afterwards that is. By then it’s too late. With needles, more so when wielded by Leren, there is the anticipation of the pain and this is multiplied by the waiting time until its delivery. Then you watch it go in, by this time your mind can focus on nothing else so it hurts. I like fighting, but I don’t enjoy pain, I’m not a freak.” “You do know Leren is an empath? He knows you hate needles, so he purposefully walks around spouting nonsense in front of you waving the needle around like it’s nothing; just to prolong the agony. I don’t look at him, or the needle. I don’t let him inside my mind. In addition to that I’m not a wuss. Regarding my lack of battle scars, I guess I’m good enough not to get caught ... But then I do regenerate, I guess that helps.” “I didn’t know that about Leren, so he knows when you’re covering?” “Completely ... One hundred percent.” “Then we have a problem don’t we?” “You had to get the anti-rad meds, so it was always gonna happen. Don’t beat yourself up about it. If I know Leren he’s not so concerned about that, so much as he will be about the how. I was his lab rat for long enough and was always found to be remarkably human. He could never fathom lots of things about me. By his own ission he’s never seen anyone with the traces of so many fatal diseases in their system as me. I should’ve been dead countless times and yet I don’t actually ever being ill ... Or dying for that matter, except for Antarctica. We can cross Leren’s bridge at leisure, I have no answers for him. As for Wraith, I don’t know him, but I’m interested to see how far he can push, not

just as an observer but as a proud father too.” “Happy to hear it, I just think you’re going about it all wrong.” Gray happily abstained from answering, shooting a grin at Kariina which as good as told her to mind her own business. The pair had only known each other for a few days and already the big hybrid knew his biggest secret. Her familiarity with him illustrated clearly that Kariina thought that she knew him as a result of her long standing friendship with his cloned self. Who knew, maybe he would show her different. Gray needed to be near to Wraith, not just to learn about his son but there was also much to learn about his clone from observing the methods Wraith used. So far his son was using no tricks which Gray couldn’t spot, and even though Wraith was not staying static for long, Gray was able to predict his next move. Gray was Unclear if his son knew he was being tracked by the pair, if Kariina was correct he may have been expecting a rush from Gill; but so far no booby traps had been encountered. This suggested that Wraith’s mind was stable enough to think his way out of the situation rather than to stand and fight. Gray ired that, his clone had clearly extended the Clone’s rules into Wraith’s training, the principal being not to fight unless absolutely required. As far as Gray taking his tracking of Wraith one step further to communication, this was out of the question. Quite rightly Wraith was disconnected for the most part and it was only Gray’s skill at detecting faint leakage which allowed any kind of tracking at all. Each time Gray had derived a new location, the pair had needed to start a grid search before locating Wraith’s temporary den, and to an outside observer these would’ve appeared completely innocuous too. Gray knew what to look for. The only trick which remained unused so far was to double back, they had not visited the same camp twice, nor had his son set up any permanent well-hidden base to operate from. Wraith’s progress across the lower half of England was steady, as if he was also stalking prey. Wraith’s failure to double back was maybe the biggest indicator that his son was not yet aware that he was being stalked too. Gray would’ve made loop backs at regular points, this way he would be certain to catch up to any aggressor at a previous encampment. “Well you seem to have everything under control, so I’ll go back to Central

and speak to my brother. Of course I won’t go near Leren or Ra’sian, but I know Geyldian has a handle on what Wraith is doing. I’ll find you.” Out of the blue there was a medium sized pop and Kariina was gone, his clone had taught Kariina how to jump, but clearly never got around to teaching her proper power modulation, so some sloppiness had crept in. “Good look with that ...” Kariina was still far too naïve regarding the capabilities of the hive. Materialising inside her little brother’s room had done nothing to stave off a pincer movement from the two clones she’d been trying to avoid. As soon as Geyldian had seen his big sister appear, Leren and Ra’sian had arrived within seconds after her. This was the hive in full effect. One day Kariina hoped this would work in her favour with the same effectiveness with which it had just seen her caught. What followed now was like good cop, bad cop and boney cop. Ra’sian just wanted to complete his job, Geyldian was itching to tear a strip off his sister and Leren knew what he wanted to ask but couldn’t in his present company. Like a scene from a classic Three Stooges movie, Kariina’s three inquisitors were all jabbering and clambering to talk at her simultaneously. The scene might have appeared comical if not for the fact that maybe for the second time in her life, the huge hybrid felt intimidated. Kariina couldn’t physically move as she was surrounded, nor could she allow herself to think. If she had then the whole game might’ve been given away. In the end, following the path of least resistance, there was one thing which might get them off her back. -JOAN! ... I know where Joan is. The three superiors instantly fell silent at this outburst. With mouths slack jawed and their eyes fixed upon her, the three waited for her next words. Looking directly at the Clone doctor ... -You can’t touch her, you mustn’t. She is in a stasis pod on a lower deck. Nazir had her on Central the whole time, under our noses. I imagine he felt pretty pleased with himself. He was interrupted shortly after the detonation at India-

7 and fled, but he’s booby trapped her stasis pod. If anyone touches it, Joan will end up as jam. There were more exchanges of protest from two of the numbers. Ra’sian merely wanted all the details for the record. Geyldian was instantly worried his sister had engaged Nazir in battle. However, he was only worried she might have killed the rogue Novus before he got the chance to down justice. Leren was strangely silent. The doctor guessed that if Zero had exposed himself, it would’ve been for Joan. This knowledge was much better than some bumbling Novus finding her and initiating a release protocol, only to Kill Joan in the process. With the doctor being the only one not involved in the mental melee, it didn't take long for Geyldian to turn his inquisitors gaze upon Leren again. -Doctor ... Would you care to fill us in? -Regarding?... -I know you’re up to something, with you it’s always on your face, never leaking from your mind. -At this stage it's too early for me to say anything, as always my interest is purely medical. I know my way around a stasis pod pretty well, so naturally I'm keen to see if I can spot and remove Nazir's little traps. At first guess, all the safety protocols have been disengaged, so if we repair that part of the logic we can investigate further. We could definitely use Joan around right now with the three incoming missiles. This was a canny answer which almost won Geyldian over, but the second in command didn't hold that position because he’d been born yesterday. Whilst Leren’s answer was totally plausible, Geyldian was sure this was a deflection from the real reason, but as usual, Leren was not giving him anything. -I don’t need you to tell me the real reason, I can find it on my own. Being shorter than his sister by almost two feet meant that as Geyldian raised his hands to her temples, the look on Kariina’s face now looked slightly more sinister than usual, momentarily halting the progress of his hands. Geyldian would not be stone-walled anymore. No sooner had his hands ed his

sibling quarry, than the Second in command began a deep dive into the mind of his sister. The first images which appeared, showing Kariina and Geberus sharing a few stolen moments, almost made Geyldian pull away in horror. Kariina’s brother had never experienced any such moments with a member of the fairer sex. Despite several opportunities around the globe and against the protestations of several women who all cited that it was impossible for him to be too much man. Still ... The sight of a full clone waggling the gland which ed for his tongue around inside his sister’s much more human mouth, almost threw him into a convulsion. Pushing on, Geyldian managed to locate several memories from Kariina’s recce of India-7 shortly after the detonation. These images were bleak indeed with burned bodies and mangled equipment everywhere, giving way to shadows where other people had been vapourised instantly. All seemed to be uneventful, Geyldian watched as his sister appeared to dodge one piece of debris which fell from above ground and into the hangar where she was. Kariina only just managed to dodge sideways. So close was the miss that Geyldian was moved to jump himself subconsciously, even though he was viewing the memory like a movie. Kariina’s mind was just like her, disted and disorganized. As such her memories of the event were all over the place, eventually causing her brother to suffer a growing feeling of nausea. Backtracking to the beginning of the day and Geyldian found the memory he was looking for. This event was Nazir fighting, presumably his sister. Two minutes and the prime in waiting had seen all he needed to see. Pulling back into himself ... -You’re losing your touch sister. A confused look was painted on his sister’s face now. Kariina shrugged, straightening her face to a generically blank expression. -You actually fought Nazir and he got the drop on you, despite your fighting prowess and size advantage, I can barely imagine. You can go now ... I assume you’re keeping tabs on Wraith? Kariina nodded in the affirmative and jumped away. Geyldian accompanied Ra’sian back to the chamber of records, where he sat in the watcher’s chair in his

sister’s place. Once the imprint was complete Geyldian considered everything had been returned to proper order and continued his usual daily business. For the watcher his day was only just beginning. Now he’d run the scan through an interpolation matrix which would process the thought waves gathered and reconvert them back into the original image of the experience. Second hand the image would not be as high quality as if he’d gathered them directly from Kariina, but such was life. Once the video snippets were ready, Ra’sian set about the second phase of the process, watching each of the clips in turn. These totalled about ten hours, but with the aid of high speed playback and his gift from the inherited knowledge, the whole affair would last roughly one hour. After this he would index each clip for storage into the main record. Ra’sian’s gift was a fully eidetic memory. He wouldn’t recall the entire clip from memory, only the marker image used in the indexing system. This allowed him to rapidly access any video clip within the record. Almost eighteen thousand years ago, the young Ra’sian had been popped out of his clone pod and been subjected to the usual barrage of clone tests. Having scored well in science and engineering Ra’sian might have ended up with either of the roles of Oxull or Geberus, except that his visual acuity and powers of recall were off the charts. This meant that Ra’sian would not have the chance to be a Novus for very long at all. The sitting Watcher at the time who also occupied the fourth seat of the Circle of Numbers, was an old Clone called Chu’rien. Originally a lively soul, at least by clone standards, this individual was approaching his twenty seventh millennium. Both his vision and recall were beginning to waver. Waver was a comparative term in this case as neither of his skills had dipped by more than five percent. Chu’rien felt this was slowing him down somewhat and leading to some frustration creeping in. Once Chu’rien was teamed up with his new Novus, the skills did not take long to learn and came very naturally to the youngling. 347 years after Ra’sian spawned, Chu’rien, growing ever more tired and frustrated by his own failing performance, retired himself to the record. He was Ra’sian’s very first unsupervised imprint. Shortly after, one of Geyldian’s father’s last roles before leaving Central to wander the Earth had been to perform two ascension ceremonies. The first was to promote Aelren to replace him as Prime, the second officially promoted the young Watcher to the Circle of Numbers. This was when the young Novus left the lowly ranks and was allowed to choose a name.

Since this time Ra’sian had performed every task with perfection, yet the role Ra’sian fulfilled within Central was a very strange one. The human processes on Earth mirrored the geology. Mostly stable with the occasional sudden upheaval. There were precious few human developments at that stage which meant there was very little to catalogue and record. Yet by the processes continuously being undertaken onboard Central Ra’sian seemed to be living his life busily, confined inside an infinite loop. Ra’sian had for some millennia wondered how Chu’rien managed to stay so upbeat having hardly ever catalogued an event not borne of a Central process. The only thing which had kept the young number four sane in all this time were his dives into the record, all the way back through time to the beginnings of recorded Devine history. The very first records ever had been entered within a thousand years of the clones master race reaching enlightenment and becoming technologically stable. None of these records were experiential for obvious reasons. All the Devine who had lived through the dark times were long gone. These earliest records were far more anecdotal, like the stories and legends which the humans told now in order to keep the memory of a place, person or an endeavor alive through time. Of course what Ra’sian saw once, he was genetically predestined to never forget. The memories of how his race had struggled to this point through eons certainly eased the boredom of his day to day work. Only in the last three thousand years had things on the surface begun to heat up, sometimes to the point of meltdown. So driven by their primal urges were the naked apes that barely a week went by without some war or development being recorded for posterity. The prolonged melancholy which Ra’sian had been experiencing was soon forgotten and his demeanor became much the same as his tutor. Ra’sian found humans to be most interesting, even entertaining, hence never a dull entry was spawned for him to enter. This day had charged out of the gate much like any other. But having already been spiced up with drama from Kariina, the day was unique ... And it wasn’t finished yet. Ra’sian’s next task would push his approval of this day to the next level. Reviewing the fight between Kariina and the rogue Novus under general scrutiny, Ra’sian would have backed Geyldian’s final statement to his sister. The Anti-Prime looked to be uncomfortably out of his depth regarding his own self

defence, initially getting his blue behind handed to him on a plate. The cleverness and adaptability of the Novus did not take long to shine through, quickly finding his balance and a stance which appeared to work well defensively and offensively, the rogue Novus began to return fire. Ra’sian found himself frustrated by the fragmented quality of the loop. In particular the Watcher, who was as usual closely observing the footage, had not yet seen a punch or kick from Kariina ... thrown or landed. The footage was also taken from a perspective which indicated Kariina was fighting on her knees, but that couldn’t be right. The final seconds revealed the Novus landing a lucky kick which seemed to catapult Kariina over Joan’s stasis tomb and several meters beyond this against a wall. Here the footage ended as presumably Kariina had been knocked unconscious and the rogue had made good his escape. The next loops were all regarding the Mall at India-7, no more signs of the Novus. Ra’sian was no more curious than a typical clone of his status. The need to investigate things was instilled into all clones and was at about the same level as a well nurtured six year old human child ... The phase where questions are the annoying bread and butter of everyday life. Augmented with his next level of acute vision, if something did not add up, Ra’sian would not rest until all questions had been answered completely enough to fill out a report. Putting the incongruity of the India-7 footage aside, the images very much tallied with Kariina’s of her investigation. So Ra’sian turned his investigative gaze back to her fight with the Novus. The whole loop had the feel of being clumsily edited by a man wielding an axe, so the Watcher now began to run the video frame by frame. Examining the minutiae of the captured images, Ra’sian was looking directly at the fight. The impacts and reactions to them were definitely off somehow. Ra’sian was looking for highlights, defects and artifacts, glitches and reflections. In short anything which suggested that the footage had been doctored. Geyldian had only looked briefly; his initial satisfaction was understandable. The record needed an imprint, one had been extracted; but it was the Watcher’s experience and keen eye for detail, which would yield the reality of the images. Having spent several more hours than normal in his investigation, Ra’sian had finally gathered a few single clear images from the melee of the fight clip data. Firstly, reflected in the glass of Joan’s stasis pod was a hand. This hand did not appear blue and was by comparison only half the size Ra’sian would’ve expected

of Kariina. Secondly and much clearer was a handprint cast in perspiration left on the top of the pod as Nazir’s actual attacker had steadied themselves against the reaction of a blow. The size of this print basically confirmed the attacker was not Kariina. Thirdly and most compelling of all, a single reflected image of the assailant, and a much more plausible, if inexplicable explanation as to how Joan and the evil Novus had been located. Ra’sian put each image up on a separate monitor in his annex. The reflection was grainy and distorted by the curvature of the stasis pod, but the most observant clone definitely had the tools to sharpen things up. Not just yet though. Clearing all screens, he then called for the Numbers, all of whom appeared within seconds in a cacophony of pops and bangs, of which Aelren’s was by far the loudest. -Kariina did not fight with the Novus Nazir. Without explaining his statement he gestured the Numbers to turn and face the huge monitor, upon which he replayed every bit of action liberated from Kariina’s mind. As the footage replayed, at the relevant times the three pieces of evidence were extracted to another monitor. So fast had these single images occurred within the action that none of the observers had ed seeing them in real time. As soon as the final image popped up, the screen went black as Kariina had been knocked unconscious. Ra’sian now drew the Numbers attention to the three images.

-A SMALL PINK HAND, a hand print which matches it and finally a distorted face, now watch as I remove the curvature ... And sharpen ... In unison there was a sharp intake of breath, for some of the Numbers it was the first time their mouth slits had been opened since their scheduled intake of nutrient goop. The clones were looking at a ghost ... Geyldian shot a glance towards Leren, who smiled back at him. -I found out the day of the India-7 incident, after Kariina came for her radiation meds. Your sister was closed, not typical of her. Only one single involuntary half leaked thought made me suspicious enough to check Gray’s pod. As you can see he was not in it, but why?... I haven’t had enough time to find that answer yet. Gray Albern is special alright, but not in any manner of my doing. I was as surprised to find him gone as you are now. One point to note is that looking at his face, whatever process allowed him to regenerate, did so at great cost to his body. If this really is Gray fighting Nazir ... A point which seems beyond doubt based on the footage ... It must be by sheer will alone that he managed to hurt Nazir, he appears to be half the size we . -By the ancients, Zero as I live and breathe. We have to find him and bring him in, he’s the only other person that could fly the Sphinx ... If that’s the way we go. He would certainly give us more options. -No ... I think the best solution is to continue to let our boy track Wraith. We know Wraith is a bloodhound, he will find the Novus. Zero will then stop him from killing Nazir and we can exact justice in the proper way. The numbers were all surprised at this decision from their Prime, Nazir might lead the pair on a wild goose chase for months or years to come. The three Khai missiles represented an imminent threat to the entire planet. In this instance the needs of the many should certainly have outweighed Aelren’s need for justice. Geyldian felt the need to speak but catching a glimpse of his Prime he knew Aelren’s mind was set. Even if his words hit their target directly, no damage would result. Everyone assembled was able to hear Geyldian’s mental exasperations, including the Prime who simply jumped away. It was rare for him to venture out of his quarters anymore, and it was possible the only reason he

had this time was due to Joan and his old soldier Zero. -OK everyone, as you were ... Thanks Ra’sian, excellent work. Arriving back in southern England, Kariina had still not managed to relocate Gray and was concerned now that the original super soldier had given her the slip. -Maybe he’s testing me? “You need to keep thoughts like that to a minimum ... He’ll hear you.” Though whispered, this voice was still recognisable as Gray. Mentally off the grid and moving like a phantom, the expert in covert surveillance had arrived beside her without Kariina even realising. “Wraith is in the building down there. Be quiet.” “The numbers know about you ... But thanks for trying to keep me out of trouble.” “The Watcher. I figured as much was possible. Ach, not to worry. This will all be over soon.” “Is he alone?” Kariina's attempt to whisper wasn’t bad for a first try. The big hybrid was however struggling to kill her thought processes from driving her mouth. Gray shook his head slowly; he then opened and closed the fingers and thumb on his right hand right in her face before drawing his flattened hand across his throat. Kariina had never seen this gesture before but guessed Gray was telling her to be quiet again; she could do that. As Kariina watched the man now lying on his stomach alongside her it was easy for her to see he’d been eating again. Gray was some degree bulkier than when she had left him a few hours ago. His body was certainly stripping every ounce of protein from whatever foodstuffs Gray was shoving down his neck. Now his eyes were closed, his breathing was shallow and becoming shallower. Gray was meditating, reaching out with his mind he’d already found out Wraith had three

other people with him. Just normal humans, one adult male and two teenagers sharing their own little mini hive. This indicated they were twins, a boy and a girl. Wraith was conversing with them as they all sat around a fire. The subject of their conversation appeared to be a string of deaths related to computer hackers, which Gray now assumed the twins to be. Clearly they had no knowledge yet that Joan had been found, and as far as they were concerned the route to her ed straight through Nazir. It must’ve been some years since Wraith was normal human size, and yet the three assembled with him around the warm fire all seemed to be comfortable enough with his huge size. Gray could not envisage how his genes, mixed with Joan’s plus an unknown chemical cocktail from Leren had resulted in such massive size. Obviously another example of rampant gigantism was laid beside him; Kariina was approaching the same size as Wraith. It was obvious poor Geyldian had drawn the short straw, being a foot shorter than a pure clone; he was actually two feet shorter than his sister. So a human – clone coming together could produce strange results, that still didn’t explain Wraith, not if Leren was correct and Gray himself was just another human. If Leren’s cocktail of enhancements had induced his son’s giant stature, then how come no physical change had been suffered when Gray had been enhanced back in the day? As Gray continued to subtly sense the conversation, the twins seemed to be obsessed with Nazir and could not stop saying his name. From this distance it was very hard to direct his thoughts into one mind specifically, and Gray was mindful that if he pressed too hard his son would know he was there and where he was. Gray didn't want that yet. Instead he would provide backup for his son who, so far was doing a fine job of leading his little scout brigade across the lower half of England. It was an odd set up, all the time that Gray had been watching the party, the teens had never left Wraith's side. The adult male on the other hand, left every few hours like clockwork to make a phone call, from which ever unsecured public kiosk was the closest. Gray had wondered if Wraith's trust in the man might be misplaced as the man was leaving regularly, but every time he left the group he announced as much. By now Wraith was expecting the little absences. Gray wasn't happy taking eyes off Wraith, but he had successfully managed to mentally tether himself to the man during one of his little phone breaks. This revealed the man called Molis was actually a high ranking detective at New Scotland Yard, with several open cases still in progress. Hence Molis was phoning his colleagues for regular

updates. Gray had not been expecting the second call, once a day Molis was checking in with an old friend of Gray's. A young man when Gray knew him, clearly Mario had risen within Geyldian's network to become a branch leader. This meant that as information filtered through the network like water through sand, Geyldian almost certainly knew where Wraith was. This explained why Gill hadn't appeared, trying to find him. Gray also deduced that Geyldian must've found Wraith to be a very competent investigator or he might have taken urgent steps to recall him back to Central where he could be controlled. Since Gray had been watching Wraith he’d also been gently extracting information from the twins. The girl seemed to be the more extroverted. By Gray’s read, it was doubtful that her brother, while no less capable, had the wit to deal with the kind of criminals who would hire them. He was quietly spoken, but mentally he was no slouch, often answering questions put to his sister inside his mind. Of course this would be no defense against Wraith whom Gray could sense had tremendous mental skill and power, maybe even more so than Gray. The next few hours would tell. In the last hour, Molis had once again left and returned. He currently had his head down. The twins had both found their feet and were pacing around the inside of the warehouse they were holed up in. During this time the girl had never stopped talking to Wraith and her brother. Wraith on the other hand was listening but his concentration was fixed elsewhere; he had not said a single word in reply. Wraith knew the Novus was close. Now his son's plan became clear ... For the last hour Gray had been sensing mental pings from Wraith. Gray had turned down his own presence to nil, there was no need for him to keep tabs on Wraith. Initially these pings had been long and strong. Wraith had his feelers out a long way, but over the course of the hour Wraith had also dialled back his own power. By now he couldn't be sensing more than a few miles; he was still reducing power. Gray felt Wraith had located the Novus who was looking for the twins, hence Wraith hadn’t let the two kids out of his sight. Gray assumed that the Novus was at the edge of Wraith’s mental radar and rapidly approaching. It was reasonable to assume Wraith was guiding him in. The three humans were about to get the shock of their lives. Kariina inhaled sharply and almost yelped as a monster in the sky ed over

them, descending to a clear area between the buildings. The faint hum from the plasma drive, followed by a louder crackling as the thrust was raised to decelerate his descent were new sounds to Gray. Yet he was completely at ease, as if he'd heard the noise many times before. The ship was one of the huge troop carriers. The Novus must've stolen one from another mall. The fact he could pilot the large craft alone hinted at the Clone's intellect. In India, Gray saw the mangled remains of these ships, at the controls of each had been the corpses of two pilots. Touching down on impulse power, the Cobra barely made a sound, only the crunch of gravel was heard. Everyone lying in wait watched as the main hatch opened and the spindly frame of the Novus slinked into view. As the Novus approached the warehouse door, Nazir was on mental alert, Gray could feel him probing. Suddenly Gray sensed Wraith was gathering the three up in his huge arms before jumping away. Instinctively Gray jumped a split second later to a small derelict brick building just outside the warehouse. Both had modulated the power of their jumps seamlessly. The Novus was making steady progress toward the warehouse door, unaware he was surrounded by a whole heap of trouble. Gray looked back to Kariina and was about to signal her when he saw his huge son had already materialised beside her to drop off his three friends, before jumping again. Gray could not see Wraith directly, but could feel his son winding up a haymaker of a punch ...

Chapter 43 - Wraith baits his hook.

AS WRAITH LAY BY THE fire, Molis had again left the group to use a phone and the twins were up and about stretching their legs. Earlier in the day, Keisha had connected her laptop to a network. The girl was now going over the data she had gathered ... For the fifth time. Her observations and comments being punctuated only by the occasional gasp of pain as the blister on her left heel throbbed as big as a space hopper. Logging on to the deep web, Keisha had found Nazir's hacker network to be rapidly shrinking. Two nodes in Canada, one on the eastern seaboard of the US and one in Rio had all gone dark since she had logged on the day before. Keisha was showing the naivety of her youth and couldn’t put the pieces together no matter how hard she tried. Okay, the hackers had all arranged unsavoury things for some bad people sometimes, but in the past they had also fought big multinational conglomerates, who had evil plans for rain forests and underprivileged people. The hackers were not bad people; they just used the odd bit of criminal activity to fund their good deeds. They weren't the kind of people to drop off the radar of the hacker network, unless something bad had happened to them. Wraith had been quietly analysing all the data, every time Keisha added to it. While dire for her, the information was telling for Wraith ... Pulling all his quacking ducks back into a row for analysis, Wraith replayed the events which had led them here ... A little less than a week ago, Wraith had followed Molis as he accompanied the twins from the station back to their family home. Molis had already had her laptop and other equipment signed out of the evidence locker to bring with them. It hadn't taken her long to get her gear set up, and only a few minutes more to log onto the dark web. Keisha had confirmed that the other packages had been taken out of play. In addition to this the coffin shaped package Molis had shown so much interest in, appeared to have dropped off the radar. The hackers were no longer tracking this package. Several of them suggested that the package must have reached its destination, but none could determine where that was. Wraith had been set upon not revealing himself, but this plan had been aborted as Wraith witnessed a shadowy figure approaching the twins’ family home. Ordinarily the big lad wasn’t so suspicious of people, but this man had been

avoiding street lights a while before reaching the gate to the property. Having climbed over an eight foot wall with some degree of skill, Wraith guessed he was ex-military and something bad was about to go down. Wraith followed to find the man opening fire with a submachine gun which had been modified to take a silencer. Molis had seen an outside light come on as someone triggered a PIR sensor. Having not informed his colleagues where he was going, Molis knew this was someone else. At such a late hour the seasoned detective was on alert straight away, immediately he’d dragged the twins away from the laptop. Taking refuge behind a drinks bar at the other side of the study, Molis hoped the heavy Oak ing would protect them as he pushed the twins down against the floor. The noise was deafening, shards of glass, chunks of furniture and bullets all hit the wall behind them. All of a sudden there was a heavy thud, then the gun fire tailed off along the wall to the right before stopping. Jumping up and over the bar, Molis tried to reach the attacker but was surprised to see the gunman was already down. Blood was oozing from a massive concave trauma at the back of his head. Stood over the body was a huge dark clothed figure, a literal giant. Wraith figured the best policy initially was to put his hands in the air, to show he was unarmed. -So how did he take out a man armed with a sub-machine gun? Wraith said nothing and merely balled up his big right fist and then swooshed it down vertically like a club. “I thought that part would be obvious. The question you should be asking is?...” “Who would send a man to kill the twins?” Wraith nodded his approval. “Don’t worry detective, I’m here to protect you now. It’ll be fun to see if he tries again won’t it?” The expression on the detectives face was blank, maybe edging towards a frown. Being a member of the human network he’d seen a large figure before, but even Geyldian wasn’t this big. “Ah ... You’re network ... Well that makes things a little easier, I don’t need

to pussy foot about then do I? Gill is my Uncle, no relation.” “No relation?” Molis was confused by this statement. “I see Gill hasn’t let you in fully then. Let me guess the last time you saw him was when you were inducted? He had long jet black hair, shades, and wore a heavy full length black Nappa leather jacket. He does love his cloak and dagger shenanigans. Get ready ‘cos I will only say this once ... Gill is a half human half alien clone hybrid, roughly sixteen millennia old, real name Geyldian. There, now we have no secrets, you know you can trust me ... right?” Molis had barely finished nodding slack jawed when the two twins emerged from the study through what was left of the conservatory frame. The girl was clutching her laptop which by some miraculous coincidence hadn’t even been scratched by the gunfire. “Ah ... The targets. Ahem! I mean the twins. Look at you pair with your tiny bodies and big brains, playing hide and seek with people and nuclear bombs. Maybe now someone’s after you that neither of you can comprehend, you’ll behave a bit less ... dodgy?” Raising his finger to his mouth in contemplation while staring off into the middle distance suggested Wraith didn’t hold out any hope. Anyway, none of that mattered now. “You’ve lost it then? The coffin shaped package?” “For now, none of the of the hacker network have tabs on it, but as you know the network is also looking, and we have tendrils in all places, just for this kind of information gathering exercise. Every port in the world along with every airport, main road freight terminals and train stations where freight can be loaded; they are all covered. Obviously there are a lot of coffin sized objects in play, but we have the jurisdiction to open them all, or X-ray them where facilities allow.” “That’s only if the package is still in play. What if it’s been delivered already?”

Molis didn’t answer this question, he couldn’t. He had no idea how they could track a package retrospectively, and there was nothing to suggest that even after delivery, the package had not been re-shipped to somewhere else. “Hmmmm ... exactly. We can stay here tonight but we’ll have to move in the morning. Pack light, essentials only.” Early the next morning the four headed out, to where?... Three of them had no clue. Wraith on the other hand was like a Sherpa, leading his party through places none of them had ever been before, which at least allowed the huge young man to walk upright without the need for constantly hiding. “You know I have ongoing murders that I need to tend to? Also, the network know who I’m with ...” With this Molis nodded his head at the twins, to signal Wraith without words. “Give my regards to Mario. Of course you realise anything you tell him will get back to Uncle?” “Is that a problem?” “I guess we’ll see.” Wraith nodded down an alleyway, at the end of which could be seen one of the newer telephone boxes which had by now replaced all the old red ones. Approaching, Molis could see that two of the glass s in the side had been put through, no privacy then. Having said that Wraith seemed to be either psychic or hyper intuitive, so Molis resolved that he wouldn’t be able to keep anything he said a secret anyway. It was like the big young man was inside his head. -Of course ... now can you hurry up please? Point proved, as Detective Chief Inspector Molis could not be absent from work for long periods, this phone call to check in was required. Ringing the Yard, Molis spoke with his Detective Inspector who brought him up to date with all new details in several murders his division was handling. Molis quickly ed on some further instructions on how they should handle the interrogation of a suspect in one case, and then bade his farewells.

Molis’ next call was to Mario in the Human Network. This call was even quicker with Molis basically stating he was now with Wraith and two of the hackers trying to track Nazir and one of the outstanding packages. “Molis, there is something you should know. We had eyes on the of the hacker network all over the globe ... Well they’ve started dying, suddenly. Whoever’s doing it isn’t bothering to try and make it look like an accident. You should be OK if you’re with Wraith but make sure he knows.” “Don’t worry about that, Wraith already knows ... They tried to hit the twins last night when I took them back home from the yard. Wraith took him out without any bother except he was forced to reveal himself to me. I get the feeling that is a bigger inconvenience than anything else. I think we’re in good hands, it seems like Wraith has a score to settle.” “You’re not wrong there, keep your eyes open and your ear to the ground for me ... Later.” Mario hung up the phone which left Molis to contemplate the manner in which the other hackers had been killed, maybe it was a hit man just like the one who’d tried to nobble the twins. The beeping in his ear and the sight of Wraith glaring down at him through the side of the phone box was enough to make Molis hop to it. The detective was about to give Wraith a rundown of the conversation, but the young giant simply waved his arm. “Don’t worry about it Molis, I heard everything.” The rest of the day had been spent moving generally west, now they were in the middle of rural suburbia on the outskirts of west London. Industrial areas and waste ground were easy to locate so they chose a location to stop for the night. The next day Wraith plotted a course past the nearest café, and the three humans ate a hearty slap up breakfast. In the corner mounted at ceiling level was a small portable television showing the breaking news. “In a series of events which officials around the world are calling “merely a coincidence” four explosions have occurred in China, Australia, India and Johannesburg. The apparent similarities of these explosions are startling notwithstanding their geographical separation. The four buildings were all in isolated industrial areas, and authorities have confirmed that each was still in use

and consuming a larger than average electrical power supply. In each explosion a single occupant was found burned to death ...” “Om, these ... Sausages ... Nom ... Are awesome.” Keisha’s brother nodded his own silent approval, dipping the end of a sausage in his runny egg yolk. Molis was paying attention to the news but failed to connect it to the information Mario had just ed down to him. Molis had been instrumental within the UK but beyond this his knowledge of the worldwide hunt for Nazir’s toys had been limited. Molis just ate in silence, Keisha was doing enough talking for everyone. “Authorities around the globe have already confirmed the timing of each event to be around 10pm in each country ...” This statement alone pricked up the detective’s ears. 10pm that’s when we were hit by the gunman. After breakfast, Molis and Wraith met outside the café. “You’ve heard the news?” “Nazir is cleaning house, are the twins aware?” “Keisha I’d say not, she wasn’t paying attention. With the brother Lewis it’s difficult to know as he doesn’t really talk. I’d say not.” “That’s good then. Let’s make sure it stays that way.” “It sounds suspiciously like you want to set the twins up as bait?” “Well we are ahead of the curve, we know who’s coming and we also know that now his first plan failed, he may assign enough importance to the task to try again himself. The next time you talk with Mario, see if he can arrange a false news report. Also make sure your men know so they can keep the local constabulary off our tails. I’m wondering from the report if you got lucky the other night.” “How so?”

“You saw the news footage right? What might look like an explosion to the rest of the world, sure looks like a plasma weapon discharge to me. The explosions were all heavily directional with the debris focusing back to two points in the air roughly 200 meters away and forty feet apart. More of a subtle double fan pattern than a typical blast bubble from a central point. I think Nazir has a stolen craft, something which can hover, the weapon configuration suggests maybe one of the new Cobra. Make an inquiry to Mario and ask him to check if a Cobra is missing. For sure if he’s stealthy he can maneuver a craft that size well below any radar, and plasma engines are practically silent apart from the hum.” “Yet all we had to deal with was a gunman, yes ... I see now ... Lucky!” With an overtly sarcastic roll of his eyes, Molis returned to the phone kiosk. Again his first call was to his department at the Yard. “... It’s Molis. Look I won’t be in for a few days. I’m on a reverse stake out.” “A reverse stake out? ... You mean you’re using yourself as bait? What for?” “It’s in connection with the four explosions that happened last night, I have credible information which suggests that they were hits. You see, last night someone tried to kill the suspects in my custody. We’re all OK ... Don’t worry. We are gonna keep moving but I need you to get information to the news channels. Tell them, an attempt was made on the lives of two children in the London area last night, but this failed, and the children are now in hiding.” “Yes Sir ... Okay. Anything else?” “Yes Phillips ... the London branch of Interpol. Get the new information to them as well; we could use their eyes on this. Thanks ... See you.” “That was good Molis. You stopped short of actually telling them to peel their eyes for a stolen spacecraft circumnavigating the globe blowing up buildings.” Molis’ head was spinning, how could he ever return to normal duty after this? The second call was again to Mario. Molis ed on all of Wraith’s useful insights, regarding the fact that Nazir may have committed the atrocities himself

with a stolen Cobra. Mario agreed to get on it and let him know the next time the detective checked in. The fake news segment with regular updates was easy to arrange and would, if Nazir was tuned in, make it easy for him to home in on the twins for another go. When Wraith was sure Nazir was close he would choose a target area to draw the clone in. The police would make sure any residents in the area were safely evacuated should plasma weapons be fired by the rampaging Novus. As Molis returned to the group Wraith was happy all the pieces of his trap had been set in place. Now it was only a matter of keeping moving, occasionally allowing themselves to be seen, easy enough as Wraith still wanted Keisha to keep looking for the package which might yet yield the safe return of his mother. So the group began to walk, westward bound following a course which was mostly isolated but would afford a few opportunities to be seen and a place to rest each night. Wraith was counting on the fact that it would be one of these places where Nazir would make his move. Later the same day, the four of them watched a B.B.C. news flash, in which the D.I. appeared. Stating the nature of the crime, the D.I. then proceeded to appeal for information from the public. People would be warned not to approach the large suspect and his three accomplices; they should simply report any sightings to the local police. It was almost two days since the attack at the twin’s home and as he settled down beside the campfire he’d set, Wraith was on the brink of sleeping when a shiver ran down his spine. Wraith had wandered through the minds of almost everyone he had ever met at some point or another. It was a much rarer occasion when someone had tried to read him in the same way, so the feeling was easy to recognise. Far from random recollections, Wraith suddenly found himself inside a waking dream which seemed to be replaying one of his treatments, around his sixth birthday. There were Novus around his bed, Uncle Leren was also there, but oddly enough there was a Thrall, probably his father just before he had once again been submitted to the record. His younger self looked to be out of it, unaware of anything. Probably a good thing as some of the needles penetrating his body were huge. This was a strange memory for someone to be accessing if they were simply

trying to trail him and the group. The invasion was subtle, and Wraith quickly ruled out Nazir. Focusing hard allowed Wraith to pick up some mental leakage, miles away the mental patterns were instantly familiar to him, Kariina. This was probably Geyldian’s little checksum to ensure that the information being fed from Molis to Mario and onwards to him was accurate. Kariina would be useful in a fire fight should Nazir corner them as unlikely as it was to happen given his own skill at picking suitable refuges. Wraith took some comfort from the fact that the clones had not disowned him yet and were watching his back. Even so it was odd that Kariina should be reading him when she knew everything about him already. Maybe someone was using her as a mental cover; whoever it was they had a sizeable amount of skill as even Wraith was unable to back trace. -Oh Wraith stop being paranoid, it’s probably nothing. As soon as he had this thought the intrusion seemed to fade and Wraith drifted to sleep with the rest of the group. The next day Molis shook him awake. -Private security ... We need to move. Wraith had not realised Molis could think clearly enough to communicate; maybe he’d been in the Human Network training program, if such a thing existed. Like a cat the big lad found his feet and went to wake Keisha as Molis woke her brother Lewis. The door of the disused factory slowly began to slide open; the two guards were locked in heavy discussion regarding the news reports of the four fugitives from justice. They were currently debating whether or not a reward had been offered and how much it might be. Quickly Wraith jumped the four of them outside to a grassy clearing, through the trees they could see the white van and the two figures dressed in black uniforms entering the building where they’d just been. Much hullabaloo followed as the pair realised that someone had indeed stayed in the building overnight. “Look, they’ve only just gone. The fire’s still glowin’.” The two guards were seen to race back out of the building, whereby one stood looking out into the tree line surrounding the building, almost straight at them. The other guard was busy yammering down the 2-way installed in their car, calling for backup to start a search. The guard watching then realised his mistake and all but dragged his compadre out of the vehicle by his ankles.

“Don’t tell ‘em nowt ... they’ll all be ‘ere ‘afore y’ know it. What reward will we get then? The company’ll claim it all an’ we’ll be lucky to see a bonus. Let’s us find ‘em.” “Yeah but you ‘eard the report, one r'em is a 'roid freak better than eight foot tall. ‘Ow we supposed to take ‘im aht?” The first security man, and obvious leader of the pair could be seen pondering their predicament, scratching his head, and stroking his jaw; but not at the same time. Sensing now might be the time for a bit of fun at the guard’s expense and to get their minds off any fictitious bounty, Wraith signaled Molis. Keep down and keep quiet. Now Wraith jumped with Keisha to the far side of the building and a little further down the lane, still well within audible range of the old factory. Leaning down and placing both hands on the girl’s shoulders ... “Now scream as loud as you can.” Keisha was happy to oblige, letting out a whole ten seconds of high pitch ear splitting noise. Taking another deep breath, the girl then shouted... "Help ... Help ... Save me!” -That ought to do it. It wasn’t long before the sound of two sets of heavy foot fall could be heard running towards them around the factory. Wraith jumped Keisha back to the group and was then gone again. In the distance they could hear a loud commotion, suggesting the two guards had caught sight of their oversized quarry. Then a loud roar was heard as Wraith began to charge at them. The next sound was the two men running back to their vehicle. Molis and the twins watched, stifling their chuckles as the two men rounded the building at speed. The first nearly broke his fingers as he tried to open the car door before unlocking it; the second landed hard on the floor after trying to slide across the bonnet but instead slid off the front. Lying there for several seconds, it was clear the older man had knocked the wind out of himself, but now the hunters had

become the hunted. With their fight or flight response swung all the way around to flight, it wasn’t long before he was up and moving around to his door which slammed shut. The car engine revved into life and the simultaneous release of the clutch sprayed gravel everywhere. Just for effect Wraith roared his way into their rear view mirror; and for a time had been gaining on the vehicle before he began to laugh out loud and jogged to a halt. Pushing his way through the bushes and trees ... “I expect they’re phoning the cops as we speak Molis, you’ll need to handle that.” Kariina was doing well to keep her distance, Wraith might have expected it to be her who’d shaken him awake, all the same he was glad Molis was a light sleeper and early riser. As Wraith checked for signs of his back up, Kariina was no closer than she’d been the previous night. There was still no clear proof that she was being accompanied. Three miles through fields and the group wandered into the outskirts of another small village called Fernhurst. No chance of a greasy spoon in a well to do looking place such as this but there was a public house which had a beer garden to the rear. Molis chuckled. -The Red Lion! Quelle surprise. Not much after eleven in the morning it was a dubious ask whether or not the pub would even be open, until the landlord was seen to walk out of the establishment with his mop bucket. He then emptied the brownish contents down a storm drain outside the door. Molis drew the short straw now by simple virtue of the fact he wasn’t ten and a half feet tall ... And he was old enough to enter a pub. Wraith signalled the twins to follow the path around to the rear and sit under an umbrella in the beer garden. The village was quiet despite the hour; apart from the bird sounds everywhere it was as if the village had not yet woken up. In the distance, the sound of hedge trimmers could be heard but this was the only man made noise within earshot. Wraith positioned himself at the outside of the hedge which framed the beer garden. Inside the pub Molis was finding that the village, whilst quiet, was far from asleep.

“Do you serve food?” “Aye sir. What can I get for you?” The elderly landlord shot a glance left, Molis followed. His eyes came to rest on the obligatory chalkboard, generically titled “Pub Grub”. Well-worn and reblacked many times, the board indicated all the staple sandwiches which could be catered for. Molis ordered simple ham and cheese sandwiches for the twins, figuring he didn't actually know a teenager who liked salad. For himself and Wraith, it would be the works, four of the house specialty sandwich. A ham salad sandwich but on a different level. Thick carved ham from the thigh with a mature cheddar and fresh salad drizzled with balsamic, all of which was entombed between two doorsteps of freshly baked white bloomer. Desert would be four bags of crisps complete with little salt pouches for the discerning muncher of crispy fried potato snacks. To drink he ordered three cokes and four mineral waters. “You’re in a pickle?” “No ... thank you, I don’t like pickles.” Molis had clearly misheard the landlord’s question, with a long sigh befitting his age, the landlord tried again. "So where's the big guy?" Molis looked confused, but it was a poor cover. "Come on, I may be old but I’m not stupid. You're the ones from the News." "Come on then Grandad, did we do it?" Molis' attempts to be intimidatingly direct also fell short of the mark. "I should bloody hope not. You’re a copper, and a high ranking one at that ... I do watch the news. The news reports are a ruse is my guess. Now where is the big one?" Molis, cover blown, was now resigned to his fate.

"I think he's out back, but he didn't want to scare anyone so he's at the other side of the hedge." "Well tell him to come in and sit down, I'll lock up the side gate and you'll have the garden to yourselves. You take the drinks; I'll bring your sandwiches out." Again the Landlord shot a glance, this time the other way, towards the end of the bar. Molis liberated a tray from the stack and proceeded to load the drinks and crisps onto it before making his way dejectedly out of the beer garden door at the rear of the tap room, into an enclosure of grass and flower tubs. The sun was high and bright now, taking his seat with the twins in the shade of an umbrella, the detective called for Wraith to come them. -Come on Wraith, the landlord knows you're there. He's cool. Seconds later, and to the surprise of the twins, Wraith appeared unannounced. As the four sat in silence it wasn't long before the landlord brought out their food. "Wow! The news report didn't do you justice, giant is an understatement." Wraith was sat on the floor and was still eye to eye with the old landlord. Shaking hands, the old man gave a full introduction. "Paddy Harken at your service sir." Wraith could see from the man’s posture that he had formerly been a soldier; his age suggested Second World War. He had the look of a large muscular man, reduced only by age to have a slight hunch in his back. Mentally he still appeared quite sharp. "Second World war? What unit?" "Initially I was just a grunt, but I had a talent for killin' I guess so they moved me to the S.A.S. Like someone you know I think, maybe your grandad? I knew when I saw you're mug on the TV report, you're an Albern. Tell me I’m wrong." Wraith looked on in awe, this guy knew his dad. He served with him. "My erm ... Grandad ... Gray, died back in 1973. I'd love to hear some

stories about your missions sometime. How did you know the news story was a fake?" "Come on kid, a trained soldier never forgets. How many explosions do you think I've rigged up? Eighty percent of those were with your Grandad Gray. I when I first hit the S.A.S. I was like an animal, but your gramps was on another level. I've never seen another man so happy to run at a firing gun as he was, and the injuries, the man was always cool ... On of he was so well vented!" Paddy grunted out a loud belly laugh, before losing his wind to a nasty cough which suggested this once fearless man was now seriously ill. Only his pride was keeping his back straight. Regaining his composure and his breath, Paddy's face straightened up. "I'll never forget what a set explosion looks like, I studied it see, made it a science. Demolition was my business you could say. The footage on the news didn't indicate a normal explosion, more like an aerial attack with the two hits indicating the bird was low when it fired. I don’t know of any bird that big which could’ve breached that kind of topography and then hold in mid-air to fire. Too big for a Helo’ that’s for damn sure." "That's my opinion also." "I don't have much time left; my early life was full of bad deeds. Man do they have a habit of catching up to you. For a man like me to be killed by my own body, an enemy I have no chance of winning against, ironic don't you think? Anyway, if I can help you now with your mission, it could add a month to my life." Paddy's expectant look was one Wraith had seen before. It was the same look his father got just before a training session. That Just one more time look. Zero had never lost the look, somewhere between simply hungry and fully addicted, absolute enjoyment. Wraith never fully understood his father's near lust for battle. Wraith considered fighting to be a skill which would keep him alive, nothing more. Zero and also Paddy it seemed were from another time. Wars were fought differently, not with technology but with wit and will power, victory meant glory and by extension, a kind of immortality. His father had never mentioned Paddy, but in truth he didn't much from that time, clearly

the pair had been thick as thieves. It was a shame Zero didn’t . Reunited, the pair might have shaken the world off its axis. "Paddy, the one that's after us is the worst. He killed my father, abducted my mother and set a nuclear bomb off in India. Now he's killing the ones who helped him. I'd invite you along, but I'm the only one who needs to get his hands dirty now, he isn't gonna hurt anyone else. You just look after yourself and I'll be back after ... I’ve got a lot of questions for you my friend." “Then you’re clear what must be done?” “I am that sir.” “No matter the cost?” “Even if it kills me.” Now it was Paddy who was in awe of the youngling, the young man was invested. He knew what had to be achieved and was ready to follow it through to the bitter end. The mission was clear, it would be him or his target. Only one would walk away. The twins had been listening to the pair talk and neither was really clear if Wraith already knew this place or the pub landlord. When asked, Wraith simply replied... “No ... Not really.” Of all the places the group could’ve rocked up to for a rest and some food it turned out to be owned by one of his father’s old war buddies ... Small world. The group continued to walk, as they did Wraith returned to scanning their surroundings. Due to their overly long respite at the pub Wraith sensed that Kariina was catching them up, she’d closed half the distance, but then suddenly Wraith couldn’t feel her presence anymore. Wraith seized this opportunity to try and determine if anyone else was reading him. -Molis, I need a few minutes alone, continue on with the twins and I’ll catch up. He won’t try anything in daylight so you should be OK on your own. An

hour tops. Molis shepherded the twins onward, Keisha who barely ever stopped talking failed to notice Wraith was dropping away from the group. Her brother Lewis however, never missed anything. Looking back the pair locked eyes, Wraith winked before Lewis nodded in acknowledgment and continued on. Humans could not achieve a telepathic connection to each other, but if they could make their minds clear enough, then a telepath could hear them. In this manner Wraith had been talking with Lewis for over a day. The boy was clever, spoiled only by his withdrawal into himself after his mother had been killed in a tragic accident when the pair were young. There was no chance Lewis and Molis would ever communicate mentally, but both man and boy were intelligent and focused, nor was either prone to daydreaming and this was probably why they could talk so easily with Wraith who had the ability to listen. Even then neither of them spoke unless they had something to say, unlike Keisha who was talkative in the extreme. Maybe representing only half the brains of their little mini hive, Keisha was without a doubt one hundred percent of the mouthpiece. Keisha was quick witted and direct, but she also had a very active imagination, as well as helping her to view possible scenarios and outcomes, this could also have the opposite, more negative effect. An effect now being displayed as Keisha’s brain continued to run away with her mouth. That said most of her ravings were pretty far from the mark, apart from the one. Keisha knew they were on the run, and it was clear who from. While she could not recognise the man who contracted her, Keisha couldn’t shake the thought that by now he knew everything about her and Lewis. Keisha was rueing the day the pair had entered that particular chat room. She couldn’t have known the trouble that would follow once they’d answered the advert. This had dangled the carrot of a huge payday for moving a few simple packages around under the radar of the normal channels. For their part the twins had performed irably, leaving no traces, and it remained a mystery to her how the authorities had finally tracked them. Keisha still had no idea Molis was in an organisation which had existed in one form or another for many thousands of years. Against that kind of experience, none of the hackers or Nazir himself had ever stood a chance. That said, the clones could only do so much, and now the grunt work was all in Wraith’s hands. All his father’s training had prepared him to fight Khai lizards, Nazir was a completely different proposition. This battle would be far more intellectual

than physical and while Wraith could not consider himself to be the mental equal of Nazir, he was at least capable of thinking through every possible scenario and mitigating the risks they would face. In this instance the inexperienced Novus would be channeled to exactly where Wraith wanted him. Then the physical battle could begin, which Wraith expected to win easily. As Wraith watched the three getting smaller and smaller, he began to dial up his mental power. He didn’t for one moment think that Kariina had lost his group, not after she had been within five miles at one point. It was far more likely that she’d been recalled back to Central to give a report. As he found a secluded spot, atop a hill in the middle of a farmer’s field, Wraith began his meditation. The noise of everyone for miles around had to be filtered out, and this took some minutes. Soon the only people Wraith was still connected to were the three in his group. Letting go of these connections also, Wraith’s mind fell silent, all apart from one solitary signal. Reaching out with more and more power, the already weak signal was being weakened further, as if the person tracking him did not want to stand out or be located. The signal was so weak that Wraith couldn’t pinpoint the exact location but coincidentally, this unknown person was still following a vector matching Kariina’s, and was at the same distance away, maybe closer by a mile or so now. In consideration, Wraith realised that any of the numbers could be tracking him, as a safety measure in case he went on another rampage, but short of Aelren, Geyldian or Leren, none of the Numbers had such mental control as was being displayed now. Aelren and Leren never left Central, which was why their mental powers had such a long reach, but this signal did not match either of them. Nor did it seem like his Uncle Geyldian who wouldn’t have been able to hold off announcing himself as a backup force in case Nazir attacked. So who then?... Based solely on the level of mental skill being displayed, and this person’s skill at tracking whilst remaining undetectable themselves, Wraith had his suspicions, but away from Central he couldn’t say for certain. Wraith wouldn’t be counting his chickens either and was fully prepared for the fact that he would be tackling Nazir on his own. On the very periphery of his mental radar, Wraith sensed some upset. The location was in Europe ... Switzerland. To cause an outpouring of grief like this something must’ve happened in the full view of a lot of witnesses. Wraith stopped meditating and found his feet quickly, resolving to catch up to his group

and find some way to watch the news. The event he had just sensed would be breaking any time now, and it had all the hallmarks of Nazir. Both Molis and Keisha would be able to confirm if one of the hackers had been located in Switzerland. Catching back up to the pack, Wraith enquired immediately if Switzerland had been the location of one of her friends. “You say friends like I know their names. We’re hackers, we don’t exactly go around introducing ourselves to everyone. Chat rooms are anonymous, especially on the dark web, no one is even supposed to be there, but you’d be surprised how many are. Well that’s a different story ... Maybe one was in Switzerland ... I don’t know exactly.” Keisha spoke in rapid fire like rounds from a strafing machine gun. Her power to lose focus was not so much legendary as it was annoying. Molis could see that Wraith’s blood was beginning to boil at the back chat he was catching from Keisha and decided to intervene. “Keisha, Wraith is here for you and Lewis. When he asks you a question you might consider showing him some appreciation and answer him ... In English ... Using sentences ... Nice and steady. No need to shout.” Keisha looked down at her feet, she knew she’d been chastised, and why. It had been a long time since anyone had cared enough to stop her errant behaviour. Already in the last few days both Molis and Wraith had corrected her repeatedly, maybe more times than her actual father had in her entire life. Did this mean they cared for her? It wasn’t like the girl was incapable of respect, just that her capacity was a bit shriveled and covered in dust. Now though Molis’ tone was like a defibrillator being applied to shock some respect out of her ... It worked. “I’m sorry Wraith, if we can get somewhere for me to plug in my computer, I can try running a tracer worm from the chat room and see where it leads, if that’ll help.” “It will be a massive help, when we get to a town.” “Well we could knock on a door; this village looks loaded. Maybe one of them is connected to the internet.”

Again Molis drew the short straw, gingerly opening the iron gates of one house. In a street which looked to be bristling with wealth, this house stood above them all. Not even visible from the road due to the brick wall and tree line which stood inside this, Molis had to walk halfway up the long drive, lined with assorted tropical succulents and traditional English shrubbery before the huge stone house loomed into view. Like a small castle or folly, this monolith to the eighteenth century’s obsession with old castles had two towers, one at each front corner, each sporting a high conical roof. Connecting the two was a high stone wall with a false rampart screening the fairly ordinary slate roof. The wall and towers were well shrouded in climbing Ivy, somehow this very English wall seemed to be incongruous with the Bavarian style of the towers. Maybe the only things more out of place were the modern UPVC windows in a dark brown trying to for wooden frames. Steeling himself for a barrage of awkward questions, Molis rapped the knocker inside its lion headed hangar. The weird noise which resulted from the brass knocker banging against the UPVC door was just one more thing which added to the overall quirkiness of the property. Molis stifled his chuckles at the ridiculous noise and tried not to hit the door too hard. Almost immediately the door opened, so swiftly that Molis was nearly yanked inside as he fought to let go of the knocker. “Can I help you?” A cleaning lady, who must’ve literally been brushing the tiled floor in front of the door when the detective knocked, peered back at Molis, who although dishevelled, was still in his work suit. Mistaking him for a travelling salesman, the cleaner made to close the door in his face. “Sorry we don’t buy at the door.” Thinking on his feet was something Molis did naturally. Jamming the door with his foot, much to the annoyance of the cleaner who still saw her position as higher than a door to door salesman. Molis retrieved his police credentials from the inside pocket of his jacket. Pushing them into her face... “Sorry Miss, it’s a police matter, urgent in fact so if you could direct me to the nearest television, is the news on? Also we’ll be needing a computer, is there one on the premises? Is it connected to the internet?”

Molis’ attempts to hurry proceedings along with his own barrage of questions failed, and the cleaning lady continued to blockade the door as she studied the detective’s ID in minute detail. Not to waste any time, Molis waved back down the drive to Keisha, who began walking towards the house with her laptop bag in tow. “This is a witness in a case I’m working, she is currently under full police protection, if you could direct her to the computer please ... quickly now!” Molis withdrew his ID, flipping closed the protective wallet then inserting it back inside his jacket in one smooth move, the cleaner would not block him any further. Firmly placing his hand onto the door, Molis pushed with a force which suggested he was coming in, no matter what protests were raised. The cleaner, seeing sense and not wanting to be pushed off balance, allowed the pair in. “The TV is through there sir, I trust you know how to use a remote. Miss ... If you’d like to follow me to the study?” The maid started off down the corridor to the right hand faux tower, pointing inside the circular room, Keisha could see a desk against the wall with a computer monitor and a desktop tower beside it. Immediately Keisha could tell the P.C. was already switched off. Placing her laptop on the desk, she wasted no time pulling the network cable to the modem out of the back of the tower and inserting it into the socket on her laptop. Once power had also been provided it took a little over a minute for her machine to fire up. Fewer than five minutes later and she was on the dark web chatroom, trying to locate her associates. Typing a few commands brought up a list of names, none of which were real. The names were merely handles and to all intents and purposes the chatroom was merely a very modern and long range version of a C.B. chat. Some names obviously had no relation to anything and were just plain rude. Handles like this showed the intelligence of the person behind the name was low, probably a pimply faced schoolboy somewhere around the world where it wasn’t his bedtime yet. Trying to stay strong, Keisha was becoming more down beat in her mood. Over half the names which she knew to be handles for top class hackers with a conscience all around the world were nowhere to be found. This wasn’t normal

at all, these guys were definitely all adults, and some had intimated in the past that they were scientists, lecturers and even exceptionally clever students. As such their computer equipment was never turned off and their handles were Omni-present within the chatroom. These handles often honored a hero, real or fictional whom the hacker could identify most with. Molis had learned everything he could from the latest news report which he felt sure Wraith would have also been watching through his eyes. The pattern of damage was similar to the others, a devastating amount of force which appeared to have been applied at two points. The latest building was just a large chalet situated at the foot of the Alps, in a valley. The building was fairly remote, situated just outside the limits of a very small village. There appeared to have been very few neighbours and the property would’ve clearly afforded a high level of privacy for the occupants. What looked like a single volley, well targeted to hit main ing walls, had caused the chalet to simply collapse, folding into a flattish pile of rubble at the end of the narrow track back to the main road. ing Keisha in the study. “Keisha, how’s it going? Can you tell if any of the hackers were located in Switzerland?” “I’m running a tracer worm down all the open channels now, I can’t do that if the person at the other end isn’t connected though, so for some of them it might be too late. Half my friends are missing now, including Zwicky.” “Zwicky?....” “Yes ... His full handle was Zwickys-Fritzing. He helped Lewis and me when we first breached the dark web, you know ... With the lingo so we wouldn’t stand out as a couple of school kids ... He knew though.” -I’m sorry Molis, the casualty this time is probably Keisha’s friend. Fritz Zwicky was a Swiss born astronomer. He developed a few theories regarding Neutron stars, Supernovae and Gravitational lensing. He wasn’t part of your network, too much of a lone wolf, but he would’ve been a huge asset if he had been. Anyway Zwicky must’ve been this guy’s hero, not that that helps us now.

Molis tried to keep a straight face, but Keisha made a habit to study people’s faces so she could see if that person might be lying to her, or worse judging her. Keisha welled up, and despite trying to be brave, she could not shake the thought that she and Lewis might be next on the exploding chopping block. Eventually the tears in the corners of her eyes had grown so large that they could no longer nestle inside her tear ducts, and quickly rolled down her face, dripping onto her laptop keyboard. “Shit! Can I have a tissue please?...” Molis produced a handy hanky from a packet in his back pocket and was then surprised to see the girl in front of him fold the tissue so it would fit between the keys of her laptop. Her mopping up exercise would’ve been effective too except that she had not yet stopped leaking at the eyes. “Come on lass ... The big man will keep you and your brother safe, stop those tears and then wipe your keyboard.” Through glazed eyes, Keisha looked up at Molis. Unable to see the detective clearly, the tears smoothed out the worry lines long formed across Molis’ brow. What Keisha could see was the kind face of an adult she was growing to respect. The soothing tone of the detective’s voice, long practiced for breaking bad news to people who might have been having a good day until he’d knocked at their doors, was reassuring to her. Between Wraith and the detective, Keisha didn’t feel so alone. Alone was not a word bandied about by most twins, but her brother Lewis was mostly so introverted and withdrawn from social interactions that he could practically turn himself inside out. Lewis leaned on her for much of his day to day life, what she felt he would also feel, good, bad or indifferent. Lewis was for the most part, just an extension of her. Like her shadow, Lewis went where she went, recreating her every action. Sometimes if he could bring himself to be bothered, Lewis would utter actual words; mostly to try and reign in his elder sister if one of her schemes was a little too illegal or dangerous. In the face of all this, a dead mother and a hard working but errant father, Keisha had been hard pressed to feel anything but alone, but these last few days ... The detective had been just the right level of miffed at her when they’d first met during her interview at the Yard, just as she imagined, no ... longed for her father

to be. She had first sought his affection, then later merely his attention, and then any kind of attention at all, good or bad. Now though Molis was displaying other kinds of behaviour towards her which Keisha had seldom known in her life. A seemingly genuine concern, and an urge to protect. He was also drawing lines in the sand to control her outbursts, no one had ever done that with Keisha before, and this was perhaps the biggest single omission from her upbringing. To quote Molis, this had led to her becoming a spoiled little rich girl in many people's eyes, which only made it harder for her to form friendships. Shaking her head then wiping her eyes, Keisha came back to reality. Molis was a trained copper, empathy was all part of his job. Maybe it was genuine, but for a girl like her it seemed unlikely, in her eyes anyway. Keisha didn’t trust people easily, especially adults as most of them were pathological liars if it meant getting what they wanted. In this respect Molis did need information, but then so did she. The more information she could dig up on the other hackers, the better her and Lewis’ chances of surviving this whole escapade. Maybe Molis could use the information to save more of her friends. With a final sniff and steeling of her resolve ... “I’ll just see how the tracer worm is getting on.” -She can’t decide whether or not to trust you. Unfortunately you’re a solid and dependable nice guy, Keisha hasn’t seen a lot of that in her life. Oh well ... That’s not our primary goal right now. Nazir is close, and I don’t just mean this hemisphere. Wraith’s words slightly unsettled Molis, he had spent his life being nothing but honest with people, sometimes direct when required. This had only ever made people trust him, never the opposite. Some of the crimes he’d solved were the cruelest deeds one person could commit against another, but this situation was completely new to Molis. Keisha had been so neglected by her father that the only way she managed to deal with adults was to keep them well beyond arm's reach. Molis speculated how many missed birthdays, school events or other broken promises it had taken before Keisha had completely stopped believing in adults. Keisha’s mistrust of him did not sit well with Molis and he resolved to put the situation right in his own way. If Keisha saw that not all adults were the same, and that some could indeed be relied upon in any given situation without fail,

maybe he could temper Keisha’s hardened exterior and forge her into a more rounded adult. After all in a few more years, the twins would turn eighteen. If they did so with their current mindset then Keisha would probably slip into a life of crime and her brother Lewis would be powerless to do anything but follow. The pair would become lost souls; Molis felt he could stop that from happening. Keisha suddenly jumped at the keyboard. The tracer worms had completed their tasks. Displayed on the screen was a list of the addresses where each of the people currently logged into the dark web chatroom were situated. Keisha pulled another lead from the back of the tower, connecting her own laptop and pressing another key, it wasn’t long before Keisha had then dumped the contents of the screen to the printer. The list was now in hard copy on a sheet and a half of plain A4. Molis retrieved the paper and reached for the phone on the wall. The look on the cleaning lady’s face suggested that maybe one too many liberties had been taken with her employer’s property. The look Molis shot her in return said that if she liked, she was free to try and stop him, but this would end in her being charged with obstruction. As the detective turned his back on her, the cleaner turned a shade of red and began staring at Keisha, who merely tilted her head to one side and shrugged her shoulders. Molis was now speaking directly to Mario, against all his Network training. Calling his branch Director on an unsecured civilian phone line was a major nono. Rule number one stated that such a thing should never happen and for some minutes Mario chewed his subordinate a new one with a relish that Molis had never realised his handler was capable of. “I know Mario, will you just grab a pen and write these names down. We have to get to them before Nazir does, Wraith wants to spring the trap tonight. If we take the other hackers somewhere Nazir can’t find them and wave the twins in his face then he’s bound to come for them next. Then we take him down.” The phone fell silent at the other end. Mario had been inducted into the Human Network in his late teens, just like Molis. For over forty years he had given his faithful service. Even though he would’ve played this game a little more conservatively without live bait, Mario was not so unwise that he would stand in the way of Wraith who was by birth very much a part of the inner circle. A position Mario also hoped to achieve before he was too old. With his last grain of childlike naivety, Mario had always clung to the hope that one day he would

be allowed to set foot onboard the fabled Central. Only this could validate his life of solitary planet hopping, and all the sacrifices he’d made for a being he’d talked with regularly but had only ever met in person once, decades ago. “Don’t worry Molis ... We’ll get them safe. When the storm hits, make sure you and the twins keep out of Wraith’s way. Give the lad a chance at a fair fight, you can bet Nazir won’t waste time worrying about who's in the way. Make sure you’re not.” “Thanks Mario ... I never knew you cared.” “It’s more that I don’t want the hassle of training your replacement, after all ... You are reasonably competent.” With his last dig causing a mock gasp from Molis, Mario quickly hung up the phone before the detective had the chance to return fire. Within hours the Human network would have all the names on the list safely stowed away from their homes and computer terminals. -One last news update ought to do it. Make sure your man gets it played on every channel, interrupt regular broadcasting and of course, residents need to be alerted that we’re armed and dangerous and to stay out of our way. Then we need to make a move, it’s a few miles yet until we reach our target position, and we need to do a recce. Thanking the cleaning lady for her time and trouble, Molis remained just long enough to phone his office and arrange the latest new bulletin. Then he followed Keisha to rendezvous with Wraith and Lewis. Immediately upon regrouping, the four set off to their next destination, about eight miles away it would take the rest of the day for them to reach whilst avoiding main roads and cutting through fields, then a forest. The journey was made even more difficult by the endless whining from Keisha who had developed a blister on her heel a day ago which had as yet gone untreated. “Come on Keisha keep up. After tonight we should be free and clear.” “I can amputate your leg if you’d like ... With no blood at all ... Oh yes, I am that good.” The demonic smile of Wraith's up curled mouth did not match the cold icy glare

of his eyes. Keisha could tell he was pissed that she would jeopardise the mission this close to its fast approaching conclusion. The result was Keisha marching onwards with an exaggerated limp, face staring firmly at the ground whilst muttering insults under her breath. Wraith couldn’t have cared less as long as Keisha continued to move her butt ... That was a mere four hours ago, once evening had closed in the four of them had found refuge in Wraith’s planned lair for the night and started a small fire. If everything went as Wraith intended this whole escapade would be over sooner than that. The building was an old and derelict storehouse from the late eighteenth century, situated in the middle of an industrial area which had grown over time. In the grand scheme of things, this building had been completely forgotten. Cracking his eyes half open and suspending his mental pings, Wraith checked the situation around him remained the same. Keisha had finally been moved to physical stillness by her blister. The only part of her still moving was her jaw, as the girl continued to express her upset at her diminishing group of online friends. Feeling comfortable, the youngling was himself suffering from a mildly bloated self-confidence. Partly taken from the fact that he was going to enjoy what was coming, and partly because the person tailing him was closer than ever. The unknown being was close to Wraith’s group now, and Wraith wasted no time in getting his group settled into the disused factory. For the last hour Wraith had been sending out very strong mental pings, these would easily reach halfway around the globe, and that was the intention. Wraith was saying, “Hey Nazir, here we are ... Over here!” It hadn’t taken long before the young giant was able to locate Nazir by his over inflated ego and heightened sense of excitement. The wannabe prime was steadily approaching; inbound from Sweden and would be with them in less than an hour. Nothing in the demeanor of Wraith or Molis had alluded to the fact that the showdown with her and her brother’s assassin was imminent, and the pair wanted to keep it that way. Lying flat beside the fire and closing his eyes again, it was all too easy for Wraith to cancel out the noise of Keisha. Slowly the frequency and strength of his pings were being weakened as Nazir maintained his steady approach. This was a strategy to slow the Novus down until he was ready. No matter how far Nazir flew the illusion was that he was no closer to them, this might serve to frustrate the Novus into some hasty decisions once he

did actually find them. For now the rogue Novus was busy flying a course which was anything but direct, zigging and zagging to try and locate a stronger mental signal. This was all to Wraith’s advantage. Eventually Wraith was barely pinging at all, a clear indication that their time on the run was about to end. Even better, in the last few minutes Kariina was now showing on Wraith’s radar. His aunt and her mentally invisible chaperone were now outside the unit, atop an earth bund which surrounded this side of the industrial area. They almost certainly had eyes on the door of the unit, though Wraith was unable to breach Kariina’s mind. This had never happened before, such was Wraith’s mental skill and power that he had never failed to read anyone, most people or clones never even realised, only his Uncle Gill and Leren. Whoever Kariina was with must’ve been much stronger than he was in order to lock him out of his Aunt’s mind like that. No matter, Wraith had his own ideas who the unknown person was, and time definitely would reveal all. Eventually a numb derriere had been more painful for Keisha than any blister, and the girl was now doing steady laps around the inside of the unit in order to bring back the circulation. Molis was sat gazing into the fire and Lewis appeared to be asleep. Wraith did not need to move, or indeed open his eyes in order to find these facts out. Keisha, Molis and Lewis were all surprised when they were suddenly and abruptly brought back to full awareness of their surroundings by Wraith who had suddenly felt a disturbance from Kariina. Geyldian’s sister had almost jumped out of her skin, clearly she'd been spooked by something. Kariina was not one to jump for no reason and this was Wraith’s signal to gather up the group and evacuate them. Once all three were securely in his arms; Wraith jumped to the top of the bund. Oddly once there he only found Kariina ... Clever old man, you can still read my movements. Wraith’s thought received no reply; now was not the time. Focusing himself, Wraith immediately jumped back inside the old factory unit. Parked in the yard outside maybe forty meters away, was the stolen Cobra, side hatch open and powered down. As Wraith reached the unit again he quickly stoked the fire then assumed a broad crouched stance behind the door. Balling his fist up like a club, Wraith slowly twisted his body round to the right and swung his arm behind him, storing up energy. At the other side of the door, Nazir's light frame was disturbing the loose gravel just enough for Wraith to hear his approach. The

footsteps stopped ... Then the door began to slide open. Unleashing his twisted body and swinging his arm around freely, Wraith unloaded his full power upon the door at a height which should’ve found Nazir’s jaw. The door was reduced to splinters instantly, splinters which were accelerated by the blast into a thousand tiny missiles. The tiny missiles found their target where Wraith’s fist had not. At the moment of unleashing his most powerful blow on the door, Wraith had in fact been unable to maintain his mental cloak any longer losing himself in the excitement of landing a decisive blow. This fraction of a second had been enough for Nazir to sense Wraith's murderous intent and react, albeit a little too late but in enough time to pull back from the huge fist which might have killed him in one shot. The clone's face and upper body now looked similar to a porcupine with splinters, some of which were easily six inches long embedded deeply into his blue flesh. Unfortunately none had struck Nazir in a critical place, but several were definitely wounding and inconvenient to boot. Pulling a four inch spike from the door out of his left orbital cavity, released the muscle allowing him to focus again, when the pain wasn't so great that his eyelid would open. Nazir would've been in shock from the number of injuries inflicted, but for the fact that this was life or death for him, this provoked a similar response to an adrenaline spike which was definitely helping Nazir to stay alive ... for now. Zero watched his son’s assault of the door. This might’ve missed his intended target completely, had it not been for the level of energy Wraith had imparted into the wood. All in all the skinny blue super-villain was in a huge amount of discomfort, Wraith was still completely stumped by his failure to capitalise on his advantage. Gray was preparing to step in when his son blew his way out of the remains of the door. The clone was already halfway back to the huge ship, which was also beginning to power up remotely. Gray did not want to interfere, but from this vantage point he could clearly see into the open side of the ship, ing the twisted wreckage of similar vessels in India, Gray jumped cautiously inside the ship, he was now perfectly positioned to block Nazir. Wraith made this unnecessary as he strode to catch up, closing metres with each step he took. As Wraith was almost upon him once again, Nazir reached the ship.

Reaching inside the troop area, Nazir looked straight at Gray for a second, but so desperate was he to defend against the incoming Wraith that the Novus had obviously not ed the second threat. Nazir’s thin boney arm quickly found a Thraten staff weapon located on a rack just inside the doorway of the craft. Gray reached out to grasp the end of the staff narrowly missing the tip. Nazir continued his retrieval of the weapon by quickly back stepping, then twisting and accelerating into an anti-clockwise sweep. The staff had a heavy metal bulb on the end, designed for smashing Lizard skulls, this allowed a smooth radial movement with an upward tilt. The crack as Nazir lodged the metal bulb into Wraith's skull was audible at quite a distance, as indicated by Kariina's sudden jump forward, but she’d already promised not to engage with Nazir in order to protect Molis and the twins. Nazir was now standing over a semi-conscious Wraith, who was far from knocked out though his senses and reflexes were now visibly dulled, despite his body immediately beginning to repair itself. Wraith attempted to gain time by rolling away, but it was easy for Nazir to keep pace. Nazir could not control his excitement; he had bested the only person who had a chance of stopping him and could not resist his urge to taunt Wraith. Zero and Kariina were also able to hear as Nazir’s mind ran free ... -Your family has destroyed us, was it not enough that we practically raised you, and empowered you. Why couldn't you just kill the Reptons? Why did you have to dishonour our masters by extending the hand of friendship? They deserve to die after the way they've made us struggle, they brought us to our knees millennia ago, but you ... YOU were the one who sealed our fate by rolling out the welcome mat so they could take us from the inside. All our long eons of survival reduced to nothing. Gray had not taken his eyes off his son since he'd hit the floor and was now relieved to see the wide open gash was beginning to close up already. Good old Leren, even I don't heal up that fast. Sadly the Novus, preaching to the stars remained completely unaware of the fact that Wraith was about to relaunch his attack, with a completely clear head. Things were about to get ugly. Wraith reached out his massive hand to find Nazir's ankle, within the young man's grip Nazir was terrified as both the bones in his lower leg were snapped clean. Immediately shifting his weight to balance on his good leg, Nazir began to rain down blows with the staff all over Wraith’s

body, the sound of snapping was heard as ribs broke and possibly his pelvis was fractured. This new onslaught was enough to break Wraith’s grip and Gray’s son was again rendered immobile. Nazir being a typical clone, did not have the benefit of accelerated healing, but having seen how fast Wraith had just recovered from what should’ve been a coma inducing head trauma, the Rogue Novus now decided that living to fight again was his only option. With the warehouse door obliterated, Nazir could see Wraith had been alone. Turning he made his best speed, limping back to the Cobra. Gray who was only metres away, secreted inside the hold of the Cobra observed Nazir muttering commands into some kind of interface strapped to his wrist like a watch. His next command saw the outputs of both engines increase to 98 percent of the lift-off threshold; in effect the craft was now gravity neutral. With the landing gear retracted, another muttered command saw the Cobra lower its belly onto the ground, allowing Nazir to sit on the floor of the cargo hold. A roll backwards and Nazir was safe inside the ship ... Or so he thought. With Wraith still laid on the ground eight metres away but recovering rapidly, the youngling locked eyes with Nazir just in time to see the hold door close. Nazir was impatient and frustrated by his failure to realise his own mission. This caused a never before seen sloppiness as Nazir, now in the cockpit, pushed the throttles roughly all the way to full output. Almost fully recovered Wraith knew better than to chase the craft any further, the ions being released would take a heavy toll on his body if he were to be caught in the engines thrust wake. The craft instantaneously jumped into the sky and was rising quickly. Wraith had missed his chance and was desperately thinking of a way to get on board. Everything was telling him to jump, but with no specific defining features to set this craft apart and a course which was now changing evasively, Wraith knew better. He might easily become entangled into the Cobra’s structure, or worse, jump into midair two miles up. Grasping at straws, Wraith would try the only thing he could think to do. Mentally reaching out he tried to infiltrate the mind of the Novus. If there was no way for him to directly bring down the ship, maybe he could control Nazir to

achieve the same result. Notwithstanding Wraith’s mental ability finding Nazir was easy but controlling him proved to be the exact opposite and the clone was just as easily able to resist his suggestions. It was odd being momentarily exposed to the view of the earth from the cockpit as Nazir raised the craft higher and higher toward a stable orbit altitude. From Wraith’s vantage point the Cobra was now just a speck in the dusk sky but was high enough to glint in the light of the sun which was just falling below the horizon. Tracking the glint Wraith could see something was wrong. All things being equal, Nazir had escaped alive by the skin of his undeveloped nutrient guzzling teeth and should have been making good his escape with Wraith unable to do anything but observe. For the craft to be circling, diving and climbing so erratically, something very unscheduled was happening on board the craft. The view in his mind’s eye, being reported involuntarily but directly from Nazir confirmed that something was seriously wrong. The Plasma reaction was dropping rapidly, all kinds of alarms were blaring loudly around the clone who seemed to be panicked, unable to address all faults at once. Nazir seemed to find a moment of clarity some seconds later and had begun to re-route operation through auxiliary backup systems when a pink arm clearly loomed into the clone's vision then disappeared downwards. The feeling Wraith began sharing as a result of his infiltration of Nazir’s mind was like choking and the pressure on Wraith’s own Adam’s apple began to seem almost real, at one point Wraith dropped to his knees, but he had to keep the connection. As the shared view from Nazir’s eyes began to fade black, Wraith could hear a voice. Being spoken directly into Nazir’s ear slit, the voice had a familiar tone but slightly more bass. “Wraith ... I know you’re in there, listen to me son. I am going to crash this craft; Nazir will die and in all likelihood so will I. No matter what the condition of my body afterwards, make sure I’m recovered but keep Leren away from me. Immerse my remains in a nutrient rich fluid and then keep everyone away. Trust me son ... this isn’t the first time I’ve crashed into a planet!” All the time Wraith had been listening to his real father’s voice the surface of the Earth had been growing larger and larger in the front screen, yet his father’s

voice had remained solid and strong, he seemed sure he would survive. Whatever his father had done to sabotage the plasma drive had eventually seen the craft engulfed around a kilometer above the ground inside a large bluish explosion. At this altitude wreckage, and the ships two occupants could’ve been scattered anywhere and everywhere over a fifteen kilometer radius. Wraith was stunned to find Kariina, Molis and the twins standing beside him, so long had he been rooted to the spot by developments that the others had walked up to him. His connection to Nazir had eventually only been severed by the explosion, Wraith had been intent on listening to his father for as long as he was able to speak. “I’ll go Wraith, you take a moment.” With a small pop and some fizzing of slightly hot air particles, Kariina was gone ....

Chapter 44 - The beast rises from the ashes.

-I TOLD YOU LEREN ... He said no ... N ... O ... Spells No. -Please Wraith, you know Zero wants the answer too. Deep down inside you know he does. You’ve seen the diary we found. All I need is a little biopsy. -Leren, it’s my real dad. There’s no way to know for sure until he tells you himself. He asked for you and only you, to be specifically kept away from his body. This tells us that he thinks you kept him away from us; but I’m sure he doesn’t hold you responsible. He must not want you to tamper. He’s got no clue what’s happening to him either, but he wants it to play out as nature intended so to speak, with no room for doubt. Have you prepared the nutrient fluid? -Yes ... It’s in the tank over there. Wraith looked at the tank. It was a metal looking affair. Inside it Wraith could see the nutrient fluid was simply the blue goop which the clones themselves ate. With his hands wrapped around his shaking face. -Oh Leren how could you be so naïve? He said you could not interfere. He made no such exclusion from you being able to watch or even record in high definition if you like. Not much chance of that here is there? And what is this fluid?... Is that? ... -Er ... Yes ... It’s nutrient gel. -Novus gack. Yuck! Wraith made a noise as if he’d just fallen victim to a mini sick; followed by a huge fake swallow, and the accompanying loud throat noise. Leren was momentarily moved so much a tear might have formed ... If clones had tear ducts. -I understand ... Thankyou Wraith. I’ll have Oxull revise the tank, but there is a good reason for the protein nutrient gel. -Oh I can’t wait! Le' me guess ... It’s thick. It’s tasteless and if he swallows some, it won’t kill him?

It wasn’t very often that Leren could best Wraith with his Neo-Clone like intellect, but this time the doctor was confident. Striding over to his console, a few taps later and an image was displayed on the screen. Almost arrogantly Leren just swung his head at Wraith instead of wasting his arm power to beckon the naysayer over for a look. -So what am I looking at? Looks like the opposite of a crime scene photo. Wraith began to smirk at the thick black and green line in the shape of a body on the white background of a stasis pod. -This is the stasis pod I ... Buried ... Him ... Zero ... Your father in. that somehow the glass lid became compromised, and the stasis environment was lost. Probably ... Outwardly at least, his remains began to rot. A mould formed upon him, a thick green layer most likely. -But I can see black around the inside. -Yes, when I analysed the black layer all I found were the remains of the mould, the things which couldn’t be digested. The green layer, though withering was living mould. I guess your crime scene analogy is correct. The mould was eaten, absorbed ... Call it what you want; but this mould was used for nutrients. That and his extraordinary mass, which was clearly sacrificed, is how your father regenerated his arm. There was just enough. Kariina said he was well underweight in India and ravenously hungry all the time. My best guess, which he may be able to confirm if he makes it back to us, is that he was a six foot six inch bag of skin and bones when he first re-sparked and he could not show himself to us out of pride, which is simply absurd. He may have also seen his clone and felt like he was no longer needed. -Did you date the black mould. Do we know when he got out of the pod? -Well it’s not possible to date recently dead tissue, which is so thoroughly scavenged clean, the mold remains did not even have any DNA. Everything was gone. Wraith’s face began to look like the doctor had just sorely disappointed him with this dead end, but then Leren continued. -Oh Wraith don’t look so down; I am nothing if not persistent. I scoured the

maintenance logs for that area of the ship to see if the pod might’ve been disturbed again, maybe by a Thrall. No luck. But six months ago two engineering Novus did venture down to the exact corridor where your father’s pod was stored ... For a goop ... Ahem! Nutrient gel dispenser malfunction. They even noted down that there were human fingerprints on the screen and a huge multi-coloured pile of goop on the floor. Who else do we know that could exhibit such an appetite? This event dates Zero’s re-sparking exactly. -So you think my dad can rebuild himself by osmosis? That’s excellent work Leren, the mould print and the goop puddle certainly seems to suggest that. Carry on doctor. As Wraith made for the door, Oxull jumped in to the Old Doctor, who was even now making his request for a clear tank, pacing out the exact dimensions he required assisted by stretching his arms about broadly like a fisherman describing the one that got away. It was only yesterday that his father, resurrected by some unknown means had taken down the biggest threat to mankind. A rogue Novus, acting like a piece of blue touch paper ready to re-spark the war with the Khai-mah. But much to the surprise of Wraith, everything had already returned to normal within this time. Just like it had minutes after Nazir’s nuclear strike at India-7. Aelren was even now receiving a briefing from his right hand hybrid clone. With Nazir out of the way, the clones had turned their attention firmly towards the three incoming Khai missiles, which were still making a steady approach towards them. At the moment Joan’s situation remained unchanged. Deep in the bowels of the huge leviathan mothership, and in stasis, Aelren’s right hand woman was safer than the rest of them if any of the three missiles did hit. Wraith’s first concern was now his father. If Gray came through this, they could free his mother together. Wraith hadn’t seen him back in England, except for a fleeting glimpse as his arm wrapped around Nazir’s neck. His arm looked to be well built but nowhere near as large as his old photos from the seventies. Leren had already postulated that whatever mechanism was at play which allowed Gray to regenerate; placed a huge burden on the resources available within his body. Having regenerated from losing an arm and a quarter of his upper torso, as well as various other serious injuries, each one possibly fatal in their own right; his father appeared to

have re-sparked as a shadow of his former self. Kariina reported that with access to proper human food, Gray had been packing on muscle before her eyes. This was a major clue for the doctor, but with his access to the remains limited to looking only, with no invasive or supplementary procedures being permitted; the doctor was sorely hampered in his ability to root out the truth of the matter. For now though the assorted chunks of Gray’s remains lay neatly arranged on the bed of one of Leren’s Medi-pods. In case it made a difference at all, Leren had ensured that main nerve fibers had been reattached between the chunks. Beyond this the doctor had been forced to adhere strictly to Gray’s rules, under the watchful eye of Wraith. In the last day no change had been observed, the scanner on the pod reported no fluid movements nor were any electrical impulses detected within the range of the beds capabilities. Leren had initially drilled Kariina for any information regarding what she’d observed back at her lair in Nepal. His nose holes were well and truly bent out of shape when she was unable to help him; simply because Gray had been up and about before her return. -Leren honey ... I was forced to chase him halfway down my mountain, just to catch up. I’ll say this though, the way his body just shrugged off the radiation poisoning from India-7 ... Was miraculous. This did nothing to ease the Old Clone doctor’s fervor, sending him spiralling into a frenzy of speculation and theory. Gray was still Leren’s medical nemesis, his great white whale. The condition of Gray’s body was some of the worst damage to a body Leren had ever witnessed, akin to when one tribe of humans would literally hack the of a rival clan to pieces. Gray’s right leg was sheared off at the hip, his left below the knee. Again his right arm was blown off and had been found still clamped around the neck of a barely recognisable Nazir who had himself been decapitated and blown to pieces. Grays left hand had also been removed and as yet had still not been recovered. Of course his body was also highly contaminated with plasma residue. Leren gave a sharp snort of humorous realisation as the unburnt pieces of Gray’s body now showed a slight bluish hue, not unlike one of the clones. Wraith hoped this came out. -Well previously your father was a shiny grey Thrall ... He never seemed to mind

the colour so much as he did the body’s complete uselessness. Once Oxull had begun working on the see through tank, Leren began a new recipe of clone nutrient fluid ... Colour ... less. After trying several iterations, Leren still couldn’t remove the slight tinge of pink, but in essence this wouldn’t obscure anything from view and Leren consoled himself with the fact that this new nutrient goop looked not unlike human amniotic fluid. It was also thicker and would suspend Gray in place without straining the nerve connections which were all that was holding him together at this point. Leren also theorised that despite being blown to pieces their once great super soldier had still had a lucky escape. If Leren’s basic and incomplete theory held any water, then the main body of whatever kept Gray alive would be centered inside his head and torso. Both had remained connected and the doctor was sure that this could only be a good thing. Now they would follow Zero’s instructions not to touch, time would tell. In the end the clever engineer completely ignored Leren’s request for a separate tank. In a stolen glance, Oxull had caught a look at the fragile, mangled remains of Gray who in his original form he had barely known at all and realised that moving him was a bad idea. To this end Oxull had fabricated a clear shroud to fit over the Medi-pod. Taking only minutes to install, this plastic wall encircled Gray’s body with the look of a macabre fish tank, but once sealed it was functional enough. Leren flooded the pod with his new recipe of pink, right to the top. All they could do now was hope, and of course Leren and Ra-sian would be watching intently. The clones kept their vigil for the next three days ... And the next three days ... BLEEEEEEP ... BLEEEEEEP The alarm on the Medi-pod was blaring loudly, so much so that Leren who had unwittingly fallen into a waking stupor, jerked loudly back to full consciousness, snorting a fair sized blob of nasal mucus against the side of Gray’s tank. -There’s something I wish I could un-watch. Shouldn’t you be wearing a surgical mask? If that had hit a Thrall ... Momentarily embarrassed, Leren pretended he hadn’t heard Ra-sian’s joke at his

expense, instead he reached forward to the control console. Pressing a few keys silenced the alarm, but only for a few seconds as the alarm began to sound again, just as loud but maybe now slightly more annoying. Leren again fought to kill the alarm. No sooner had the doctor cleared the alarm than it began to sound yet again. Entering the deep settings in the pod interface allowed the doctor to turn off all audible alerts; this took some time for Leren to achieve as he’d never before had to perform this particular adjustment to a pod. The screen was still showing a flashing red alarm, which would have to stand. In order to turn this off, the beds on board sensors would need to be switched fully off. This would never do, so Leren would tolerate the blinking, as hypnotic as it might become. Quickly the Old doctor became fully occupied and began to interrogate the alarm report screen on the interface. What the doctor saw on the screen made his underdeveloped lower jaw fall open, stretching the slit which was his normally horizontal mouth almost to a vertical. Ra-sian had no memory of ever seeing the doctor make a face resembling this before and made his way to the doctor. The sensors on the bed had done their job to the best of their high, yet now apparently limited capability. At the very lowest level which the sensors could detect, a nerve impulse had been picked up, then again and then again. Even now with the audible alarm overridden, new reports were being added to the screen and already were numbering in the tens of thousands after only a few seconds. The pod had located and shown the first event, again in keeping with Leren’s postulations, this had been inside Gray’s neural cortex. -Ra-sian are you watching this? It’s miraculous! It's happening and we get to see it. In fact the chances are it’s been happening this whole time, but the bed just wasn’t sensitive enough. -But is it Gray? -No ... Certainly not ... A typical human nerve impulse is several orders of magnitude larger than this. That’s why the bed is configured the way it is, there is no known organism that operates at this level. This is something completely new and unknown. It could only be the sheer volume of these Femto-pulses which allowed the pod to detect them. If that was all Leren ever got to see before being retired to the record, he would

now go happily and gladly. Except what they were seeing raised far more questions than were actually answered ... Leren wasn’t going anywhere yet. Sensing the doctor inside her head Kariina popped into the medical lab to them. -Ah Kariina, I ... would like ... you to ... get me ... better sensory resolution ... please. Also, can you kill the audible alarm? The Old doctor’s tone was a new one on Kariina, far from doctor no manners, Leren now gave her his tired version of a polite request. Still the attempt was quite refreshing. -OK no worries, first things first ... Geyldian’s sister walked around to the far side of the pod and removed a cowling. Crouching down and reaching in, a sharp exhale signaled a yank on something inside the pod. A few moments of fiddling ensued as Kariina twisted the ends of two wires together to remake a circuit. As the big hybrid loomed back into view, the doctor and the watcher could clearly see Kariina holding the speaker responsible for the annoying bleeps. Brutal ... But effective. Moving around to the interface Kariina entered a diagnostic menu, attempting to alter the resolution, here was a dead end. The resolution was displayed but the interface offered no chance to alter the setting; probably because from the time of its construction up until ten minutes ago, the Medi-pod had been state of the art. The settings simply couldn’t get any more resolute. Exiting the menu ... -Leave the sensors to me doctor ... I’ve got this. Kariina went to see her boyfriend Geberus, she needed the Scientist’s practical ability to augment her own inventiveness. Just as they had with Mona’s deep space scanner, the pair would now reinvent the Medi-pod. Both agreed that it was about time anyway, the current pods were older than several generations of clones; in the order of a hundred millennia. With the current level of activity within Gray’s body, it was rather odd for the observers. From their viewpoint absolutely nothing was happening. Even Rasian with his acute visual abilities could discern nothing; he was however recording everything at a rate of one frame per second. Right now this was probably overkill and would thus far make a very boring first two hours and

fifteen minutes to what would be the longest home movie ever. Ra-sian, thinking better of this dropped the frame rate to one per minute until some activity was visible. Eventually he’d be filming in real time, but how many more days this might take was unknown at this point. By the time two more days had ed, Kariina once again popped boldly into the medical lab. Seeing her two associates completely absorbed, watching their fallen comrade’s progress; Kariina walked around to a on the pod. Removing this exposed the main sensor array. Minutes later, after briefly interrupting the circuit, Kariina had fitted the new sensor interpolation module. Developed with the help of her cohort come consort Geberus, this new module would take the feed from the sensors and enhance the signal to such a degree that they would now be around thirty times more sensitive. Not as good as Leren wanted maybe, but a lot better than swapping out the old sensors for new ones which didn’t exist yet, a process which would also involve moving Gray to a new pod as the sensors were effectively sealed into the bed. Removal meant draining the fluid Gray was now stewing in. Once fitted, with the cover replaced, Kariina gently pushed the pair of Numbers aside and entered a back door in the medi-pod interface program. Here she recalibrated the sensor array taking into respect the new interpolation module, before bringing the interface and sensors back online. The effect was similar to an elderly human having cataract surgery. In of pinpointing events and displaying them, the new sensors were a revelation. Leren was moved to silence, which is to say he was far too busy absorbing all the newly displayed data to even be able to say thank you to Kariina. -Ah not long now then. Kariina’s statement drew both the numbers in her company to look at her. -What do you mean? -Well look ... his fingers are twitching and so are his eyelids. Another week I reckon. Leren and Ra-sian, who had up to this point been so absorbed in looking at the tissue damage for any signs of visible regeneration to look at the parts which were barely damaged, verified that Kariina’s observations were not imagined at

all. Gray’s smaller muscles were indeed beginning to flex ... Deep inside a battle was being waged ... Far more difficult than regenerating lost tissues and reconnecting nerves, which was after all the spores bread and butter function, was proving to be the purging of the charged ions their host had absorbed from the explosion. At the atomic level, these charged ions had been driven deeply into Gray’s body, into the very marrow of his bones. From here the ions would never be purged, but that wasn’t the issue. The task at hand, one which was causing the spores so much turmoil and deliberation was how to assimilate these ions in a beneficial way. This was all they knew how to do; many times before had this task been accomplished successfully since their host had been forcefully migrated to this world. Certain factions of the colony firmly believed that they would be successful again. The problem was that it was only a little over two weeks since they had last regenerated their host from severe radiation poisoning and a little light impact damage. There were at least three centers of the colony who believed that storing charged ions and radioactive isotopes in the same body was a bad idea. Their host’s body had always been subjected to radiation in some form, but these were always manageable. The radiation from two weeks ago was on a different scale, such a scale that the spores were hard pressed to fathom why their host had stayed in such a hot area when he must've known he was being irradiated to death; but that was their host all over. They never knew why he ever did anything, after all every time he did do something, there was usually a high degree of risk and yet this never seemed to stop their host; even if he died in the process. The spores whose ultimate goal was to survive as the smallest organisms in the universe, were simply along for the ride and long ago had resigned themselves to the fact that their host had issues. If he hadn't overcome them by now he probably never would. How they longed for the quieter times of a few hundred years ago. Recently host was again living his life like he had in the very early times, an orgy of violence and killing, and innumerable though infinitely memorable and creative deaths. The only good thing in their eyes at this point was that whilst they were looking after their host from the inside, something else was looking after him from the outside. Host’s body was absorbing vast amounts of nutrients from a thick suspension of viscous fluid which he must've been fully immersed in. The spores quickly saw to it that their host’s body made best use of the plentiful bounty. At the same time all impurities were being purged, in the usual way.

A few days later, and on another deck not far away, Wraith was talking to Aelren and Geyldian regarding the missiles, still on their way towards Earth. -We can’t rely on him, you know that. Even if Gray is recovered fully and back to operational readiness, who's to say he won’t leave us again to go and chase down his past. Who knew? I’ve never seen him make entries into a journal; will he even this time? We need another plan. His Uncle Gill’s statement seemed harsh, but Wraith understood the need for a back-up plan. Even in his cloned body his father had been concerned about journals, much to the exasperation of his friends who knew of no such items. These memories of a journal had been released when Gray stopped his own heart in Australia. Originally this ruse was designed to win back Joan. The memory of journals must’ve been deeply hidden within Gray’s subconscious. Whilst never previously expressed, the memory was still included in Gray’s imprint to the record after his death. This was one thing Wraith couldn’t wait to help his father with, clearly Gray was every bit as much in the dark as the clones. Wraith understood that even with all the water which had ed under the bridge to this point, the clones had never really fully known the man who served them at all. How could they when he didn’t appear to know himself? Now though they probably felt exposed. If Gray should feel the pull of uncovering his own secrets to be greater than any tie he had to Central or the clones, then everyone would be in a tricky situation. Wraith tried to reassure them ... -You know Gray would never do that, not that he’s obligated, but my father never ever saw his presence on board as anything but beneficial. His goals and yours have always been aligned. I know he will put this planet first; you his almost natural hatred of the Khai-mah? Gray needs this planet to be safe. It’s his mission as much as it has ever been yours. His faith in you has never been misplaced, yours in him however now seems to be seriously lacking, but I have seen how short your memories appear to be. -My how you’ve matured, your father will be proud, but I’m also sure he wouldn’t want you to fight his battles for him. Especially when there is no battle to fight. No one here thinks Gray won’t help us, and if he should decide his past is too important to ignore, we shall help him with everything we have. Geyldian,

I also understand your need for a contingency, but is it required in this case? Why ever Gray didn’t reveal himself to us isn’t a matter for us to worry about now. Gray had his own reasons, and these may drive him to leave us again in the future, but I think he cannot investigate his past on a ball of ash floating in space. Gray ... No ... Zero has always proven himself to be a master in the application of logic ... I agree with Wraith. If he is ready to help when we need him, he won’t hesitate. I have a feeling it’s in his DNA. Wraith nodded his approval and respect to the Prime whose endorsement had the effect of flicking a switch within Geyldian. Neither Wraith nor his second in command picked up on the Prime’s little slip. Geyldian simply moved onwards to the next logically pressing matter ... -OK then, so regarding the three missiles. Leaving aside our methodology for dealing with them I do have some good news. Kariina had already finished the latest wave of upgrades to the sensor array on Mona. Also her array has now been integrated with the two outposts nearest to us in this sector of space. The two outposts are ships which suffered reactor malfunctions and could not follow us any further. Now they run auxiliary power to sustain life systems. Feeling exposed where they are, both groups concentrated efforts upon developing their sensor arrays millennia ago. Mona is still not close to being on a par with them, but thanks to Kariina and Geberus, we are now at least compatible. The conduits are clearly visible to both the far outposts and they are feeding us data, but there is a delay in our interpretation which is unfortunate, this will make timing our strike very difficult. Kariina is still racing to provide further upgrades, but no progress has been made in the last month and a half for obvious reasons. It’s unlikely any more useful progress can be made in the time we have ... Just the right side of two weeks. -So what is the plan? -We wait for Gray to get back on his feet. According to Leren’s reports, his body is coming back together nicely, but his muscles are still being restored. I think we should call a three day limit, by which I mean, if Gray is not back with us before then, we have to start on another plan ... evacuation. Ra-sian was fairly adamant that the missiles would be striking the same position on the Earth, all three will hit Earth in the space of one week if we are unsuccessful ...

Two days later and a mere six feet from Gray's recovering body, Leren and Rasian were still keeping their pod-side vigil. Ra-sian had now set the frame rate at 1 per second again as changes were visibly happening before their eyes, although now it was becoming very hard to tell because the nutrient fluid, reacting to Gray's excretions, had turned a darkish shade of purple. -I think I'll make another batch of fluid; this one is getting quite heavily contaminated now. -It's hard to tell but I think bubbles are forming on his skin. Why would his skin be giving off gas? -Well I'm only guessing of course but whatever process is regenerating Gray also creates waste products which have to be purged, it will be interesting to see what happens to all the ions from the explosion. They will be deeply embedded and very hard to purge. Positive ions are a bad thing for the body you know. In any case, now his body appears to be excreting at full blast ... Maybe Kariina was correct. Ra-sian helped the Novus to drain the tank and wash Gray's body very carefully. Leren carried out a detailed bio-scan so he could see exactly how far along Gray was with his regeneration, a word which Leren had never figured he would use for an otherwise normal organism. Recovery was what it should've been, but obviously from such injuries, normal organisms could never recover. This was the difference, and clearly Gray was far from a normal human being despite all the previous boring evidence. The scan revealed that deep inside Gray, bones had been healed, so had both the circulatory and respiratory systems. The renal and lymphatic systems were also well on the mend. Progress regarding the muscles was slow, but this was probably a much harder tissue to build. Humans did not make muscle easily, a normal man training hard and eating right might be able to make a stone of muscle in one year at best. Humans, not being the most patient organism in existence, often turned to dietary supplements, amino acids, glucosamine and other building blocks derived from proteins like Creatine to force the body to make muscle faster. The human body was hard wired to carry its own weight and maintain efficiency. Carrying a lot of muscle was not efficient, as such if not maintained properly; excess muscle would soon waste to fat which was at least an energy reserve and not an energy drain.

Zero always seemed to have a very high degree of lean muscle which was excellently defined, and yet Leren never really ed seeing Gray eating very much, every second or third day at best. This was another indicator that their super soldier was different. Leren was kicking himself mentally that he hadn't realised sooner. Zero's body had a strong reaction to physical exertion; the reaction was to make muscle. Was this responsible for his ability to regenerate? Was he simply an evolution of the human species, able to retain muscle and incapable of making fat? This made more sense than some of Leren's more wild theories, and yet the old doctor still thought he was missing something. Re-analysis of all the previous body scans and reports he had written over the course of Zero’s time aboard from 1945 to 1973 revealed nothing. Only twice had Zero ever been injured so badly. The first time might have revealed this ability decades ago had he himself not intervened by introducing the Nanites. Reading the report again Leren's memory was also clear in its recollection of him restarting Gray's heart shortly after Geyldian jumped him aboard. Massive bodily trauma had been suffered as Gray had apparently saved Geyldian from being killed, but essentially his body had remained intact, the damage was repairable, hence the Nanites. The second time and by far the most memorable was 1973, if only because by then Leren actually considered Gray to be a friend. While the trauma Gray suffered was as serious, the damage to his body was completely different; a quadrant of his body was missing. Being unable to manufacture that quantity of new tissue, Nanites were not an appropriate treatment. At the time, Leren had no clue that Gray was possibly a regenerating mutant, and with the trauma far too severe, Leren had been unable to revive his friend. The doctor also now knew and accepted that placing his body in stasis had resulted in a suspension of his regenerative ability, which had seen his son grow up without his real father. That said, a lot of good had also resulted. Zero had ended up in a state of the art, bespoke cloned body which still shared the DNA of his son, with an enhanced mind and healing ability. Not to mention the amazing feats which Zero accomplished in order to reach that new body. Leren considered that even though his body had not survived Antarctica, the fabric of his being, his consciousness had; not only by his own efforts but also by the good doctor's too. On reflection Leren considered that Gray's request for him to be denied physical access to his body was just the right amount of braking force to ensure that he didn't miss out on witnessing the marvel which

was now taking place. Otherwise the outcome might have been the same as the first time, involving Nanites, when clearly none were needed. Leren was making more than adequate notes, diagrams and other observations to be able to have the matter mostly figured out shortly after Gray would be recovered, at which point he knew Gray would be expecting the doctor to explain everything to him. While the nutrient fluid was being replenished, Leren was briefly able to get a clear view of his friend; it was nothing short of a miracle. The doctor was confident that this time Gray would return to his former glory, maybe even slightly larger than before. The nutrient goop was being put to good use ... Deep inside Gray, six feet from the watchful clones, chemical signals, hormonal releases and seemingly random nerve impulses were rife. The spores were debating on multiple fronts. Not only was the issue of the radioactivity and positively charged ions in Hosts body unresolved, but the issue of whether or not to allow Host access to his dimmest memories, had also reared its head again. Well past the point of a sensible discussion, this argument was definitely taking priority ... As Leren observed, he was at a complete loss as to what would trigger such a series of random processes within Gray’s body, nerve clusters all over Gray’s body were firing with no external stimuli ... “ when host had access to those memories? He was suicidal. I stand against your proposal.” “You can’t stand against it; you might be in the memory annex but you are only a single spore. Host’s situation now is not the same as it was back then, he has a network around him, he can use those experiences. Maybe with the memories he will be more careful.” “I disagree strongly, and it’s not just me that thinks you’re wrong. What if he suffers fear and freezes when he should be taking action to attack or defend? What if the memories cloud his resolve leaving him vulnerable? Some fortress he will be then, you’ll make him into suicidal cannon fodder. If the worst comes to the worst, we won’t have to wait for him to be killed, he’ll do it himself. It’s a waste of time. He’s never lost the experiences; he doesn’t need the memories that go with them. If you’d been doomed to a cycle of endless death, would you want access to that? The most I’m prepared to give is the last hundred years. They are mostly good memories and they will serve him well in his current environment.”

The first spokesman was correct when he referred to the naysayer as just a single spore. But in this case that one spore was the controller of the spores inside Gray’s brain, and by extension the leader of the colony. In effect the four star general of the spore colony HQ; as such what he decreed would be strictly adhered to. The colony leader had the best access to Gray’s memories, and even if Host couldn’t his own past, the spore leader could access them easily. The spore arranged for the isolated memory synapses to remain locked off, but as agreed everything from the last 100 years was released, even though this flew in the face of better judgement. A previous generation had allowed Host full access after his long sleep, but this had proved to be a constant source of pain as the memories flushed uncontrollably to the front of Host’s mind. Alien places and grisly endings beyond Host’s imagination and understanding abounded. As weak as Host had been, no good had come of it, so this spore leader held fast to the colony’s convictions. No plan could be found to store the radio-active particles or the plasma ions either. Whilst they realised that Host was not in any lasting danger from them, there was no sense in storing these products if they couldn’t be used for good. Though it represented a considerable amount of effort, the decision was taken to scrub all pollutants which had not proven themselves useful in the long run. In short they would purge the ions and the radioactive particles. All the molecular chains from the viruses and diseases which Host had been exposed to during his time would be kept; they were after all useful compliments to his immunity. Even in the last twenty years before his long sleep, Host had still been exposing himself to infection by microbes which would have felled a normal man in days. These were in fact well documented by Leren, and only provided yet another source of confusion for the clone doctor. It was another two days before Leren observed his patients outer dermis, now fully restored it was beginning to glow. It was a few moments more before Leren realised that Gray wasn’t glowing, but something being ejected from him was reacting with one of the ingredients inside the nutrient gel. This was in fact a useful feature of the nutrient gel which had been added into the Clone’s nutrient goop once this planet had been reached, eons ago.

So numerous were the shielded plasma systems onboard the huge leviathan, which was their home, that sometimes the Thrall couldn’t keep up with their maintenance. This was when Thrall numbers grew low due to high incidences of meaningless death. This could be the result of anything out of the ordinary, from a neighbouring Thrall hiccupping unexpectedly to the noise created by the dropping of a tool which would radiate outwards along the huge service conduits, wiping out dozens of Thrall in a single event. If the shielding around a plasma conduit was worn out, surrounding systems, including goop dispensers could be contaminated, then Novus and Numbers alike would be struck down by the poisoned goop. After a few times a previous doctor had worked in the plasma reactive ingredient, harmless in itself; it served as an alarm that a nearby conduit was leaking. No radioactive systems existed onboard central, with their technologies having been developed well past this before Devine Prime had been abandoned. -Ra-sian, it’s happening. Gray’s body is purging the ions of charged plasma ... Remarkable ... Geyldian? With a medium pop, their second in command appeared in the corner of the medical lab, away from Novus and equipment. -What is it Leren? -Would you please scan the tank with your PUCK? I can see the goop is reacting with the ions being purged from Gray, but I want to find out if the same is true for the radioactivity he picked up in India ... It killed him in around nine hours, so the dose was pretty substantial, yet according to Kariina he was up and about inside three days. I’m guessing the radioactivity was annexed somewhere, a long bone would be my guess. Now it looks as if his body is taking the opportunity to detox. Raising a hand, Geyldian didn’t need the doctor to add anymore explanation, he was a busy clone too, so pulling the PUCK from his overcoat pocket and tapping in the desired settings, he then aimed the device at the tank containing his friend. This was all new to Geyldian. Having excused himself in Antarctica when he could’ve made a difference to the outcome, Geyldian had used the associated guilt to search for the man who had attacked them. He ed thinking then that he would have revenge for his friend, but that was before Gray re-appeared

inside Thrall 8596, and then again in the record. By now Geyldian thought he should’ve been getting used to losing Gray, he had after all witnessed his friend die multiple times already inside various bodies over the last two decades. There was always more to Gray than met the eye that was for sure. Yet by some enhanced healing ability, the likes of which was still taking Leren’s breath away, Gray was able to reconstruct himself. The worst Geyldian had seen before was a few bullet wounds, it had never occurred to Geyldian to check where in Gray’s body these had actually been. With his ally up and around the whole time and seemingly suffering no ill effects, Geyldian merely assumed, against the doctors protests that some Nanites at least had survived within Zero. Certainly he had never seen Gray ill, not so much as a sniffle or even a headache. So checking the bullet wound locations once he’d healed without a single scar was impossible. Gray’s demeanour always suggested that death was at best an alien concept, not in his rule book ... At worst the reckless abandon which Gray had shown in his early service for the clones suggested a deep rooted desire to commit suicide, but his skill negated any attempts to actually kill him until Antarctica. The PUCK began to bleep, drawing Geyldian out of his daydream. Leren made his way to Geyldian’s side. The results showed that residue from a nuclear detonation was indeed present inside the goop. Leren prepared for another fluid change ... Deep within Gray’s body which was now fully intact, and at some level working normally, the last remnants of the contaminants were being purged. This process had gone smoothly but had restricted the skin's absorption of the nutrient gel. Now this would kick back into high gear. The Medi-pod was now showing a different kind of alarm, the temperature of the suspension fluid was increasing. Currently a degree every five minutes as Gray’s body fought to keep up with the spore’s efforts to rebuild him. The activity was so hectic that Ra-sian had multiple cameras filming in real time now. The pair still accompanied by Geyldian could not believe what they were seeing as Gray appeared to be slowly inflating before their eyes. As everything appeared to be progressing nicely at the physical level; the same could not be said mentally ... Deep inside Gray the argumentative spore was on the move, unlatching from the nerve cluster at the top of Gray’s spine, the spore was now the definition of a free radical. It was easy to flow within the blood to any point inside Host’s body, but not just any point would do. The spore was headed to the middle of Host’s

brain. The way the colony leader blocked Host’s memories was chemical. Every memory their host had ever formed was still intact. The spores were not in the habit of creating lesions to damage synapses, like with some serious conditions which a human might suffer in old age. The spores had long ago found a way to chemically block a synapse, or even a small part of a single synapse, to limit a particular aspect of a single memory. This was all quite reversible, only the release of a second chemical was required. In the past their Host had released certain helpful memories himself, triggered by a visual cue. Any event which was visually similar to an annexed memory could trigger a recollection, but this had only been allowable in Host’s day to day memory where personal relationships and repetitive actions were stored. A stronger, and more hardy, chemical block had been applied to memories which might be more harmful for Host to . This same chemical release, if introduced into Host’s annexed experiential memory, could have the effect of releasing all the memories of hosts past regenerations and the events which caused them, however grizzly they might be. The spore could not do this alone, and even now, ers of the plan were on their way to other parts of Host’s body needed to produce and release the chemical. No instructions could be communicated, the spores were all looking for one signal; this would be the resparking of their host back to full functionality. The spore was convinced that the plan could work and would be beneficial to both their host and the colony, but certain other things needed to happen. The synapses could not be released all at once, like Host’s regeneration after his long sleep, this was already proven to have very dire effects upon Host’s mental state. Instead the releases would be triggered by visually or audibly similar cues. In this case some very early memories may never be released, as it was understood, host was a long way from his; and their original home. At best their host would get into a situation which would trigger a recollection of a similar event, the outcome would be shown to him and this would allow their host to alter his actions and create a different less damaging outcome. At worst a few memories might leak out whilst host was sleeping and should be easily ed off as a nightmare or dream. One thing was certain, host’s memories of his false family had been permanently deleted and could not return. These false memories had been ingrained within

host and served to provide a reason for him to fight. Host had simply been defending his home world so his wife and children would survive. This falsehood might also have been the reason why the accumulation of so many death memories acted detrimentally within host. Instead of allowing him to make better decisions, the preset memory of his false family always got in the way to create a form of separation anxiety and later, a suicidal depression. This was why the colony took measures to chemically fortify host when a battle situation was encountered, reducing his emotionality and enhancing both his ability to analyse and react to information. This had allowed host to come through many situations damaged but alive. The spore was also aware from the chemical chatter which ed for their communication that host was almost fully regenerated back to his factory default. The colony leader was only debating whether or not the nutrient rich environment which host now seemed to be suspended within; should be maximised to grow host even stronger than he was before. That said there were limits which the colony understood should not be sured. Any further gains past his original specification would only serve to hinder hosts movements and reactivity, being unbeneficial such extra gains would most likely be prevented and resparking would occur soon. The rebellious spores waited ...

Chapter 45 - Respark and retirement.

RA-SIAN WAS NOW HOLDING a camera, manually filming his rebuilt compadre who was still suspended just off the bottom of the tank by the buoyancy of his own body. As the Watcher made his way around the tank, his aim was to draw direct comparison to the condition Gray’s body was in now, against how each area had been damaged. Re-grown limbs and organs were all documented; Ra-sian was in awe, there wasn’t even a single scar to prove Gray had ever been injured. Returning again to the front of the tank by the console, Ra-sian performed one last from Gray’s feet up to his head. As the clone slightly adjusted the focus to for the fluid he was filming through, he realised that Gray had turned his head and was looking squarely at him. -Leren? ... HEY LEREN! As quickly as his long spindly legs could transport him across the lab, Leren made his way somewhat awkwardly to Ra-sian. The doctor needed no explanation of what had alarmed his colleague. Calmly Leren hit a button on the console which triggered the draining of the tank and removal of the plastic shroud. Within seconds Gray’s naked body was again rested upon the bed of the Medi-pod. Gray squinted as the lights inside Leren’s lab were now shining full strength in his eyes, no longer diffused pink by the gel. The look on his face was soon replaced by one of extreme discomfort. Gray’s body began to convulse violently, Leren knew what was happening and gently led Gray to turn onto his side. Now in the fetal position, one last spasm and Gray began to vomit the pink gel. Submerged for such a long time in the gel, it was the doctor’s assumption that the gel had seeped into Gray, who completely unconscious had been unable to prevent the gel from gaining access to his lungs. Nodding to the medical Novus, the pair approached the Medi-pod and began to swab the residual pink gel from Gray’s body. Far from panic at almost drowning as soon as he’d woken up, the sight of Leren had already begun to trigger recollections of who and where he was. Whilst the Novus intubated Gray with a suction tube to assist in draining Gray’s lungs, Rasian approached Leren. -He looks fully recovered, maybe we should put him in stasis for a few hours

and we can show him his record? If he really sparks without any memory of who he is, this could save us time and him some mental shock. -It’s a good Idea Ra-sian, but I think he already recognises us. The clincher will be Wraith. In this body he has only seen his son grown up for a few hours, I think if he recognises Wraith then the only holes in his memories will be his Cloned time, some of which might also be best forgotten. Not that I would seek to cloud his memory, I think Zero is very strong physically, but stronger mentally. Let’s wait and see over the next few days ... -Do you plan to imprint him? We could see exactly what memories he re-sparks with and where they’re stored and compare this with earlier imprints. It may give us a handle on the amnesia he suffers. -Also a good idea, yes we will start that once his breathing has stabilised. Whilst still conversing with Ra-sian, the doctor had already begun to synthesise a micro digestive additive to assist Gray’s recovery. Tapping a button on his console a hiss was heard. The additive was sucked quickly out of the hermetically sealed manufacturing flask which prevented contamination, through a tube into the oxygen supply which Gray was breathing through a mask. Once the additive had been istered, Gray began to breathe more easily with each successive breath, finally ripping the breathing mask from his face. Leren shut down the oxygen then turned back around to see Gray was sat up. -Doctor, fancy seeing you here. I bet you thought you'd never see me again. Looking down at his body, now far more reminiscent of his original physique, Gray had a smug look on his face. -You recognised me almost immediately, how much else do you ? -Absolutely everything, in fact I think I can even a few things from before Central. How is that possible? As soon as the Old Clone Doctor began talking, Gray realised his mistake. Some things never changed. -The human brain doesn't need an index like a computer database does. That's why they're so efficient. A memory is stored within a synaptic connection and

assuming the strength of the connection stays strong, the memory remains accessible. A memory becomes a long term memory by the outgrowth of new Neurite. I don't have any clue how higher memory functions or how concepts are mapped and linked. If I watch your brain work I will see areas light up as you think, but this isn't purely memory and would be useless in the pursuit of your past. The other problem is that memories are not stored in one area of the brain but seem to be stored much closer to the area of the brain which was engaged by the experience. A math problem would not be solved in the same area as if you crossing over the road and avoiding any traffic. Neither would the memories of both. To confuse matters even more, if you started crossing the road whilst solving a sum, and this led to you avoiding a car you hadn't seen because you were distracted, then that can really screw with your mind. You might not what sum you were doing until you ed you were almost ran over solving it, even then your brain might what the car was but not the sum you were trying to solve, not without some serious digging. We can't possibly watch your brain the whole time to track which neurons are firing and then which other neurons fire as a result of a long forgotten association. -Forgotten would be the trick, but I feel more like they've been blocked somehow. I told you I could everything, and that's no lie, I can back to when most streetlamps were powered by gas, a long time ago, I can all that way back, then nothing, but here's the kicker. The first day I can , I still look like this, it’s not my birth, I'm not a child ... I'm just ... Me. -Do you any previous deaths, before Central? -Do I ever, some real beauties. At least ten times during World War two, including the time I saved Geyldian. I can even the looks on my platoon’s faces when I walked back to our line a few days later. Still at least they were all saved. Looking back I don't think I ed them, at least not at first, but things come back when triggered by a visually similar stimulus. -That does corroborate your service record. It said you suffered shell shock induced amnesia. You really must've blown their minds, I've seen reports made by the soldiers you saved, and they all swore you went down in a hail of gunfire. They said you had a talent for killing, but you weren't shy about running into fire either.

-Hmmmm, so what’s new? -Maybe Geyldian should explain, needless to say, you haven't been gone from us for very long. -You mean my clone? I guess it’s almost been six weeks now since he was killed. -Calling him a clone is inaccurate, his consciousness was all you. The only thing I got right back in 1973 was to imprint you. You got out of the record way before you broke out of the stasis pod. Again we should save all this for another time. With the hive in full effect it did not take Geyldian long to jump in, closely followed by Wraith and Aelren, Kariina and Geberus arrived holding hands, Rasian was already present. Oxull and Jer-mija also dropped what they were doing and ed the welcome home party. This was a bit overwhelming for Gray who'd had regular dealings with half of the assembly. The scientist, the engineer and the rogue, Gray did not know. It was an odd situation because they definitely knew him and acted as such. For the first time meeting these clones were far too familiar, but of course this wasn't their first time. -This is gonna take some getting used to, I guess the quicker I come to that I stood in for myself in a grown body, the better. Jer-mija the re-instated rogue Eight was first to break the ice, walking forward and introducing himself, uncharacteristically humble for Eight. For a moment the other clones were wondering if Leren had slipped Jer-mija a sedative. The astute Eight had sensed some mild hostility in Gray from the word go and wanted to break the ice without any argument. -I'm not mad at you, but I guess Nazir was. I can tell we've worked together a lot and you must be very capable, in fact as I do a quick read of all of you, I can tell the same is true also. I hope you don't mind, it’s one of my bad habits I guess. Gray attempted to diffuse this sudden intrusion into his friends’ minds with his trademark broad smile. The group moved in closer to Gray who was now afforded a chance to cover his

modesty by Wraith who handed him his trademark Hawaiian shirt. The shirt fit where it touched, an indication that his clone had been several sizes larger than he was now, even fully restored and then some. -I was this big? Leren smiled... -My finest work, it took me a while but your clone as you say ... Well he was half you and half Wraith. We made ten in all, but the other variants were less like you. Still creating them was infinitely easier than figuring you out. -Well some of you must how self-sufficient I was; I never really learned to rely on anyone. For those of you I don't know, give me a chance ... I'll catch up. Geyldian had to call some kind of order otherwise the Numbers were in danger of making Gray's head explode; something he probably couldn't regenerate from. -Now then, about the Khai-mah missiles which are incoming as we speak. No sooner had Geyldian uttered the name of the clones’ war mongering nemeses than Gray began to have convulsions again. Clutching his head, Gray’s face was contorted, clearly he was in serious pain. The clones were in no doubt as to what the cause of the pain was. Their super soldier was still connected, as if in Technicolor to the hive. Gray was experiencing some major recall, clearly the word Khai-mah was already known to Gray, he’d helped them prepare for the arrival of the Lizards by conceiving the child upgrade program. Now though, it seemed as if the name "Khai-mah" held a much deeper association within Gray than even he had previously realised. Operations stopped on Central immediately, then OFFright and finally only seconds later, the moon bound ship Mona. The clones watched Gray's earliest days in horror. The full scale of all the deaths Gray had ever suffered as he had fought to stop the destruction of his home planet at the hands of the Khai-mah. Like a grizzly premonition, Gray's home world appeared to be a pristine jewel of forests and oceans. Ra-sian was making especially detailed mental notes, but eventually as not just one lifetime but literally thousands were all lived before their eyes in a matter of seconds, the clones all began to suffer mental overload.

As Wraith used all his skill to shield the Numbers, Aelren attempted a deep dive to reach Gray within his subconscious. Connected directly the Old Prime had unnecessarily exposed himself to the brutality of Gray's past lives. It was clear to the Prime as he looked on why Gray was such an efficient soldier. Baptised as he’d been in the fire of an epic war. A war to accomplish exactly the same goal the Old Prime sought to achieve for the Earth and yet along with his comrades who all fought as ruthlessly as Gray himself, victory had still proved elusive. After all the killing, the Khai were still able to swamp the four allied planets, which lay in waste barely hanging on. Aelren could see Gray in almost every scene and was as yet unable to reach his friend. How could he? These were old memories, not events in real time. As Gray's memories were laid bare for all to witness, Wraith’s attempts to shield the Numbers were unfortunately found lacking. Even with Wraith’s mental power and skill, he needed the cooperation of the Numbers before he could help them fully. The clones, who had never seen such unfettered violence were caught like rabbits in a car's headlights, unable to look away. Wraith had to resort to severing the links one by one, with each of the newly freed Numbers collapsing to the floor once disconnected. The clones had never been exposed to such prolonged horror, and yet all indications seemed to show that everything Gray had shown them happened in just five short years. The blood of the clones was now running not just cold, but frozen. Was this what the Khai had in store for them? Four inhabited worlds had all collectively shown the kind of tenacity against their foe which should have brought victory, but at the time Gray had been caught, these four worlds had all been waiting for the end. The Devine had abandoned their home world long before this kind of damage had been sustained, and now a feeling of disappointment filled the hive. What they had all just seen clarified that even if they stayed and fought to their last, they couldn’t win. For the Numbers who had used their all access es to view the record, the feeling of disappointment was strong. They knew the Devine did have a final solution to the Khai-mah, but not the resolve to use it. Disappointment was quickly replaced by a stronger feeling of guilt and remorse. The Devine could've done something but they didn't, they just ran away. Then came the realization. That in taking such a weak course of action, they had in fact condemned the rest of their galaxy and many more, maybe millions of

worlds to the same fate. Gray's world had been one of those worlds, and fate had been both inevitable and cruel. It was several minutes before the macabre visions ended, and though Wraith had been somewhat effective in limiting their exposure, it took a while before any of the Numbers realised they were one Clone down. Mirroring the performance of his super soldier, Aelren had put so much of himself into his attempt to protect his brethren that he would not remain amongst them much longer. Once Gray realised the result of his sudden recollection, it took mere seconds for Gray and Wraith, the only two who could act given what this situation meant, to lift the quickly failing body of their Prime onto a Medi-Pod. Gray had watched Leren so many times that instinctively he was able to make the bed work. In a spare second Gray turned and slapped Leren full strength across the face, Leren was back in the room. Leaping to his feet the doctor completed the task Gray had adequately begun. Placing the Prime into a coma, Leren began the task of trying to elevate his vitals. No matter what he tried, any benefit was purely momentary; Leren looked directly at Ra-sian. The watcher knew immediately what Leren was implying and jumped away to get his equipment, returning inside one minute Ra-sian made his preparations to install the collected memories and experiences of their Prime to the record, where they would be able to visit his memory any time they wanted. Considering everything that had just hit him square in the brain, Gray was left surprisingly clear. He had ed his earliest memories, and despite the subject matter his mood was remarkably peaceful. The Khai-mah had lain waste to his planet, and he had been dragged to this world hundreds of years ago. Here the memories ended, his arrival to this world was the last of his early memories. His time on this planet was a mystery still, except for the last hundred years. Deep inside Gray, the colony was also one spore down. Having been found out as soon as Gray began suffering his extreme bout of recall, the spore quickly found itself Nano-organism to cell with a specially modified white blood cell. A punishment sent by the colony leader for defying the rules of order and peaceful cohabitation. The last thing the spore experienced was being quickly absorbed by the execution cell which was thousands of times larger. The damage had been done, now the colony would have to wait and see what the long term effects

would be on Host, and by extension ... them. Leren managed to keep Aelren alive for the full hour which Ra-sian needed to complete their Prime's ascension ceremony. Once completed all electronic imprinting garb was removed from Aelren's body. The Numbers linked hands around the Medi-pod, and Leren began the procedure of turning off the bed. Seconds later and the lab was quiet, the clones reflected on their Prime’s old body. Having lived for almost thirty millennia their leader was one of the oldest Old clones ever to have lived; he was as rare as he was extraordinary. The sternest demeanour, had concealed one of the most benevolent souls to have reached the Prime seat. Despite his outward crustiness, everything Aelren had ever accomplished was done with the best interests of his brethren and the planet which had come into his care. Each of the Numbers said a farewell, despite their long lives to this point, they could only hope to reach eighty percent of Aelren’s extremely long life, all the clones understood completely that nothing was forever. For Kariina who had once christened herself Khaalida which literally meant immortal, the ing of Aelren was doubly poignant. Aelren had allowed her to live amongst them, despite her past deeds. Now he had put her in touch with her mortality; something she had rarely contemplated. The last time, being when she'd been ensnared inside Nazir's trap. Now she considered that with immortality definitely off the table, maybe she was better off as she was, endlessly lucky and with great friends to save her. Gray was feeling every thought each of the Numbers was having; surprisingly there was no ill will toward him at all. Instead the Numbers were contemplating that this moment was itself fated. What were the chances of an organism from a far off planet also annexed or destroyed by the Khai-mah, who after being ripped parsecs through space to land on their doorstep, would resume his role as lizard slayer? Everything the clones knew about the Khai was hand-me-down information, recorded eons ago. Their knowledge was widely augmented by fearful speculation. The Khai had arrived, and even attacked, but these sorties had been rebutted by the newly united and organised forces of Earth. This first impression had somewhat diluted the clones impressions of the Khai when compared to the recorded legend of their irrepressible and unstoppable foe. This was further

diluted by Wraith’s attempts to reason with them, even offering them sanctuary. Gray though, had shown them clearly everything they had to lose, and the plethora of ways in which the Khai might take these things from them. Even Wraith now considered that although he had stricken a peaceful treaty with the crew of a single dilapidated Dragon carrier craft, he was far from able to guarantee that the same could be achieved with other Khai crews who would be on their way towards the Earth. Many of the Numbers were also giving more than a ing thought to the fact that Nazir, although his methods were misguided, might have been correct in levelling all his disdain at them. So long had it been since the clones had seen any Khai activity that it seemed the Numbers had entered a phase of denial that the Khai would ever find them. Maybe they’d just become so weak that they had welcomed the easy way out offered by Wraith. A peaceful and quick resolution was after all better than a long drawn out war which would see the planet decimated and left in tatters. Ra-sian gave the signal that Aelren's conscience had been ed to the record and verified without issue. The important thing now was to choose Aelren's successor. This was a matter which could only be completed by the Numbers; a simple vote could be placed against any Number’s name. Any of the Numbers could back out from the ballot, if they felt disinclined to run for Prime. Everyone in the current circle had an equal chance based on their capabilities. It was by no means a foregone conclusion that Geyldian would reach the seat of Prime, though everyone who knew him felt him to be adequately qualified. The humans on board were not given a vote and this procedure was to be carried out in the same way it had been since the clones arrived upon the Earth. There would be a one week mourning period which would be observed for the Numbers and Novus to honour their Prime; the closing of this festival would see the result of the vote for ascension announced. The Numbers all felt that the timing couldn’t be worse given the planetary upheaval which might be about to happen, but tradition dictated that the new Prime be chosen on schedule so other aspects of life on the three ships would not be left undone. As everyone cleared out of the medical lab, the Numbers were in shell shock. They had all attended the lab in order to welcome back their friend and soldier, but in a savage twist they had all been left without their Prime. Within one hour Oxull and Geberus had thrown their towels in, backing out of

the running. Oxull considered himself a first class engineer, but the finer nuances of running the three ships and quite frankly the volume of duties the position would entail, were beyond him. The scientist, and acknowledged genius, simply considered himself too young and not yet wise enough to be Prime. Kariina, although a satellite of the circle of Numbers was not a member and had no vote. Nor could anyone vote for Kariina, though she was well liked, and she was similarly as well versed in human affairs as her brother which was a large part of the Prime role. After all the Numbers were left by the Devine as caretakers of the planet, this meant having more than a basic handle on the affairs of the naked apes above them. This was the only aspect which gave Geyldian his shot, by the Second’s own ission the actual operations of the three mother ships both baffled and bored him equally; although since withdrawing back down from topside duties, he’d quickly grown to Aelren. By association the knowledge he needed to fulfil the role of Prime had stuck. Ra-sian dropped out halfway through the first day of the mourning period. No Watcher had ever been Prime, and he did not want to be the first. In truth he was a rare clone indeed, a full on quirk. Blessed with extra keen vision bordering on precognition, in addition his fully eidetic memory meant only he could be the Watcher, any of the Numbers could be Prime and they would probably do the job better; even if they couldn't everything that had happened before with perfect clarity. This basically left the clones to choose whom they would back from Geyldian and Leren who were number two and three respectively. Of course there was the wild card of the pack, Jer-mija. It was Unclear if any of the Numbers would back the clone they once hunted down with far more vigour than they'd ever levelled against Nazir. A much younger and active Pre-Prime Aelren had personally led this hunt and prescribed the punishment. Millennia later it had been a much more tempered Aelren who had then sanctioned his release so that the rogue genius could help them prepare for the Khai. In truth number Eight had re-integrated back into the circle far more completely than he ever imagined possible. Jer-mija attributed this to Zero. His open minded acceptance of Jer-mija's abilities whilst having the full knowledge of the errant clone's deeds was instrumental in reducing the speed with which the Numbers, who definitely ed without forgiveness, had allowed him to make amends with a job well done. Jer-mija also had vast experience of dealing with humans, remaining one of the species biggest advocates. Jer-mija had been retired to the record,

because Aelren knew that the rogue Number definitely had the smarts to escape from Mona and jump back to Earth. A couple of thousand years before, the rogue might have plotted revenge in a similar way to Nazir. Now though, Eight was much mellowed by the way the clones had all but forgotten his misguided experiment to both value and respect his opinions and ideas. In turn he had become reinvested in the Number’s values and traditions. Jer-Mija had an outside shot at the Prime slot but doubted whether the role would even be fulfilling. His true vocation was science, the problems they were facing with the Khai, and the solutions he'd been developing with Oxull and Clone Zero ... Only these puzzles gave Jer-Mija any purpose. Playing devil’s advocate, and ever ready for a good social experiment, Jer-mija did not withdraw from the vote; though he doubted he would even attract a single vote. He wouldn't hold it against his friends. Leren didn’t even consider himself in the running. His colleagues dim view of his poor bedside manner and constant need to probe being the reasons. After initiating the disposal of the empty shell which had held the Prime, Leren got back to the matter at hand. The next three days reminded Gray why he hadn’t revealed himself after his long sleep. A barrage of cognitive and physical tests revealed that Gray was back to his old self; which was to say he was the same as ever. As far as Gray's intellect was concerned it didn't matter whether the body was his own; a Thrall, a computer or a clone body manufactured from his own DNA and that of his son. Gray was Gray, just as capable as he’d ever been. In a rare moment Leren had gone with his Novus to partake of a goop break. Not trusting that Gray would stay put, the doctor had requested Geyldian to babysit. Rather than a direct request, the doctor had sent his ping out through the entire hive. This proved that although Leren was a gifted empath, he had no actual feelings of his own, nor did he mind trampling the feelings of others. The medium sized pop signaled Gill’s arrival. “Now then Boss.” “Hmmmm. I think not. I can feel the ripples echoing through the hive, not just the Novus but even some of the Numbers don’t think I’m up to the role of Prime.” “You’re overthinking it. The Numbers are the only ones who matter and I’m sure

they’re all right behind you.” “It’s not that simple Gray, I don’t even know if I want the position. I know it’s our highest honour, but now you’re back and things are about to heat up for real, I was looking forward to getting topside again; like the good old days. Maybe I can make up for last time ...” Geyldian had never shown this side of himself to Gray before. Despite their banter, the role of boss and subordinate super soldier had always been clearly defined. Gray would arrive to meet Geyldian, who would always be at the scene already; rarely did the hybrid clone ever set a foot on the three mother ships. A briefing would be intensely delivered complete with mission objectives, all targets clearly defined and then as if winding a huge key in the back of his super soldier, Geyldian would unleash Zero and watch him go. “I seem to it was me who told you to withdraw.” “That you did, but if I’d known you’d stick so closely to my restrictions, I’d have stayed to help. You could’ve taken him.” “He was very well trained, by your sister I gathered. He was fired straight at me, specifically to take me out, neither of us knew. I ed him off as a regular Joe and assumed I’d handle him quickly, but I was wrong. As I fully assessed the threat I was facing, he suffered no such delay and was just hacking bits off me. I moved the cave though, pretty impressive eh?” “You even had Aelren surprised with that little feat; the same kind of thing killed Zero though. Sorry that’s weird ... Your cloned self. He lifted a solid granite cover stone by mental power alone to free Kariina from one of Nazir’s traps. After that Nazir took Joan. She’s still safe in stasis by the way.” “That’s good to know, and look ... about Antarctica. You have no need to worry, you never used to get involved in the action ... I preferred it that way. It’s all good ... We’re good. And besides I heard you found the ones who attacked us.” “Yes we did, it took us ages, but right now she’s on Mona improving the sensor array! The man who killed you was retired by Aelren. You really should go and see Ra-sian. Seeing is better than being told and we don’t have much time.”

“So that’s it then?” A wry smile on Gray’s face suggested he knew what Geyldian had planned, and that he was just about skilled enough to stop his true intentions leaking out to the hive. “Aye, the Numbers can do what they will, I’ll be voting for Three. The missiles are a much higher priority. Although I have to ask what’s the point of resisting after what you’ve already been through.” “That’s my issue, it seems I was originally created to defend a planet from the Khai-mah, and I’m nowhere near retirement age, though I’d like to die less.” “I’ve inducted Kariina to the circle by the way ...” “Old Gill ... Ever the strategist. It seems like your mind is set.” “What was it you used to say, clarity and focus?” At the end of the week of mourning, the votes were cast onto the touch screen console. Sensing the voting might be split, and that even Leren had voted for him, Geyldian had considered the vote like a game of chess where the loser would ascend to the role of Prime. Clearly neither of the front runners wanted the post so some dancing had been required. Whilst having gifted hands, Leren was equipped with two left feet in all social matters, unlike the second in command. Geyldian had used the last of his authority prior to the ballot to induct his sister to the Ninth seat in a strategic move to give himself the casting vote. Geyldian had waited until last.

Geyldian √ Leren √ Oxull √ Kariina

Leren Jer-Mija √ Ra’sian √ Geberus √ Jer-Mija √ Geyldian

As planned, Geyldian cast his own vote in favour of the Doctor, leaving him free once more to fight alongside Zero. Leren would provide a much more emotionless rudder to steer the human ship and other matters on Earth, just as Aelren had done. Things would continue on track; as planned. The real fight to save the Earth could begin ...

Chapter 46 - Death Arrives to the party.

AS THE SMALL BOY RAN through the streets of Shanghai, he was hot, sweating and out of breath; but he would complete this most important of missions. His grandfather’s rarest yet most valuable client was sat waiting in a secluded booth at the back of the restaurant with his friends. Turning down the alley way it wouldn’t be long now before he could deliver his precious cargo, freshly caught and wrapped in paper. Upon arrival back to the restaurant, the boy handed the parcel to his sister, the current Head Chef. Taking her knife she slit the bindings on the parcel and laid the fish out on a slab. What she had to do next was like surgery, using two knives the fish was slit and cleaned to produce fillets of white meat. Skilfully the chef took her second blade and slit the fillets into thin slices. Placing the sashimi onto the plate to resemble petals on a large flower bloom, the sister beckoned her brother to serve the plate to her prestigious clients. One of them had been coming for centuries and the story of how her grandfather’s great grandfather had almost poisoned this giant man was a legend handed down within the family ever since. Decades after the supposed event the legend, initially considered a big poisonous fish story, had been brought firmly into reality, when the large man had ventured into their restaurant again a little over a hundred years ago. No introductions were required, and the booth was once again made free to serve their fabled big blue client his favourite dish of Fugu. Now though their client was not alone. Though it was decades before, one of the men now seated was also a familiar ex guest. The large bluish fellow appeared to have brought his wife or sister, the boy who served them could not tell and paid no heed. His sister the Chef had implored him not to make eye , but as young as he was, the boy could not help but stare. Not at the bluish figures but at the enormous human sat with the other three. Looking like any other human but at over ten and a half feet tall, Wraith was sitting on a chair at the end of the booth, blocking his father into one of the benches. A sight indeed, the likes of which the boy had never seen before and maybe would never see again. Tomorrow the four would set off into space to begin their assault on the first inbound Khai missile. Kariina was still Unclear why it wasn’t really the missile they were after, but the conduit the missile was travelling within. Each of the

assembled men had taken their turn to explain it, as had her boyfriend Geberus several times before them. -Sister, for the last time. The Khai did not shield their missiles, nor did they expect them to travel so fast. As such the hyperspace conduits destabilise the systems on board, rendering the missiles inert. Their reactors go onto standby. The missile is travelling only as a function of its speed prior to opening the conduit. Geberus speculated the inside of the conduit to be perfectly vacuous, which is to say the usual invisible matter of space which would provide some friction, does not exist ... -The missile is just a chunk of metal flying through space, it can’t hurt us. The conduit on the other hand, if it touches solid mass it can destabilise the matter, causing huge damage. You’ve seen this twice before already. -That doesn’t mean I understand what’s happening. Wraith was baffled; every single one of Kariina’s accomplishments upon Central and especially Mona had been true marvels of technology. Her inventiveness was unparalleled within the clones, allowed by her more human origins. Kariina didn’t always have the words to express what she wanted, this was where Geberus came in, and usually something new and cutting edge always resulted. As yet the concept of spatial anomalies was simply outside her grasp. Wraith began to think that no matter how many times the conduits were explained to her, Kariina was incapable of understanding them. -Listen, Auntie Kariina. You don’t have to understand them, you just need to be able to find them and then destabilise them BEFORE they reach Earth. As the plate of newly sliced puffer fish arrived at their table the conversation reached an abrupt, if unresolved conclusion. For a few seconds the chop sticks were heard to clash before a silent accord was reached. The non-understanding hybrid clone would be allowed to choose her slice of meat first; this was her first visit to her brother’s favourite restaurant after all. Not so Gray who had visited many times in the fifties and sixties, the elder staff could just about him. The former Head Chef ed Zero clearly even though she’d only been a small girl the last time the pair had dined. To the staff the table in the booth was always reserved for their most auspicious

guests, but only when this group came to dine was the curtain deployed. The hushed comments of the other diners were loud considering there was complete silence from within the curtained Fugu eating arena. If the other diners had been able to see the contorted faces as the heated mental discussion had unfolded, they might have been put off their noodles. Following a brief phone call from one of Geyldian’s network in Shanghai to arrange the visit, the curtain had immediately been drawn around the kitchen door and the booth table. The group had arrived directly into the kitchen before being seated. The boy had then been dispatched to the fishmonger at the dock to find the freshest river pig he could find. As the four of them savoured the stinging sensation on their lips before slowly chewing the meat, Geyldian had to slow himself down. He’d never forget that one time when his love of Fugu almost got the better of him. He was sure that the doctor turned Prime would be far too busy to come save him this time. Geyldian decided instead to keep a clear head in case another in the party became ill. Thankfully the neurological and intestinal side effects of the fish dish were slow to materialise in the four large constitutions. Consumption continued until only small morsels, not worth fighting over remained. The four of them felt like they were chewing electricity with pins and needles in their lips. One by one, each of the four sat back to reflect on the meal. Wraith attempted to announce his satisfaction but was completely unable to control his now numb and tingling lips. What came out was unintelligible, but received loud guffaws from the others, muffled only by the fact that their lips were also no longer part of their faces. Next was a generous helping of Baijiu, a strongly distilled clear spirit made from rice. Anything from 40 to 60% alcohol by volume. The first glass was downed by all as Geyldian shouted a single worded toast at full volume, causing other diners to jump and turn round. “PRIME!” By the end of the second glass the hybrids and humans alike no longer gave any worry for their lips and were mostly wondering if their faces had fallen off. ing their need to be battle ready at some point in the next 24 hours, a mildly more tolerant Geyldian called time. The four stood and wobbled like

Weebles behind the curtain back into the kitchen where exchanges were heard in the tender speech of Wu, an older dialect of Chinese common in Shanghai. This was the only proof to the other diners that any guests had in fact visited the restaurant. No clue was given as to what meal the mystery diners had eaten, or the other diners may all have requested some. The old grandfather and his granddaughter the Head Chef exchanged their goodbyes, with a hope that the group would make their visits a little more regular. Then, one by one, the group jumped away directly; safe in the knowledge that their visit would remain a well-kept secret. Microseconds later the four materialised more or less at their chosen destinations. Wraith and Gray in the corridor outside their quarters, Geyldian on his easy chair, already sat so familiar was the image. Kariina was a couple of feet off her target, and also off balance. Quickly she became entangled in the wiring of the sensor array in Mona’s nose cone. Geberus calmed her by planting his mouth slit on her face, receiving the faintest transfer of Fugu. This only added to the plushness of his partners lips sending literal sparks to his brain. Geberus never ate human food but was beginning to enjoy some of the nicer human customs. Trapped as she was with Geberus’ cold clammy mouth hole pressed against her much plumper lips, Kariina in her drunken state was unsure if she ever wanted to be freed. Geberus was a genius, but in the time he’d gotten to know her, he had learned to do several things. Firstly he devoted time to her, instead of letting his day be consumed by the Thrall mind bank. Secondly he had learned to cut out long winded explanations in favour of more plain speaking, words Kariina could understand, conduits aside. Thirdly he’d learned to enjoy having someone to share his life and accomplishments, and the physicality which ensued. Notwithstanding the differences in their builds, the couple looked to be mismatched beyond all hope. At the side of Kariina the genius scientist looked like a chicken bone who wouldn’t survive a good squeeze, but the clever clone didn’t need to resort to physical shows of strength to impress his mate, easily fulfilling the masculine role with his intellect and new humble ive nature. Before entering their family quarters Zero looked at Wraith’s jolly flushed face, and simply winked at his son. This was the signal for; get your game face on. Beyond the threshold was an opponent more formidable than any war Lizard. Gray could still see the merest remnants of the girl from Darnall, but she was so different now. Joan could never be Prime, but as unwilling to leave his medical lab as Leren was, freeing her from the stasis pod had become doctor Prime’s first

priority. Now, Old doctor bad manners, was free to concentrate on all things medical, only being drawn into Central machinations when Joan could not handle them. Truth be told, after completing her medical training years before alongside Leren, Joan had been a constant companion to Aelren, whose duties and schedules had easily become ingrained within her. Of course, she was also far better equipped to dissolve conflicts and set human policies with barely a nod from the Doctor who most times couldn’t even understand the root of the problem. In the end it had taken the Thrall mind bank to bring Joan back to them. So tricky were the traps set on the stasis pod by Nazir that Gray had quickly itted himself to be out of his depth. Geberus didn’t want the responsibility of killing Joan but knew his Mind bank would interrogate each line of code to unpick the fatal pitfalls set by the rogue Novus. With each alteration reversed, the task took the mind bank less than 15 minutes. Joan had been busy ever since on behalf of the new Prime. Attempting to give her errant partner and the son he’d led astray her sternest glare, but then watching as the pair attempted to fit through the door together like a comedy double act; Joan couldn’t help but break down into fits of laughter. What a strange life she’d lived. Here finally was Gray, her Gray in mind and in body. Joan considered that if Nazir had been standing before her right now, she would’ve actually thanked him for kidnapping her before she’d had too much time to wallow in her grief. The way events had unfolded almost 5 weeks had ed before her liberation from the pod. Only nine days spent conscious as Nazir’s prisoner, the rest of this time she’d been asleep. Whilst awake Joan had been thoroughly preoccupied with escape; Nazir had provided the perfect distraction from her loss. In total Joan had been mentally without Zero for about three days prior to being abducted. The first face she’d seen upon her release was Gray. Yet again, everything was as she considered it should be, in the next few days that might all change. Joan wasn’t scared, not even a little bit. Steps had been put in place ... Ra-sian had calculated much more clearly where the three missiles might hit; again the target zone appeared to be the high Mid-Atlantic. For the last week Cobra craft and emergency services had been airlifting people out of the danger zone. Ships had been collecting people and evacuating then southwards at full steam. Airlines had stopped ferrying holidaymakers and were moving people

who couldn’t move themselves. The human race had taken another step closer towards total unification, one nation with no borders as the spirit of cooperation made the unthinkable possible. That said, the humans would need every second that Zero’s team could give them. Some trepidation had been held by Zero as he stepped into the hangar for his first view of the Sphinx, but once he saw the craft all his unease melted away. Clearly Oxull had been inspired by the craft which had delivered Gray to this planet and looking at the thrusters Gray’s memories had been leaking out of his clone long before his own mental outburst. By the time Zero had covered the hundred metres down the hangar deck to the craft, the feeling was familiar. The only new thing was the fact that in this craft, he would fly solo. Gray continued to have recollections; and why wouldn’t he? So many of the sights, sounds and actions he would now make were exactly the same as back on his home world, this was why he’d been created. Gray was also at ease with the fact he had always occupied a manufactured body, even if he’d forgotten this fact for the longest time. His first memory was the same as when he’d freed himself from Leren’s stasis pod after his long sleep. He had never had knowledge of the process which allowed him to regenerate, and despite devoting himself to the task full time in preference to his duties as Prime, neither did Leren. Gray had been hatched eons ago looking exactly the same as he did now. He was equipment; a weapon on legs. A few days before Ra-sian had taken another imprint from Gray and was alarmed to find that Gray’s record now occupied one percent of the record all on its own. Such a volume of experience from one soul had never been seen before. Even at full speed, something only the Watcher could accomplish, it would take a century at least to sift through it all. Ra-sian was determined to find the system where Gray originated, if only to see what became of Ashlar-Gin and its neighbours. Realising the task might be too much even for the Watcher, Geberus pledged the help of his mind bank to pre-collate the data into categories specified by Ra-sian, who could then target data sets specifically looking for clues and answers. As Zero got strapped in, the seat lifted into the belly of the Sphinx. First impressions were good but then, by extension he had approved all Oxull’s technical schematics and then proven the craft with a test flight. The fact that all dials were clear and controls easily accessible was no surprise.

Flying through the atmosphere Gray’s impressions of the craft behaved crisply for its size, reaction time from stick to manoeuvre was quick and precise. Reaching the outer edge of Earth’s atmosphere Gray kicked the Sphinx’s plasma thrusters into high gear. ing Mona twenty-five minutes later a Cobra, piloted by Wraith dropped into formation behind him. The two ships accelerated out into the solar system ... Oxull, Geberus and Jer-mija had all worked hard despite everything which had happened since their new pilot has been spawned. The output of the Axe had been increased to around 500 Petawatts; as such the hold of the craft and every other crevice of free space on board was now devoted to this system. Zero ed the conversation as the concept was thrown about between Jer-mija, Geberus and Oxull like a nuclear hacky sack. Thought to be impossible when Eight first had his idea, Jer-mija had even jotted down rough calculations on the floor of a hangar overnight to prove the concept. Oxull went quiet, he knew Eight was clever, but this was another level. Geberus continued to protest, the calculations had him baffled so he spent three days plugging the computations into his Thrall Mind Bank, which proved the theory after only a few short hours. When the four of them reconvened, long faces ensued when the mind bank confirmed the power output required for the plan, which Oxull quickly verified could never be attained and was completely unreasonable. Zero had then thrown his hat into the ring, much to the chagrin of the three clones. Having dealt with Clone Zero and his Thrallian developed Hexalobe brain, the three were surprised to find that his mental acuity and skill to simplify a problem remained undiminished even utilising his normal brain. Though no-one had actually said the words, Zero had cottoned on to Jer-mija’s intention to develop a new mega reactor which would allow a force field to be erected around the Earth. Theoretically this was possible at close range to the Earth, but roughly two million miles beyond the Moon, the distance needed to alter the course of a hyperspace conduit, power of that magnitude could never be generated. Zero was the first one to say the word force field, receiving a grimace from the concepts inventor. Placing his hand high up on Jer-mija’s shoulder ... -It’s certainly the right idea Jer’, but you’re trying too hard. We don’t need to put the Earth inside a bubble do we? We need a strong field, focussed over an area of

a thousand miles square. Instead of erecting a full sphere, just give me a spherical cap. Apply a hundredth of the power over a millionth of the area. Then I put myself ahead of the conduit and erect the shield. If you’ve done the math right, the conduit will be deflected. My biggest worry is that the Sphinx will become a galactic cue ball with the conduit being the cue and I’ll be pushed out of the way. This will render everything useless, so thruster output will be everything. The new reactor needs to be able to power the shield for what? ... You said the first two missile events were happening for around three hours in total, so I need capacity for much more considering thruster usage to stabilise the impact. Jer-mija was going to jump back to his lab when Zero stopped him. -Wait Jer-mija! What if we consider the shield as a last resort only; the axe is a focussed particle beam for breaking Khai shielding, it works to overload the shield at one position and push on through to the hull plating right? -That’s correct yes. Turning to look directly at Geberus. -But Kariina and you didn’t get to this result straight away; do you still have an early prototype? -Yes we have several. -Well what would happen if we rigged that kind of wattage to the prototype axe and fired it straight at the conduit. -Well the early prototypes had a widely scattered beam, not focused enough to break shield plating, they didn’t fire for long either until we made the next prototype more efficient. If I understand your request, more power will allow us to more energy through the array, and for a longer duration. You are thinking attack the head of the conduit with a particle beam dense enough to what, slow it down? ... Or break it up? Gray now spoke to Geberus directly, Oxull was baffled and Jer-mija was listening ready to interject, but so far everything Zero had suggested seemed reasonable.

-I don’t think we need to destroy the conduit outright. If we can slow it down or open up a hole to allow normal space to breach the inside, either would have the same effect. If the front slowed dramatically then the middle and rear would be thrown into compression or buckling. The strain inside the conduit wall would destroy the conduit on its own. Geberus ... Jer’! We need to quantify the forces inside the conduit wall. My guess is they’ll be high; but maybe not as high as we think, the conduits are natural structures after all ... Mother Nature is nothing if not efficient. We just need the particle beam to halt the progress of the conduit momentarily. By momentarily let’s say 10 seconds. We achieved the same thing with thirty nukes from the side at point blank range. With this new reactor; we should be able to better that easily. Jer-mija remained silent with his eyes closed and his head bowed, his original idea could not have been developed in time, but Zero had allowed the project to live on through pre-existing technology. This was a real breakthrough, time was short to develop a new reactor, but again with less power required, even this was a possibility now. -Of course we do still need an accurate way to anticipate and target the conduit, or I’ll be chopped liver on toast in a can. Of course it wouldn’t be me that would have to deal with Joan, maybe I can regenerate into a fly on the wall for that one! Without a care in the world Zero began to laugh loudly and jumped away, the meeting was over, as the three clones all looked at one another. -Well clones ... Zero’s done it again. I’m gonna need specs from you both before I can modify the Sphinx’s airframe to take bigger plasma thrusters and hold the forces we’re talking about. Good Luck men! The engineer held back his laugh as if building it up inside him; then let it all out in one giant belly laugh, before jumping back to engineering ... Geberus and Jer-mija had known what needed to be done ... As he sat in the modified Sphinx with his thrusters wide open and Wraith following in his wake, Zero was a picture of calm. The last time he ed being this deep into space he’d been unable to do anything, literally caught in a Khai hyperspace bubble. This situation was very different, Zero was the one in control. Six hours later and Zero ordered Wraith to fall back. The youngling was to act as plan ‘B’ should plan Zero fail. Forging on to intersect the conduit, Zero began to

prepare the Sphinx. There was no margin for error, and if anything this aspect was giving Zero the most trouble. There would barely be time to acquire his target, and even less time to adjust. He would be reliant upon the best guess of Kariina and Ra-sian, millions of miles behind him on Mona. They would signal the time to fire, hopefully giving the Axe enough time to reach full particle pressure. At which point the conduit charging through space would collide with the dense particle stream and split open. That was the plan, but should that fail, Wraith was waiting an hour behind him. This distance would be covered in less than two seconds, Wraith would effectively begin firing at the same time as Zero along a line which would attempt to rip a hole in the side of the conduit as it ed by him. Neither would see much, Geberus assured them that a flash of light would be released signalling a massive release of energy. This alone would be their signal of success. For a brief moment Gray was lost in the possible futility of the task he was about to attempt. After all he would be in the way of something which had traversed galaxies unchecked. Gray considered he might have more luck trying to shoot a bacterium on the ass end of an amoeba from the other side of the planet. At least that wouldn’t kill him if he failed. Suddenly Kariina’s dulcet tones filled Zero’s ears ... “Zero, the conduit is inbound, start a five minute countdown ... On my mark ... MARK!” “Confirm, countdown started ... Kariina?” “Yes honey?” “You haven’t given me a target yet.” “Please hold! Don’t worry we are just receiving the latest coordinates now from outpost Xantii. Ra-sian will then take thirty seconds to run his calculation at which time we will give you sector and vector.” “Holding ...” A two minute pause followed, by the end of which Zero was beginning to feel the same as a wet shirt hung out to dry under the baking Floridian sun. Finally ...

“Kariina?” “Yes honey?” “You know it’s going to take me a good minute to program the firing solution right?” “That’s new, what do you think Ra-sian?” “I see nothing new.” “Sorry I forgot, enhanced eyes, not ears. I was referring to the possible note of worry in Zero’s voice.” “KARI ...” “Be advised ... Coordinates received. Ra-sian is calculating. Confirm time left on countdown should be two minutes, seventeen seconds and counting ... MARK!” “Confirmed.” Zero watched the countdown steadily ticking down. OK, plenty of time yet. “Coordinates coming now, confirm.” “Received ... Commencing programming.” Zero began steadily tapping in the sequence of numbers. This would point the Axe at an area of space and place his ship in front of the fast approaching conduit for maximum impact. Zero read each number audibly; confirming what he was seeing on the screen was the same as the key he was pressing. He was aware that even now Wraith was tapping in a modified sequence which would set him perpendicular to the conduit. Once the coordinates had been input into the Axe controller, the resulting vector of approach and the firing solution were displayed on the screen; overlaid on to the space outside the ship. It didn’t take long for Zero to realise the error. On a smaller sub screen by his control column, his position relative to home was also shown, his attitude was all wrong. The Earth should have been perfectly behind

him and it wasn’t. The timer read a meagre thirty eight seconds remaining until he’d have to fire. “Wraith, I have a coordinate error, check yours.” “All seems fine on the viewer. Am I clear to proceed?” “Yes, be careful. I’m over riding to manual fire now.” Zero had twenty five seconds to decide which area of space he was going to fire into but aligning his ship on a vector to the northern mid-Atlantic was all he could think to do. Clearing his mind there was something very familiar about this situation; in space, and out of control. Zero now focussed his eyes and his mind, in an attempt to feel the conduit; he gave it his best shot. With three seconds left, the super soldier without a clue opened up the Axe, full power for the next ten seconds at least. To his surprise the Axe had met something. An area of space was literally glowing with all the colours of the spectrum, but far from being in a large circle to indicate a direct hit, the glow was a definite crescent. As quickly as his wrists would react, Zero gave a small micro flinch away from the edge of the arc. Better. This tiny adjustment had now produced a shape which was better than eighty percent of a circle. The glow was becoming brighter, Zero couldn’t decide if this was the conduit beginning to destabilise or if it was just getting nearer. In a snap decision, Zero looked away from his front screen to the Axe controller; removing the limiter he then pushed the Axe to 120% ... Then 130%... More power! Looking frontwards once more, the glow was gone, the conduit had been steered by the torsional contraction happening behind, this was a good sign but if Zero didn’t relocate the conduit it would be all down to Wraith. Making a series of attitude adjustments in quick succession, an edge was found, another millisecond and Zero was again inside the massive glow. Kariina’s timer had been wrong by around twenty seconds, now it became clear that the conduit was still on approach. Initially the glow had grown larger but now the size was reducing quickly, a clear indicator that the conduit was almost upon him, and it was huge. Only a little more than a second ed before the Sphinx was rocked by a massive tremor, instantly the ship heated up as if in a

massive furnace. Pieces of the frame began glowing. Gray held the controls steady but stayed away from the thrusters as much as he could. Another half a second and everything went calm. The Sphinx had punctured a hole, albeit tiny and ineffective into the head of the conduit, then the interstellar snake had swallowed him and the Sphinx whole. As Gray momentarily lost his aim, he’d then been forced to regain and maintain the bead on his target. This delay nullified any positive progress the Axe had been making. The tiny hole had been sealed quickly as Zero had ed through. Inside the cockpit alarms were blaring that every single designed tolerance was being exceeded. Ending up inside the conduit had been a scenario neither him nor any of the clones had even considered. Breaching was not the objective. In the next seconds turbulence was again felt, this time even heavier. Wraith had opened fire with his Axe along a lateral line. His coordinates appeared to be correct and not needing to hit a specific part of the conduit, he’d found his target easily. To Zero all of space was visible from within the conduit, something he definitely ed, but things were distorted badly. The huge Cobra craft, barely visible except for the beam which led back to it, was distorted in the horizontal plane such that the wide bodied craft appeared as a vertical disc with features painted on the side. Wraith had punctured the conduit wall easily, and as Zero was driven past in the Sphinx the particle beam cut through a starboard winglet, completely removing the attached thruster. Zero cut that engine from the power profile and the plasma quickly stopped venting. Luckily none of the inner bulkheads had even been grazed and Zero’s atmosphere was still intact. Out of harm’s way and a million miles past Wraith already, the particle beam was still visible. Now Zero was relieved to see that the tunnel of distortion he was inside had developed two slits which extended from the Axe beam back toward the Sphinx. Once opened sufficiently the conduit began to twist like a ribbon in a strong wind, then there was a blinding flash, and everything returned to calm. Far from blurry blobs of light, the stars were now perfectly clear. The conduit was destroyed; Zero breathed a sigh of relief. The whole episode had lasted for less than ten seconds, but on his scanner, the moon was now much closer than before. Having been ejected by the conduit, Zero was still barrelling through space at

conduit speed. Applying thrust from his three remaining pods, a slow roll was countered, and deceleration began. Pointing his nose towards Earth and steadily increasing reverse thrust, Zero could see his margin for scrubbing the speed in time before he would possibly crash into the Earth’s atmosphere was narrow. If only I hadn’t lost that thruster. In real Zero was doing everything he could to manage his own situation, and even though he had almost been squashed like a bug on a windscreen as the conduit slammed into the Sphinx, Zero remained calm. The only thing which gave him any concern now was that since destroying the conduit, no word had been heard from Wraith. An update of his speed and trajectory towards Earth showed that the Sphinx was making steady progress to slow down with the prolonged deceleration burn. Soon Zero would be cruising at a speed well inside the crafts normal operating envelope once more well before the moon. This was serendipitous, Zero laid in a new course towards Mona; the trapped lunar leviathan. Zero had to try and understand a few things; there were still two missiles inside their respective conduits which were Earthbound. Three days was the figure being bandied about by the Watcher. But why wasn’t Kariina, with all her enhancements to Mona’s sensor array and its subsequent integration into a wider stellar system, able to pinpoint the time much more accurately? Another more pressing issue was the botched firing coordinates, which would’ve seen Zero and the Sphinx wiped out had he not instinctively reacted. Zero understood that there was no easy way to pinpoint the conduits, but the firing solution, once programmed had left him laying broadside in its path. The Axe would’ve fired at a completely empty area of space had he not intervened; this was inexcusable. Zero would rather have an educated guess from the Watcher than all the calculations on the planet from a human scientist, but Ra-sian had blotted his pristine copy book this time. Zero would not hold it against him, but it couldn’t happen again. The plan basically amounted to no plan as long as there was a problem seeing the conduits coupled with a delay in reporting the position from the enhanced sensor network. The only positive was that the Axe derived weapon, whilst inadequate head on had worked well from a flanking firing position. On approach to the nose of Mona, the super soldier reminded himself that he

must remain calm and ive. Since becoming Prime, Leren was practically overloading each of the Numbers as he selfishly tried to solve the conundrum of Gray’s regeneration. The biggest drain of all was being placed upon Ra-sian, as he was the one cataloguing the mega-recollection which Gray experienced shortly after re-sparking. Pulling into the hangar, Gray had been on autopilot himself, a mixture of both recollection and tactical thinking completely blotted out the landing process. No sooner had the Sphinx touched down than Gray had shut down all systems and began exiting the cockpit. As he swung out from the bottom of the craft, Zero could see Thrall approaching with a diagnostic umbilical cable on a trolley. The bunch of wires would not be especially heavy, but these Thrall were the super weedy type who could barely lift the weight of a small wrench. Helping the Thrall by lifting the cable and hooking it into the socket on his craft, Zero was still preoccupied. As all his missions used to be Earth based, Zero had never travelled to Mona, but the hangar, which was completely different to either Central or OFFright, having been constructed out of the front of the ship after it became embedded into the moon still felt very familiar to him. So out of it was Zero that he never even noticed Kariina or Ra-sian who both met him at the side of his craft. Kariina felt something was wrong, it was unlike Zero to walk silently in her company. All the while she observed the super soldier looking around him, into some very odd areas. “What’s wrong Gray? You seem preoccupied.” “It’s nothing, except I can’t shake the feeling that I've been here before, and something bad happened.” With a big smile ... “Well of course you have been here before; your clone was here regularly, interrogating the captured Khai.” Gray stopped walking and closed his eyes. Appearing to fall into a meditation whilst standing bolt upright, his breathing rate was falling steadily. Focusing his memory, a blurred vision appeared, one not formed enough to fully lock onto but it was there nonetheless.

“Interrogation? That’s a funny word for murder!” Kariina was taken aback; Gray should have no memory of the event which saw his clone kill the rescued Komodo crew. As she continued to watch, all the colour drained from his features, then his respiratory rate seemed to increase dramatically well past normal. Kariina signalled to Ra-sian to back off. She had seen Gray in battle mode before, but what was he experiencing to cause this, a flashback? That would be impossible, he was still tucked up in his stasis pod. Wasn’t he? Kariina’s hardest gaze found the eyes of all the Thrall hangar crew in turn, motioning them to slowly back away. She had tried hard not to startle any of them, but in the distance Kariina watched as one Thrall keeled over dead. A squish was heard like a popping melon as the Thrall’s bulbous grey noggin bounced off the hangar deck. The remaining Thrall turned away, not out of embarrassment, but self-preservation. They were acutely aware that the sight of a sudden death might grow into a cluster if they all became gripped by a wave of panic. If that happened, nothing would stop it until the last Thrall expired. Thrall didn’t enjoy surprises ... All the while Gray had been experiencing something, but the memory wasn’t his own, although sharper now the images still weren’t fully formed. The fighting style which Gray was watching was definitely him, although from a long forgotten but now unfortunately ed era where Gray had been a literal destroyer of all things Khai. The flush of remembrance almost raised a smile on his otherwise cold and empty features as he saw himself liberate the Khai Captain’s sword like weapon and turn it on the others. The last thing Gray saw were completely stunned looks of horror painted across the faces of the clones before everything went black. “Make no mistake Kariina, I will defend this planet by whatever means are required, but do not be fooled. Conduits impacting and damaging the Earth’s surface, leaving it barren and unable to sustain life are one thing, but the race that sent those missiles after the Devine ... When I see one ... It will be dead. I will kill them all until I’m dead. Then I will kill them some more! I like you Kariina ... Don’t get in my way.” The flat and emotionless tone wasn’t being spoken by any Gray the big hybrid recognised, but once finished Kariina watched as both his skin colour and

breathing all returned to normal. As if nothing had happened, Gray caught sight of the dead Thrall. “You guys! ... Which one of you sneezed this time?” Zero made his way swiftly towards the deck exit then onwards into the main corridor which paralleled the hangar. Kariina was left in Zero’s wake breathing a sigh of relief. As Ra-sian stood up from behind the stub of the severed thruster pod where he’d been hiding, Kariina looked at him intently. -You’re the Watcher. Make sure you keep an eye on him then. When they caught up to Zero, he was choosing which colour of goop to order from the dispenser. “You know, I still hate this stuff right? But now my body positively craves it. I must be in withdrawal or something! Has there been any word from Wraith?” Gray’s attempts to make light were necessary if only because whilst acting completely oblivious, he could hear the mental commotion taking place between Geyldian’s sister and Ra-sian a little too clearly. Sheesh! You’d think with all the practice they get that they’d learn to disconnect once in a while. “No Gray ... Er Zero! ... No word, but we do have him on the scanner. He’s inbound and expected in a few hours ... With his hunger sated the three walked a short distance down the corridor into the sensor array control room. Here the conduit coordinate debacle could be talked through and analysed ...

Chapter 47 - Acerrima proximorum odia ...

(THE HATRED OF THOSE connected to us the closest, is the most bitter.) Some hours ed with tempered accusations being thrown, volleyed back with apologetic excuses on the part of both the clone and the hybrid. Some excuses were much more, accompanied by long winded explanations. Even dumbed down these were at the very edge of Gray’s understanding. The basic problem seemed to be the pairs inability to realise there’d been a problem, moreover neither was worried as the end result had still been favourable. Whilst Gray was listening, he was also diligently scrolling through a myriad of screens displaying the data being fed in from the other outposts. Ra-sian began to feel insulted. Not only was splitting his attention retarding his ability to understand; but Gray was also trying to check his work. This wasn’t Gray’s intention at all, but he didn’t see why he should have to pussy foot around the insecurities of a clone if he couldn’t it he’d made a simple mistake. Gray was in fact already assuming the same as Ra-sian; there had been no mistake made, not on the part of the two Numbers at the very least. Gray was now determined to find where the problem had originated, but he wasn’t going to prop up Ra-sian who could solve this problem in minutes if he stopped being so defensive and dug in. -Look here. The pair ed Gray at the console. Visible was a string of numbers which had been coming in from the far flung outposts. Each line of numbers represented a point logged along the path of the conduit. Enough points over a long enough distance, once plotted would give a very accurate vector of travel and a reasonably precise position for the missile at any given point. -The interval of plot points remains unchanged I assume. Both stations are scanning what? Once per second? Kariina and Ra-sian silently nodded in the affirmative. -I thought that as the conduit approached a large gravitational field there was a tendency to speed up slightly. As you can see, this one was indeed headed straight for the Earth. So why did this missile slow down and deviate course in

an apparently empty area of space. It’s literally only a fraction of a fraction of a second of a degree, not enough to miss the Earth but, definitely enough for me to be in the wrong place. The intercept time was also off by several seconds. That’s error number one. I suspect you missed it because you only had time to analyse the final screen. Error number two was the firing solution, I was aiming into empty space, the conduit was coming at the side of the Sphinx. I got extremely lucky. Ra-sian’s interest was piqued. He had seen the figures but there hadn’t been time to plot each point as it came in, he’d needed to calculate the firing solution. Now though he could see that the figures Gray had received were not the figures he had calculated. -Sabotage ... Moving to another console, Ra-sian indicated to Gray to examine the figures displayed. These were the actual calculations for the firing solution. Gray added these to the plot extrapolated on the main viewer. These calculations positioned the Sphinx front and centre to the conduit on perfect axial alignment. -Nice ... But that isn’t what came through, check the comms recordings. Gray now added a second Sphinx to the view, indicating the rough attitude and position. The Watcher stood scratching his head, then his chin. -Interesting ... Even if you switch some numbers around, you cannot make this position of firing axis from my numbers. It’s a complete substitution of the intended firing solution. Beckoning Gray and Kariina inwards towards him, very close; in a hushed tone, and a perfect English accent Ra-sian spoke the words instead of thinking them. What he was about to say could not ripple into the hive. “We have a saboteur in our midst. There are several questions. Firstly, Kariina when we send a message from this room, where does it go before it leaves Mona?” “Well the message isn’t just sent, I guess first the message goes to encryption, next it would be transduced into a signal, and sent from the broadcast antenna. That doesn’t explain how someone intercepted your calculations

between that terminal and my message interface and changed them in real time.” At that moment a significant tremble went through the hull of the ship, much more so than if a Caddy had flown by them down the launch tube. Although discussions were momentarily halted, the delay was only for a few seconds before Ra-sian continued. “Did we round up all the Anti-Numbers? Nazir was pretty loud about forming a new circle of power with him at the head. Maybe one of them is here with us. If we can’t trust information supposedly generated by a computer, we cannot trust anything.” “We caught six Novus quickly once Nazir fell, we interrogated them, and none gave anything away. They were all invested in his cause. Anyway we simply thought he’d not yet managed to recruit a full circle.” Zero and Ra-sian now stood shaking their heads slowly. Whoever had done the interrogations should have known better than to make such dangerous assumptions. Now it seemed that there might still be two of the Anticircle to round up. “Blimey, can’t you lot keep it down a bit? I could hear you halfway from Mars.” Gray’s son had breached the meeting room loudly, with a beaming smile before breaking into a chorus of, One Nil... One Niiil! Just to make everyone perfectly aware that it was he who’d taken out the conduit and not his father, who now had the look of a sore loser. “Wraith! Can you get serious? We’re discussing the possibility that someone tried to kill me.” “Eh? How? ... Oh the wrong coordinates. It sounds like you need a hacker of your own.” “I can assure you I do not. I will find who did this, that’s my job.” “Hmmmm about that; you’re the Watcher, so to beat your gaze someone has gone to a lot of trouble. They have taken your logic and used it against

you. It might even be someone you’ve trained. Wouldn’t it make sense that Nazir would try to surround himself with the best and brightest, and aren’t all the best and brightest Novus under the direct tutelage of a Number? All they need to do is take a Number’s training to the next level and you might find your task harder than you imagine.” Far from looking hurt, Ra-sian began to reflect, Kariina also began to see memories flashing before her eyes. “Before I was abducted, I was alone in the sensor array connecting new sensors. What if the attacker wasn’t Nazir, but was only one of his allies? One of the false circle? Nazir had spent most of his time with Aelren prior to him being exposed.” “I know a skilled human who can work quickly; she won’t be blinded by your rules and logic. Maybe you can get to work looking at which terminals on Mona were actively sending comm’s messages at the same time Kariina was transmitting to Zero.” Wraith jumped away and was gone five minutes before returning with a very sick looking teenage human girl at his side. “I’ll never get used to that! ... So where do I sit?” Keisha looked cool, having already been forewarned by Wraith where she was going and what she might see. His final words had been, “So don’t freak out!” Inside though, Keisha was anything but cool. Following Wraith’s advice was a logical place to start the search and Ra-sian was already examining the logs. The Watcher needed to draw a line under the issue. They could never take steps forward if there were still two Nazirians out there working against them. Seeing the Watcher working, the small human girl approached without fear. Keisha was itching to converse with the spindly blue clone, but it was more important for her to watch him work. By watching Ra-sian for a few minutes, Keisha was able to vastly reduce her learning time. Computers were her gig, and it never took her long to learn a new language. The clone computer system ran a language unlike anything humans had; but it was still logic based. The language was very similar; the only real difference was that all the commands were in the ancient language. Ra-sian could feel her touch on his shoulder through his clone robe, Keisha was cold.

“Our environment will take a while to get used to I’m afraid, we don’t sweat so we prefer the air cooler. What would you like to ask?” “Do you have a network map? I might be able to save you a bit of time.” Ra-sian tapped a few buttons on his interface. On the main screen was a 3D representation of every terminal on Mona. “OK, every terminal which has been inactive for the whole of today, remove it please.” Ra-sian complied, effectively more than half the terminals vanished, this was no surprise as lots of terminals on Mona hadn’t been used since their arrival so they could be stripped for spares if required. A few terminals which had been used regularly had also been removed. “Is this all three ships? Doesn’t look like many active terminals. OK can you also remove any terminal which you yourself cannot connect to in less than three commands, Oh, and any terminal not on this ship?” Ra-sian looked baffled at this request. “All these terminals are connected, but they aren’t all on the same branch as you. I’m assuming you can connect to any of them, but you have to through another terminal or terminals to connect to them. By extension, any terminal not on this ship would create a delay in data transfer, making a real time intercept of your own signal impossible.” Tapping buttons on his interface, terminals were being eliminated in vast swathes. Zooming in on the Mona only network still showed the number of terminals connectable within three hops to be around 847. This number needed to be whittled down even more. “OK, that's good. Can you highlight any terminal which was only in use for the 1 hour period prior to you calculating the firing solution, and which had communication with your terminal?” This time the numbers were far more favourable with exactly 32 terminals. None of these terminals could be ruled out any further, as all of them were in regular if not constant communication with the scanner array control room where they

were now. “May I? ...” Ra-sian scooted sideways on his chair, allowing Keisha to grab another and roll in front of his terminal. Ra-sian now watched in amazement as the young human girl delved into the hard storage annex of each of the computers. “When a file is deleted where would it go? I’m guessing you guys delete things to create space, but with backups nothing is ever really deleted right? If we can get to the deleted item annex, each file will have the equivalent of an IP tag, showing which terminal it was deleted from. Then we can restore the one file we need.” “One file? How can you know which file is the one from thirty two possible terminals? That could be thousands of files the way we exchange data.” “But our file was made by someone who wouldn’t want to leave any trace. See if there is a file which was deleted within one minute of you sending the coordinates to Mr. Zero here.” Ra-sian moved in close to Keisha’s ear, and with his perfect English accent, he whispered the location of the deleted file storage annex. Having been under the watchful eyeball of Ra-sian the whole time, Zero, Wraith and Kariina all mockingly turned away. Ra-sian even disconnected himself from the hive temporarily once more as he whispered. Ra-sian never disconnected. All the time, at a speed matching the Watcher himself, Keisha was infiltrating protected data storage annexes, entering s and ing through the clone equivalent of firewalls. The final press revealed that only one file on the whole ship had been deleted in the time specified. Opening this revealed the terminal tag. It had been several hours since the false figures had been sent then deleted, but no matter. Life on Mona was not only subject to scrutiny within the mental hive but was also a matter of Clone record ... Always ... every second. The file was indeed a false sequence of numbers, the format matched Ra-sian’s calculated vectors for the firing solution, but as expected the numbers were completely different. The file had been deleted within five seconds of being transmitted, a clear indication of guilt. Pulling up the terminal tag, Keisha highlighted the terminal on the main screen. The terminal in question was in fact

on the same branch of the network, three decks straight down in Astro-metrics, no other terminals had been needed for the infiltration. Quickly Ra-sian tried to access the record footage of the terminal at the time the transmission was sent. -The footage ... It’s been wiped! Zero and Wraith were stricken with an overwhelming feeling. Ra-sian’s precious record had been tampered with. The Watcher was feeling violated. Being half human and half clone, Kariina’s skin was much pinker than that of a normal clone but now her skin flushed purple, a usual clone response to such anger. After Zero’s clone had killed himself to rescue her from Nazir’s trap, Kariina had taken a look deep within herself. Vowing to harden herself to her former glory, Kariina was keen to never be taken so easily again. All the evidence pointed to the fact that whilst her abduction was Nazir’s plot, the execution of said plan had in fact been left to one of her own trusted Novus, whom she knew and worked with every day. Kariina would never tolerate this kind of betrayal; as such she decided that her retribution would live long in the record as a deterrent to any clone who would violate their methods. Kariina jumped away. Quickly Zero and Wraith followed her. As justifiable as her actions appeared to her, what she was about to do was in itself against everything the clones stood for ...

Chapter 48 - To be a Number with a name.

WHEN ZERO AND WRAITH materialised inside the Astro-metrics lab, Kariina was bearing down on the Novus seated at the offending terminal. With a swipe of her giant hand the Novus who weighed next to nothing by comparison was scooped up and backwards out of their seat. So placid was the reaction of the Novus who had been caught completely unaware, with not even a trace of guilt or an ounce of fight that the two humans feared Kariina had snapped his neck as she’d grabbed him. The Novus was however still blinking, and after a few long seconds hanging at the end of the Kariina’s arm, he just began to look forlorn. Kariina was completely thrown by how innocent the Novus looked. Lowering the Novus the few feet it took for his feet to find the deck, Kariina released her grip on his neck. -How long have you been at this terminal? -Six Horon roughly, I can check the log if you like. -NO! Where is the Novus you relieved? Do you know his designation? A crack was heard as the Novus swung his head from side to side ... -Sorry ... I mean Delta Kappa Nuy Omicron Eta. As you know, all Novus are designated by the pod they occupy on their down time, so their designation also serves as a locator. The Novus had applied the modern Greek alphabet, figuring that Kariina would be unfamiliar with the ancient Devine. The Novus figured wrong. -Ra-sian? Please tell me where I can find Novus designation D.K.N.O.E? The location Ra-sian sent Kariina was not an easy one to jump to; the Novus pods were arranged in batteries of nine, much like everything else on board the three leviathans, though no clone knew why this was. In order to remain space efficient, these batteries put the nine Novus within, back to back and shoulder to shoulder with very little room between them. A hexagonal matrix was used to provide node points, onto which the batteries were arranged. This allowed for maximum space utilisation, and much like the Novus crammed inside them, the batteries were also packed tightly together. A Novus could only another

Novus by embracing the spirit of cooperation, one yielding into a side alley to allow the favoured to . The favoured would always be the Novus on their way to work as opposed to the Novus on his way to rest. Following the safest approach Kariina, Zero and Wraith jumped to the main access way to the Novus storage area. This corridor was five decks high in this area. Nazir’s follower, as the Novus had inferred would be:Delja – Fourth deck from the top. Kaypa – 1st Matrix locator Nuy – 2nd Matrix locator Omidon – 3rd Matrix locator Eya – The Seventh Bay in the Battery on the marked matrix node Consulting his map of the Novus-tel, provided to him by the Watcher, it took Zero several seconds to get the map oriented. In essence the Battery halls were rectangular, but the grid was based on a huge hexagon.

EACH GROUP OF TWO ADJACENT sides was marked off, following the Devine alphabet a symbol marked each grid line. Grid lines projected from the marked sides. This principle was repeated around the remaining two sets of sides. Grid axes lay in three directions. The correct battery could be arrived at from just two of the Matrix locators, but in order to save time and allow the battery to be reached from any of the corridors which surrounded the hall, the third locator was required. A Novus would quickly learn his place in the Matrix, the assignment they received at the start of the daily shift would enable the Novus to decide which grid line to walk out of. After a few weeks they would also be able to cross parallels in order to head for a sub access door. None of the three ever appreciated just how many Novus existed on board Mona, and by extension the lead ship Central and their triplet OFFright. The Novus were definitely a sight they all expected to see, but in the thousands of rooms and corridors on board each ship, the Novus were quickly diluted to numbers the eye could easily cope with. Such a huge concentration of the nine foot tall bright blue beings all gently fighting their way into their battery after a hard day, as others sought their way outwards attempting not to be late to their post, was making Zero, Kariina and Wraith's head's spin. Seeing that there was barely enough room for a skinny Novus to in between each Battery, Kariina and Wraith abstained vocally from entering the farm. Just the thought of entry into this zone, gave Kariina the heebie geebies, a kind of mega-claustrophobia brought on by when Nazir had left her for dead in Quinn’s tomb. Wraith just smiled a broad smile back at his dad which said, "Have at it!" For Wraith it was simply a practical decision based on not holding up the flow of Novus who would definitely be punished for tardiness. The map showed the anti-number would be holed up in the seventh cell of a battery close to the center of the Grid, on the fourth floor down. The entire area was heaving with cold clammy blue flesh, and Zero was hard pressed to squeeze his bulky, though much shorter frame in between two of the Novus headed from side one down gridline Kaypa. Keeping his wits about him, Zero was attracting all kinds of stares. He was famous and as such the sight of him by a few Novus in such close quarters, quickly brought gridlock within the farm as the urge to meet the great Zero blew like wildfire through the hive.

Luckily even this would not tip the Novus off to Zero's approach, once in their location it was lights out. In order to ensure that a Novus couldn't milk the nutrient fluid too much, a needle would be istered to a nerveless patch of skin at the back of the neck. The Novus would feel nothing except the weight of their eyelids as they quickly fell shut. The next thing they'd know it would be breakfast time then off again to wherever they were needed. A day in the life of a Novus could never be overestimated. Zero went into auto pilot, shaking the shaking hands of nervous Novus as he steadily made progress towards the sleeping saboteur. His mind wandered to the knowledge shown to him by Aelren. The three downed Leviathans had all been just a fragment of a much larger armada of ships. These had all taken to space, leaving their home world to their savage land starved neighbours. There had been tens of thousands of ships in the fleet, but there had been millions upon millions of Devine souls onboard each ship. Not as physical beings, but as consciences ed into the record of each mothership. A general Novus would not amount to anything in the grander scheme of things; in fact currently 99.99% of all the Novus currently serving contained a soul from Devine Prime. Each rescued soul had their turn at a life, not a great life, but such had the Devine species evolved before their exile, that rank and status, mattered far less than the need to be useful. Another important urge was to form a part of a greater whole ... Within the hive. Even now no role was allocated to a robot which a Novus or team of Novus could do just as well, even if a greater time was needed. With lifespans in the order of 20,000 years even for a general Novus, time mattered little. After countless eons in space encoming roughly eighty generations of Devine, the Caretakers had been designed and given life for two principal reasons. The first was to protect the planet against the inevitable ascension of humanity as the dominant species on Earth. Secondly would be to form a vessel. Every being stored inside the record, had effectively been abandoned when the living Devine had journeyed to the new Devine Prime. The general Novus cloned body meant each soul stored in the record had a turn. A chance to be at one inside the mega-mind which was the hive. Nothing struck fear into the mind of a Novus more than the prospect of being alone. This was the very root of why any task would always be assigned to at least two Novus. Of course the Numbers were a special case. When each one retired, their

accumulated knowledge and experiences would be ed into the record, but not for general consumption by the stored hordes or the knowledge might be diluted to the point that no Novus would ever reach the circle. That would be a sorry state of affairs for the running of the three ships which needed at least a circle of nine in order to ensure all departments were overseen efficiently. When one Number died, then 20 Novus would be spawned, and the full brew of knowledge would be dumped unceremoniously into them. In some bodies the knowledge would take a bit, and these Novus would the general population. In others a full branch would flush miraculously. These Novus were then inducted to work directly for a Number to gain practical experience in how best to wield the knowledge they’d inherited. Even this didn't guarantee them a place in the circle. Only the most exceptional reached the highest rank, where they stopped being known by the location of the pod they bunked in and became a Number with a name and quarters. If the Devine tasked their Clone caretakers to watch over the Earth once they left for their new Prime world, they certainly never meant for their creations to remain cooped up on the three ships. Earth was a small but temperate planet, even so there were very few places which were suited for them. The huge organisms which had already been roaming free everywhere, meant there were even fewer. The period which humans now called the Cretaceous was seemingly never ending; giant Reptons, evolving and eating each other, only ever growing larger. There was little room or safety for the tiny mammals, confined to their burrows. This static situation might have persisted for eons, had the random fifteen kilometer wide chunk of rock not struck the planet, thinning the herd. This allowed the mammals a small window of opportunity. Unfortunately, evolution is not a process designed to exploit opportunities quickly. As the three leviathans exited their own hyperspace anomaly, the budding humans were still mostly confined to the trees. One or two clans had ventured into the long grass, but with huge lizard stragglers and terror birds everywhere ... Losses were high; food was scarce. Recognising their earliest selves within the proto-humans, the Devine tried to guide them. The problem was even a group of full blood Devine was no match for a hungry dinosaur. Room needed to be made, and once it was, the Devine

also made their new wards a little better adapted to aid them. There were several iterations of enhancement made, with each new tribe being isolated at different locations around the planet. Never were the experiments supposed to mix but mix they did. The eventual winner of this captivating breeding and genetic enhancement process was the one now known as Homo sapiens sapiens. Furless, upright and bipedal, these new Devine pets made the perfect helpers, but the Devine still didn’t have much to occupy their human subjects and quarrels were rife. Damage was also common on the two earthbound ships due to solar activity, so the humans were employed to bury the two ships. The Earth later did a much better job as the sea level rose around 200 feet. Civilisation had been attained three times previously, but in each case these were erased by unstoppable planetary process or celestial disaster. During the last event, a period of high solar activity, huge amounts of radiation entered the Earth’s atmosphere. Life on the surface became unlivable, humanity was driven underground. Only 8,437 humans remained on the entire planet. All knowledge had been lost yet again, after this, wars were even more common as day to day survival pitted human against human. Eventually the situation grew out of control and the clones became unable or unwilling to mediate the prevention of human wars anymore. Withdrawal back to the three leviathans became their only course of action. This however, limited the restoration of Devine souls to a steady stream of worker Novus, with the occasional useless misfit Thrall ... Walking onwards, the subliminal recognition of the symbol Omidon emblazoned upon one of the nonagonal sides showed Zero was at the battery where the Nazirian would be resting. As Zero walked around the battery; the Eya bay was indeed occupied. A tap of a single button triggered a failsafe resuscitation protocol, within five seconds the Novus was awake. Another five and full mental alertness had been regained. The Novus locked eyes with Zero, recognition triggering a mild state of panic. -What's the matter Novus?... Surprised to see me alive? The Novus, temporarily imagining a world where he could escape, began looking around frantically. As his eyes darted down both the available grid lines he could use as an escape route, he was several steps ahead of Zero in realising

his fate. Behind Zero, in every available space there stood a Novus; each had their eyes locked on him. Recollections of the acts which brought him to this point were flooding from the Novus into the hive. There was little time left for him; just enough to contemplate how close he might be to involuntary retirement, or worse. The Novus gathered around the battery were all glaring angrily at him. Gently, in the most respectful way possible, a single Novus ushered Zero aside before he and a few others closed ranks. Now a phenomenon happened which hadn’t been seen since the last crime had been committed on Devine Prime. The Novus who were normally incapable of individuality; doomed to think collectively, began to bombard the blackened Novus with their own reactions to the events which Nazir, the fake Prime had committed. The effects of such horrors lasted a frustratingly short time in Wraith's opinion. The initial shock could be profound and ultimately long lasting. A defence mechanism of the hive resulted in bad events being rationalised and forgotten quickly. Inside the hive, the Novus was with over 226,800 of his compadres, all sharing their shock, horror and disgust at his actions. The abduction of Joan Albern and Kariina, the resultant death of Clone Zero and the destruction of India-7, were acts which the hive had never experienced before; not to mention this Novus’ recent sabotage of a planet critical mission. Even ed inside the hive, every Novus had generated their own reaction to the events they had witnessed. These memories and associated feelings were being piped directly into the blackened brain of the rogue Novus ... The experience was crushing. So many bad memories mentally overloaded him. The Novus, self-named as Solus within Nazir’s anti-circle had been damaged by Zero’s actions inside the hangar. Rapture at the sight of such bloody violence was not a normal reaction from a Devine clone. Nor were the feelings of rage he’d felt toward the Khai and then the Numbers; but this would've been quickly stabilised and sucked out if only he'd remained faithful to the hive. Instead he’d turned his back on his brethren to follow a false prime, committing senseless atrocities, even after Nazir had been scattered across several English counties. For this the hive would reject him. As the lifeless corpse of the Novus hit the deck of the farm, the other Novus returned to their business as if nothing had happened. As none of them had any memory of the rejected Novus, only

Zero remained to bear witness that anything had actually happened. Walking back to Kariina and Wraith, Zero mulled over what he'd just witnessed. He’d never contemplated that the hive, normally a collective refuge, could be transformed into such an effective weapon. The whole thing struck Zero as very un-clone-like behaviour. Nazir had been a chosen one from the minute he had been sparked. With the full inherited knowledge clear in his mind, he might have replaced Aelren or Leren in another millennia or three. He wasn’t genetically pre-destined to be ambitious or tenacious, but with the knowledge he had, he was better than any other Novus around him. Maybe this simple thought was the only reason Nazir had reacted badly to not ascending to the circle. Every other reason, the Khai enemy and a circle with weak knees was just window dressing; a self-made justification for a spot of revenge. The thought occurred to Zero that his clone had been instrumental in providing the trigger for Nazir to slide sideways into the abyss of his own superiority. Reing his group, the three watched as a team of Thrall attempted to enter the battery farm to remove the corpse of Solus. Novus were not known for their benevolent treatment of the little grey weaklings, but today something extraordinary happened. The Novus saw, then acknowledged and even yielded to their smaller erroneous brethren. One look at Kariina's face told Zero everything. With her anger unresolved, Kariina’s frustration had been compounded by not being able to enter the Novus battery farm. Her uncontainable aura of rage had spilled into the hive unchecked; every Novus was informed simultaneously of the crimes of the Novus Solus. Nudged along by Kariina their own bad memories bubbled to the surface to find their target. “What to do, what to do?” “What to do about what?” “You ... It seems you still have a capacity for cold blooded murder, even if it was by proxy of the hive and every clone connected to it ... It was all very ... I am Spartacus!" The movie reference was completely wasted on his giant protégé. Ultimately Zero wouldn't do anything about the wayward hybrid, it was after all some comfort to him that when things got dicey, he wouldn't be the only one willing to

get wet ... “Oh ... I thought you meant the final Nazirian ...” “I have a feeling Wraith and Keisha have that under control.” Still pent up, Kariina had completely failed to observe Wraith’s departure back to Ra-sian and Keisha ...

Chapter 49 – Pickin’ up good vibrations ...

THE DEBRIEFING ON CENTRAL two days later did not easily. Firstly Leren did not attend until goaded heavily by Geyldian; the Second intimated that the first simply didn't care about the Khai attacks and even the planet which they looked after. The pair arrived at the circle still arguing that Zero was the only thing that mattered to the new Prime. An accusation Leren flatly denied, but the assembled Numbers didn’t need the hive to recognise Leren's true frustration at being interrupted from what would be the pinnacle of his life's work. -Leren ... So glad you could us. Please stop using my girlfriend as your proxy the entire time; stand up and do your duty in the here and now. My body can wait, it's been this way for ages; I can't see it changing anytime soon. The Doctor turned Prime looked sheepishly away from his medical puzzle, briefly allowing an image of dissection from his early career to come to the front of his mind. Far from shocked, Zero countered with an image of his own ... Being fried to a crisp; sacrificing himself to plant a bomb in the thruster nozzle of a Khai Marauder back on his home world. -You know I'll just grow back, and I can move faster than you can! The Numbers were horrified by both images; all except Kariina. She had dealt out a fair amount of destruction in her past. The sight of blood, even gallons of it held no fear for her. She knew in her own mind that wherever Zero would lead, she would follow. -To business then. Even though everything didn’t happen quite as we planned, the outcome was favourable ... And we can be sure that the new strategy you both found will be a reliable way to halt the remaining two missiles ... Yes? -It would appear so. We found that a head on assault of the conduit is not really required. The modified Axe works better from a flanking position. As space is displaced by the conduit pushing through, some kind of particle accumulates at the head of the conduit. Whether or not this process happens naturally, we just don’t know, but these particles form an effective barrier which sucks the power out of the particle beam fired by the Axe. In the end, even with all the power available, I barely inflicted a hole big enough for the Sphinx to through, whereas from his lateral approach, Wraith slit the conduit wide open easily.

-But Wraith’s Cobra did not survive fully intact did it? Wraith took a deep breath ready to answer, but he was intercepted by Oxull. -That’s an oversight on my part Prime. As you know the Cobra craft was designed to take an Axe the same as on board the Sphinx. Except when we installed the new Conduit breaker, the upgraded reactor didn’t fit nicely into the craft. - Really?... You couldn’t make it fit? - That was my decision Prime, I asked Oxull to keep her troop carrying capacity intact for operational flexibility. With the new Axe she’d easily be able to break onto a Komodo class mothership and insert some Thraten. - The problem is that drawing so much power even in such short bursts, the particle conditioning manifold got so hot that the heat radiating from it melted the communication module ... Almost to a blob. No other systems were affected. I’ve fitted a forced cooling system to the P.C.M. and housed the new comms-mod inside a shielding jacket. It won’t happen again Prime. -I wouldn’t be concerned if it did Oxull, but I value your work. Reliability is a commendable thing to strive for. Does anyone know if we can use the missile? -By the time we retrieved it, the next conduit would be upon us. Our scanners show that the missile was dropped just inside the orbit of Neptune ... days away even at top speed. The best approach is probably to repeat what we did last time, but this time with Zero and Wraith firing laterally at 90 degrees to each other. It’s just not worth trying to breach the conduit head on considering all the variables. We can mount a mission to repurpose all three missiles after next week. Ra-sian’s explanation was complete and concise. -So assuming the missiles no longer pose any threat to us; that only leaves two issues. The final Nazirian, and the Khai mothership. I assume that Security around Mona’s scanner array and comms has been beefed up? Number Nine? Still being newly minted as a Number, Kariina had been oblivious to her new title and the fact that Leren had been addressing her for an answer. It took a small mental kick from Zero to clarify things.

-Yes, with the help of Keisha we’ve isolated the scanner array, Astrometric lab and off ship communications. All off ship transmissions will now be triple encrypted on a rotating handshake cypher key. To any vessel not intended to receive a message such a broadcast will appear as static. As for any further ers of Nazir, we don’t think there are any, of course nothing is certain and finding determined criminals who are hiding in plain sight is almost impossible. Of course none of us knew that a mere Novus could disconnect from the hive. - No Novus should have the time to learn ... They are either performing their set tasks or they are offline in a resting bay. - Agreed Prime ... But disconnection is something every Number tries ... At least ... once ... Geyldian let out a huge snort at his sister's words, uttered through a clenched smile, before gracing everyone with his muffled mockery ... - Huh! ... Try six times. Leren’s eyes, normally a perfect almond shape, narrowed to barely open slits of disdain. Kariina continued ... - We thought it to be an impossibility for most Novus. With Nazir such duplicitousness was expected, but maybe he ed along some techniques to his anti-circle? Anyway, we’re a trusting peaceful society consumed by our work, we don’t socialize and as such we don’t form connections which would allow us to reveal a threat. I guess we can’t possibly know if there is a remaining Nazirian until they try to hit us. We can only hope also that if there is, and if they do, that we are quick witted enough to deal with it and adapt. -Interesting, are you suggesting that we should become more human and relax a little more? -Well, I understand the concept of the Novus rest area, it allows souls in the record to get out and have a life. Honestly, I was already surprised the Novus don’t kill themselves from boredom; and that was before I saw where they spend their off time. They are workers who live to work, plain and simple. They’re just unfulfilled grunts and I’d be lying if I said that the current system doesn’t fill me with a certain anxiety.

This very simplified and blunt, but no less bold analysis was more akin to Zero, but the collected Numbers were now intrigued by their newest member’s observations, Leren beckoned her to proceed further. -Everyone here, apart from myself, Zero and Wraith were all Novus at one point, but you were fresh souls spawned to continue the knowledge. That said as each of you were born, so were 19 other Novus who had just as much chance to ascend as you guys did. My problem is that the general Novus populous are sparked with souls rescued by our Arks as they fled Devine Prime. These Novus are Devine, and before they were inducted into the record for safe keeping, they were at war. That is what they ; a long war of attrition with their neighbours the Khai-mah. As such there is an element inside each of them which is already a Nazirian, and only the smallest trigger would be needed for us to be overrun with Novus who are ready to bear arms and meet the Khai head on, just for vengeance. We try to provide an enlightened environment, the kind the Devine had reached but that said, our ships are a boring place to be considering the world we once lived on which did have social pursuits, and mental engagement for all. These two things work to occupy a mind, make it grow and strive to keep growing. Now, you have a large number of enlightened beings confined in cloned bodies to fulfill the tedious life of worker drones, day in and day out. They look down on the Thrall, which is wrong too, considering their life amounts to little more; they’re just able to survive a sneeze. What’s worse is that if the seed of a long forgotten war did germinate inside their minds, this could leak through the hive and pollute everyone including us before anyone ever realised. -I think that’s a little unfair Kariina. There have been some pretty traumatic events in these last years, some Khai inspired but also those of Nazir and even one by my cloned self and yet the general Novus Populous has not shown any signs of an uprising. Just because they’ve seen such horrors doesn’t mean they will all turn into raving psychopaths. They don’t have much chance to prove their own individuality and that’s both a shame and a problem Leren may want to address in the future, but to brand them all as potential insurgents based on the acts of a few isn’t right either. Leren watched silently as the newest number harshly criticised their fundamental way of life, which for sure was the product of some harsh compromises. Far more surprising was that the one who lobbied in defense of their system was Zero; to whom no system seemed to apply, not even the universal rules of life

and death. Both made excellent cases. The circle was only nine strong at best, but with the Seventh seat having been unoccupied since the Devine left Earth, and the ninth seat becoming re-occupied only recently, the circle would never be at maximum strength. If a wave of violence was sparked through the hive, the best the Numbers would be able to achieve might be the self-destruction of the three ships so no further threat could be presented to the Humans above them. Such a tragic ending was to be avoided at all costs. As far as Leren could see, the Humans, Numbers and even Nazirians all had one common enemy, the warmongering Khai-mah. That said, the threat that even a single Nazirian presented was in no doubt. They had witnessed what one rogue Novus could achieve several times now. Leren gave thanks that most of the Novus in the general populous seemed incorruptible within the confines of their enlightened hive, and that they all had each other to rely on when difficult mental challenges presented themselves. If any memories from their past lives at war were still present, this must’ve served as a stark example of a style of life to be avoided for each of them. Leren had been the only other Number who appreciated that the hive might be used as a weapon also, having been told as much by his predecessor several millennia previously. This was the only reason Aelren sought to deal with everything personally, whilst disconnected from the hive. Such concepts as violence and revenge, although mostly dormant within the hive, certainly were not dead concepts. With the right level of exposure, the spark of either could be reignited. Kariina had played a very dangerous game but Leren was satisfied that she was fully aware of what might have happened, and this alone would stop her in future. The final words from Kariina had been to confirm that the huge spherical object which looked nothing like a Khai craft but did have a Khai Hyperspace signature; was still making steady but dogged progress towards Earth and was still set to arrive on schedule ... One more year. A ripple of uncertainty was felt through the hive at this revelation. The ship was almost equal in size to the Earth’s moon. Speculation was rife that this object was the fabled planet killer; about which rumours had been circulating through the clones interplanetary network for eons. Leren had cultures of Zero’s DNA which were about to reach another inspection point the Old doctor could not miss. Time was called on the assembly. As his Numbers each jumped away, Leren simply stepped out of his light, turned and

exited the room. He never felt the need to jump to his lab, it was only situated at the other side of the corridor. Upon reaching his lab, the new Prime was dismayed to find his exotic patient Zero seated at his microscope, looking at the cultures. -I’m really surprised at you wasting your time like this. Leren thought Zero might be joking but the deathly serious look on his face suggested his mood was the same. The good doctor tilted his head to one side as if to show he was unaware what Zero was babbling on about and that he needed more explanation. As usual Zero was more than happy to oblige. -Kariina tells me that when I was regenerating you were sat the first three days like a bird on an egg. Until all the alarms fired off together, at which point she tells me that her and Geberus enhanced the Medi-pod sensors ... Even so here you are looking down a conventional microscope at a culture apparently full of my DNA as you must’ve done over a thousand times before. Not that you’d know ‘cos to me it still looks like a plain glass petri dish. I don’t know what it is that’s inside me, but they must be small. I mean beyond Nano scale. I had a dream last night, and I’m not given to dreaming. When I do they’re more likely to be memories resurfacing as opposed to some weird interpretation of my own expectations or unhappiness. -You’re unhappy? -No, No everything is just peachy with me, I am a lucky man to get to keep playing catch up with the woman I love who’s so grateful I’m still alive that she can’t put her feelings into words ... If you know what I mean? While he never had nor ever would experience actual physical love, Leren knew instantly from the huge cheesy grin on Zero’s face exactly what he was implying. -So about this dream then? Was it any help to me or was that just an in for you to start bragging? I didn’t have you down as the kiss and tell type. -Hey, you asked, and I would never ... Well I was back on Ashlar-Gin, it was early days for me, I wasn’t battle tested at all. We heard stories about the early days of the project, there were ten prototypes, but one had been lost almost immediately ... Blood transfer. Anyway, they were happy when we were

spawned ... I guess they fixed the problem in the second generation. I was a born killing machine, although in the early days I was much more hot headed. -This is good Gray. They put something in you, but they might’ve been a bit naive as to how to apply it at first. Anyway they must’ve overcome the problem. Whatever it was that they put in you must be small, that much I agree with, but we still know of no organism which could achieve what we’ve seen in you. -So there are still things you don’t know, who knew? You aren’t God you know. Treat every day as a learning day. Clearly you have much to learn still you dusty old grasshopper! Zero stood up from his chair, and taking Leren’s boney hand within his own, he lead the Old Doctor to sit in his still warm chair. Patting him on the shoulder and leaning in to whisper mentally. -Get a better microscope, and stop looking at my DNA ... They aren’t in there. Leren gasped, turning to ask Gray what he meant, the super soldier was gone, having so perfectly modulated his jump force that there wasn’t even the slightest draft. Leren would speak to Geyldian, only he could acquire what the Old Doctor needed now ... Many decks below in the main hangar, it was Oxull and Jer-mija who would be at the tickly end of Zero’s tongue next. The only person who could fly the Sphinx had gone to check on repairs and the status of a few upgrades. -I see the thruster pod is repaired ... Great work Oxull. So what about the other things I asked for? -That’s a little difficult, you want me to create a device to mimic something you did, only you can’t tell me what you did or how you did it. I’m sorry if I’m being a little vague, but to be honest, your brief was similarly vague. -I’m sorry Oxull I can’t really explain what I did. Once I realised the firing solution was completely wrong I had to manually override it, after that it was pure will power and maybe a shot of dumb luck which allowed me to hit the head of the conduit, but I can’t shake the feeling that somehow I could feel it resonating within me. I spent almost two weeks trapped inside the hyperspace bubble of a Khai ship before I broke free. Maybe I got sensitive to that kind of

anomaly. -Maybe you should go and see the Doctor. -Actually I just came from there. -I know. Jer-mija was normally obtuse, but was also usually helpful, not so today it seemed. Zero relied on the Scientist and the Engineer heavily to create things to his detailed specification. Without that, it seemed the two clones were powerless to help him. -What’s that doing down here? Casting their eyes to follow Gray’s gaze to a dimly lit side annex of the hangar, the outline of the regeneration tank which was now empty and a containment vessel into which the contaminated pink had been drained. -Prime’s orders, the tank and the fluid both are to be stored. How do you think he has such a vast and unending supply of your DNA to keep playing with? Oxull was going to dump it in the reactor and Leren went crazy, neither of us has ever seen the Doctor go off like that. Honestly you’d think that newly Primed as he is, he’d have mellowed out but in reality he’s headed completely the other way! -But surely there’s more in there than just my DNA? The record says my body was flushing plasma Ions from the explosion ... Gray, Oxull and Jer-mija all began to have the same thought at the same time. -I’m sorry Gray, but I really do think you should go back and see Leren. Get scanned for residual trace ions. We will liaise with Kariina, Geberus and Ra-sian to see what kind of atomic disturbances precede the conduit. On that remark the three split. Leren couldn’t contain his tutting displeasure at being disturbed a second time in only half an Horon. -Hello doctor, super soldier Zero reporting for a full body scan. -Oh? And why would I do that?

-Because you need to know how many residual charged plasma ions remain inside my body. -Do I now? Well I already know that you do indeed still have contamination of that kind deep inside your skeletal matrix. So why would I need to run another scan? -You know I have trace residue of charged Ions from our technology. Of course I do, I took a massive dose less than a month ago. I mean ions from a Khai-mah hyperspace reaction engine. I was stuck up the tailpipe of a Khai cruiser for almost two weeks; surely those particles are in me as well. Not to mention I was stuck half inside and half outside an actual hyperspace bubble for the same length of time. That’s three different kinds of energy which might still be inside my body. -Aaaah! That’s intriguing but honestly I never found anything to suggest ... No wait, maybe it IS possible that our own Nano elemental matrix was only able to key into your bones because they had something to react with. That explains why it failed on the other test subjects. Well that and everything else, like the fact that your body reacts to stress and extreme exertion with sudden growth, ensuring your bones are always able to your muscles. Oh Gray ... It simply isn’t possible to record how much your physiology frustrates me, there isn’t enough space left in the record. Get on the bed please and relax. -Don’t worry Doctor ‘P’, together we will work through each quirk. Believe it or not this is for a good cause. Leren began tapping at his interface to engage various scanning devices. Having decommissioned the regeneration Medi-pod for sample gathering, Leren had tasked the newly numbered Nine to withdraw her sensor enhancing array board and place it into another bed. As luck would have it, that was the same Medi-pod which Gray was now stretched out on. Leren turned the new enhanced sensor all the way up; past Micrometer resolution as close to Nano scale as he could get. Thinking this should be good enough, the Doctor engaged the scanners to proceed at a rate of 5mm per minute, much to the lip curling frustration of Gray. Six hours, thirty six minutes and fifty-nine seconds later the scanner bleeped to signal completion. Leren was not surprised to see Zero vanish silently before his eyes. Not to worry, the doctor didn’t need him for the next part; number

crunching. An hour later the interpolation program had finished plotting the results from the scan into a solid 3D holo-projection which Leren would be able to enlarge and visually interrogate. Pressing another button on the interface and Zero no longer looked like Zero, with each successive press, the super soldier was first skinned, then flayed, then his organs were removed until finally only the bones remained. Leren figured it was sensible to identify each element which was not purely part of Gray’s original body with a different colour. The amorphous gel surrounding the bone matrix, filling the bones was also removed. Followed by the fibrous collagen and bonded calcium. Now the remaining model was like a negative image of Gray’s bones. The only things left were the remains of everything his body had ever been forced to absorb and assimilate. It made sense to Leren that anything weapons grade should also be removed, these were much larger particles incapable of ing through soft tissue, hence their use as a weapon. Now just to make the image easier on his eyes, he attributed a different colour to each non-native element. A mass spectrometer allied with the Medi-pods scanners had already identified 95% of the stored elements and residual micro-alloys. In the next few minutes this process would also be complete. Leren was taken aback by exactly how many distinct elements could be recognized. He’d expected maybe a hundred, but the number was this plus another three zeros easily. -Zero my friend, who are you? And where have you been? Some could be removed as Leren quickly recognised his own recipe for the Nano-elemental matrix, required at the time only because of the clone’s lack of understanding of what Zero was, and their desire to keep him around and intact. Now of course the doctor could see that even without his concoctions, Gray had a power all of his own and had needed no such physical enhancements. Sadly, unlike a good Swiss watch, there was no maker's mark. In any case the lab Gray was grown in was probably long gone thanks to the greedy Reptons. ing through the elements splattered over the surface of the cortical Bone, the hard outer layer and down the inside of an Osteon, a microscopic column, Leren began to realise that even these tiny columns were full of alien material. On a conventional micrograph an Osteon would appear as a small black dot, barely capable of inferring any purpose, but now at around 100,000 times magnification, this tiny black dot became a gargantuan tunnel. Looking into the holographic projection was reminiscent of walking down one of the huge

corridors on Central. If what Gray speculated was correct, and his regeneration had been introduced in the form of tiny particles on the Nanoscale, these Osteons would be like massive caverns to such small particles. Leren was not entirely convinced that something so small could create the desired effect inside Gray. How could stem cell creation and cellular assignment be stimulated and organised by something so small? Leren wasn’t seeing anything like this on the scan. In answer to Grays original question though there were indeed particles of Khai hyperspace engine residue deep inside his bones, and not in small quantities either. To get not just into the osteons, but also the fabric of the bone Gray must’ve become spatially perturbed, with every atom of every molecule inside his body vibrating to create gaps. The residual exhaust materials then seeped into these spaces in vast quantities. It was a miracle that Gray had not died of bone cancer within hours of arriving on Earth; though it occurred to Leren that the particles had been locked away where they couldn’t get to the micro arteries which brought nutrition to the bones and the marrow inside. As expected the structure at the center of Gray’s thigh was at least ten to fifteen times more densely packed with bone than a normal human. Again Leren had known about this and written the fact off to a result of his own enhancement procedure. -How could I have been wrong about so many things? Leren had to console himself in the knowledge that his starting assumption had been all wrong based on a failure to recognise certain things. Each of the connecting Osteoblasts and Osteocytes within the Haversian canal looked uniform in both size and shape, they had the distinct look of something which had been engineered to be optimal. A normal human femur would be random at best, bordering on chaotic; with chambers of all different sizes and shapes connecting wherever they could. Isolating ion radiation particles Leren could see three different colours, these related to Warp engines with a Khai signature and in atmosphere plasma thrusters which were a result of the Cobra explosion. The third kind was different in that the particles were still resonating at a hyper frequency so fast the scanners on the bed could not determine a number.

-This is it! This must be fabric from the hyperspace bubble. This time the slight draft which the Doctor felt waft his Capillago showed that Gray was far too excited to sneak up on him. -After all this time ... They’re really still vibrating? -Well they’re locked away so as not to poison your system, but they are by no means trapped. It could be that they’ve been dormant for a while but were in some way re-charged by your recent exposure to the conduit. It seems more likely though that they’ve never stopped vibrating, they certainly seem to be a very energetic particle type to be vibrating so fast. It could be that over time your body has grown to assimilate these particles, but until the other day you weren’t placed in a situation to use their resonance. Why? ... And how? Are two more very good questions. -How do we determine what this frequency is? If Kariina can use it to tune into the particles we will be able to see the conduits as clear as day on the scanner array. -Oxull or Eight should have some idea. This is progress right? After relaying the problem to the two clones, both were hopeful a solution could be found. Zero would still have to tackle the next missile conduit unaided, the pair explained that such a device would take longer than the time they had, just to develop a basic working prototype. Kariina’s sensor array on Mona would have to remain as it was ...

Chapter 50 - Safety ... OFF!

NONE WERE EXPECTING the Watcher to them, but his demeanor suggested the intrusion was urgent. -I have just returned from Mona and the news is not good. It’s a Khai-mah fleet, they’ve just exited the Kuiper belt on the planetary plane. We can clearly count six Komodo Class Ark ships, with at least 14 Dragon class carriers in tow. Ra-sian had been right to interrupt, and as he began to frantically tap at the nearby hangar interface, Kariina was soon present on the screen. This image was quickly replaced by a scanner image, whilst heavily zoomed and grainy. Once Kariina had run this through her enhancement processor, the huge shadows became much more defined. There could be no doubt, this was a full scale breach of Earth’s solar system. -It’s only a guess but their vector of approach matched the last conduit, but only for the last 120 light years, at which point if we switch the visual spectrum of the scan and zoom out we can see they just happened across the conduit. Probably they recognised the Khai signature, then altered course to follow. -The large object behind the fleet, which looks to be smaller than the preceding Komodo must be the missile we just halted, they’ve gotten their lizard claws on it before we had the chance. Zero honey, when you launch to kill the next conduit you’re gonna be flying into some real trouble. -We need to mobilise the entire Cobra fleet with full Thraten compliments. There’s nothing else we can do. We HAVE to allow this conduit to touch down. We know it’s northern Atlantic bound, and the area is already fully evacuated now save for a few military observers. Get them out quickly. While this last comment amounted to the barest bones of a plan which Kariina understood fully, the new Prime Leren did not, and was so horrified that an assembly was called on the hangar floor. For something this reckless, the Prime would definitely jump. So few and far between were these that with echoes of his predecessor, the air was left almost sparking with excess energy as Leren appeared with a bang so loud that the hangar rang out like a gong. -Zero, you cannot allow that to happen, what is the point of all our recent learning if you’re going to allow the conduit to touch down? I forbid it.

Slowly and with the same tone of respect he would’ve used had his more trusting and experienced Prime Aelren had still been at the head, Zero began to make his case. -Prime, we know from experience that a sea borne touch down is a bad event, but the effects are manageable. There wasn’t even much of a tidal wave and the melted crust solidified in a little over a week. That is in stark contrast to the effects suffered in Russia when the second conduit hit. We know that if we let the conduit hit Earth for a period of an hour the missile is dropped inside the orbit of Mars. I suggest that Ra-sian and Geberus now run some calculations to confirm if conduit speed is a natural constant, no faster and no slower. This will determine what the shortest time is that we can allow the conduit to be present, before myself and Wraith, take it out at some point past the moon. I want the missile to drop as close to the moon as you dare. Zero glared an icy cold stare at Ra-sian and Geberus, showing a single minded determination that this would be the only way. But also, a high level of trust was inferred in the two clones. -I won’t waste seven hours killing a conduit only to hand the fruit it bares into the hands of our enemy when we know that the first thing to hit us after that will be that missile. No! We must take the hit on our and harvest the missile. We will then use that to take out as many of their Komodo as we can. We already know we can get the missile up, re-programmed and running again inside three hours. If the condition of their ships is similar to those we’ve already encountered, they might take a few days to work out why the missile is dead. We use every second we can for our benefit. If they get organised and send the missile at us before that we will just have to deal with it. Jer ... Oxull, I need the Cobra with the modified Axe to be remotely pilotable, if push comes to shove the new Axe should be able to detonate the incoming missile, but there won’t be any escaping the blast at that range, I will not sacrifice any of my men. I will fly the Cobra from inside the Sphinx a million miles behind, but I need the comms control to be seamless and instant ... Kariina! The Gekkoda don’t have anything like the range to reach us from where they are now, with their crappy equipment. If I were the Khai I wouldn’t proceed any further without testing the water, I’d definitely try to weaken us first. Dammit where is that second conduit? Leren was now visibly embarrassed as it dawned on the new Prime how much he had grossly underestimated Zero’s ability to formulate such a complete strategy

almost instantaneously. This was why they had kept him around in the first place. His confidence was steely, sured only by his cold ability to play with logic. As he tried hard to find fault, Leren was not blinkered by his position, he might’ve been made Prime, but his first duty was not changed. As a doctor he was perfectly capable of rationalising a strategy to fight an illness or a deadly disease, so he was well placed to find a fault in Zero’s plan. The fact that Zero had weighed the risks against the benefits so quickly was a sign of his keen strategic intellect. Everything the super soldier had said was correct, so ... -Well when you put it like that ... I agree. Everyone please begin your assigned tasks we only have ... Four? How long do we have? -Before the conduit arrives to Earth ... Around ten hours Prime. The clones began to jump away and the feed to Kariina on Mona was cut. Rasian jumped away with Geberus to her and begin their calculations. Jer-mija began working on the remote interface whilst Oxull went to harvest some more base ions. Leren abstained from departing back to his lab, he needed a quiet word with his hammer. -What's the matter Leren? -Kariina had a little word with me after you're last visit to Mona. How do you know about the ...? Your ... -My alter ego's little indiscretion with the Khai? Ah ... I wondered if the big one might blab. Zero momentarily cracked a smile, but then the weight of what he was about to say dragged his lips and brow into a pronounced frown, ominously from Leren's elevated viewpoint this served to completely shade his eyes. -You can't tell me you didn't notice something change in the clone's behaviour? I would guess it was right around the time that the first missile hit. Apparently Central took a bit of a beating? I can't confirm but I would guess this is when my stasis pod first became damaged. I imagine that's when my regeneration began, but I didn't get out of the pod for a long while after that. The glass must've been further damaged when he shot down the Gekkoda and intercepted their missile. When I first sparked there was only ravenous hunger, but also for the first time ever, I suffered complete recall. I mean everything ... All at once. Just like a few

weeks ago. Only then the pain was immense, like my skull was being crushed under the full weight of Central. At first I thought that I’d only been out of the game a few days, a week tops. Then I realised I was in a stasis pod, not a medipod, and in a cupboard not your lab. My thoughts got really dark, really fast. You'd have put me in a coma and fed me by drip. I was reduced to foraging goop from a nearby dispenser, with 10,000 deaths replaying through my head over and over. I was underweight, I figure down around 10 stone, skin like tissue paper and all my ribs were sticking out. I was almost discovered by two Novus ... You already know about the goop dispenser malfunction. If they’d actually seen me ... Well I can’t say what I might’ve done. I was at death's door and having nightmares constantly, just trying to get to an actual food replicator, you know there are only two on board. All the time I could feel a presence, like I was experiencing things vicariously in my mind’s eye. I examined the records and my clone went on his rampage while I was stuck in an air vent praying for death. If I was linked to him, maybe he was linked to me, and I was definitely thinking about killing Khai lizards. I can also confirm that in the early days I wasn’t so clinical. It took me not only a lot of killing, but a hell of a lot of deaths for me to become like this. A fault of my class seemed to be suicidal tendencies experienced around the 200th death mark. The unlucky ones frazzled themselves so badly that there was no possibility of regeneration. I think I ended up on a cocktail of drugs, but pretty soon my body adapted naturally to battle situations without drugs. After that killing was my game, the only reason I ended up here was because I refused to let one single Khai craft get away. I was a good soldier, ready to die for the cause. The same cause that we all face now. So what's on your mind? -I've never watched any of your mission records, not past the very early days anyway. They were just too gruesome for any healer to watch. I believe Geyldian when he said that what happened on Mona was not your fault. Now it seems like it was, but events were well beyond your control. None of us hold that against you. Kariina says you had another episode in the hangar on Mona, even she was worried about what you might do. All I want to say is this. The rules which Aelren and Geyldian placed upon your operation, only apply to humans. As far as I am concerned, if you're in a pinch and the only way out is through a horde of Khai ... You fight! You fight and kill your way out until none are left. You cannot take the risk of dying and becoming their prisoner when you regenerate. You make sure you get back to us. We can deal with the psychological aftereffects when you get back.

-Thanks Doc, but that was always my plan, but only if things go sideways. I have no intention of getting myself caught, and yes ... A lot of Reptons are gonna die! -Just try to remain calm and focused, don't lose yourself inside the red mist so easily, as you did on Mona. We're counting on you. Before Zero had any chance to reply, Leren performed an impressively modulated jump, no sound, no wind. The Prime simply vanished. As Zero walked down the hangar towards the Sphinx for a walk round, he seemed unable to stop his past battles from appearing in his mind’s eye. Things were about to get messy. That said, he was resolute in his determination to prevent things getting desperate. The memories of his past lives served to remind him that even having successfully retired a few million Khai, his planet had still been on course to lose the war. Their efforts, no matter how proficient or efficient were filled with the stench of defeat and desperation. Zero was keen to see that the war to save Earth did not get that far. The events about to unfold in the next few days would determine their fate. As he reached the Sphinx, Zero realised one of the underside access s was open, the thin blue legs stuck out suggested Jer-Mija was tinkering. At the same time Oxull could be seen taking his usual long strides towards them. -Ah Zero, I’m done collecting the base ions. We’re good to go. -Excellent! ... Jer-mija, can I have a word? -Of course Zero, but I think I know what this is about. Oxull can you disconnect? -What am I thinking? -I don’t know. -That you’re a pompous rasshøl! Eight was a little taken aback by such an attack on his personality, but the big engineer was unable to hold his face in such a straight way for more than three seconds. His laughter burst free from his face so loudly some Thrall working at

the far end of the hangar were almost startled to death. -Evan will fly Geberus and Oxull to the missile we drop from the next conduit. Wraith will wait for Ra-sian’s signal to destroy the conduit and all being well the missile should fall into your lap. Get it reactivated and on its way as quickly as you can. Don’t short cut the process but last time it took five hours, this time I’d like the missile on its way in three. to set the speed controller. We don’t want the thing entering a conduit. Also this time, set the missile to visually acquire the Sphinx and track me. If you can, try to Jerry rig the reactor to blow at the same time as the detonation, and Jer’ ... I want manual control. -What are you going to do? Something reckless I hope. -It’s time to take the battle to them. I’m leading a Cobra fleet to buy you time. One of my primaries will be the missile they have. If I see it en route to Earth I’ll take it out, but my plan is to incapacitate their fleet or destroy it outright before they have a chance to launch it. I need someone to tell me where to hit the thing, so it doesn’t explode in my face. Hopefully, our missile will only be an insurance policy, paid for, but not required. If needed I can distract them for long enough that our missile will catch them off guard. If the Fleet performs as I expect, we should be mopping up stragglers, not fighting a full scale war. Jer-mija looked only slightly upset by the fact that the remote control system he’d just been working to fit was coming back out. Clearly Zero wanted this to be fitted into the missile they didn’t have yet. Eight had no idea what Zero was planning, but it was clear what role he intended for the missile ... Insurance. Before this he was going to take the battle right into the launch tubes of the Komodo. -How many of the Cobra have an Axe fitted? -All of them why? -No reason, beyond the fact that the Axe is an impressively useful tool, and you answered correctly. As the three watched, further down the hangar they could see a lone Caddy returning from N.A.M-3. This was the North American Mall where Evan had been stationed since his absorption into the Earth Defence Force. Since his lucky escape, the young ex-Ranger had been one of Joan’s attachés at the Mall. The

position also gave him regular access to the Whitehouse, leading Evan to gain an entirely new set of feathers in his cap. Joan was training the young man to be her deputy. Joan was so stretched by her duties all over the world that some leaders of various countries just couldn’t get the appropriate level of face time with her. Considering how cooperative these countries had been, providing both labour and resources, Evan would be Joan’s way to address this. There was no other solution beyond asking Leren to Clone her, but she already knew what his response would be ... -Delegate more Joan! In the distance the three Thrall pilots could be seen exiting the Caddy. The one designated as flight leader then made like a toddler, staggering forward in the direction his big head was pulling him. Upon reaching an access ; the cargo door opened and out crawled Evan who, standing up whilst not fully clear of the crafts shiny underside bumped his head. The Thrall were then seen to recoil in horror as if they expected Evan to keel over and die from shock on the spot. Keeping his head down and his body bent in the middle, Evan tried again to get himself from under the Caddy before standing upright. Almost immediately, Evan spotted Zero standing in the distance with two of the tall clones. One huge one in camo gear and one very skinny one in some sort of exhibitionist robe which barely covered his cloned modesty. As Evan began his walk towards them, a distance of maybe 300 meters, the young soldier felt like a live culture under a microscope. The three were watching him intently. Evan had heard about the hive mind to which all clones and even Zero were constantly connected. He already knew that they already knew what he was thinking. -Calm down kiddo, you’re here at my request. All eyes are on you, so get used to it and enjoy it. No one wants to see you fail, and if it looks like you might, this big galoot on my left will help you in any way he can. This was something else Evan would probably never get used to, mental conversations and never being alone inside his own head. Evan was after all subject to the usual human coping mechanism of analyzing a situation and conversing with himself as to the best approach so as not to cause offence, or even just to mask his true feelings regarding some dick general who might be

making ill informed decisions risking man and equipment. -I’d advise against that here. Try not to over analyse things. Assume everyone here is vastly more gifted mentally ... in my experience ... They are. Beyond that be yourself, they will know if you’re covering up something and then you’ll lose their trust. The hive exists to prevent secrets, after that it works like the biggest catcher’s mitt you’ve ever known. I trust you; they trust me and by extension they will quickly come to trust you too. You’re a good soldier with a clear headed approach. You form plans quickly and can make them happen. That’s why you’re here now. This little pep talk had filled the distance, as Evan ed the group Oxull was first to extend his hand. -A few jitters eh? Well don’t worry about that young man, we’re here to help. Evan failed to hide his frustration that the two blue beings had also been tuned into Zero’s little chat. -Hive mind Evan ... Hive mind. No secrets, I’m Jer-mija but I also respond to Eight equally well without offence. “But I thought all clones were well ... Cloned the same?” “Well the big guy who never stops smiling has a highly physical job, as such over the course of his lifespan, he’s bulked out. The scientist was on ice for a few thousand years, but we don’t need to cover that ground, suffice to say that clones are equal in the same way you and I are both human. Our bodies fit our duties and respond to exercise and exertions, so we often don’t look the same either. Oxull is the chief engineer, Jer-mija is a scientist and engineer. I trust them with all my engineering needs. Oxull will be coming with you.” “Not Jer-mija?” “No Geberus, the number in charge of science, he will re-program the missile to be all it can be, basically I'm gonna take it back with me. If I need to, I’m gonna fire that puppy straight back at the Khai.” “Cool. When do we start?”

“Well that depends on the conduit, as soon as it lands we wait for Ra-sian. Wraith whom you’ve met before will fly this bird, his Cobra will shred the conduit. You will fly Oxull and Geberus to repurpose the missile. Get comfy you have a few hours. I’m gonna jump now to the Cobra squadron at U.K.M-5, purely because right now England is nearer to our plotted course and I wanna save every second I can for flight time.” “Understood.” “By the way, few clones have learnt to vocalise in English, but if you want something, just think it and it will appear by clone magic.” -I could murder a Scotch right now ... Zero raised his eyebrows suggesting Evan should turn around, behind him was another well-built clone in a long black leather jacket. In one hand a brown bottle with a label the soldier couldn’t see, and in his other hand were nestled two small glasses. A double take revealed Zero was gone ... “Will Brandy do? 1563 was an excellent year, I’ve been saving it. Just the one mind; can’t have you flying in zig-zags now can we? I’m Geyldian, I was with Wraith when we found you; I work with Zero a lot topside.” “Yes Sir it certainly will. I you, thanks again.” “You’ve nothing to thank me for Evan. I have an endless supply of this stuff. By the end of what’s coming, if we emerge alive, it will definitely be us thanking you humans.” Taking a sip of the smooth golden spirit, Evan was instantly filled with a warm glow. “Things are so different now compared to when I went in the pod. I think we’re all invested. It’s do or die time, isn't it?” “Well that’s an odd term for us clones, we prefer to do without dying, or killing for that matter ... But in this instance young man, I would completely agree. It’s about time we spanked some Khai-mah butt.” At this Evan pushed his tumbler forward to meet Geyldian’s. It was a long time

since the Clone human hybrid had toasted anything with a human. In unison ... “Survival!”

Chapter 51 - Welcome to war.

A QUARTER OF THE WAY around the planet, Zero had completed his premission briefing. Having fired up his human pilots and Thraten warriors equally, the full complement of fifty Cobra were launched. A day and a half later at full speed with all Plasma Wave engines being pushed twenty percent past their designed specs, the fleet had almost reached the Kuiper belt. To reach this point the fleet had already had to navigate debris of all sizes. The smallest being little larger than a grain of sand, while the largest were the planetoids which the humans hadn’t yet discovered. It was here where the Khai fleet was moored. Despite the age of the vessels which must’ve been measured in millennia, from a distance at least the fleet looked impressive. Zero had never had the opportunity to see a Devine leviathan floating free; as such he’d never appreciated the monstrous size of them. The only thing which gave the three ships any real sense of scale was navigating around them. Zero always found moving through the maze of decks and corridors to be a chore of the highest order. Sub corridors filtered into access ways. spatial jumping was ill advised if the destination had not been visited on a regular basis. In clear space before him, exactly as Kariina’s high definition scanner had predicted lay 6 Komodo and 14 Dragons. These ships were every bit as huge as the three Devine arks, but would probably be even more claustrophobic, due to the short stature of their occupants. “OK people let’s get the engines off from here, make your vector changes now and then cut engines, thrusters only if required. There are fifty of us, let’s set up a net. I don’t want them to know what’s hitting them until it’s too late.” Zero’s words were acknowledged with actions, as each craft in his fleet altered course to take up a preset position on a spherical grid. This would have the Khai completely surrounded. Far from all guns blazing; this was the softly-softly approach. Each pilot managed to establish their position smoothly within a few hours of the split, using short thruster bursts to decelerate to a stop. The Cobra was a heavy small cruiser, but running silent, to any form of scan the Khai might be using they would just appear to be small chunks of irrelevant space rock. Zero gave the signal for a one second thruster burst. This allowed each Cobra to shorten the distance to their targets.

A few months earlier Zero had made short work of a Dragon carrier with the Sphinx and its Axe weapon. Now with the Cobra fleet, there was fifty times the fire power. On Earth, Zero had been clear in his assignment of targets, any kind of orifice looking like a launch tube should be destroyed first. Next the main engine output nozzles, if the Khai had any fight left in them after that, his fleet had freedom to fire at any target they chose, but Zero had recommended that they kill the gimbal mounted heavy plasma cannons. Zero had been here before, but his human colleagues, whilst all being servicemen from around the world, were used to a very different field of battle than the blackness of space. Zero had warned them that in such darkness they might quickly lose the outline of the ships, and random lights onboard may begin to merge with the stars. They needed to remain alert at all times to ensure they didn’t crash into their target. Of course once they began their assault, and the targets were lit up like the fourth of July, this issue would no longer present itself. The pilots were also warned to watch out for the weaponized green plasma which the ships would leak after their cannons had been excised. The fleet continued to drift in, closer and closer, the fifty Cobra were all within one kilometer now; well within the range to use their newly enhanced Axe weapons. Finally without any words at all, Zero gave the signal they were all waiting for. A Gekkoda launch tube on the side of the nearest dragon was painted as a target; Zero let rip with a barrage of missiles. Within seconds the entire fleet had followed his lead. A seemingly never ending series of explosions served to show them that their missiles hadn’t been wasted. Performing rolling manoeuvres to acquire new targets, a few Gekkoda were beginning to get away, but this was too little too late as the next targets were found and the second barrage was released. With surgical precision, all launch tubes on the 20 Khai vessels had been damaged beyond use. Maybe only forty Gekkoda were in actual transit. Zero ordered his fleet to remain calm and start swinging their Axes. With their engines completely inactive, the Khai were having difficulty locating the Cobra in the dark of space, such was the distance between them. The Gekkoda just seemed to dart past them. “It’s a waiting game now people, if you fire at the dragons with the Gekkoda looking at you, you have to be sure you can restart your plasma engines fast or you’re gonna be a sitting duck. Hit the plasma cannons first, they will suck the life out of your shields. Don’t even think about the gun turrets until you’ve

handled their cannons. Choose your targets wisely ... And , we want them dead in the water before you target any weapons.” From Zero's vantage point he didn't have eyes on his entire fleet, or even the whole field of play. Even so, with Jer-mija's pilot interface, even the positions of the ships he couldn't see was superimposed over what he could see, a technical marvel. "I have an idea, make good use of it. I'm going to draw their fire, everyone else, Axe fire only, no more than three second bursts, be selective. They are definitely going to see me now. You guys stay still and don't hit the same target twice, thruster bursts only." Now Zero fired up the Cobra’s Plasma Wave engine, the glow from the thrust nozzles were like a bullseye on his back. This would be Zero versus 40 smaller, faster and more agile Gekkoda. In a Cobra the super soldier could only dream of matching their patterns and changes of direction. He would have to plan his route around the Dragon and Komodo craft well in advance of his arrival, but he was not intending on firing any weapons. His aim now was to draw the Gekkoda into firing upon their own ships. As he threw the throttles to fifty percent, then held on for the ride, Zero was already thinking three turns ahead. The Gekkoda were rapidly closing the gap on him and making it look easy. The Cobra wasn't slow, but she was big. This gave the smaller Khai craft a huge advantage over him. Weaving close to communications antennae, Zero prayed that he'd made the mental adjustment correctly to allow for the difference in size between his usual ride, the Sphinx and the Cobra he was buzzing around in. Rotating his shield plating fully to the front, Zero cut deliberately too close to the antennae of a Komodo. Instantly the communication needle was reduced to fragments of various sizes. One chunk of the structure which must've been over 50 metres long, and was spinning uncontrollably, drifted in front of an unfortunate Gekkoda whose pilot definitely failed to anticipate the rapid rotation of the debris. The tiny craft was felled, exploding instantly. The flash was bright enough to blind another two of the tiny fighters, who embedded themselves explosively into a thruster pod suspended from the side of the huge leviathan. Having never deviated to save themselves, it was clear to Zero that the two pilots had never even realised their proximity. It was three nothing to Zero, and as he pulled a tight inverted bank around over the top of the Komodo he’d already covered two kilometers since ramming the antennae, it was like the Gekkoda

were lining up behind him to be next. Zero activated his plasma cannons, strafing a huge stabiliser fin which had one of the plasma cannons positioned on the end. With so many course deviations in rapid succession, it was unlikely his Axe would ever select a target to lock onto. How he wished the Cobra had the same mental target painting system he had access to in the Sphinx because all he could do now was fire forward. Severing the fin, Zero barely scraped through the gap between the now floating turret and the main body of the Komodo. A momentary stutter was seen as he did the very thing he'd advised his other pilots not to do but flying through the ejected plasma stream had been the only available course. The Gekkoda behind him was not so lucky. The luminescent green plasma stream caused a complete engine shutdown. The loss of power equalled a total loss of control, another Gekkoda down. As he continued to round the massive ships, his own fleet were taking every opportunity to cause maximum damage. As ordered the other 49 ships were still incognito, firing in different directions each time in three second bursts. In essence, the inactive Cobra were practically invisible to the huge craft at such close proximity. One of the Cobra had even aligned himself underneath a Komodo and was simply removing any structural protrusion that he could find. This was a ballsy move which soon garnered Zero's attention. "Cob-37, you need to move a little faster, those little apertures are for plasma weapons, each one has a Khai infantryman behind it. Too slow and you will be open to draw fire." "Cob-37 to Cob-Z, I have an area here which is screaming for a breach. What do you think Zero?" It would be a minute before Zero could wind his way for a flyby of Cob-37's position, but when he got there, Cob-37 was nowhere to be seen. As he moved in closer he could just see the underside of Cob-37, she was parked almost completely in a blind spot which looked like the entrance to a reactor access door. It was prime for an insertion, and there was room for another two ships to Cob-37. It was decision time; there would be literally thousands of Lizards on board this Komodo. The Thraten were more than willing but any move with such

unbalanced odds was akin to suicide. At the same time as he continued to thread his way in and out of the Khai hulks, firing at any target of value from observation decks to Plasma cannons, Zero became enthralled by the idea of a tactical insertion. "Cob-38 and Cob-39, please move to Cob-37. Once the Thraten are in, they should head to the bridge, give them a schematic now, they should already be familiar. If they can take the bridge, they need to place the ship on lock down; bridge control only. Blow all external bulkhead doors and perform a full vent. If they are not confident of pulling it off, they aren't going in. I want a decision in one minute. All ships pull back after insertion, three platoons ought to be enough if they take the fastest route." "Er ... Zero, this is Cob-37. The Thraten heard everything you just said and ... Well ... They're already suited and booted, nodding and ready to go sir." "Then have at it Thraten, and may the ancients be watching over you today. The next time I hear from you, I expect a call from the bridge of that ship. We'll keep ‘em busy out here, I know you're all eager but you're training, stay calm, focused and be sharp! Zero out!" The scene on his viewer showed Axe beams everywhere, but none of them were aiming at the Komodo the Thraten were on. Cover fire and destructive blows were being made all over the place. In the last two minutes the Dragons had begun to return a defensive fire. It seemed that they had been interrogating their scanners like hawks to find where the fire was coming from, but now all targets were identified and locked. Immediately the entire Cobra fleet spun up their plasma wave engines and began taking evasive action demonstrating moves even Zero would be proud of. Unstable did not apply. The Cobra were moving in a way which was completely unpredictable. Zero was still strafing and dodging, but in addition he was also taking fire now as the Gekkoda he was towing, were finally beginning to home in on his flying style. The shields were all rotating at peak efficiency to absorb the damage, and while he was keeping the Gekkoda suitably occupied, his skilled pilots were finding the blind spots of the huge plasma cannons all too easily before taking them out. The Gekkoda following Zero were now down to less than ten as the huge Dragon carriers didn't seem to mind firing through their own ships if there was a chance of a shot on an Earth fighter.

Two hours later and ten of the Dragons were completely incapacitated, and heavily venting both atmosphere and plasma. Several light impacts against his Cobra implied that a lot of the debris he was now flying through wasn’t any part of a ship, but in fact it was of the crews ejected into space by the sudden decompressions. The Khai were now far too busy, trying to defend themselves to place any importance on erecting force fields to seal hull breaches. The command crew simply ordered all adjacent bulkhead doors to be closed. The day was about to get a little worse for any Lizard caught on the wrong side of such a door when it was sealed shut, at least for the thirty seconds it would take for them to freeze solid and die. Zero had ed everything he and Wraith had learned in their earlier encounter to the pilot instruction briefings months ago. Accordingly all the pilots knew exactly where to strike in order to effectively dismember the dragons without causing massive explosions, even so Zero’s voice could soon be heard dispensing orders over the comm system. "Save one of the Dragons, find an insertion point and get some Thraten on there. A dragon would make an excellent floating hangar; try to hit the top of the ship near the front, that's where the bridge is. Get there, lock it down and vent the ship. Let’s work out some of that aggression men!" A deafening cheer rang out over the comms, momentarily at least, the strained look on Zero’s face relaxed into a broad smile. The Thraten had been spawned a few months before his cloned self, and in a lot of ways, some of Zero's own personality was a huge part of their psychological profile. Studying the training records it had been obvious that clone Zero had been much more like Zero than the super soldier was ready to it. This was something the Numbers had continued to try and impress upon Zero but which he had never begun to acknowledge, mostly to justify the need for his return. After all, if the Numbers could just implant his personality into another body, and that clone would perform adequately enough, then they really didn’t need the real Zero anymore. That said Zero was slowly being forced to acknowledge his mistake. Now more than ever, he would’ve relished the chance to chat with his alter ego, feeling strongly that the conversation would've at least been interesting, and maybe comedic genius for anyone watching at the time. The Ninurtan hiding inside the psyche of each Thraten would definitely come

through now and with the last Gekkoda blown up whilst ing too close to a thruster pod, Zero again began to feel the pull of physical combat. Flying over the top of the chosen Dragon, he could see the line of Cobra directly above the bridge. In this location victory would have come quickly and easily, with very little resistance. Zero was almost upset that his orders had not been followed, but realising they might have been improved upon, he couldn't fault the Thraten. He was a little taken aback though to see that having taken the bridge, a faction of Thraten had begun to proliferate outwards into the corridors, hacking, slashing and firing their plasma weapons into anything with a scaled tail. Like a tidal wave of death the Thraten spilled out of the bridge to find Khai infantrymen charging at them to retake their ship. A short analysis showed the Thraten were in fact honouring Zero's orders to the letter. It had not taken more than ten seconds to subdue all resistance present on the bridge after their insertion, at which point the first warriors had begun trying to seal the bridge. The door mechanism had been damaged in the blast as they’d breached, along with a few of the main control s. So what Zero was watching now was not a suicidal quest for glory, but a carefully considered plan to get bodies to the auxiliary control room at mid-ships. As each team reached a side corridor, the first Thraten to arrive would subdue any resistance and close the bulkhead doors, leaving the rear guard clear to them and repeat the process at the next side corridor. This process would give an unobstructed clear path from the main bridge to the midship control room, a perfect strategy. The Khai being engaged were definitely skilled and were not losing for a lack of fighting ability. But with each of the Thraten weighing roughly twice what a Khai infantryman weighed, and with no particular sense of pain, the Khai simply weren’t ready to be dealing with the nimble hybrid warriors from Earth. The Khai were fighting desperately but were being washed aside in their droves by a few battle hungry Thraten warriors; this battle had been a long time coming. On his scanner though, Zero could clearly see a pair of heavily armoured high ranking Khai officers on their way to intercept the Thraten before they could get to the midship control room. Zero knew all about these guys, having met their like before. Throwing his Cobra into a shallow dive, Zero knew the Cobra was designed to breach by collision, but there were certain parameters which had to be obeyed or the frame of the Cobra would also be damaged. The approach vector couldn’t vary by more than five degrees from a perpendicular axis. Speed

was also an issue and right now Zero was vectoring his thrusters to achieve the right approach and scrub his speed. Switching off the proximity alarm, automatically activated the breach mode, but only if Zero had the Cobra under control first. The processors to control the breach were just for that, they could not control pitch or yaw that much, they were just to maintain the correct breach alignment. With less than ten meters to go, breach mode finally kicked in, not that the thrusters had a chance to actually do anything. Zero's Cobra careened into the side of the Dragon right outside the midship control room. Having achieved the correct insertion depth to expose the door in the Cobra's nose cone, a hermetic sealing ring also inflated, this would seal the breach and hold the Cobra in place solidly. If everything went well, his Cobra would remain embedded until they were in orbit around Earth. "Cob-37 to Cob-Z." "Cob-Z ready." "We have the bridge of the Komodo sir. All bulkheads are open ... Venting now." On his Cobra's viewer, Zero watched as every single door on the captured Komodo began to open, jets of the breathable atmosphere burst out into the void, next Zero watched as Lizard after lizard was evacuated into space. Thank God Wraith isn't here watching this. It was brutal, but it was also necessary. Such a small team could never take all the Khai on the Komodo as their prisoner, and now to gain the craft, sacrifices had to be made. Pretty soon the ship was empty apart from the Thraten. One Komodo captured as ordered; the Dragon Zero was on would be theirs too in a couple more minutes. Zero popped the hatch in the nose of the Cobra. Precisely two decks high and wide enough to allow a full insertion of Thraten in only twenty seconds, it was a little anticlimactic as Zero stepped onto the deck of the Dragon alone. Coincidentally, only twenty meters away, at the head of a stairwell from the deck below, the two Khai officers in full battle regalia moved into view. Assuming a position in the center of the corridor, Zero mirrored their moves. In the far distance maybe half a click away, the Thraten were slowly advancing, side corridor by side corridor. They'd be another ten minutes at least.

Zero felt the familiar feeling washing over him but Leren's words were echoing loudly in his ears. It was OK to kill if he was in a pinch, but he should fight to stay in control of his mind, not go feral like his clone on Mona. This would be a test of his will power then. Zero began to replay missions he'd undertaken on Earth against humans, where killing even in self defence was off the table, not an option. Though he was facing heavily armoured, battle tested Khai officers, Zero would try to best them without killing them. If killing did become his only option, he had to do it humbly. There could be no pleasure; he couldn’t bask in any glory. Zero was a different animal now to the cold blooded beast from Ashlar-Gin, if he couldn't maintain his humanity then there was no chance he and Joan could return topside after this whole mess was sorted out, to live with the humans. Zero worked on a strategy to disarm both the officers and see what could be achieved by subduing one of the Khai; he was unarmed and would need to take their weapons from them. Calm clarity ... Calm clarity. The two Khai began to march in unison toward Zero, who held firm. Calm clarity ... Calm clarity. The two Khai were now only steps away and running, each with both arms raised and ready to hack. Still Zero held firm. As both their blades began to split the hairs on his head, Zero jumped. Both blades were now heavily over balancing their wielders who ended up in a heap, skidding several feet to a stop. Zero, who re-materialised only feet behind them about ten microseconds later, turned on his heels to watch the Khai falling to the ground. Stepping between them delivering a crafty love tap from each of his feet rendered the two unconscious. Grabbing their swords and launching them back down the corridor, the idea had come to him suddenly. He was intelligent, well trained and had skills the Khai couldn't comprehend. Remaining calm and focused had allowed Zero to stave off his baser instincts to kill the lizards. Within seconds a splinter group of Thraten, having seen their chieftain facing off against two Khai officers had bolted down the corridor as fast as they could lumber. Seeing that the fight was over almost before it got started, and without Zero even lifting a hand saw them all staggering to a disappointed halt. The five of them now waited, standing guard over the Khai, the remaining Thraten were still sealing doors and Zero

now made his way into the midship control room. Reading Khai was an impossibility, but Zero had studied the record enough to have an idea what function each button performed. Having pressed all the buttons which he knew he should have to press to lock down all remaining bulkheads, Zero was about to vent the entire vessel to the cold depths of space, when he stopped himself. Having watched the crew of the Khai blowing out of the captured Komodo like specs of dust on a breeze, the whole event had seemed pretty surreal. Zero had no particular empathy for the Khai. They started this war a long time ago, and it was their inability to let things lie that had seen them chase halfway across the universe to keep the grudge alive. To arrive at this point, how many worlds had been swallowed by this monster race? And yet Wraith had proven that some at least were unwilling participants. Zero couldn't shake the feeling that Wraith's little experiment should have a second coming. Either way genocide was wrong ... They weren't Khai and Zero remained mindful of the teachings of his Old Prime. He had to allow the Khai the choice of life in peace ... Before death. Zero would now do the unthinkable. The five other Komodo had been carved into pieces as if caught in a shoal of galactic piranha. The floating chunks were rotating slowly out of control, and the sight of Khai infantry floating around in the stricken ships which now had no power and no artificial gravity or life began to seriously unsettle Zero’s own sense of well-being at their victory. Before, Zero might have been elated to see such a sight. A crushing victory easily delivered. An armada of Khai doomed to death. It was justice ... Or was it? “Do we have full control of the Komodo and this Dragon?” “Affirmative sir.” “Use the Cobra and rescue as many Khai as you can, ferry them to the two ships.” The deep throaty tones of the disgruntled Thraten rang in Zero’s ears, but there was one thing he could rely on. The human crew of each Cobra were, in fact, some of the most hardy soldiers Earth had. All had been picked for their experience, and to get here; their level heads. They understood what soldiering

meant in its broadest , it was a means to defend a way of life wherever that might be. It did not mean that soldiers on the two sides hated each other. From a distance killing was impersonal, easy even, but as two front lines approached one another to the point where heads could be seen ducking for cover, the human factor always returned. An average Joe did not have killing in him. No matter how much the clones might have argued this point, Zero knew that humans HAD evolved far from their tribal beginnings, and this was only a positive thing to be encouraged if the goal was true enlightenment. Although his men had initially become lost in the fervor of battle and the unfamiliarity of its new setting, Zero knew from long experience how endless killing would eventually weigh on their souls; even in the name of a good cause. Not so the Thraten who simply needed to be stopped from having too much fun, but for a typical human such bloody business would become debilitating, then depressing, then something to be avoided even at the cost of their own lives. Zero now reasoned that more Khai ships, just like this would inevitably arrive to their world. Things might yet play out differently if the general Khai populous could see that war was not the be-all and end-all of life, and what could be achieved after settling. Unfortunately by now the Khai were known to have proliferated throughout the universe, and no one planet could hold them all, but it didn’t need to. There was no reason why, if they could make a bid for peace, a network could not be established for the benefit of interstellar trading. Firstly one species had to take a chance and be the bigger race. Zero knew the clones were up to the task, notwithstanding their inertia against the idea. As the Cobra fleet travelled home, the communications delay was eventually reduced to the point where a conversation in real time was possible. It occurred to Zero that he had not expected his diversionary battle to play out so fully. As soon as he was able he questioned Kariina regarding why their repurposed missile never arrived. Kariina’s answer was clear and concise, and though Zero was loathed to it, it was also expected and held no surprises for him. “Joan and Wraith ... They had faith in you ... Once in orbit you’ll be met by Cobra from all the Malls in India. They’re ready to receive any Khai who wish to warm their feet on the Earth’s soil.” Zero and his fleet had all performed well, no casualties, no ships lost. Zero was happy but wary. The human crews flying the Cobra carriers had been fairly

overwhelmed when they first clapped eyes on the size and number of what represented the merest fragment of the Khai fleet. Now though, with the training they'd received, and the strategies employed, the humans were convinced that successive victories would be as easy. In the back of his mind Zero knew all too well from experience in his dimmest darkest past that the battles would almost certainly get harder. Initially they would still be winnable, but eventually there would be nothing but scorched earth and the fight for survival. If events panned out the same on Earth, a much smaller planet than his home world, Zero figured the war would be completely over with the human race extinguished within fifteen months. This was a thought he had fought hard not to leak, especially in the presence of the Numbers, who were convinced that victory was possible and were giving it their best shot. Zero could find few parallels between the tiny blue world which was Earth and the super massive Earth like Devine Prime. A world so vast that resources would not have run out if the war had continued for a few million more years, and with a surface area so vast that even after millions of years of war, the planet was barely scarred. Zero believed that if the Numbers were drawing any parallels between the two worlds at all, they were mistaken. The only positive after the fact was that his partner Joan had united the countries of Earth. Sheer human tenacity and the will to survive had long been demonstrated in the endless wars the humans had waged over thousands of years. Now though their target was an alien species so immensely widespread that it was no stretch at all for Zero to imagine the Earth surrounded by enough Khai hardware to blot out the Sun. Like a technological Oort cloud of death and destruction. Their human spirit would only carry them so far, before reality would kick them in the balls ... Hard. Even after all their hard work and preparations, Zero now believed that diplomacy would be the only way that the Earth would avoid a slow and painful annihilation. The Khai he was rescuing now represented the beginning of this process, but by no means was this any guarantee that war could be avoided. The Khai were strong willed, but Joan was no pushover either and it would be her at the table should the chance arise. Any agreement which might be reached was unlikely to benefit Earth either beyond her continued survival, the Khai were a marauding bunch of thieves who were not given to sharing. Everything a planet could offer was considered a

resource to be harvested for their war machine. By the time this crop had been reaped, the humans would be back in the stone age. No technology, no elements with which to make any kind of metals, poor topsoil incapable of large crop yield and far too many mouths to feed. Even the prospect of survival was a bleak one which nobody including the Numbers dared to contemplate fully to a realistic conclusion. Zero at least was able to consider that in this case, surviving may yet reveal itself to be a fate worse than death. The lucky ones would die first ... Only today, nobody had died. Zero didn't want that to be a bad thing, but with all these thoughts running through his head, every possible scenario represented defeat. In another six hours the fleet would return home and be safely in a high Earth orbit. A long time indeed to be having such morbid thoughts when the communications channels were still buzzing with tales of Thraten slaying, legendary flying skills and tactical evasion. Zero couldn't be the one to break up the party. The men needed this. In time they'd feel this way less and less. Eventually they'd simply be relieved to be alive, wishing the war could be over. And after that?... Well after that they would all be praying to die, and they'd move heaven and earth to make it happen. At least this was how Zero had felt back in the old days. He never wanted to feel that way again ...

Chapter 52 – Revolt and revulsion.

ZERO HAD SPENT THE bulk of the homeward journey by himself in the bridge of his Cobra, pretending to be asleep whenever someone had walked off the deck of the Dragon to check in on him. This bowing out of the frivolities had been necessary in order to stop any outburst of realism from him to the humans. As the Dragon was slowly eased into a high Earth orbit by the pilot of another Cobra still currently stuck fast to the outer hull of the main bridge like a limpet to a rock; Wraith appeared in the cockpit of the Cobra just behind Zero. "Come on old man, why aren't you on the bridge? I went there first figuring you wouldn't miss the chance to fly such a beastie back. The men tell me you've been here this whole time sleeping ... Did you get injured?" "No kiddo. I'm right as rain just like always. There are a few things on my mind ... Things which would've been about as welcome at the party as cold lasagna topped off with parmesan cheese. Come on Wraith, let's go and clock out with the crew on the bridge, then we'll jump back to the surface and I’ll show you a few things." This was rare, Wraith and his father usually talked openly about everything, no matter who was present. But now his father's tone was flat and low, a sure indicator that his mood was the same. Zero ed Wraith and quickly set off down the circular staircase to the lower deck of the Cobra, then out of the nose cone into the corridor. Heading left his dad was off, leaving Wraith hustling to catch up. By the time Wraith even got out of the nose cone, his dad was at least a hundred meters away. Cheating somewhat, Wraith jumped to his father's side. "What's the rush dad?" “I have to get off this ship. The Khai and I have unresolved differences, if I see another one I might lose it." As the pair walked onto the bridge of the Dragon the Thraten crowded around Zero, their hero and famous leader. He’d engineered their strategy and acted selflessly as a decoy to draw fire. Most importantly, he had sent them into battle to fulfil their purpose.

It was something Zero always resisted, and hated to do, but this time smiling broadly through gritted teeth was his only recourse. As he watched his father all Wraith could feel was pain, in stark contrast to the usual smile which was always slapped across his father’s features. The only sign to confirm Wraith’s mental read was that the omnipresent glint in his father’s eye, was gone. Luckily none of the Thraten, or more astute humans seemed to notice; this was fortunate. Zero's eyes were full of sadness, though nothing was leaking mentally. So broad was his smile and so upbeat was his tone, that to any onlooker, there was no hint of Zero's true mood. It was clear to Wraith now how his father had been so skilled at infiltration. Interjecting like a rival suitor butting in on two lovers for a dance, Wraith managed to eventually pry his father free from the Thraten throng, but only once his father's mood was so depressed that he could sense a meltdown was imminent. Wraith made excuses for the pair about a debriefing back on Central which simply couldn't wait. Through a line of outstretched hands the pair made their way from the bridge back into the corridor, seconds later the pair were gone. Zero had implanted the vision of the German cave into his son’s head to enable Wraith to follow to the spot clone Zero had fled to in order to re-establish his inner calm; only to be set back on course by Aelren. "So what's this all about, you used to enjoy a successful mission." "You're right but when I’m finished showing you what you need to see, then you’ll know. Above all else, I need you to know what we are facing and maintain a sense of realism. You cannot get carried away; no matter how many victories come, they will be short lived." Approaching his son, Zero gestured for him to sit on the rock which was his own seat of meditation. He then sat cross legged facing into the cave, kneecap to kneecap with Wraith. The next three hours were grueling for both of them. Zero opened his mind and allowed Wraith to openly browse his earliest memories. At first Wraith had been eager to dive in and learn more about his father’s true origins, but by the end, he could watch no more. In a much abridged version moving forward month by month, during which hundreds of deaths could have occurred, Wraith saw the evolution of his father from an animalistic killer egged on by the similar behaviour of his brothers, to an almost useless soldier who sought his own death more than that of his enemy. Beyond this was a man more

like the one Wraith recognized. A cold, calculating, and ruthlessly efficient killing machine; for whom during battle there would be no emotion, no doubt and absolutely no mercy. "This was what my unfortunate clone tuned into in the hangar on Mona, and much as I used to, he made short work of the enemy in front of him. This is the battle I now wage inside myself; never to fall to this level again. Yet even in this last battle I killed thousands just by giving a few simple orders. The more worrying thing is how easily the humans followed these orders, and how quick they were to celebrate after with no hint of reflection upon their actions. You know now just what I've lived through. You know I'm not lying or exaggerating when I say the Khai are an enemy we cannot vanquish. They are too strong in numbers and eventually we WILL be choking on them; but at some point well before this ... the humans will cease to be human anymore." "So what then? ... We give up and let the Khai have the planet?" "We have to find a solution which neither the Devine nor my own people managed to find. Earth is a small planet, ten times smaller than Ashlar-Gin and two hundred times smaller than Devine prime. She will not sustain the human’s pride, and she shouldn’t be made to. You ... You are the one who found a solution before. There are still more than 10,000 Khai soldiers above our heads right now. Not all of them are going to settle into India. What about the diehards? Where do they go? What will you do with them? Imprison them and you give them a reason to escape, put them to work and you give them a reason to rise up. These are Lizards who love the idea of war. They don't need you to give them a reason to continue. Have you even considered this?" Wraith had to it that after he and clone Zero had reasoned with the General of the previous Dragon, the entire crew had succumbed to the idea of a peaceful life at India-7, even offering to preserve the planet by fighting against the Khai war machine. Wraith hadn't expected this, but he’d given thanks because then as now, he had no plan for the eventualities Zero was raising. As his father was at pains to illustrate; his hands seemed bound. Some of the Khai above them would almost certainly wish for a life on land without the need for a fight, but others would not. The older ones, who had suffered indoctrinations, seen action on other worlds and experienced the rush of war firsthand. These Khai could never be guaranteed by any stretch to suddenly

lay down their arms. Their instincts were ablaze and might never be doused. Of the Khai above them right now, at least twenty percent fit into this bracket. If the young super soldier in training could not convince these lizards to stop the fight to acquire land, then he’d be forced to imprison them. By his father's logic, Mona would be quickly filled to the gills with Lizards who wanted nothing but escape. He could exterminate them, but this would be a course of action he could never hope to keep secret from the Khai who were ready to consider a peaceful coalition. Such an act against their brethren would only provide a new cause for the Khai to fight the humans. As such his father was correct. If he couldn't convert the die-hard freaks of battle, then war was inevitable. Wraith considered that he couldn’t take the crew of one dying dragon as representative of the entire species. Maybe that particular crew had been more receptive by virtue of the fact that their ship had been doomed long before she'd reached Earth orbit, and they hadn’t seen battle in generations. Only their General properly ed the heat of battle, but this had long been outshone by his own day by day battle to exist on the broken carrier. Maybe, as Zero suggested, this crew had been at their own point of longing for death. Then Wraith and Joan had offered them all a way to live and achieve their life's goal without any need for the spilling of blood. It was a dead cert that any ship which contained Khai who were regularly ordered from one battlefield to the next would not be so quick to lay down their arms for a place in the sun. Wraith speculated that victory against such hardened troops might not be possible. Wraith had by no means examined the record completely; he'd been too busy training with his father's clone. The Numbers told Wraith that the Khai were masters of make do and mend and were highly adaptable. Oxull suggested that their ships had no redundant backup systems; this showed how ready they were to die. Maybe the only concept the Khai were truly at peace with ... Was glorious death. Zero was hearing the machinations of Wraith's mind. He was wrestling with the idea of dealing with a race who wanted to kill every last one of them, without becoming like them. The humans had seen more than their own fair share of monsters; Hitler, Eichmann and Pol Pot to name a few. Men who had thought nothing about rewriting history or turning back time by bringing about the

extinction of a race of fellow humans. Men like Genghis Khan and Ivan the terrible who were more like the Khai than the humans they commanded. All of them had been men seeking to vanquish all enemies in the expansion of their own territory. Thrusting their own ways onto millions, suffering beneath them. The skeletons hiding in the human closet were many, in this regard no war could exist without personalities like this to drive them on. One person who wanted it all, and the victims; fighting sometimes in vain to preserve what they had. Wraith even speculated that if the newly united humans were given free sanction to kill the Khai without mercy, they certainly had the personality traits latent within them to replace the Khai-mah in the universe. Such victories as today would only serve to bolster the human’s ego and lust for conquest until at some point they would just become the monster which replaced the monster. Zero could feel Wraith's mood at a low ebb, this had not been his intention. Zero needed Wraith to remain optimistic and un-jaded, in-spite of the knowledge which he'd just been shown. Zero speculated that only one course of action might yield success. "Revolution." "Revolution?”

Chapter 53 - Death, doubt and diplomacy.

ON CENTRAL JOAN WAS in conference with her old mentor Leren. The pair were jubilant, the only inconvenience the pair now conceived were the Khai floating a thousand miles above the Earth. The inconvenience was not that they were there, but how long it was going to take to ferry them forty at a time down to the Malls in India. If they were lucky the two hundred and fifty visits to the Dragon by their own Cobra fleet could all be managed in one day. After this they could begin sorting those who would stop fighting from those who wouldn't. Even with Joan's abilities at persuasion, this might be tough to achieve. By doing the right thing, Zero had created a major headache for them. The situation had to be handled perfectly or the Khai now trapped in the hangars of the Komodo and dragon vessels might turn out to be as deadly as stepping on a landmine. Joan’s initial plan was to allow both of the high ranking officers which Zero had spared to visit India. They could see what was being offered, before she outlined her conditions. If only the general from the previous dragon had not been murdered along with his brothers at India-7, this whole diplomatic process would've gone more smoothly. In essence, Joan was back to square one. The thought remained, maybe they were about to repeat a horrible mistake. Joan did have a mall record at her disposal. Hours of footage, showing Khai working shoulder to shoulder with human engineers in the sunny humidity of India, hinting at a life which most of the Khai had found perfect. The feel of something solid under foot, without the reactor hum of an interstellar engine, the sun warming their scales and no one ordering them onwards as cannon fodder. Life at India-7 had exceeded the dreams of the Khai, bettering anything their superiors ever promised. Joan and Leren felt this footage might provide a golden incentive for war weary Khai; who could shed their battle tails and regrow them with their feet up so to speak. What would have appeared obvious to Zero and now Wraith had the two been present, was that Joan was hopeful of a complete conversion by the Khai. The super soldier might have let the blood from his bitten tongue flow freely down his face as he told the pair in the nicest possible way ... You’re being naïve ... You need to get realistic ... But Zero and Wraith weren’t there to comment.

As usual, Wraith was tuned in to his mother. He couldn’t believe Joan was counting her chickens quite so prematurely. Wraith had been convinced that before such propaganda could be used, an omelet would need to be made from the cracked skulls of the Khai who would not relent. The makers of this omelet could only be the Khai who favoured a peaceful retirement. This was what Zero had eluded to with his declaration of revolution. There was no way to know but the pair hoped the Khai who wanted peace would vastly outnumber those who would keep fighting willingly. Joan’s images of the Khai at India-7 could however be very useful. As such Zero and Wraith, still in the cave in planned their own little Khai uprising. To the officers trapped in the hangars of the Komodo with their lowly spear carrying grunts, what happened next would come from left field ... One hour later on board Central, the new Prime and his human right hand woman Joan were still overseeing the rearrangement of equipment at the Malls in India. They were trying to make space for the adopted Khai, when Geyldian jumped to them. Finding a nearby terminal, the full leather jacketed hybrid began establishing a link to the Cobra crew still aboard the two Khai leviathans floating above them. “Mitchell, please tell me again ... I’m with Joan and Leren now.” “Well sir, it seems that moments ago a huge monitor in the main hangar of the Komodo came alive. It’s showing images and video from India-7. The Lizards were watching it, at first I don’t think they realised what they were seeing.” “And what’s happening now?” “I’ll patch the feed through now ... Can you see it?” On the screen was footage as the Sphinx had approached the old Monitor, encountered after reprogramming the third missile. Next, came heavily edited shots of the battle; then footage of two Khai happily repairing a King fighter alongside human ground engineers. Then came footage of the Sphinx defending the Earth from the Gekkoda which launched from the Dragon, following this were sad scenes of the aftermath of India-7, which showed the charred remains of both humans and Khai bodies strewn everywhere. Joan and Leren watched with complete incredulity, this footage was a complete

misrepresentation but as Joan moved to signal Mitchell to kill the footage, Wraith jumped to her side to prevent his mother from stopping Zero’s gambit. -Let it play out, it’s Zero. Time was short so there wasn’t any time to loop you in. Dad explained a few things to me, he’s had an idea. I believe it’s the only way ... Whilst the video footage being screened was completely inaccurate, the gist of it was understandable, unlike the lone Khai foot soldier doing all the talking now. If not for their universal translators, the growls, gurgles, hisses and other strange noises would’ve been completely undecipherable. This lone Khai was beginning to question the orders he’d followed his entire life. Unbeknown to the onlookers, Zero was leant against a beam high above the Khai in the hangar. In a state of meditation he had scanned the Khai for a lizard with some vestige of empathy, for whom constantly being ordered around grated upon his personality. Born in space and trained to kill, the Lizard Zero mentally hot-wired had never been completely happy with his lot in life. Never having had the gumption to get up and speak then or now, the words which Joan and Leren were hearing, were being spoken by Zero. The Khai were led to believe from a very early age, that they were outcasts in the universe, and that no race would ever form a peaceful alliance and share their land with them. As such it was the birth right of Khai to acquire land by force so that they might eventually live out their days happily on land they worked to possess. What the video showed was that this mission had been completed, and then destroyed by another marauding band of Khai. “My brothers ... Are you seeing this? The great Khai-mah have already found this world, they are our allies. See how they rescued us and how we work together ... But look my brothers, this is what Khai peace looks like, see how the Dragon destroyed everything. Why must we keep on fighting? Just because they order us to? Can we never achieve peace? Is it not the goal of all Khai to seek out land? Well here IS land ... And here IS a species willing to share with us.” As Zero ended his monologue of discontent, a nearby Khai officer had also been watching intently and slightly in disbelief. He had never witnessed such acceptance from any race toward the Khai as this video displayed. Approaching the lone Khai, whose questions were now hitting thoughtful targets all around

him; the officer could feel a growing tension spreading through his underlings like a wildfire. Double taking, he fought to watch the crowd and the video as it continued to be played on a loop. Also sensing the need to maintain order the officer knocked the lone lizard down with the hilt of his blade; automatically placing his booted foot on the back of the lizards head to keep him subjugated. The officer then continued to watch the video. Zero Lizard was not done yet ... In fact he was only just getting started. “Why? ... Why must we fight if this species is ready to share? We should ask them.” Zero lizard now aimed this comment squarely at the officer who sought to quieten him further by twisting his boot on the back of the foot soldiers neck. The officer was surrounded by his subordinates, with the ferocity which saw him promoted to a low officer rank and then even higher, he sternly replied. “Why you ask? Why indeed? We are Khai-mah, we don’t ask ... We take what we want ... When we want. We will not bargain with this species, why would we bargain with a species we can easily crush?” “See my brothers how their lust for power will never allow us to be at peace ... But we are so close. In all our lives we have never had this chance, and if we leave it to them ...” Khai Zero was abruptly terminated by the officer, a single thrust at the base of the skull had been all that was required. Zero had sensed the anger ri inside the officer, who was growing more conflicted and more confused. Even this had not stopped him from killing the troublemaker. As if on autopilot, the officer’s sense of duty was deeply instilled within him. The concept of peace and that maybe he was close to the end of his life of violence was still only a small seedling within his mind. Now Zero would employ a much stronger approach. Possessing the officer himself he withdrew the long, oddly weighted curved blade, now wet with the green blood of the dead soldier. Holding the blade aloft amid the other soldiers who had all been folding in around him, tighter and tighter ... Zero officer snarled ... “There will be no peace, I will not allow it. This world is ours for the taking. Even if there is nothing left but ash; I will claim it in the name of the Khai-mah.” This was a typical Khai-mah battle cry. The soldiers had heard it's like many

times before, though never this close to a world, and certainly never against a planet which was already an ally of the Khai-mah. This world had already shown a kindness they had never experienced anywhere else. Now it appeared to all of them that far from acquiring land so that they could settle in peace, this officer was hell bent on ruining this world before they could ever feel its hard ground under their feet. Back on Central and Wraith could see his father was making steady progress but there would need to be more blood spilt before he was successful. “You can see where this is headed now mother? You need to prepare a speech ... Set your conditions ... For after.” “After what?” Joan’s nature could be stern outwardly, but inside she had a trusting nature. It had never occurred to her that the Khai had come to kill them all; and that with one victory or ten or a hundred, the fighting would never end. “Dad showed me Ashlar-Gin. He realised that the Khai have to want peace more than they want war. You can see ... Some are open to the idea; but this idea must be made into a reality if the Earth is to survive. Dad is facilitating a revolt. In the Khai he seeded the idea that peace can come without a war. Now he’s playing the officer who will snatch this peace away from them, he absolutely will not allow a peaceful coalition. You can see the soldiers around him are beginning to question the goals of the officer.” “Puppets! Gray is using them like puppets for his own ends.” -That isn’t true at all Joan, Zero is creating a lasting peace and giving us an army to help defend us. The Khai will be better able to reason with any other Khai who arrive here. It’s not pretty, but it certainly can work and with no human casualties. Only Zero can do this Joan. As Wraith says, you will be the one who extends Earth’s hand in friendship; the hand of peaceful co-existence. As Leren finished talking to reassure her, Joan was turning things over in her mind, was she really so naïve that the thought of full scale war never occurred to her. No ... That wasn’t it. Joan felt that if she had managed to unite the humans, a seemingly impossible task, she might also have been able to appeal to the Khai to prevent a lasting conflict and save the Earth. That Gray had taken his own

action without even giving her the chance to try, felt suspiciously like a lack of trust. Wraith could not allow this train of thought to continue, but also he did not have the right to show his mother the things shown to him by his father. “You have to trust dad. You know he’s as committed to saving this world as he was Ashlar-Gin which fell despite the fiercest defense. This is what Zero is trying to avoid a repeat of. As far as he’s able, he’ll do that with as little blood shed as possible. This way no humans are endangered, and we sort out the Khai who can evolve from those who have no intention. You cannot get your hands dirty; you have to be the one who picks up the pieces for both races so we can move on together.” “Ma’am ... Ma’am? Shall I shut down the video feed?” Joan was still rationalising Zero’s action in her own mind and could not answer. Geyldian, who hadn’t been expecting such inflammable actions from his soldier but could also see that this was a completely acceptable course of action, answered for her. “No Mitchell the feed is coming from Central ... We’re testing a theory ... Let it play.” “Affirmative sir ... Understood.” Another lie, but as Leren nodded his approval, it seemed that the lone actions of Zero now had the complete backing of the Numbers. Still inside the Khai officer, Zero was thrusting his blade threateningly without any real intent to harm the angered Khai. Zero knew though that for this ball to roll at full speed, he had to ramp things up. The foot soldiers around him were now so close that if he didn’t defend himself the Khai officer would quickly be cut down. Zero now pulled out, moving into another officer who had been content so far to watch his fellow officer flaunt his power. Newly possessed, the second officer was powerless as he could feel his body moving without his agreement. Drawing his sword, the second officer now moved from a rear position outside the circle, inflicting gnarly flesh wounds to his underlings as he moved to the first officer who’d found himself to be surrounded in the middle of an uprising. Creating Khai casualties all around him, Zero inside the

second officer ed the side of the first who was now fighting hand to hand for his life; having been relieved of his sword very easily. The blue touch paper was now burning towards a full ignition. Zero retreated into one of the attacking foot soldiers. “Come on brothers, we must overthrow these blood thirsty overlords who only want to exercise their power from the safety of our shoulders. These cowards, who have no intention of allowing us our peace, or the chance to set foot on real land.” With this a rallying cry was heard as the general cannon fodder unanimously decided that enough was enough. Surrounded, the remaining officers now threw down their arms, even fully armoured and heavily armed as they were such odds were insurmountable. Zero was winning this little insurrection, but now he had to cement the change by preventing any more bloodshed. There would be plenty more battles as new ships arrived. Earth needed these Khai to be united, and grateful. If the soldiers could be convinced to spare the officers, this would sway them to give up unconditionally and accept that peace was in fact a real possibility. “See how quickly they offer their surrender when they have to point their weapons themselves! Let us lock them up and offer them to Earth to cement our peace.” The Lizard whom Zero was controlling was almost swept away in a tidal wave of foot soldiers who no longer seemed to be listening to his words. They were so caught up in the images on the screen, images which mirrored their dreams so closely; they’d already decided that there was no longer any room for the ruling faction. Every time they had been used as shields for the officers, or had their ideas and individuality stifled now became fuel. Generations of subjugation and pent up aggression was explosively released, and there was nothing Zero could do but watch. Any words the Zero Khai uttered now might be seen as a complete U-turn by his brethren who were charging in to take their pound of flesh from each of the ousted officers. All Zero could do was stand and watch, but even this was risky if any of the other Khai noticed his abstention from the t kill. The first officer fell quickly with no resistance. The second went as quickly but

far more violently and it was clear that the Khai had smelled blood on their forked tongues. Zero now withdrew back to his own body and waded in. He had already located all the officers and now resolved to jump them out of the hangar into the arms of the Thraten platoon on guard outside the hangar in the main access corridor. Grasping two officers by their tails and jumping them to safety immediately, the pair arrived in the corridor Unclear as to how they got there. Once the realization hit that they were now surrounded by a full Cobra complement of Earth’s huge hybrid warriors, the Khai quickly settled down. The being which had extricated them was gone but not for long as he deposited two more fully armoured officers one of whom had a foot soldiers pike though his upper thigh. On his fourth jump to the hangar, the video on the huge screen had been replaced by an image of Joan. The human was addressing the Khai soldiers directly utilising a translator chip. The sight of his little woman from Yorkshire speaking in the growly hissing tones of a Khai was a funny one, but the subject was most serious. Joan was praising the Khai for ri against their oppressors but stated in very clear that these officers should be judged fairly then punished only if required. “After all, were not your big brothers the officers also following orders from higher powers than themselves? The same wrongs under which you were controlled; are also the same wrongs under which they act. All of you were fighting for what you believed, but you were lied to. There are races all over the cosmos who are ready to extend the hand of friendship to the Khai, if the Khai can drop their weapons and adopt a more diplomatic approach. We also have the location of several proto-Earth type planets, suitable for the Khai-mah long term. That said we have more than enough room here on Earth for those of you gathered now. Our only condition, as before, is that you come here in peace and will help us to preserve this planet as she is now, when other Khai vessels arrive.” By the end of her speech to them, the Khai had become transfixed by not only her words, but the images from India which were being displayed. Calm had been restored, but there had been significant bloodshed. In total five officers had been killed; the later ones having been almost completely ripped apart in the growing frenzy. Also strewn around were the bodies of more than one hundred Khai soldiers who, remaining loyal, had tried vehemently to defend the officers.

The remaining loyalists had been cornered by the main hangar door on the far side from the corridor the Thraten were controlling. Whilst some were injured, all were alive. The revolutionaries had them surrounded, outnumbering them at least ten to one and Zero was glad that Joan had managed to avert the completion of the bloodbath. Having seen that while well intentioned, her partner had somewhat lost control, Joan enlisted the aid of both Wraith and Geyldian to quickly pull together geographically oriented photographs of India. These served as a taster of what the Khai would experience when they arrived, should they follow her guidance. “India is warm and lush, and there are already many indigenous reptilian species, some of whom are revered by the humans with whom they share a habitat. IF you can all renounce your violent past, you will be welcome to us on the surface.” Now it was Joan’s turn to return Zero’s curveball. The screen went dark, no more pictures. Two seconds later Joan appeared in the hangar, flanked by Wraith and Geyldian. Zero had sensed a brief intrusion by the Old hybrid, to determine a suitable jump location, just before the three had appeared. Zero tracked their right hand flank, on high alert. If any of the Khai tried to seize power by killing Joan, Zero resolved to beat his son and friend in her defense. Having been fairly upbeat before whilst rescuing the officers; Zero was now automatically slipping into his usual battle ready mode. Calm and clear, Earth’s super soldier was now on a hair trigger; something which had not escaped the attention of Wraith and Gill. While Joan was unable to make such astute mental reads, her intuition told her that the situation in which she’d placed herself was a dangerous one. If she did not establish firm control quickly, the Khai would be inclined to try and take her. After this her partner would be unleashing his inner beast for a repeat performance of the Mona incident. -Stay here boys ... Gray has me covered. I need to show trust ... And a complete lack of fear. Joan swallowed her nerves in one huge gulp, before releasing the hands of her son and friend to walk forward to meet the nearest Khai soldier who appeared to be at the younger end of the assembled army. Standing in the Khai’s typically

slumped repose this youngling appeared calm. Approaching maybe closer than she should, Joan reached out her hand. The Khai youngling initially responded by drawing back in a flinch, until he realised this was not a punishing gesture. Joan’s hand never moved higher than her waist and was now both open and outstretched. Some encouragement was needed. “Take my hand son, I don’t bite ... You’re the one with the teeth.” The look in the green eyes of the Khai suggested that Joan was safe, whilst his pupils were still showing a distinctly reptilian vertical oval shape in the low lighting of the Gekkoda hangar, appearing quite cold and emotionless; the position of the ridges around his eyes was high, suggesting surprise not anger. His analysis of the small and only slightly built woman before him said she was defenseless, appearing to have no claws, no sharp teeth or even a tail for balance, she was not built for fighting ... He could take her easily. Yet the fact that she would approach him so closely apparently without fear or anger suggested trust. Even Khai officers never displayed this level of trust in an infantry soldier, always fearing a sword in their back. This entire experience was new to the youngling, but being young and having never seen battle, he was somewhat more open minded than his comrades. Opening both his hugely clawed hands, and placing his left behind his back, he reached to find Joan’s tiny hand with his right. Clasping the full claw for a customary shake was an impossibility for Joan, who simply grasped the two powerful centrally positioned, long clawed digits. Far from watching this exchange, Zero was now scanning the entire hangar. In general there was a deep seated air of fear and mistrust, but as the handshake continued the mistrust was being replaced solely by fear. This was fear at two things. The first seemed to be a genuine fear of the unknown, no Khai except those who had arrived here before them had ever achieved their goal of making landfall and living out their days peacefully. The second was Joan, some of the older soldiers who had seen action had seen many of their brethren fall to diplomatic trickery as one world desperate to survive had also extended their hands in friendship. This race had then expunged all the Khai delegates and moved quickly to a violent defence of their world. Of

course such actions were taken without any appreciation of the full scale of the threat the Khai-mah represented. Ultimately victory had been swiftly found in favour of the lizards, leaving in their wake yet another ball of molten rock to cool in the void; but good Lizards had been killed first. This small, apparently defenseless human extending her hand confidently was sure to have some back up plan hidden up the flowing sleeves of her chemise. Probably this would allow her to vanquish every last Khai inside this hangar if she so bade it. The big blue clone on her left appeared to be a caretaker from the legends, if so there would be trouble looming. Zero now ed Joan inside her mind, making her aware of which Khai were exhibiting the most inertia to her suggestion of peace. Looking at each Lizard in turn, there were almost forty standing very close to Joan just in this part of the hangar. Zero’s quick read of the assembly was that maybe twelve percent of the 3,000 Khai assembled in this location did not trust Joan based on past events. Joan was quick to address these Khai ... “I can sense that some of you are not ready to place your trust in me ... This is understandable and indeed I mirror that sentiment. Until I am certain that you do not pose a threat to my people below, I cannot allow you your freedom.” Joan now stopped shaking the youngling’s fingers and gestured directly to three of the Khai who were experiencing the greatest difficulty in trusting her. “Have no doubts, you WILL be fully supervised, but I am prepared to show you three what I am offering. I hope you will take this gesture as a symbol of our peaceful intentions. You can trust me, and all the people of my world.” Joan now turned to Wraith, one look and he knew what to do. Gathering the newly selected Khai soldiers into a tight group, Wraith had them make a hand stack, around which he placed his enormous hands to ensure he was touching all three, before jumping them away in an extraordinary display of power. Wraith would now give them a tour of India. Joan, Geyldian and Zero resolved to stay right where they were. Zero only left the hangar once for a visit to the bridge. He needed to ensure Evan, Oxull and Geberus were adequately prepared to break the last of the three conduits. Following the same procedure as last time, but not the plan which Zero had originally formulated, the missile would be hatched from its conduit, before being re-energised and placed in orbit around

the moon, as a rainy day policy to be used when required. While Zero was away, Joan was not idle either. Quickly she had identified that the three Khai were purely staff from the hangar. Like typical ground crew on one of Earth’s aircraft carriers, these Khai were responsible for making the launch tubes ready and Gekkoda maintenance. Some were plasma engine specialists, while others were more niche, like plasma weapon technicians. Others performed simpler duties like driving hangar equipment and refueling. To prevent further violent outbreaks, Joan realised the Khai needed to be kept busy. Trust would be built if they assisted the Khai with repairs. Of course it went without saying, her cloned attaché reinforced her position militarily. Images on the screen showing fleet after fleet of Cobra and King fighters, ready to subdue any attempt at aggression towards the Earth reinforced Joan’s position even further. Joan was careful though to maintain a flat even tone, far from shouting and snarling out these warnings, she maintained her better the devil they don’t know persona. The flat even tone of her voice, coupled with her actions and the things she was saying, only grew the feeling of wariness with which the Khai treated her. Threats delivered with a broad smile were something the Khai were ill equipped to deal with. They weren’t sure if Joan was bluffing but neither did they feel inclined to find out. The Khai understood that while they were still the lizards on deck, Joan might be the more slippery one amongst them. In time Wraith returned with the three doubting Khai who had apparently been transformed by the idyllic reptilian bliss which India represented. The three Khai had to be asked to calm down before they were coherent enough to address their expectant horde. “Brothers, the tiny one is not lying. Before our overlords destroyed the ... The Mall designated as India-7, we were indeed living in India alongside humans, the ground is warm and soft, the sun is bright and hot. This planet is a paradise.” These words had the assembled mass bubbling with excitement; their never ending quest for land, acceptance and peace was at an end ...

Chapter 54 - Defences raised!

ALLOWED BY JOAN, THE Khai crew began working to repair the blocked and collapsed launch tubes of the two ships, with the aid of brute force provided by Thraten. Initially the soldiers had rejoiced that they might be finally having a crack at the enemy. Just as quickly, they slumped back into their boredom once they knew the mission was only peaceful reconstruction. Within two days repairs were well underway, and once more a compliment of Gekkoda were received at two of the Malls in India, two hundred in total. All eight-hundred pilots and ground crew accompanied the craft but would only be stationed on a month by month rota so each Khai had their turn in the sun. The Khai and Joan had both agreed that a strong presence needed to be maintained in orbit as a welcoming committee, but also as a first response force should any more Khai vessels arrive. The Komodo was now broadcasting a message other distant Khai vessels would almost certainly receive. This message amounted to an ission that they had been bested by the insurmountable skill and force of the planet named Earth. The message went on to explain that the planet had then offered sanctuary, and a peace accord had been reached which was being fully honoured by both parties. The final part of the message was a warning to any Khai vessel who sought to harm the planet. They had found their slice of solid land and were now willing to fiercely defend it to the death of the last lizard against any aggressor. The outer limits of the Kuiper belt were drawn as a line in the sand. Ships wishing to them should wait to be acknowledged before progressing further. Any vessel which crossed this line without authorization would be fired upon by both species in equal measure. Not since their construction and inaugurations had Joan travelled to the Indian Malls. This was the situation at over ninety percent of the Malls around the world. In truth, Joan had hand-picked a delegation of staff, all selected from the military forces in each country. Being hand-picked by Joan did not come easily, only after a triple recommendation, interviews with the highest officials of the country and finally ing a successful interview with Joan was a person selected for duty. In this way Joan was able to place the highest level of trust in her staff, who all issued regular reports which Joan read without fail and replied to when required. This level of communication and organisation practically negated the need for personal visits. In addition a pair of children enhanced in

Zero’s little project, now grown up, were also installed within each mall; more in the cases where the child’s abilities had proven apt for battle strategy and combat. Some of the children were now officers on board the leading Cobra of each fleet. A month later, Joan had barely left the six remaining Malls in India. Joan had regular meetings with a Khai elected spokes-lizard, who was in fact the only Khai not on the placement rota. As a result of the meetings, some areas of procedure had simply proven to be impractical for the Khai to adopt. As this process of integration was ongoing, it was important to Joan that a rapport was built, so at least one Khai would remain permanently on Earth living the dream but working very hard at the same time. The Khai were not a telepathic species, as such they were unable to fathom that their little revolution had been completely orchestrated by one of Earth's agents. All the Khai who visited Earth were encouraged to travel to the destroyed Mall at India-7, now a shrine to their fallen brethren and a reminder of the dictatorial regime they vowed never to serve again. None of them recognised the blast as a nuclear detonation, originating from Earth, but all Khai knew clearly that the fleet had been expanded then spread out across the cosmos so far that ships might not cross paths in generations. It was not unheard of for the Khai to steal technology, weapons or other equipment which could be of use to them from weaker Khai vessels. A lone dragon equipped with a death ray was not outside the bounds of possibility for them. In fact with the only Mall attacked being the sole Mall to which Khai had retired, only made Zero's revolutionary propaganda footage all the more plausible considering the harsh treatment the officers and commanders would levy upon Khai who'd thrown down their weapons. For a few weeks after his little stunt, Zero had been walking on eggshells around Joan, even after every possible endorsement from the Numbers who hailed his single handed actions as being typical of Zero. Direct and almost perfectly well measured, had the Khai blood lust not taken hold, very few casualties would have resulted. In general the Numbers were absolutely satisfied that Zero's logic was correct and already lives had been saved on both sides with equipment and resources successfully saved for another day. For Joan, the fact remained that Zero had circumvented the chain of command.

Not even consulting her or the new Prime. While she appreciated the benefit of plausible deniability, such a gross lack of trust and communication from the man she loved; the man who had never given her a reason to doubt him in the past, was inexcusable. Eventually and under a huge amount of duress, Zero had shown his partner the same thing he had shown Wraith in the cave. It wasn't what he wanted to do but eventually even his super spine was developing a sudden bend from sleeping on the sofa which was entirely too short for his massive frame. Zero missed Joan, her warmth and smile were some of the only reasons Zero needed to defend the planet at any cost and by any means. What Joan saw first triggered a repulsion so strong that the link had to be broken so she could be aware enough to vomit where she stood without choking; not a pretty sight for Gray. Joan never drank, and had never fallen foul of fad diets, maintaining her weight easily with good diet and exercise ... He’d never seen Joan puke. Part of the problem was the vivid nature of the memories. Literally none of the details had been lost in the eons which followed, even though the memories had been buried for almost as long. The overriding theme was the man she loved, then called Garic. Initially spawned as infantry to fight running battles when the Khai broke through Ashlar-Gin's planetary defence system and made landfall. The weapons Garic was furnished with caused the most ghastly wounds, evisceration, amputation and a few other "a-tions" which probably even Leren had never known about. Death followed quickly for Garic's targets, in a blizzard of Lizard parts the soldier became skilled and efficient, but also brutal; thankfully tempered into extinction by experiences later. Garic was proto-Gray, and even with all the death and killing, Joan eventually could not help feeling sorry for the soldier as he became more and more forlorn by his endlessly repetitive missions. On the point of suicide and then well past it, Joan watched as Garic repeatedly took his own life, and in some of the most inventive ways possible. It wasn't so much that Garic had lost faith in his planet’s ability to win the war, more like Garic had simply been overloaded past his capacity to kill. No end had been in sight for Garic who would always regenerate for another helping, whether he wanted to or not. Joan now saw the reason why, and it was one she was not prepared to deal with. Garic had a family. He had no memory of them firsthand, yet his quarters

were decorated with lots of family pictures, a wife, a son and two daughters. “I think the family was a lie considering I also appear to have been grown artificially. I was hardwired to protect my family ... And by extension Ashlargin. You have a keen eye, as I don't the family in the pictures. If I did, you'd have been the first person I told. I think whatever makes me regenerate, also controls my memories, blocking access to anything harmful to me ... It’s how I got through my suicidal phase, which some of us never did. By the way, you're only about five percent in I’d say, tell me you get the picture? Tell me you don't want to watch anymore?” “I don't Gray, I’m sorry ... If I’d known all this sooner I might've ...” “What? Adopted me like a little puppy? I couldn't tell you because obviously I didn't know myself until after my last regeneration. Then all the memories did was to stiffen my resolve about one thing. Yes ... I will protect Earth by any means ... but a repeat of Ashlar-Gin cannot be allowed ... Not just for me, but for the sanity of everyone on Earth. You saw me, I killed so much I got bored, and then I got despondent. Can you imagine that on Earth? A planet geared up for a war of weeks, but definitely not for a war of months or years, Ashlar was twenty Earth masses and she fell in three years. When the Khai come, we already need to have won the battle with words. As you saw, endless fighting got my planet and even Devine prime absolutely nowhere.” “I was gonna say, I would've prepared your little propaganda video for you. A very convincing narrative, things were going well there for a while.” Joan was using humour and sarcasm in an attempt to lift Zero's mood. Zero felt that he'd already lost Joan's trust, showing her his deepest memories might just ensure she would never trust him again. “I know that face Gray, you're disappointed but not with me ... Who then ... Yourself?” “Of course I am, I made a mental vow that I’d never share those things with you. Can you really look me in the eye and tell me that you don't think about me differently now? Far from being a puppy, I'd be surprised if you didn't think of me as an animal, only ever one trigger away from the truth.” “Oh Gray love, don't be silly. I still trust you. I was upset so much because I

thought you didn't trust me, and maybe you were taking a huge risk. What if the Khai hadn't responded to your video gambit, the entire situation could've imploded.” “I had two things in my favour. Firstly if things had gone south, the Khai were contained, a few tranq' grenades and then back to square one. I was never worried about that. Secondly ... Know your enemy ... I certainly do Stanley, I certainly do.” It had taken some soul searching on the part of the pair, but after Gray showed Joan his past, the air was cleared. Joan also agreed that with the knowledge she now had, a war with the Khai-mah was to be avoided at all costs and any battles should as far as possible, be fought in space. "Amen to that Joan, and with that in mind we need to decide on a much better use for our three missiles than having them in permanent lunar orbit. Kariina has an idea, and I think it’s a good one worth mentioning to you, but we should do it in the right place and in the right way. " "The circle then. Let's go." Still cuddling on arrival in the circle, a few puffs of dust were expelled from some rarely used mouth slits, accompanied by a rather loud and somewhat fiendish giggle from Geyldian's sister. Geberus was seen to turn purple again. Since dating Kariina, embarrassment was an annoying friend the scientist could not escape. Kariina had the biggest personality and absolutely no filter, words often just spewed from her mouth in big loud bursts. No sooner had a thought been “thunk” than the words were shot out of her mouth with all the power of cannon balls to scar people's ears permanently. Not only that but in stark contrast to her suitor, Kariina had no concept of embarrassment, and only laughed harder when she saw her lover's impression of a Ribena berry. The current circle of Numbers, as complete as it could be, had often posed a challenge for his predecessor Aelren. With well-practiced, clinical precision, and probably because this meeting had called him away from his main task, Leren now practically ordered that his underlings got down to business. Zero acted as chair. -As you all know we have expended considerable time and energy developing ways to break conduits and harvest the Khai missiles. Well if we harvest

anymore the orbit patterns around Mona are gonna get all used up. Kariina has an idea of some merit which we should all evaluate. It's the sort of thing I would normally do on my own but I've promised certain people I'll try to become a better communicator. With that Zero placed a well-aimed wink in Joan's direction and gestured Kariina to continue. -What I'm proposing is simple really. It's an early take down system, at the moment if we should find a Khai fleet crossing the line our response is to scramble ships to any point which intercepts their course. If we're lucky we engage anywhere around a sphere matching the orbit of Jupiter. Well ... Why send any ships at all? Consider this ... we put the three missiles in that zone to start with. I can use Mona's enhanced scanner to extrapolate the intercept vector and send it to the nearest missile. It depends on the distance to be covered, but we should be able to engage them whilst they’re still trying to navigate through the Ort. That's how much faster the missiles are than the ark ships, if everyone hadn't ended up blundering into hyperspace, the missiles would have easily caught the Devine. Even if the Khai adjust course to lose the missile, our missile will adjust to stay locked. If they cross the line, they're going down. -Just out of interest Kariina, what is the blast radius of one of those missiles? Surely it's not worth launching them against a single ship? -Rest assured now that the missiles are all live, one would obliterate the moon quite easily I’d say with an effective blast radius to match ... So no ... We hold them in reserve for major incursions. I think we can already say our ships, weapons and tactics are more than a match for smaller fleets. -That’s good work Kariina, Geberus I assume you will be helping her? Then why don’t you both get started? As Kariina and Geberus jumped back to the Astrometric lab on Mona, everything fell silent in the circle. It seemed like everything was falling into place for the forces of Earth to put up quite a tough defense. Joan still sensed an elephant in the room. -About the Khai, I can sense there are some of you who are still wary of their presence in our Malls. I would like to put those fears to rest as far as I can now.

It may seem like a bitter pill to swallow but as a later convert to Zero’s worries, we are far better off making peace with this enemy than trying to fight a war we cannot win. I can also see how small the planet is which we live on, but we do still have other favourable climates which we can offer to the Khai. At the moment they seem more than happy with India and the tasks they’re engaged with. My aim ... But only if the Prime sanctions it would be to receive half the Khai we have now to Malls all over the globe at the same latitudes. We have capacity in Mexico, Central and South America, Southern China and Australia though obviously it’s hotter and dryer there than ideal. As you all appreciate Khai Prime was a hot world with a high rate of volcanic surface shift. It wasn’t humid there at all, but no Khai has set foot there since they evacuated. In space the Khai keep their ships slightly warmer than we do, and in fact the Khai are warm blooded ... A key reason behind how they are able to move quickly and fight so energetically. It seems though that they have actually evolved to depend upon the manufactured humidity on their vessels so an environment which we would call arid wouldn’t really be suitable for them long term. All I know is that since coming down to the surface, the Khai have slowed down on masse. They trust us, they have personalities like us, and I bet none of you realised that one fifth of them are female, across the board. They are impossible to tell apart unless they reveal it to you; both sexes have concealed genitalia. As far as that goes the Khai are more advanced than humans who are only just beginning to realise full sexual equality. I suppose that’s a result of every day being a struggle for survival. The biggest issue is that each pregnancy reliably produces Six neonates, and they are obviously quite hardy. As with their parents, one largish meal each month is fine for them. They don’t suffer infant mortality at all as far as I can see and genetically, blood s I’ve tested show their DNA to be quite stable, they die in battle or as a result of old age and don’t have any other issues that I can find. I would like the Prime to my results of course. -So if I understand this right, eventually if the Khai stay here we will be overrun with them? -Well that would take a while, their gestation period is around three of our years. It’s another five before they can carry again, but unlike us there is no limit to how many times they can get pregnant and they typically live for around two of our centuries. They appear to be quite promiscuous and I’m told they can choose which male’s deposit gets to be successful. Survival of the fittest and all that! It will eventually present us with a problem.

-It’s no problem at all really, we introduce something into their food and water which calms their libido and inhibits pregnancy. We can this off as an unforeseen environmental miss-match. No long term problems will be presented. It might even prove to be a useful incentive for the Khai to move on ... eventually; once we find them a more suitable planet. -That won’t work though. Presently the Khai are on a rotating rota month by month, once back on the dragon or Komodo their food and water is beyond our control. They are taking care of themselves unless they’re our guests. Their spokesman insisted ... They don’t want to be our pets; they became invested in our goals very quickly and have adopted them as their own. -Hmmmm ... Maybe you could ... Ask them ... To ... Abstain? Instantly realising his mistake, Leren’s mental voice now tailed off to something resembling a whimper. The look on Joan’s face actually had the Prime trembling in his skin. -You want me to ask them to quit their only form of recreation? How do you suggest I do that oh knowledgeable one? The Khai do not view free time in the way humans do, they don’t look for things to do when off duty. Given their genetically imposed reproductive cycle, sex is their go to recreational activity, and in that regard they are very open minded as I already stated. The females already know when they are most receptive and abstain if they feel the time isn’t appropriate. As you know the Khai do not keep detailed records like we do, but I have heard stories of enforced breeding cycles to replace numbers after long wars. This actually proved fatal for hundreds of female Khai due to accelerated gestation when their bodies weren’t in a fertile phase, but that never seemed to matter to the generals. -It seems fairly simple to me. The Khai don’t crave down time like humans, but when they do stop working they like to enjoy themselves properly in the only way available to them ... Personally I can’t fault them but isn’t this just a case of keeping them mentally engaged in something beneficial to both parties. Leren was intrigued. This wasn’t an engineering problem so the new Prime was only too keen to see what tit-bits of wisdom Zero would impart now. -And what do you suggest then?

-Well I know this hasn’t occurred to any of you, why would it? The Gekkoda are a small agile craft, if we helped them develop the plasma engines to improve efficiency and range, we gain a tactical space fighter which can exceed their invading counterparts. Another thing might be to convert some of the Gekkoda into satellite weapons platforms. They are undetectable even to Khai scanners unless they are right outside the door. With a little A.I. courtesy of Eight and some newly installed Axe weapons powered by an auxiliary reactor module we can complement Kariina’s rapid take down missile net to fill in the gaps. We can set the Gekkoda in clusters of ten or so. I’ve had Evan and a fleet of Cobra with Thraten collecting pieces of wreckage from the last battle. Luckily we’ve also collected more than 2,500 intact Gekkoda from the bellies of the destroyed Dragons. With a broad grin across his face and looking directly at Leren ... -I swear those Thraten of yours will do just about anything if they think there might be the chance of a fight. Originally the Cobra were supposed to carry two Khai officers right? Well they are now. We need them in order to salvage parts like plasma cannon turrets, thruster nozzles, engines and the like without blowing everything up. The Khai engineers are confident they can make two more Dragons and another Komodo from the modules they salvaged. It’s actually a very clever form of construction. It means that a fleet is never fully destroyed; they can always make another ship and continue. I guess that’s the legacy of their fight with the Devine. It’s also the main reason why their ships are so simple. One system destroyed means only one system to repair and this gets them back in the battle in super quick time. A lesson we can learn from I think Oxull? Zero’s diversion to Oxull was a necessity at this point as Joan was beginning to get that look on her face again. The look which said, “Exactly when were you gonna tell me all this?” Oxull was oblivious to the fact that now it was his turn to save Zero. -Definitely, although the King fighters are mostly modular already for the same reason. The hull stresses in space are far greater, especially when considering a mostly empty tube to house a Thraten platoon, but we should re-examine the design for future Cobra. Upgrading the Gekkoda drives will be no issue but I will have to work closely with the Khai engineers as our plasma technology is the complete polar opposite of the Khai. The principles

governing what you want to achieve should be the same though and anything which gets us to guns on invading tribes quickly is definitely worth investing some time in. Do you really think the Khai will help us? Now looking at his partner to set her mind at ease...... -We are only throwing ideas around at the moment. I know I’ve used men and resources, but very little when you balance what we’ve expended against what we’re gaining. A t mission between Khai and Thraten was required as the similarities between the two races vastly outweigh the fact that our Thraten were programmed to see Khai as their mortal enemies. This is something we need to address now that not ALL Khai are our enemies. Zero’s logic was perfectly reasonable again, and despite the fact his actions had once again completely managed to circumvent her knowledge, Joan was satisfied that Zero was building lasting bridges between the Khai and the Earth. -Gray, you only have to tell me these things, I won’t stand in your way. Everything you’ve done seems to be for the benefit of us all, why you have to keep stuff secret I don’t know. “Secret?” -That’s not fair Joan. I don’t actively keep things secret from you. It’s just that I have a lot of ideas which can all work and I see no reason to wait. You can see how fast my mind works, and I always have complete confidence in my own abilities as you know. Besides I know you have your little mole.” The smile and sideways nod in the direction of Wraith was enough to make Joan’s lips finally curl upwards in the right direction and as her son began to whistle whilst innocently looking away, she finally broke out into a fit of laughter. -Sometimes I forget you cannot connect to the hive, but everyone else knew. This blatantly inflammatory comment led to Joan’s mind being filled with psychic denials from the remainder of the Numbers still present in the circle. All stated that they didn’t know which hive mind Zero was connected to, but it wasn’t theirs ... Not all the time anyway.

-Bah! You Numbers need to be kept under control better. Leren that’s your job you know? Pull your jelly lubricated finger out you dusty doctor. Now the circle was properly distracted and laughing along with Joan, the super soldier took his chance to disconnect and reach into the mind of the new Prime. -Leren my friend, we need to talk. End this assembly please. The new Prime was never one to turn away his greatest patient, especially if he was volunteering to enter his medical lair. As such Leren was unable to stop himself from subconsciously rubbing his hands together with mock evil satisfaction as he abruptly called the assembly to an end. Zero who had already made Wraith aware of his intention to stay back with Leren, arranged for his son to take Joan back to India-1. He would them in the next hour, maybe quicker depending on Leren. Zero pulled Joan close to him and planted a big kiss in the middle of her forehead, before releasing her just enough to break all . As Wraith grasped her hand, Joan quickly looked upwards, briefly managing to lock eyes with Gray before she and Wraith re-materialised in India. Only the Prime and Zero were now present in the circle. -It’s about Joan doc. Is there no way for her to open her mind enough to the hive and maybe even jump? How different is her brain to mine? I know my body seems to be the most perfect case of convergent evolution on record, but if my brain is essentially human in construction, and it became unlocked, then why shouldn’t Joan be able to achieve the same. I’m beginning to get the feeling Joan feels like she’s always on the outside looking in, and that she will always be. -Nanites. The only problem is they aren’t meant to be used on a healthy organism, or they might perform some tasks which aren’t required. You can see how this would be undesirable. Have you taught her how to meditate? It might be that the Nanites had nothing to do with you being able to jump or connect to the hive. Joan is exceptionally open minded. You should explain the concept to her first, as Geyldian did with you. Maybe Geyldian would be a better person to teach her, after all he had to learn when he first came aboard; he had no idea he was capable of jumping, and the hive frightened him for the first century, but he fought his way on doggedly ... Most irable ... I wonder why he didn’t want to be Prime? Except for the fact that he always likes to make trouble for me.

-I don’t see that, you two are as close as brothers, with all the conflicts and benefits. Gill just prefers to be topside in the sun. Are you making any headway with our little problem, you do realise that the solution also has huge potential benefits for our cause too right? -Well the scanner and mass spectrometer did throw up a few oddities, I need Rasian to help me look through properly though, it’s too early to say ...

Chapter 55 - The Beast laid bare.

SAT INSIDE HIS QUARTERS, Geyldian was reflecting upon the request from his Prime to acquire him an electron microscope. Only one millennia ago, Leren would have sought the help of Oxull and Geberus had he needed such a device. Without doubt he would’ve paced the halls of Central with his arms folded, tapping his bony fingers on his upper arms as he waited a few hundred years or so for them to deliver. It was odd that if the Prime had made such a request now, given his elevated status, the engineer and the scientist might have been inclined to deliver such a piece of equipment in less than a fortnight, this was the sense of urgency which Zero’s presence and constant unreasonable requests had been able to instill within them. The Numbers no longer took the attitude that given enough time anything was achievable. The clones now appreciated the need to solve today’s problem today, because tomorrow would only bring you more problems. Clearly the Old Doctor had also been able to evolve. Such an exciting medical conundrum before him and yet he appreciated that to the other Numbers, this was no more of a priority than which colour goop they might choose for their next meal. The engineer and the scientist’s time were better spent helping Zero to help Earth, even if helping Leren was ultimately helping Zero also. Zero had so many tasks on his plate that a normal person’s head would’ve been spinning so hard it might twist right off, yet as usual their super soldier was only proving to be a great source of inspiration to the clones. Zero displayed a massive ability to cope, even without a Thrall derived Hexalobe brain. By stark contrast Geyldian now found himself unable to comply with his Prime’s request, and this would eventually become a problem. Leren had always maintained a cool temperament, born of eons spent listening to moaning Novus and pretending to be interested before making a diagnosis based solely on the symptoms being presented. Since the death of Aelren though, something had been missing from Central and the Hive. Geyldian speculated that things on Central had always gone and continued to go so smoothly because Aelren presented the face of discipline, with an air of foreboding and menace. One look from the former Prime and conversations by the goop dispenser would be ended, finished or not. Geyldian had not seen it before but now Leren’s own personality was expanding

like heated gas to fill exactly the same function, and being at an ime with his own task, Leren was now taking more than a ing interest in the tasks of others. If Geyldian couldn’t get an electron microscope for his Prime soon, the Novus would be suffering. Herein lay the problem, scanning electron microscopes were not the most common piece of equipment which could be found in the human domain. Being very expensive, such equipment was mostly found in universities and high powered research institutes. Due to the high investment cost and higher operational costs, the microscopes would be fully utilised. If they weren’t in use by the university, they might be used by another university who couldn’t afford one. As soon as Geyldian had briefed his network head in the States that he should begin trying to acquire Leren’s prize, the same network head had personally ed faculty heads, research institute director’s and even team leaders on various nano-tech projects to see if time could be booked with their Microscope. In every case the response was negative, stating that their SEM was booked up for several years and the booking list was growing every day. In order not to create a lot of ill-feeling and chaos, the S.E.M. time was strictly allotted and there could be no queue jumping and no borrowing. Geyldian had then moved the goalposts somewhat by suggesting that the Network Head simply place an order for an S.E.M. with the manufacturer, this quickly presented another dead end. The companies which made the microscopes did so to order and upon receipt of complete payment. No problem for Geyldian except that there were over One thousand companies and universities ahead of him, the net result being a waiting list of around four and a half years. Geyldian now considered that if things didn’t go their way, there might not be an Earth left at the end of that period. Not that he could say that to anyone. Geyldian continued to scratch his faintly blue noggin and play with his stunningly jet black Capillago as he considered his next move very carefully ... Ra-sian had not managed to find any more imminent threats; the next missile was still several months away. In the last month signals had been received from two more Komodo which had been drifting through neighboring systems. One was suffering desperately due to aged and failing equipment and was no longer structurally strong enough to form or enter a hyperspace bubble. After some lengthy discussion with both crews who had maintained calm communications,

Joan negotiated with the second Komodo which had been several light years away initially, to go and rescue the crew and working equipment from the failing Komodo before proceeding directly to Earth. Joan pre-cleared the younger vessel to cross the Ort line upon arrival. The huge ship would of course be met by a fleet of Cobra, and boarded. If this went well with little or no hostility then the ship could proceed all the way to an Earth orbit. This initial had taken place with warm greetings, again to the chagrin of the Thraten who could now smile through clenched teeth as well as any human. The Komodo steamed slowly onwards reaching Earth two days later. Joan had not been slow in taking her delegation including the Khai spokesLizard for a meeting on board the fully functional Khai-mah leviathan. Despite being from clans with a long standing interstellar grudge, the two captains had held control of their merged crews most irably and it was clear that the two groups wanted nothing but real air to breathe and some sunlight to bask in. A treaty was signed granting Joan full command of the vessel and all smaller vessels housed within. The old Komodo had been left adrift in the void broadcasting the same message which they had themselves had intercepted. A skeleton crew of Khai, augmented with Thraten, was left on the Komodo, again a shift rotation was drawn up. The crew of the old Komodo only numbered around one hundred and fifty Khai, the younger ship was also relatively unmanned with a crew of less than five hundred lizards, odd as the vessel was like new. The ship’s captain explained that they had only a few months earlier left a war torn sector of space, having managed to assemble this ship from the undamaged modules of over twenty five dead Komodo onboard whom all lives had been lost. The news that fighting was happening only a few galaxies away, caused some alarm for Joan and the Numbers, but not Zero. He already knew what the Komodo commander was going to say ... “No Ambassador Albern, there were not any habitable planets with technology in that entire sector, these were only two tribes who fought to obtain what each other had ... to the death ... by the time we arrived the battle had been over for hundreds of years.” “What a shame captain, but I assure you what happened is not a strange event for us. Humans also used to fight in the same way for land or possessions.”

“Really? When did you humans reach enlightenment?” “Enlightenment? Well that’s a long way off yet, but we stopped all conflict about fifteen years ago to prepare for your arrival. A step in the right direction though I’m sure you can agree.” “War against one’s own species? Utter futility. Yet it is the way of the Khai not to recognise other tribes. A commander only does what is right for his brethren, treating all attackers to the same fate ...” “Well here Death is not an option, at least between Khai given sanctuary on Earth. Are you aware that we do not allow a ranking structure? On Earth all Khai are free and equal. I assume you’re OK with this?” “Without a doubt we are. Our quest is at an end, and we are honoured to share your planet. We are ready to defend it with our lives.” Joan had still been glowing with warm satisfaction even once she arrived back on Central to brief Leren, but Gray was still skeptical. This was another small victory which came without casualty. The captain’s own words had revealed the true nature of the Khai-mah, who even while working toward the same end were incapable of working together peaceably if their tails swung the way of a different clan. It was no surprise to Gray that with the misery and suffering which the Lizard species had inflicted on races all over the cosmos, that they would also fight between themselves to extinction. Their animalistic drive was unparalleled by any other species. Far from kill or be killed; it was more like kill then kill more. Joan was just wired differently to Gray. He knew in his own mind that this time had to be different, but his experience just could not be ignored. Gray saw every event with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. In his eyes, the way even Joan’s step got lighter and faster with each victory or small success was only leading her ever faster towards an inevitable fall ... A hard one at that. “Just because the Khai are coming from far and wide with their broken spirits and failing ships doesn’t mean there aren’t millions more out there who are fighting fit and ready to eat this world up. You’ve heard how the officers treat lizards who don’t want to fight. It’s gonna be a massacre ... Sure the more lizards who arrive on Earth to help is a good thing, but the first few ships who arrive with serious intent are going to give us hell, and then they’re gonna call their

friends to come and give us a little more.” “Do you still think there’s no chance for us?” “Joan. What I’m willing for with every fiber of my genetically enhanced being, is that this planet will survive. I just can’t stand to see you taken in. No matter how many Khai flip to our side, no matter how many ships we destroy or salvage, you must remain strong. You must remain focused and you absolutely must never drop your guard and think it’s nearly over. The war for Devine Prime was waged for millions of years. I want it to be over too, but you just have to get used to the fact that it could be another hundred or another thousand years before another Khai vessel finds us. But find us they will, and they aren’t all going to simply retire and put their feet up.” Joan couldn’t understand how Gray could be on such a permanent downer. Rarely, if ever was he the man she fell in love with anymore. He barely slept and was eating less and less while his good nature and even temper were becoming lost in his own perceived need to remain battle ready. In the month since Zero had beaten the Khai fleet decisively, she had watched him become ever more consumed by his strategic machinations to win a long fight. Gray didn’t even hate the Khai anymore and had even made friends with a few at the India Malls, but trust them as a species? Joan didn’t think Gray ever would. There would always be more, it was their reptilian nature which dictated that they would always try to master weakness. Many humans would still keep snakes for pets, such was the lifespan of these creatures which would far exceed that of a dog, or cat, that they could be a pet for life. Yet no bond could be formed or relied upon between pet and keeper. If a mistake was made by the keeper then they could expect that mistake to be punished with a strike. Without any warning and borne completely from instinct a bite would be suffered. In her own mind, Joan was also on high alert almost all the time. If it wasn’t the threat of another Khai ship running the Kuiper, then it was wondering if Gray might go primal on the Khai when inspecting a Mall’s readiness to fight. Joan needed to celebrate the victories, to make them worth something, as it seemed like the worth was draining out of her relationship. Gray was doing what he did for all of them, and probably her most of all, Joan knew that. His love for her was at the root of most things he did. How was it then that these same actions were only driving them apart?

Gray had sensed a growing unease within Joan since her abduction by Nazir. Wandering through her dreams at night was a real trip down memory lane as his partner dreamed about her life before Central and even before she’d met Gray. Had he altered the course of Joan’s life past the point where she could slip back into a normal life? A stupid question, of course you have. He told himself, but he wondered how much longer Joan could essentially tough it out on a stage not of her own making; in the role Aelren had thrust her into. For the most part Joan had coped and grown, expanding her knowledge of the possible far past that of a normal human, but this was in fact Joan’s biggest and only fault. She was only a normal human, with access to three huge alien leviathans, yes. At the head of the human species ... Check ... But unlike every other human, Joan worked around the clock and despite her reassurances to the contrary, Gray could feel her grip on normal was beginning to slip. Being under so much constant pressure to essentially decide what was right for the entire planet, then accept responsibility when those plans didn’t work out was breaking his little woman from Sheffield. Not that Joan would ever it it. For the most part she didn't like to think about her own mortality at all; but it was on her mind more and more. Aelren had trusted her to unite the humans, to organise their forces collectively and galvanise them to fight at a galactic level, but at best she might live for a century. Maybe seventy five of those years would be productive if she was lucky. Her life was the blink of an eye in Clone , and when she finally collected her tickets, who would replace her? Joan considered that the clones would probably just resume their actions as they had done before she came along. Gill had at least ten millennia left in him baring death from some external force, and he had eons more experience of human nature than her. The only thing which set her apart from a clone was her ability to think outside the box to clearly and rapidly form a useful plan of action. In this sense her and Gray were a perfect match for each other. This was what Aelren had seen in her, the ability to escape the friction of their many rules and procedures to accomplish tasks quickly and successfully. Gray had consulted with Leren as to the possibility of bringing Joan along in of both her awareness and maybe even her lifespan, but these were as much for him as they were for her. He was more than well aware of the distance growing like a weed between them, and Gray was the reason for this gap as his own demons acted like a wedge to split them apart. Gray’s love for Joan remained undiminished and as strong as ever. If it was as easy as telling himself to get a grip and not to be so on edge all the time, things could have recovered

long before now. Gray knew he’d been in battle mode for almost the whole of the last month but was powerless to fight his genetics. After all he had been spawned as an indestructible walking snarling weapons platform for the purpose of wiping out the Khai-mah. Gray could do a lot of things, some of which his makers on Ashlar-Gin had never imagined, but rewriting his own programming was not one of them. Finally ten days after accepting the two newest Khai Komodo crews, things between Gray and Joan became so unbearably strained that the pair snapped in typical unison. Whilst visiting a Mall just outside London, designated as MGB-1 where 200 Khai were stationed for the of a fifty strong Gekkoda squadron, Gray grossly misinterpreted an interaction between two Khai. The two lizards appeared to disagree, maybe about to come to blows. Without stopping to think Gray waded in between, grabbing the pair by the throat. Joan roared at Gray to stop in such a way that Gray’s pride had been seriously dented. Having intended to do nothing but restrain and separate the two Khai, at Joan’s cry Gray had become so angry that Joan saw him to be in the wrong that he proceeded to push the two lizards to the ground. Even this had not been enough for him to regain his calm, at which point the super soldier worked out his aggression on the Gekkoda the two had been maintaining. By the time Zero was finished various flight stabilisers were trashed and one wing tip was twisted towards the sky, its internal frame mangled, and the skin completely split open. Once fully recomposed, the super tantrum throwing soldier took his leave into the main hangar area of the Mall, leaving Joan to apologise to the two Khai, whilst helping them to their feet. The two Khai were as apologetic as Joan. Both could see how their actions might have looked troublesome and promised not to throw tools to one another ever again. Essentially the pair had been working hard and bantering when one asked the other to a tool. Mirroring their human counterparts who ed tools this way all the time, the one Khai had tossed the socket drive to his compadre, at which point the pair were grasped by their breathing tubes and hoisted aloft by Gray. Joan expressed her heart-felt regret at the overzealous actions of her man for no reason. She then asked the pair to make a full list of the parts they’d need to

repair the damage Zero had caused. Things were decidedly frosty at the Albern table that evening with neither Gray nor Joan feeling like they should apologise for their actions. Gray had perceived a threat and followed his instincts, which had maybe become narrowed and hyper-focused given his deep mistrust of all Khai. Joan had seen no reason for alarm and quickly tried to stop the situation from getting out of hand, much to the chagrin of Gray. The problem was that as always the thoughts of the pair were being transmitted across all bands to the hive. What should have been a private problem for the couple to work through, was now affecting the mood of all on Central. Sensing some action was required to lift his brethren out of this involuntary funk, Geyldian jumped to the Albern dinner table. To his annoyance the pair acted surprised to see him. “What is wrong with you two? Even twenty days ago, I would never have said that my two most favourite people ever would be bickering and at each other's throats like this.” While the pair continued to glare into the middle distance, apparently unable to even look into each other eyes, words also remained unforthcoming. “Not talking ... That’s good as it means you’ll both have no trouble listening to me then. Joan I will get to you later, as for you Gray Albern I never thought the day would come where I felt ready to tear a strip off you my friend, but here it is. You are being a pig headed stubborn freak ...” “I was trying to protect Joan ...” “And that’s fine, except I’m talking about you and the Khai not you and Joan.” Gray was dumbfounded by the remarks of his friend, a Caretaker from a long line of Caretakers who had been left by their makers the Devine to protect this small planet from their mortal enemy the Khai-mah. “You utter Hypocr ...” “Don’t you dare say it ... I am as ready as you are for the day when endless

fleets of poison drooling fanged war lizards have our world surrounded, but until that day arrives my friend ... We all have our lives to live. You are so lost in waiting to take down the first lizard that puts a foot wrong, even though you know none of them mean us any harm, that you are spoiling for a fight anywhere you can find one. Including inside this very room ... This room is supposed to be your sanctuary.” Geyldian’s tone had flattened out now to a normal conversational level. As his words found Gray and Joan’s ears, the pair had begun to look at each other. With darting eyes at first but soon the pair were locked onto each other again. The clever Second knew that this spat, the first serious one any of them had ever witnessed would soon be washed away; he only needed to get their attention back onto each other and away from the ills of the day. “Gray, you continue to be one of the most focused and driven men I have ever known, and since the formation of my Network there have been a great many focused and driven men whom I’ve known. You were created for a purpose, but that is not your only reason for existing ... Not anymore.” “You’re right Gill, if I travel back through my memories, everything I’ve done and everything I’ve seen were all for one reason ... To lead me here to Joan. Even if I could go back to my final battle on Ashlar and break off the chase with the Monitor ... I wouldn’t ... I’d still chase it so it could bring me here, a thousand galaxies away. Joan, I know I’ve been troubled lately by the Khai and your easy acceptance of them. It’s because I know what they are, and what they will eventually try to do to us. But Gill is right, I sense no ill will towards us from any of our Khai. As such my trust issues would appear to be completely irrational. I would only try to remind you that I was created to kill them all, and maybe the constant restraints I am having to wrap myself in to exist day by day without going on a total kill fest are finally taking me back to a phase in my life I was lucky to survive. This time it’s NOT killing when every synapse of my brain is saying get on with it soldier.” As Gray spoke frankly about what he was feeling and having to cope with just to get near to the Khai, a single tear rolled down Joan’s face. This was the realisation that she too was fighting a battle; a battle against fear. Her life was a tightrope, she had to extend the hand of friendship to a race she had been shown would maybe eventually wipe them out. At the same time she was only adding to Gray’s burden by placing a leash around his neck. Gray was the only man who

knew what the Khai were truly capable of. The truth was that even though she had covered well by rephrasing her thoughts to throw Wraith and Gray off, Joan was constantly scared. “I am just barely coping, and it’s worse when we’re apart. At first I was meeting people and decisions were being made, agreements formed. It was all new to me, but it wasn’t life or death. Not like now. I was naïve before and we've had a ridiculously easy ride of it. We still are, but since you showed me your memories ... I look at a Khai and I do not see peace; all I see is death. But peace is what I have to strive for and maintain each day ... With these monsters ... These beasts! I don’t have special abilities, you can both hear me, but unless you share your thoughts I am all alone in here. Today in London when you jumped between the two Khai I wanted to run and take cover. I wanted to stop you for the sake of our peace treaty, but also ... I ... I wanted to watch. I know why you were created, what your purpose is and what you can do, but all the same I had to stop you. You brought us this peace, but you could also blow it to smithereens if you lose your own mental battle.” Geyldian listened in shock. He had seen the record and knew inside and out how the battle for Devine Prime had been fought, but the true horrors were shielded as only texts described the battles. There had not been any pictures of the Khai in battle until Gray had re-spawned last time. It was clear that no one knew the Khai as well as Gray, and it was also clear he was struggling to keep himself in check to protect the peace and ultimately the planet. The biggest surprise was Joan, her issions were a bitter pill indeed, albeit amazingly human. The strength she'd shown to overcome her personal fears and do the right thing for everyone, whilst maintaining a façade of rock which everyone could rely upon, was monumental. “Gray I know you spend much time in meditation now, but maybe you should follow Leren’s recommendation, and include Joan in the sessions. how I used to sit with you in discussion for hours. Gees you both need it, and we need you both back to full speed. It seems to me the only way you can both get through this is together, as you’ve always managed to before.” Over the next few days Gray and Joan were inseparable, with the pair withdrawing from around ninety percent of their daily duties. The men who were expected to take up the slack were Wraith for Joan, and Evan for Zero.

Wraith was already inside his mother’s head as far as what she did and how those tasks were accomplished. Evan had also honed his skills in leaps and bounds over the last three months since the Khai activity had begun to ramp up. With his muscles and senses having fully returned he was exhibiting speed and recovery rates almost sixty percent of those shown by Zero. The human’s pod soldier experiment had finally yielded something close to their aim, though Evan never saw himself as being worth the cost in the lives liquidised by all the previous iterations. Sometimes in training with Zero his decision making had proven a little conservative with him failing to push to reach his body's limits. This was a confidence problem. Evan still fulfilled all mission objectives, just with few risks involved. Zero had to explain at great length how if time had been a factor he should have been able to rely on his body’s ability to heal to make use of short cuts under fire. This problem had been overcome easily as the ever sadistic trainer rigged the course with fire on every path, so Evan could not avoid the feel of hot lead and bone crushing wounds. The result was that now Evan was much the same as Zero, able to run into fire with no worries at all. Between their two helpers, Joan and Gray were free to reconnect ...

Chapter 56 - The most exclusive club ... The hive.

SAT IN THE MIDDLE OF the Albern living quarter’s lounge floor with the lights set on twenty percent, Joan and Zero sat cross legged facing each other. The whole experience began with closed eyes and deep breathing; when the pair were both ready they leant forward until their foreheads touched. This allowed for a much deeper and far more vivid connection than the usual hands on temples approach, without strained shoulders and sweaty palms. Once together spiritually, an observer might think the pair were unconscious; their breathing rates had been reduced to the order of three full inhales and exhales per minute and barely a sound was being made. Motionless with straight backs and palms on knees, the pose was completed. Their bodies remained ed without the need for conscious balancing. Initially these sessions had all begun with Zero finding Joan mentally, at which point he would lead her back to a neutral place. In essence the pair were walking through Joan’s happy memories and more prominent worries. The mental meeting place was of course a construct of Gray’s creation, but the format was one which was completely familiar to Joan, mirroring her favourite shopping street in London. Happy memories were displayed in the windows on the right to give something to lend comfort and create a feeling of . In essence the aim was to head to the neutral place past the windows on the left. During this process, Joan was able to see what her biggest worries and fears were as she might a pair of shoes or a new handbag. The key thing to observe was that no matter how serious the issue was, it was contained within a box behind glass. There was absolutely no risk to Joan and as such the problem could be discussed and analysed with Gray completely objectively, though sometimes ionately. In a twist of the knife there were as many issue windows on the left which featured Gray as there were happy memory windows with him on the right. Gray had never realised how much stress his lone wolf antics had been causing his love until they had begun to meditate together. Joan intimated that it was more the event or the mission which had caused her anxiety than Gray himself. That was until Gray reminded her that he had masterminded the missions... -I think that means I am the root cause of all your stress ... Sorry about that. Even though this place was a mental construct, made by Gray, he always had to form the pathway inside Joan’s mind; as such he was unable to pick and choose

the issues or the memories. Nor was he able to simply placate Joan to remove the issue, not that he would’ve tried. The harsh reality was that Gray needed to see and acknowledge these issue windows just as much as Joan needed to resolve them. In the first two days most of the issues relevant to both of them had been resolved. This left issues of a much more serious nature involving the Khai and Joan’s fears regarding the Lizard races true intentions. -You actually think they might be playing a game with you? -Well why not Gray? ... How many of your missions for Gill involved infiltration by ingratiation? You form a friendship to gain someone's trust and then BAM, you’re finding out what they’re doing with nuclear weapons or if their developing tech they’re not ready for. How can I rely on the fact that the Khai are being sincere? -Well by now you must’ve seen another side to them, you seem to get along with Chad the young spokes-lizard, I’ve seen him crack jokes and you laughing right along. We already know they have minds of their own as they were susceptible to the idea of revolt. If they were as unified as their reputation suggested then they would have just played their favourite game of war and won the Earth at the glowing end of a plasma cannon. Gray made a good point, even the three Gekkoda pilots from before had been genuinely weary of battle and simply existing in space. The larger numbers on the ships since had dictated some battling, but Gray had been correct in his assertion that the Khai had to want to slip their chains and move forward to peace. This had ed for two of Gray’s issue windows, but progress resolving Khai issues was slow. The handshake with Chad also featured in an issue window, Joan explained flushed with embarrassment that this moment had her almost shaking with primal basic fear. -But you overcame it instantly and shook Chad’s claw. I never suspected you had an issue. How is this still here? -Mainly it’s the fact that the Khai now look to me to resolve their issues directly through Chad. If I can’t resolve issues quickly then I fear for me and I fear equally for Chad. The Khai have become much more placid but they’re still pretty quick to enrage. Though it seems to be much more personal now, they no

longer get angry as a mob, which is progress I guess. -Have you tried telling them no yet? It’s not fair for them to expect all issues to be resolved, there has to be some compromise. The Malls were designed for Humans and Thraten; the Khai have to appreciate that. You are trying hard to please all Lizards all the time and I don’t think you need to. If you can please the majority initially then you’ll find the same thing you see in humans. The pleased majority will smooth the disgruntled few into accepting that the remaining issues are not that great. In the end not all problems have a feasible solution. The Khai seem helpful, this suggests they can also be reasonable. You’re assuming far too much responsibility for problem solving, when it should be the Mall commander’s job. You’re the face, but they have to be the expediter. In that way you share the problems the Khai are having, they aren’t problems you are meant to fix. To the Mall commander, you’re happy when the Khai are happy. Only then can he be happy ... Do you see? Joan nodded, again Gray had made something which had been haunting her seem irrelevant once he showed her that she was handling the problem all wrong. With childlike ease Gray was helping her to resolve all of her issues in turn. This process was helping. It was the end of the first week before the pair walked into the neutral area of the construct for the first time. Although fresh issues had been occurring in her area each day, the corridor leading to the neutral area was growing shorter day by day also. -That’s great Joan you’re making real progress. -You say that like a mentor not a lover, it sounds weird ... Clinical detachment. -It’s recommended Joan, this way our physical relationship does not impose on the problem solving process and our minds remain unburdened. Any way you know I’m failing a little bit. -Oh ... How so? Gray moved to her as if on a cloud, silently ... Then stole a kiss. -Illegal move! I can’t help myself. Now imagine if I tried to solve every problem with a kiss and make better mentality instead of useful discussion to achieve a

resolution. You might begin to feel like I wasn’t taking your problems seriously, I don’t want that. Trust is important in this kind of t meditation or it means nothing. Anyway, welcome to the neutral area. -But what about your problems? Can we resolve them now? Gray took a hold of Joan’s hand and gently led her to a doorway. Despite the doorway being a figment created by Gray within the construct, he had taken the time to fashion a handle, and a lock. -I don’t have the key. -Can’t you imagine one up? Or un-imagine the door at least? -It doesn’t work like that baby. I have a lot more worries and problems than you, this door represents a safety mechanism. It’s only a slight stretch of the imagination to say I have the guilt of a destroyed planet and the worry of another planet in peril within my chamber, that much I do know. I definitely want to solve each of them with you Joan, but first you are going to have to get to a point where your mind will cope with them. You are the key, when you are ready then the door will open by itself and we can begin attacking my problems. -Well how do I do that? How many problems can you have? -You won’t be doing anything alone; I will guide you towards what you need to learn then I will help you to learn it. In answer to your second question, I’ve been accumulating problems and worries for eons, in thousands of lifetimes. If I let you into that chamber, you’d never be able to escape. -You don’t believe in making things easy now do you? -Well let’s get started then, close your eyes and listen to my voice ... Zero was now going to take the years of time he spent in meditation with Geyldian and boil out everything which he felt was unnecessary into a distilled version. He wanted Joan to be connected to the hive inside one week if she was able. First came a few mental aptitude tests above those which Joan had already proven she was capable of. Being a skilled mental communicator showed nothing more than the fact that Joan had a clear mind and truly thought about what she wanted to say before she said it. In mental communication the

vocalisation was redundant. The fact that she could always hear the Numbers, Zero and Wraith inside her head proved only that she was telepathically receptive. To connect fully and become included, Joan would have to dial up her mental openness and stop the mental covering she had been doing. Both were counterproductive to her inclusion inside the hive. Gray now asked a series of questions. Joan would give her answers as honestly as she could, while Gray would monitor her mind. Gray had to determine if Joan’s mental covering had become a subconscious process. If Joan’s mind was covering by changing her answers without her knowledge, she might never reach the hive. There were very few therapies which could undo a mind so tangled it would intercept a person's thoughts with what were essentially cushioning lies. This was why Wraith had never realised that his mother was carrying such a heavy burden, or that she was so displeased with his father. Several questions later and Joan's thoughts matched her answers completely, without dwelling on what this meant in real , Gray continued his process. -I am going to start quoting poetry to you now, some really heavy stuff. The task is to focus on my words and only my words. Don’t try to resolve each word. It’s more important that you recognise each word without trying to reason each sentence. With this Gray began to slowly and with feeling, recite some of the longest and most melancholic poems ever written by humans. Learned mostly at the time they were first published; it had been impossible then for Gray to forget them. Each poem was so well ingrained that Gray was able to speed up the words which Joan was hearing. After five es Gray was now trapping on with inhuman speed at almost 400 words per minute. By ten es, Gray was adding a second layer over the top directly into Joan’s mind. What her partner had not mentioned was that he had been broadcasting to the hive at the same time from inside his mental construct. A little known fact about Novus and Numbers alike was that they could not work and listen to poetry. Since the first humans designed stories to entertain themselves, the clones were interested to listen. These poems were nothing new to the clones but at the speed Gray was reading them aloud, it was definitely down tools in Novus land. Gray

had thrown down a challenge to each and every one of them, to recite the poems in unison with him. A challenge like this was not to be ignored. The Novus now used all their powers to broadcast back to Zero inside his construct. Joan was completely unaware of Zero’s actions, but inside her mind Gray was beginning to overload her, far from two layers, by now there were fifty, in the next second a thousand. Joan simply couldn’t listen to every single word she could hear. -Open your eyes Joan. This was Zero as plain as the nose on her own face, he wasn’t reciting poetry anymore. Opening her eyes slowly, she could see Zero; his lips were still, and a smile was plastered across his face. -You hear them don’t you? The Novus? -I do, but there are too many ... I can’t ... For Joan to out inside the safety of the construct was not a part of Zero’s plan. Regaining control of his Novus chorus and urging them to stop, Zero now tried to rouse Joan. In time, with quiet restored to her head Joan came around on her own, in Gray’s arms. -I heard them. Gray I heard the hive. -I know Joan, I didn’t expect all of them to take up the challenge though. Your mind must’ve been chock full of Novus just then. You did well, I’m proud of you. I think that's enough for today. The next thing Joan knew she was back in the lounge of their living quarters sat on the floor. Gray’s face was a pink blob with two eyes only an inch from her own. As the pair separated, the connection ended. This had been the best session yet. Over the next week Joan eventually managed to target specific voices within the hive. Repeating his initial experiment had allowed her to accept all the voices she would eventually learn to subconsciously filter out, by the end of the week the whole of Central was reciting poetry at speed inside her head apart from the Numbers who were talking to her on matters regarding the Malls and the Khai.

Completion of this task enabled her to filter out the din of the hive and target specific voices. In the final stages of her training Joan did not even need to be inside the construct anymore. Sitting quietly on her couch was more than enough. In the next two days Joan completed her training fully, sat at her desk in New York, Joan was able to have a complete conversation with Leren which she instigated. Once the hive became aware of the new addition, Joan was once again flooded with mental messages of welcome ...

Chapter 57 - The first cut is the deepest.

THREE MONTHS LATER a battle was being waged around Proteus; the eighth moon to be discovered around Neptune. Whilst being the second largest moon of the fourteen, this humble agglomeration of rock was still not large enough to create a strong gravity. The result was a moon resembling a huge potato, which wobbled its way around the big blue gas giant. Three days prior, Kariina had caught an anomalous ping on the deep space scanner. Interrogation of this ping showed a fleet of Khai vessels which had progressed to an orbit around Proteus whilst completely hidden in the shadow of Neptune. As the moon had travelled out into the open, one Komodo had then fired up its huge plasma engine to adjust its orbit as the moon below continued to spin. This unnatural ejection of ionised plasma had set off the alarm, triggering an intercept from Earth. Over the last three months, the Earth Khai Alliance had successfully converted 500 Gekkoda into remote Axe platforms, but so far only thirty had been set in a spherical pattern matching the orbit of Jupiter. The gaps in this network were vast, and the craft were all so far from the scene of the incursion that they were rendered irrelevant and useless. A failure of epic proportions as Kariina’s early warning defense network was unfortunately not early enough. Not wasting any time at all, ten Cobra fleets had been scrambled in of the salvaged Dragon craft. This was essentially a resto-mod vessel, returned to undamaged specification, before being completely upgraded by Oxull and the Khai. This immense craft matched the Cobra for speed, and additional Axe beams complimented the fearsome plasma cannon turrets. The Dragon was informally christened “Cannibal” by her human, Khai and Thraten crew ... She was an aberration. While the Alliance fleet rushed to the scene with Joan on board and Zero following in the Sphinx, Joan had been busy hailing the intruders. For a long time there had been no response and Joan had simply begun to wonder if their communications equipment had been disabled somehow. Joan felt a sense of relief wash over her until... “It’s not that Joan. I am detecting very few Khai on the outer ships. I think they’re heavily damaged. The inner ships are only using them as a shield. There

are definitely comms active; the Sphinx is picking up the signals. This bunch seems a bit more cagey.” Zero also indicated that the Khai vessels were drawn into a tight formation, placing themselves almost hull to hull. This was a new strategy which Joan’s Khai advisors hadn’t seen before. Speculation suggested that this invasion fleet had probably scanned the broken pieces of Khai vessels which weren’t salvageable. Even now dead modules were floating like tombstones, or an intergalactic “Beware of the Earth” sign. On final approach to the Khai fleet, Zero had been scanning the Khai formation. Next came his briefing to the Cobra pilots. Zero, well aware that his words were being piped through each Cobra, attempted to get the Thraten energised like molecules of water inside a kettle. “The Komodo are less than fifty feet apart, do NOT attempt to between them. Go for the outer ships first, you all know where the launch ports and modular ts are, make those your priority targets. Expect that once I make my move they will get antsy ... You MUST try to keep them contained so they can’t launch anything from the inner ships. No hiding this time guys, take the gloves off. Targets as specified then anything which can eject plasma, engines, cannons I don’t care ... Carve ‘em up! Don’t be fooled, we have 150 Cobra and the Cannibal, but if we let them break formation we’ll be heavily outnumbered. Things will get real tough. You can bet once we start hitting them, that's the first thing they will try. DO NOT LET THAT HAPPEN PEOPLE! GOOD LUCK! Zero out.” -Joan, the time for negotiation is over. They’ve given me NO reason to hold back, we ARE going in now. Have your Cobra dock on the Cannibal and stay safe until we subdue them. -OK Zero ... Acknowledged. Fly safe. Zero led the charge as usual with an attack at blinding speed. Even as their leader’s warning not to fly their forty foot wide Cobra through the fifty foot gap between each Komodo was still ringing in their ears, each Cobra pilot was stunned as Zero headed straight for the gap. With his Axe activated, the Sphinx was slicing deeply into one of the inner Komodo. As Zero disappeared behind one of the outer craft, his position was still easily visible by the huge red particle

beam traversing at speed through the Khai fleet. Once the Axe found the plasma reactor at the aft of the newly bisected Komodo a huge explosion was seen. In a chain reaction the blast took out the two Komodo flanking it. Though Zero had ordered his squadrons to make the Khai stay in formation, the pressure from the blast wave sent the remaining Khai ships splintering outwards like a burst pressure vessel. Two more of the ships were listing badly and clearly their engines plasma reactions had been stalled in the blast. The Lizards trapped in those four ships had either died instantly as their ships had gone up like roman candles or would die quickly of ion poisoning. With five ships down what had seemed like a Khai force galvanized as a fighting unit was thrown completely into disarray. Joan seized her chance, with a hail across all channels so Zero could hear and pause for a moment with his killing. “This is Earth Alliance Dragon-1 calling any Khai vessel ... Respond.” Almost immediately the commander of the fleet appeared on Joan’s main viewer. “Forces of Earth, Treacherous Khai defectors. We wish to offer our unconditional surrender.” The message was delivered by a heavily armoured high ranking general. Immediately afterwards the channel was closed again. Zero was dialled in. -Joan this smells, he’s stalling until he can arrange certain things. The General reappeared ... “As a gesture of our sincerity, please feel free to dock in hangar one and proceed to our bridge. You will not be met or intercepted in any way. Once on the Bridge we will discuss your .” -Joan you aren’t docking anywhere, I’ll come get you now. Landing the Sphinx inside a hangar on the Cannibal, Zero jumped to Joan on the Cobra, took her hand in his own and steadied himself. Locating a Khai officer on the bridge of the ship issuing the transmissions, the super soldier soon had the

information he needed to jump safely. Jumping directly to the bridge of the lead Khai ship caused a mild commotion. The Khai weren’t accustomed to the sight of humans suddenly materialising inside their ships. Several of the officers on the bridge were taking steps backwards, but they were still exuding a heavy and menacing vibe. The General identified himself, turning his command seat to face them and standing up, with a few steps he was directly in front of Joan and Zero. The general was huge for a Khai, his armour looked heavy yet the way he stood, and covered the distance to them, said he wasn’t hindered by the attire in any way. More fearsome than the armour was the general’s claws, the longest bettering Eighteen inches. The central one made Chad’s look like a toothpick; Joan couldn't take her eyes off his claws. Stern faced as she could be Joan now took one step ahead of Zero to identify herself as the one he should be addressing. “Lay down your weapon so we can accept your surrender properly and escort you to Earth Orbit.” As Joan spoke, Zero was reading the bridge crew. To a Lizard, the crew could not believe what they were seeing, their general’s tactics had been found lacking, this they all knew. One thought was running through the minds of several of the bridge officers. They suspected his sudden call for surrender was a bid for his own survival. His tactical failure would certainly result in his position being justifiably and murderously challenged. Of course, none of them knew what their commander was actually thinking, the Khai had no hive mind. If any of their actions synchronised at any time, then it was purely an instinctual reaction to a given situation. The General had attempted to study Earth in some small way by the obvious method of studying television and radio transmissions, and now offered his hand towards Joan. At least inside his own mind the General seemed genuine. Joan offered her hand to meet the Generals two central clawed fingers. The handshake took place but was strained on both sides. Zero sensed Joan was almost choking on her fear, so hard she may out. Joan was struggling to find any trust for this General, there was something off in his manner. Zero still couldn’t detect anything amiss but was on alert, based purely on Joan’s unease. “Please allow me to show you our main engineering display . When the first ship ceased, we were also affected by the plasma wave, our reaction has lost calibration. At this moment I am afraid we can do no more than use our

maneuvering thrusters to achieve forward momentum. I would petition you for help in stabilising our plasma induction chamber.” Zero stepped forward to Joan at the . The general had moved aside and then retreated behind Zero in order to exchange positions allowing him a clearer view. Even though the General was no longer in Zero’s eye-line this did not stop the super soldier from maintaining his read. At the same time he and Joan interrogated the . As reported alarms were visible, neither read Khai script but both had been schooled by Khai engineers what the alarm at each position meant. In this case the reaction in the plasma reactor was at around 35% and falling slowly, another ten minutes and this Komodo would be dead in the void. Joan traced her finger along the various plasma injection conduits back through the manifold eventually coming to rest on a manifold cooling jet. Tapping her finger on the screen at this point drew Zero’s eyes to meet hers. -Zero, the manifold cooling jet, it’s been turned off. We’ve been ... Without warning, the General made his move. In one swipe of his heavy left claw the General gouged deep wounds across the back of Zero, breaking his ribs and back in one clean strike. The move ended with his claws deeply embedded in Joan's side. Zero was instantly levelled but remained conscious, unable to feel his legs, it was clear that this single wound was going to be fatal. Joan was stood but only by virtue of the fact that the General had not yet withdrawn his massive claws; quickly lifting Joan above his head, the General then threw her to the ground beside Zero. Joan was out of it, just as well as she was bleeding profusely from her side, her left kidney was obliterated, and her bowels and spleen were probably ruptured. Unless Zero could get her to Leren immediately, Joan would be done for. Seeing that Zero was still conscious and mentally alert even while immobilised, the General stood over his quarry. The look in his eye was still calm. This Khai was not battle weary ... far from it. Having seen the immediate and decisive action taken by Zero in the opening moments, he realised the battle might be over before they had a chance to return fire. But as Joan had reached out one last time, the General seized his chance to gain ground. Joan’s message suggested the Khai should lay down their arms and accept inspection, then sanctuary would be granted. Having no intention of laying down anything except his cowardly brethren who were stretched out in

the sun on the small blue planet, it had been easy for him to play along. This General was instinct personified. Killing and the will to win any battle from any situation came very easily to him, thought wasn’t required. Coldly, clinically, decisions were dictated by what he could see right in front of his eyes at that moment. It wasn’t hard for Zero to figure out what was going to happen next if he couldn’t get his jump on. Closing his eyes, the image of Leren’s lab came just as instinctually. The big General was winding up as Zero’s hand once more found Joan’s, and as he let fly, Zero removed his limiter. Every ounce of excess power would now be required. As the General’s huge fist crunched loudly into the deck of the bridge; his two victims were gone ...

Chapter 58 - The biggest jump ... The hardest landing.

JUST OVER 2.7 BILLION miles, one nitrogen rich atmosphere and a very salty sea later, Zero and Joan materialised on the floor of Leren’s lab with so much excess energy that the bang echoed through Central’s Alculinium frame like a small bomb. Leren was blown clear across his lab one way, whilst his Novus were strewn in the opposite direction. Despite the hard landings and some ringing ears, all were left uninjured. Gathering themselves, they quickly turned to investigate the scene of the huge energy disruption. Leren was horrified by the sight of his two favourite humans lying on the floor of his lab. Joan in a pool of her own blood with the blackened arm of Zero still wrapped around her for protection, the rest of his body was smouldering gently. Automatically the labs air scrubbers had hummed into life, the smoke emanating from Zero’s body was being drawn upwards towards a vent. It took the doctor several seconds to fully absorb the brutal reality of the situation. Ordering his Novus to ignore Zero, their first task was to carefully pry Joan free from Zero’s burnt and stiffened arm before gently placing Joan on a Medi-pod. Leren could see that all down one side of her body, Joan’s skin was reddened, even blistering in some places where she had been touching her partner and rescuer; but these injuries were the least of her worries. Tapping the interface immediately engaged all the probes and initiated a thoracic body scan. The external trauma was telling. A huge cavity had been carved in Joan’s rear left side, it had all the hallmarks of an animal attack; if that animal had been a six foot tall and galactically distant cousin of a velociraptor. Joan was placed into a coma, and ironically Leren now had no hesitation in introducing a dose of Nanites. This damage had to be repaired quickly. The bed was synthesising blood at a rate which compensated for the loss through her wounds. This allowed the Nanites time to work. Once Joan was far from stable but at least on the road to being repaired, Leren allowed himself to feel at Zero whose stiff burnt corpse was cooling rapidly in the climate controlled medical lab. Whilst cooler environments had been proven to retard his regeneration, it wasn’t critical. If only to give the super soldier a full recharge, the Prime ordered four Novus to retrieve the tank from the main Caddy hangar whilst the pressing of a single button initiated the manufacture of a fresh batch of pink. There was no need to monitor Zero any further this time, and whilst the damage to Zero’s

posterior rib cage indicated that the lower twelve ribs on both sides and every vertebrae connecting them was missing, Leren was not unduly worried. Gray had recovered from worse ... Much worse. Joan on the other hand had never suffered as much as a scratch in all her time on Central. As the alarm sounded to signal the thoracic body scan was complete; the blue drained from Leren’s face. Zero’s loss had been Joan's gain. Her own broken ribs were now completely tangled with at least five full rib bones from Gray’s right hand side complete with three lumbar vertebrae. With multiple organs ruptured and her vitals dropping by degrees despite the Medi-pods valiant attempts to compensate, it was clear that old bony fingers was going to have to pick up a scalpel and operate himself. The bed could assist by cauterising arteries while the two Novus operated retractors and handed Leren his surgical implements. Carefully Joan was rolled onto her right side, this involved repositioning some of the sensors on the Medi-pod to less than optimal sites but removing the foreign bones from Joan was top priority. Leren wouldn’t be checking the screens until the surgical procedure was complete anyway; he could tell from the colour of Joan’s organs if ruptured arteries and veins had been restored correctly. Leren did not intend to fix anything which he could not see directly, the Nanite’s were more than capable of doing that for him, Leren’s main mission was to get Zero’s bones out of Joan so that the Nanites did not misinterpret their presence and try to assimilate them into Joan’s much smaller frame. Leren made his exploratory incisions overly large so that he could gain a clear view. The wound tracks from the huge claws were clearly visible indicating a single blow which had literally scooped pieces from Zero and implanted them directly into Joan. As Leren continued to remove the offending bones and fragments, the four Novus arrived with the regeneration tank. Removal of the plexi-glass tank sides from the bed took around twenty seconds, after which the four Novus unceremoniously grabbed an arm or a leg each and hoisted the dead body of Zero upwards before dropping him onto the bed of the tanked Medi-pod with a thud. Next the Novus quickly cut free all of Zero’s armoured suit which was now fused to his outer dermis. For all the good this suit had done in protecting Zero from the claws of the Commander, maybe some re-evaluation was required to the design. After this the tank bubble was replaced and the seal checked.

Connection to a power source made the adapted Medi-pod bleep into life, an alarm indicated the tank was empty but not for long as the Novus now dumped the newly made pink inside. The final task they needed to do for their fallen super soldier was only to turn on the fluid heater which would elevate the pink slightly higher than Zero’s natural body temperature. Leren didn’t know for sure but he felt this might accelerate the regeneration by some margin. In his own battle, Leren was making progress. Deep within Joan’s tissues two things were happening. The Nanites were quickly and efficiently repairing her broken body from the inside, Leren expected their process would be completed within two days. On the sub-nano scale, tiny organisms present inside the blood and each of Zero’s bones which had been abruptly transferred into Joan had quickly realised their isolated predicament. Clearly their host had been fatally damaged yet again. Their only consolation was that they had all been uprooted into a new organism of a very similar composition. Some obvious things were different. Various hormone levels and even the base blood type of this new organism were different, but this was no problem for the stranded spores. Adaptation was their game, practiced since shortly after the birth of the universe. Being so few in number that a colony could not be sustainable meant now a completely different process would be triggered. Six of the spore colonists had become embedded into the new host. These spores would now attempt to find each other to thrash out who would get to claim this new host, before moving on to spawn a new colony. Less than thirty minutes after their forced introduction into Joan, the refugee spores had found each other and began a new battle inside the tissue of her liver. This organ had been chosen because it was the only major organ to remain undamaged. As such the huge mechanical devices which were cruising around this new host’s body would not find them. At this moment their new host’s system was being severely depressed by a series of foreign chemical concoctions, but this didn’t matter. For the spores it was now or never, but after this fight only one of the original colonists would survive to claim Joan’s body as their new home. All of the spores had equal potential, having lived inside host Zero for long enough to learn all of his processes intimately. What set each spore apart was

their mastery in the manipulation of these processes. Two of the spores had been buried inside the marrow of lower rib bones. As such they were called upon relatively little from day to day, but had proven essential in the past for the healing and regeneration of various fractures and complete bone structures. Neither doubted that inside their original host the remaining colonials would once more have this process underway already. Two had been inside Zero’s right kidney and had for all this time worked together as a team, managing various enzyme processes, as well as healing damaged tissues. Spores in an organ had much more responsibility within their host, if these two spores had ever dropped the ball, things would’ve gotten painful for Zero quite quickly. They considered themselves higher up the chain of command than the bone spores. Spore number five had been resident inside one of Zero’s lumbar vertebrae and was in much the same situation as the spores from the ribs, elevated slightly by its role protecting the main spinal cords. Spore number Six was also from this region of Zero’s lower spine; having been resident in the section of the spinal cord which had been transected completely and was still loosely connecting the three lumbar vertebrae together. Spore Six was well connected, literally. Often part of the decision making process for regeneration, this spore was also a key part of the communication process for damage assessment or general healing, as well as the day to day monitoring and processing of nerve impulses to the assessment center inside the Brain. Not only did Spore Six have a full knowledge of all the processes in their complex host but it was also a master of their instigation and manipulation. With violence completely out of the question, this battle was fought more like a game of top trumps would be between human school children. Except that in this game the stakes were higher. Instead of handing over a losing card, the losers would then be required to submit themselves to a white blood cell which would play the part of executioner to absorb and dissolve. After comparison of all skills and abilities, spore number Six emerged victorious. The other five spores weren’t disappointed. This was a chance for their kind to live on in perfection as countless spore colonies had for countless eons, all over the universe. They all realised and accepted that the upkeep of a colony in balance with their host required a great deal of skill and coordination.

Once re-established they wouldn’t be a one trick colony. As well as putting their host back together into an impregnable fortress, just like their previous host; they also were capable of altering the mindset of their host ... Usually, so that danger could be avoided. Whilst their last host had proven to act in a manner more akin to controlled chaos, spore Six hoped that this new host would not have the same talent for finding danger. Spore Six would now observe the age of his five rivals into the belly of the huge white cell. The five would not last long and all believed that dissolving in this way was not a painful way to go. With no eyes to see what was happening no mouth to cry out, and no pain receptors of their own, spore Six watched as these clever and yet most basic of life forms ceased to be. They had ed the torch, and now Six would further their species. Spore Six now tried to optimize his ingress into this new host and achieve a perfect union. To do this the spore would need to relocate from the Liver into one of the main arterial branches which flowed around the body. Being careful to avoid the huge mechanical contraptions which were doing the job of repairing host in the spore’s stead. Taking the long route, the spore’s end goal was to become embedded into the hippocampus within this host's brain. Once there, the spore settled down and got the lay of the gland. After this all functions were slowed to a stop; it was time for the next phase. Before long the outer shell of the spore began to soften and swell, shortly after this the spore, hidden inside began to divide at a steady rate. Four divisions each hour. As this happened the tiny spore membrane continued to swell as each of the spores which would eventually burst forth reached maturation inside. Five and a quarter hours later and with just over one million divisions completed, the squishy sack which had been Spore Six was now almost ninety percent of the size of the white cell which had absorbed it’s brethren. Having given of itself completely to give birth to a new colony, the final step was a chemical change within the old spore’s original outer membrane. Once released, this chemical dissolved the membrane allowing the fresh colonials to be released into the new host’s body. Immediately the tiny colonists ventured out to insert themselves around Joan’s body. Positions were found in all areas of the brain first then further afield into

the brain stem, then the spine and proliferating outwards even further through the nervous system to even the furthest of nerve fibres in the extremities of her body. Once completed, more than half of the colony was nicely embedded inside these primary locations, the process did not end there though with another third of the colonials spreading themselves out evenly through Joan’s skeletal structure, her organs, musculature and lymphatic system. So small was Joan’s frame compared to Zero that not all the spores had a useful place they could go to, but the remaining 7 percent of the spores would now travel to Joan’s femurs where they would reside for a rainy day. Two days later and the huge mechanical devices which had been repairing their host's body were mostly finished and had all but dissolved to leave no trace. Having set Zero’s recovery off at roughly the same stage, maybe Joan having a single hour as head start over Zero, the Old doctor was now keen to see who would come around first. Would it be his mechanically repaired Joan or the selfregenerating super soldier. Leren was completely unaware of the extra events which had taken place within his smaller patient, but in enough time the changes would reveal themselves. Even if Joan was never injured ever again, she would never age another day after this one, though it might take Leren the next decade to realise as much. The doctor would find himself disappointed once more as it was Zero who bubbled back into life first. The Novus on duty banging the button to drain the tank again before istering the enriched air mix to clean his lungs of the pink he’d been swimming in. Thirty six hours to recover from having his skeleton gored in two by the complete removal of a chunk ... Impressive. Again Zero’s memories were all intact and there was no sudden shock of recall this time. -The battle around Proteus? Tell me is it over yet? Did we win? Geyldian now blasted into the medical lab through the doorway. Yet again he was ready to tear a strip off his underling. -Do NOT start with me now Gill, my men are out there. -Yes they are, but mostly everyone is safe. We lost twelve Cobra in total, the image you sent Evan was sufficient for him to know what happened to you

and Joan. The Cobra fleet got their guns glowing. The Khai got a small drop on our fleet, some Gekkoda and Monitors were launched but were all dispatched quickly as well. The problem was the Komodo you boarded, in addition to being nowhere near death as you deduced before you were attacked; it was also fitted with a new type of weapon. Once unleashed it took down the twelve Cobra before they even knew what hit them. Evan returned fire with the Cannibal, but it was around seven hours before we had won decisively. No Khai were left alive to negotiate a surrender, but I will explain to Joan why when she comes to. How is the progress Doctor? As Leren began to explain how Zero’s girlfriend would be back in the land of the living and as good as new presently, Zero stopped listening to the conversation. He trusted that once safely within Leren’s lab, old bony fingers would be able to put Joan back together. Zero’s mind wandered backwards, his thoughts were back with the Khai commander who had struck them both viciously without so much as a facial tic or tremor to give his intentions away. In this regard even Joan would now have to reconsider offering any kind of sanctuary to Khai officers if this was what they were capable of. Back on Ashlar-Gin, Zero had fought toe to toe with many a Khai warrior and had seen their instincts at play. They would often run in huge bands at one target but Zero couldn’t say exactly why. Maybe to eliminate the biggest threat or maybe just out of sheer competitiveness. When their instincts kicked in fully, the Khai could become aligned quite effectively. Zero’s read of the general bridge crew though suggested that their commander had acted on his own in this instance. His subordinates appeared none the wiser. Once he’d made his move, all of them had been very careful to offer a customary cheer of approval, in case their fearsome commander thought them to be cowards. Indeed he had been a lizard to fear. -I’m glad Evan put him down Gray. Joan was showing her newfound mental power, but even Zero had not expected Joan to be strong enough to reach him from inside Leren’s induced coma. -Joan, you know where we are right? You being attacked? Zero only asked this question because of his own habit of being unable to massive trauma and death events; forgetting entirely that this was

probably a part of his programming or some effect of his regenerative abilities. Joan was not subject to these, that he was aware of. This whole episode would doubtless be a topic for discussion at their next meditation. For Zero it had just been another day at the office, not a good one but typical of his earlier days nonetheless. -Yes Gray, very clearly. Strange that I wasn’t in that much pain, it was more of a deep internal burn. I wish he’d had smaller claws. Really I saw nothing and beyond my deep suspicion, I hadn’t expected anything like that to happen without some warning from you ... I guess he got us both. -Aye ... He did that. He got me good, sorry but I never saw it coming, and I WAS looking hard. -Is it possible he had even more battle experience than you? -Anything is possible Joan, but I think it was more that the commander was running on pure instinct. Initially he hadn’t planned to attack us, then we turned our backs on him and I still never sensed anything. He might have just tried to make his ship look weak so we would accept his surrender as genuine, either way we found him out. That was strike two for him after his first strategy to cluster the ships hadn’t worked either. That’s when he saw a chance to strike and took it, it wasn’t even a decision for him. He just moved to gain the advantage over us both. As Zero remained mostly unclothed and laid on the Medi-pod mentally conversing with Joan, he felt a much smaller hand take hold of his own. All the while the pair had been talking Leren had in fact been bringing Joan out of her coma and she had now walked to his pod-side to him. Zero sat up; looking directly at the Prime he unloaded verbal missile number one. -So that’s how it’s gonna be is it Doctor P? You wait and see Joan, I bet I don’t make it off this bed for the next three days, poking and prodding. Geyldian now walked to Zero and Joan with Leren in tow. The second’s face was calmer, but he retained a stern air. -Gray ... You jumped from Proteus, a ball of rock around Neptune all the way to Leren’s lab. 2.7 Billion miles through space.

-And?! ... I just did what was required, what are you getting so upset about? It clearly isn’t that hard; I was dying when I did it. -That’s not the point Gray, when you landed you blew me and my Novus all over the lab, the power was ... Well extreme ... And stunning. A tandem jump using that much power without setting fire to the atmosphere in here and blowing Central sky high ... Amazing. If you were alive when you jumped, you certainly were not when you arrived here, you were ... as you would say ... deep fried and crispy. Oh and dead! It is a miracle you made it here at all. -How? ... How did you do it? -You should know, you’re the one who taught me to modulate my power, which if I may say here and now, I do much better than any of you. This time I didn’t bother with the limiter. It was impossible for me to miss my target considering how many times I’ve been held captive in here ... Etched into my mind it is see! Zero now made his mock insane face with his eyes darting all over the place and his finger jabbing his right temple. Joan couldn’t help but smile, and as she caught sight of Geyldian and Leren’s still infuriated faces, Joan subconsciously raised her hand to cover her mouth. What a sight the two clones presented now, how could they hope to give Gray a dressing down when they both knew he’d done nothing wrong. In fact Joan sensed they wanted to bow down and worship him. Aelren could jump to and from the moon with very little effort, but to return from a small ball of rock in the outer solar system, even the Old Prime might’ve dismissed the possibilities. The pair would simply have to accept that now there was one more thing Zero could do which they couldn’t understand. There was no point pressing Zero regarding the how or the why, he probably had no inkling either. Zero would just ask ... Who cares? All that matters is I can. The broad smile did nothing to ease the clones’ frustrations. Another day was all it had taken for Evan to bring the fleet, now a little smaller, back to Earth orbit. Within the same amount of time again, the Thraten and Khai crew had extolled the legend of the Khai commander who bested Zero and almost killed Joan. Of course the silver lining in this dire tail was their own heroism afterwards which had seen victory delivered to them. This silver lining would’ve been golden were it not for the footnote regarding Zero’s record breaking and suicidal jump into Leren’s lab, his love clasped inside his protective death grip. This was however a footnote of startling significance

which gathered all other details into its huge shadow. A fact the Thraten learned to their frustration each time one of them told the story. A full debrief followed and it was agreed there were definitely lessons to be learned. Including that they had not yet seen all the weapons which the Khai would bring to bear against them. Maybe more fearsome was that Khai officers ruled by fear and some at least possessed a completely instinctual unpredictability. It was clear that some held their underlings so tightly within their control that it would only be another Khai like them who would dare to launch a challenge. Understandably Joan was upset. “There were probably Khai on those ships who longed to us; I guess now we’ll never know.” Evan was confused by the direct and chastising words of his leader, but it was not long before Joan, newly connected both to the hive and the much simpler minds of her human staff, sought to clarify her own position. “It’s easy Evan, you work with Khai. You must know well by now that the commander who took out Zero and me is not typical of all Khai. Even by Khai officer standards he was probably extreme; yet all the Khai present on those ships had to suffer for the sake of that one lizard. Can’t you see how that might breed some resentment in our own camp? The fact that we had Khai on our ships as we meted out our own brand of justice was one I wish with all my heart that I could change. Let me ask you a question.” “Of course Ma’am ... Anything.” “Once you received the image from Zero apprising you of what happened to us, did you even consider breaching the bridge with a Cobra? The commander was fierce indeed and wouldn’t have gone down without a fight, but that’s what the Thraten are for, and they love it. If you had taken that ship, the lead ship, do YOU think the rest of the fleet might have folded?” “In fact that’s what we tried to do. Two Cobra were dispatched to assist both of you; we didn’t know Zero had managed a successful jump until much later. The other ten Cobra were sent as . Unfortunately the commander must’ve gotten his shields back up, and they must’ve been something we aren’t used to. Our Cobra just exploded on . This was the reason why we brought our own Axes to bear. A breach was impossible and our losses for no reason were

both unexpected and unacceptable.” As Joan listened, it was as easy for her as it was for the gathered clones to determine that Evan wasn’t lying. This time things had just gone sideways. “I know what your intentions are Ma’am. I know we are trying to build an army of Khai who will stand with us, and I am all for that. The more we look to be a world who has already ed with the Khai, the easier our future will be.” Having listened intently to the dialogue, Chad the young Khai ambassador whom Joan relied heavily upon in all her Khai interactions, gave his nod of approval. This was his acknowledgment that this fleet had been ruled by a Khai officer of the fiercest kind. One who still upheld all the old directives of acquisition by battle, and who clearly had the highest form of instinctual detachment. For officers like this one, killing was not a job or a tool to gain ground, it was a sport. He killed because he could, and because he found it easy. Chad had heard about such officers when training as an infantryman, they would turn on their own clansmen with no hesitation, simply because they became bored with space and needed to fight just to satisfy their huge appetites for violence. Chad explained that even to work efficiently and correctly under such a commander would not be enough to guarantee their survival. Such diligence might even make the lizard a target if they demonstrated the smarts to make an officers rank in the future. The Prime had never seen battle, but he’d seen its effect much more vividly than he would’ve liked in Zero and Joan. Forgetting to disconnect, the whole hive was filled with terror as Prime Leren’s mind drifted, forming the scene of a huge running battle where humans were being ripped to pieces by armoured lizards. Eventually after only a few moments which played as hours to the Numbers and Novus on board, Zero gave his Prime a swift tap on the back of his shiny blue head to bring back his focus. Squinting to make sure his eyeballs hadn’t been catapulted from his head by the super soldier, Leren apologised for the disturbance to the ships calm. Then he thanked the ancients that neither Evan nor Chad were connected to the hive to witness his imaginings or trust might have become a thing of the past ... In his own disconnected mind Zero was congratulating them all for surviving this long, but he knew that even after recent events, the main Khai force were probably still oblivious to their presence. So far they had only been found by

small scouting fleets. Eventually the word would get back to the main force, where all their ships were going missing. Then the true war would begin. Joan did not want to make a scene, but the new skill Gray had taught her was now being put to great use. Gray was visualizing Earth’s bleak future again away from the hive. Joan had sensed him disconnect and followed her partner back into his own mind. It stood to reason that even after detecting her presence inside his mind, he wouldn’t seek to block her out. There were no longer any secrets between them. In Zero’s mind, the more Joan knew the more realistic, grounded and focused she would remain. This only improved Earth’s chances long term. So far everything was playing out just as before, except back then there had been no attempt at diplomacy ... No olive branch had been offered back on AshlarGin, and destruction had followed swiftly enough. Maybe this one factor could be the key and would make the small change needed to alter the course of a history already written in so many other galaxies. Neither Zero nor Joan knew ... But as surely as they’d died together, they would now continue to live together, for a long time yet ...

Chapter 59 - Live to fight ...

THE NEXT SIX MONTHS brought nothing but a series of ever more protracted battles. The Khai commander who viciously attacked Zero and Joan before being wiped out himself by Evan and the Alliance fleet, clearly had a notoriety which extended deep within his own species. Both the frequency and the severity of Khai incursions was ramping up, Earth was now fending off multiple ships on multiple fronts. This suggested that the commander had friends in high places, friends who would seek to teach the small blue world a lesson; treaty or not. Zero still speculated that the Earth was partly drawing attention to itself by the offer of sanctuary. Ringing out into space like a dinner bell, all the predators in the neighbourhood were being drawn in to come and test themselves. To date the Earth had acquitted herself well in battle and no Khai fleet had yet reached her surface, but Zero knew the day was close at hand when their tiny world would be swamped by Khai. Joan had also stayed true to her mission and her promise, with several battles being halted before any decisive blows were dealt, allowing the Khai to consider the Earth’s generous offer. Now though Joan did not negotiate personally, Chad did everything on her behalf; and ship to ship. The young Lizard had come on in leaps and bounds since gaining his freedom and considered himself to be the equal of any Khai commander, simply by the status granted to all Khai on Earth. An officer could never be above a free Lizard, and this attitude won him some ers on the ships he addressed. The ranks of the Khai currently resident on Earth were now around 55,000, and every Mall on Earth had a Khai contingent in some number to fly squadrons of Gekkoda. None had yet been launched but all were ready to go and in better than new condition since being upgraded. There were currently Seventeen Komodo and a further Twenty-Three Dragon carriers, all of which were undergoing the same careful upgrades as the Cannibal. It wasn’t only Joan and the humans who felt that they needed every advantage. Having found their own little slice of happiness on the tiny planet, Earth’s Khai allies also realised that they needed a little extra in their back pockets to stave off marauding attacks from any clans who would seek to subjugate them once more. Joan was proving beyond all doubt that the Khai did have the strength of will to step back from a life at war provided they were given two things. Ground was

the first and obvious goal of any Khai. A dream granted to the few on earth, the second requirement was a voice. Once the Khai were liberated from their chieftains, all had their own ideas on how Earth should best tackle their species to obtain a favourable result. A full delegation of Khai Ex-officers and infantrymen would be present during any pre-battle briefing to see if tactics were recognised or could be fought around. In one case a commander had been personally addressed by the delegation as one of them had recognised a clan symbol adorning the flanks of one fleet of Komodo. The commander had been stunned to see an old childhood friend addressing him and laying out the welcome mat. Unfortunately the Khai were so numerous that this was a unique case so far, but the more these first s were allowed to be Khai to Khai, the quicker the threat to Earth would subside without the Alliance forces having to get fully serious. A plan had even been tabled to assist the Khai to terra-form Mars as a Khai-Human colony, but this project would probably remain shelved until things calmed down. A nice idea, but the way things were headed, straight to intensity-ville, it was fair to say that this plan might never be actualised. For the last month Ra-sian had been working closely with Kariina. The two of them were attempting to predict the arrival of the immense moon sized object, which had been on steady approach for over a quarter of a century. Plotting positions the object had ed, created some confusion. All the points were taken at the same interval but were appearing closer together; the object was slowing down. Neither could fathom why the object would begin its deceleration so early, when it was still a full galaxy and all the space in between them away. Together with his underlings, Leren had chaired a meeting of the circle to discuss the object and its apparent reluctance to enter their vicinity. There were other issues also which Leren felt they would all be better off discussing, in order to try and theorise some possible answers. When Kariina and Ra-sian had finished their briefing to bring the other of the circle up to speed, it was Zero who weighed in first. -You say it’s slowing down? If it came to rest where would that be? I think we can assume given the origin of this craft that Khai royalty are onboard. It's fair to say they won't dirty their own hands; they might simply coordinate the attack from the outfield. They will certainly get a better picture outside the clutter of our galaxy. Ra-sian briefly left the circle and entered his own working space through a wide

tall archway which led to the hall of the Records. At his own terminal it hadn’t taken him very long to extrapolate the objects deceleration curve to find a resting spot. Re-ing the circle, the discussion stopped. -If the object continues to slow down in a linear fashion as it has so far, she will come to rest forty million miles outside the Oort cloud, well inside the Milky Way. -Ok that’s great. We don’t know for certain so we're free to speculate regarding various scenarios, one of which I’ve already suggested. Another might be that a vessel so massive needs to make a path through the Oort cloud. There is no way it can directly. Of course I could be completely wrong, and it might be that even from that position they are within range to fire upon the Earth or Sol. The mention that the planet killer might destroy the sun in order to wipe the entire system out, was received with loud gasps. Even so new to the hive, Joan could feel a chill of fear rippling through the minds of everyone connected. If this was the Khai plan, the Earth would be utterly powerless to stop it. Jer-Mija remained silent the whole time with his eyes closed. The Numbers knew even now that Eight was juggling the numbers inside his head. What amount of energy would it take to cause a smallish sun like Sol to go supernova spontaneously, and was the object big enough to generate such an amount of energy? Having ball parked nominal figures inside his head and compared them to the scanner signature of the object to determine its physical size, Jer-mija disconnected himself before delivering his answer. -Easily! ... And yes, the blast would remove everything from this system. By the size of the scanner trace the object is immense, approaching two thousand kilometres in diameter. I’d say they have more than enough room not only to house the generator for the power required, but possibly even store up multiple shots in some sort of energy bank in case the first shot doesn’t quite do it. There are other questions which I think we should factor in though. The gathered Numbers were fighting to absorb Eight’s words and still weren’t ready to indulge him in any further psychological games he might have planned, only Zero was interested to learn more. -We know that the craft originated from the vicinity of Devine Prime, and the immense size does suggest this craft was made near a very well stocked world.

It’s far too big to be cobbled together from parts, the shape is spherical, with huge vertical plasma outlets, not all of which appear to be lit at the moment; but if I had to speculate I’d say this was a simple design feature allowing for rapid changes in direction, I can’t imagine the inertia when trying to stop something so massive ... Unless ... Now Zero’s mind was perfectly tuned to the same wavelength as Jer-mija. -I believe the plasma outlets may be adjacent to split lines, the huge sphere might be comprised of many smaller craft, which are still many times larger than Central, but would form a much better net around the Earth. It makes sense for them to split up before ing through the Oort, hence the need for slowing down. -I think we can go a little further Zero and say the planet this object came from was definitely Devine Prime ... Well now Khai-mah Prime. The vessel’s propulsion gives us much more data. When Kariina ran a spectrographic analysis of the exhaust trail, subjective from this distance but an interesting exercise nonetheless, we found the signature is much more Devine than Khai, but this only shows that the Devine we left behind were unsuccessful in destroying all our technology before they finally succumbed. That’s hardly surprising either considering how much we abandoned, it must’ve been like Lizard Christmas. -Well we know that the Khai we’ve been facing are all equipped differently, depending upon what they’ve managed to pillage along the way. Maybe this modus operandi started when they found all of the Devine tech’. With the size of that beast it probably took a few thousand years to make. I bet there isn’t a record of another vessel like it ... Aaaah ... The latest and greatest planet killer, the Earth is honoured. This last statement was delivered with a huge sigh. The kind of sigh a person might give after finally accepting their situation and all their fight had expired. This sent yet another ripple through the hive. Ripples which impacted the hardest within the circle of Numbers. Disbelief was the first reaction. How could their greatest friend and asset just give in and accept his fate? This was quickly replaced by anger, mostly from the Prime and his second. Anger was not in Leren’s makeup, but since reaching the seat of Prime, he was beginning to mirror the general feeling within the hive; at this moment that was anger.

Geyldian on the other hand had been growing his anger for a few months as he might a pot plant. Slowly at first, but with regular feeding what resulted was a strong little bundle of rage. At first this was aimed squarely at Zero, for his apparent quitting at the most desperate of times, but quickly this aim was shifted towards the Khai-mah. -How dare they! For them to acquire the land they desperately wanted, raping its technology and resources as they murdered all the inhabitants, without settling down and dropping their quest. Maintaining their thirst for vengeance all this time is unthinkable ... Now they must pay. -It’s no use Geyldian ... Standing toe to toe against something that big is suicide, who does that serve. We have to be smarter; but this is it people ... They've found us. From this moment on it’s simply a matter of how long we can hold out for. Regarding the planet killer, we do nothing, we can’t meet them in space, and we have no weapons short of a bone fide miracle which can deal with it at that distance. For now we have to concentrate on the threat we can see and actually defend against. The more Dragon and Komodo we acquire in the time we have left the better chances we have to mount a defence, especially if Jer’s speculation is borne out. It might also be time we let the Khai fully in, they might have seen previous versions of the planet killer. They might know some weakness we can tap. Have you tried to hail the object Kariina? -Well no ... Not yet but I figure it has heard our message the same as all the other Khai ships in this part of space. What would we gain? -It's Ok, you’re probably right, but are you sure that signal would be getting through? What if the signal is incompatible with their systems? Kariina shot Zero a sideways glance of disbelief. How could Zero be asking such a naive question to her like that? After setting out his stall. What was the old fox up to now? Riding completely roughshod over Leren, Zero called time on the meeting of the circle, took hold of Joan’s hand and jumped away ...

Chapter 60 - A little slice of home...

ONCE AT MALL KASKARA-1 deep inside western Russia, Zero and Joan had a sit down with one die hard commander. Kaskara-1 was not a typical Mall. Whilst that had been the intention, after the arrival of the second missile, Kaskara-1 ended up within one hundred miles of the huge bubbling gash which resulted. Joan then altered the function of the mall to become the hub for the enforcement of the exclusion zone, around the magma pool. Even at this time, over a year and a half later, the scar showed no signs of cooling. The occasional volcanic uprising made the whole area resemble a chunk of the original Khai-mah home world. It was easy to see why the Khai had fought so hard to leave their birth planet. The edge of the scar was in turmoil constantly as latent radiation and conduit particles appeared to have begun a self-sustaining reaction within the rocky strata. This prevented the rock from solidifying. The crust had been so utterly breached by the conduit that the mantle below had now had more than enough time to melt what little crust had remained. Geberus speculated that with the endless stirring of the Earth’s core, it might be thousands of years before the ground stabilised once more. It was too uncanny, but also highly convenient. Some of the Khai, who had accepted Joan’s offer of sanctuary, found Earth’s customs much harder to swallow. These hard centered Khai were allowed to come to Kaskara-1 to get away from all the entanglements of human interaction. The Khai seemed to present a natural immunity to the radiation and were after a few days of acclimatisation, far better equipped to deal with both the heat and the ever changing edge of the magma well. It seemed like these die hard Khai were mostly officers. Realising the errors of their lives and having still been offered sanctuary, the officers appeared ill equipped to deal with the stability which followed. It was as if they thrived on uncertainty. If this could not be carried into battle, and with all the other complications in the human world, then there was no better place for them than Kaskara-1; a scorched and steaming place where nothing was certain, not even the ground they walked on. For them at least, this was a little slice of home.

Zero wanted to see one particular officer who had in his early days at India almost fallen into a complete rampage; not only at the humans, but also his weaker spineless brethren. If any Khai might have still felt like there was some duress being applied in the whole sanctuary deal, it was this officer. The officer’s name was utterly unpronounceable by a human voice box, but to human ears the noise was almost familiar, and the size of the officers ripping appendages made it all too easy for Zero to christen him ... “Santa Claws! Long time no see. I trust you’re still enjoying Kaskara-1? You Khai certainly are a hardy bunch.” “Zero and your tiny female human! What do you want? It can’t be time for me to return to the Dragon yet.” After a few skirmishes against the cloned super soldier at the officers original Mall posting in India-3, Zero was the only human whose name the officer had bothered to learn ... As a mark of respect. Zero had won each battle, but only by a small margin after grossly limiting his real power. The pair almost got on, as incongruous and diametrically opposed as their personalities were. With mock distrust Santa adopted an attack ready stance before slowly venturing his hugely clawed right hand out to greet Zero. Santa still had no idea exactly how mismatched he’d been against Zero even with such huge claws. Santa was a very different beast to the commander who almost took him and Joan out of the game for good. Zero found Santa all too easy to read, his ascendance through Khai ranks had come through sheer brute force and determination to lead, and win. Instinct all the same, but it was far less about the killing and more about the end goal. Santa Claws was a compulsive strategiser who also saw himself as a protector of his weaker kin. As such he was incapable of making spur of the moment moves without at least forming a plan, working out what could go wrong and arriving at contingencies before any action could be accomplished. Before starting any mission his principal aim was to return to his vessel with as many of his men as possible. Zero appreciated this for obvious reasons. Even after having his rank stripped by his declaration of equality, in his own mind Santa still saw himself as a high ranking officer; and better than everyone else. Hence the conflicts at his previous posting.

Santa was the top lizard at Kaskara-1 despite all Khai being declared equal by Joan. In a region fraught with danger, the regiment and discipline Santa demanded actually made things happen safer, quicker and with much less fuss. The chance to bear arms against humans as they sought to raid the area for newly formed minerals like diamonds and rubies was also a big selling factor for Santa. The lack of any action beyond cockroach racing in the Indian Mall had been stifling. “Santa ... Tell me again how many battles you’ve seen?” “Oh dear, you have a bad memory for a human ... Listen now tiny female, Zero needs your ears. Listen carefully this time soldier man. We went into a nebula two or maybe three galaxies over from this one, inside there were many young systems ... Easy pickings. Lots of planets, nice and fresh, some just cooled in the last million years. Some less so. They had life, complex and clingy. Not the kind to just roll over, but not the kind to share either.” As Santa Claws began to relate his story, all century and a half of it, the memories of the glorious battles he’d fought had him literally salivating with excitement. Zero on the other hand was biting down so hard on his own tongue, that conversation was impossible. Santa Claws’ delivery of the story was so blasé, it was clear he carried no guilt. This was a hard pill for Zero to swallow, especially when he was in no position to return the favour. “These battles were epic, but we were only a small fleet, never more than thirty vessels ... But our commander was one hard lizard. Serving under him was truly a pleasure. He would never risk his men or equipment for the sake of conquest, after all what would be the point? We were in an out of so many worlds, I swear he never planned to take any of them, he only ever wanted resources to keep us going ... It worked because here we are, mission accomplished. I’d say we hit over five hundred worlds in this fashion, thirty percent had proper life and ten percent of those put up a good fight.” “How many did you burn?” “Meh! Burn indeed ... I like that! Well not as many as you’d have thought from our fearsome reputation. Probably six ... All hands lost, IF that’s what you mean by burned.” “So you had a planet killer? ... In your fleet of no more than thirty ships? That’s

lucky.” “A Planet Killer!? By the Lizard King NO. I don’t know of any Clan who had a planet killer.” “So when you guys marked a planet for death, what happened then?” “You know Zero, you’re really good at making up killer phrases. Marked for death ... I love it! Well I’d like to say I have no idea; I REALLY wish I could hold up my hands and say I just don’t know. If a world became too much of a thorn in our side, causing more damage to our ships than we could easily repair whilst maintaining a strong offence, then we would retreat and leave a marker in space. It didn’t even have to be close, if there was doubt the planet killer would just take out any inhabited world which had our mark on it.” A shiver ran down Joan's spine. Santa claimed his clan hadn’t killed many worlds; right before itting that ten worlds might be eradicated just to punish one world who stood up to their attacks. The indiscriminate way in which worlds were simply erased was almost too much to bear, Joan didn’t need to be inside Gray’s head to know what her partner was thinking. The look on his face was strained indeed. How he’d held himself, in the face of this glib narrative of doom was a true testament to how mentally in control of himself Gray was at this point. Not like a few times in this last year, or the Mona incident. “I we had some trouble from one world ... We were all lucky to get out. Our commander pulled the plug on the mission, we turned tail and ran. He dropped the marker and we moved onwards but not very far as our command ship developed a reactor problem. We were forced to stop. A few of your weeks into carrying out repairs, the planet killer drifted right by us. I doubt if it even knew we were there, the Lizards on that ship are a different breed. Destroying planets is all they do, that kind of work takes a toll I guess. We had to Jerry rig the reactor to get her going and hot tail it out of there. Hell if we had stuck around to watch we’d have been destroyed right along with it. We saw nothing after that. All I can say for certain is that the service offered by the planet killer is completely discrete.” “How big is the planet killer exactly?” “It was quite huge. Maybe one hundred and fifty of your kilometres across. Big enough to fit a few hundred Komodo inside, though I truly doubt that even a

single Komodo was inside its belly ... It was big, “ Zero now locked eyes with Joan, a hundred and fifty kilometres in one direction, this was much smaller than either of them had been expecting. Zero now found Jer-mija inside the hive and ran this new data past him. Jer-mija was at a loss to explain the relatively small size of the planet killer. It only made sense from one perspective. As Zero pointed out, the object now inbound was massive and would not have been constructed quickly, even at a well-stocked mega Earth like Devine Prime. It was the sort of craft a planet could build once, and yet the Khai were known to have destroyed worlds in galaxies so far apart it would’ve taken generations to traverse the distance. A punishment so far after the apparent offence would mean nothing. Santa’s data suggested an entire fleet of planet killers was possible. These were probably junked together before being sent all over the universe to enforce the famous Khai-mah wrath. In that way, word would spread almost in real time as worlds were dispatched, sending a message to worlds lying in the path of the War Lizards, to give up. There was no ambiguity as to what the alternative would be. Zero now showed Santa Claws an enhanced image of the object which was wending its way towards them at a rate of millions of miles per day. “So what is this then Santa?” The frosty but loose lipped officer analysed the picture in detail, tracing his long sharp claw around the shape, then up the splits and back down the plasma outlets. “It’s big Santa, almost two thousand kilometers across, and it’s fast ... A quarter of a light year each day. It came from Devine Prime, a world neighbouring the original Khai Prime. It’s coming for us all and I want to know if we can beat it?” Santa’s mood changed. The toothy Lizard perma-smile was erased from the old war lizard’s face. Even with such thin skin covering so few facial muscles with which to relate his mood, Zero could see the fear on Santa’s face. “Is this some sort of Joke? We’ve achieved our goal according to the only directive of Khai existence, and they send this? ... What! ... To punish us? There is no way I will settle for this, nor will my brothers. Zero and tiny female ... You must let me address the Khai. Against this I don’t know if victory is possible, but I will be at your side if you try; as I am sure the rest of us will be.”

Zero now rested his right arm around Santa’s shoulder. He could see how much this world meant to the ageing Khai officer. Though settling had been tougher for him than most of the younger lizards, this did not mean Santa was about to give up his life’s goal so easily. Taking Joan underneath his other arm, Zero jumped the three of them back to Central ...

Chapter 61 - Once more unto the Kuiper.

SANTA HAD NEVER WITNESSED Zero perform a spatial jump before and now realised there was something the soldier had been hiding. “You Old dog! ... Are you even a human?” Leren was displeased to find the thick set ex-officer striding down the main corridor past his lab as if he belonged there. Mentally Zero was also taking heat from the Second as Geyldian was still riding high on the crest of his outrage. -Will you two can it ... Please? Some people wait a lifetime to meet Santa Claws! Now the object is at the top of his naughty list and he’s desperate to help us destroy it. He even wants to rally the Repton horde for us. Better him than Joan I say. -Zero, no Khai has ever set foot on Central. Could he not have addressed his people from Joan’s office in New York? Having left Santa with Joan and Wraith in the Chamber of Silence, Zero now jumped consecutively to Leren’s lab and then Geyldian’s quarters and deposited them unceremoniously with Santa, inside the circle. “No Leren, for this to mean something, we all have to stand together ... While being STOOD together. As usual you don’t need to say or do anything, but you will stay right where you are and dress the set.” All the time Zero had been talking, Leren and Geyldian had not stopped their mental assault inside the mind of their super soldier, but to no avail. Before they knew it Joan had arranged a live feed across all channels of human television networks. This was also simultaneously patched into the huge screens in her Malls and the Khai vessels above them in orbit. Joan announced in the human language who the Khai by her side was and what he was there for. The next voice the world would hear was one forged in battles fought all over the cold depths of space. Intermittently Kariina would supply images with close up enhancements showing the course of the Object. Everyone would be aware of what the planet was now facing. “Humans .... Brothers and sisters. Behind me on the monitor is an image of our

past trying to catch up to us and consume us. This craft has come from our home world to destroy us all. This is after we upheld their rules, their traditions and their quest to acquire the one thing all Khai are required from birth to pursue ... land. I for one will not let go of my spot on this planet without a fight, and I know many of you will relish the chance to share this final battle at my side. All my Khai brethren will know instantly what this craft represents, and I know they will think the same as me that the arrival of this vessel here is a cruel punishment indeed after our long service to the Khai-mah. I vow this ... We shall ensure that this planet does not fall easily.” Though none were connected to the hive, it wasn’t hard for the powerful Numbers to hear the Khai who all were as outraged as Geyldian at the arrival of the planet killer. This now had Geyldian quickly reconsidering his position. Santa was appointed by Joan to lead preparations from the Khai side, working hand in claw with Oxull. Zero and Eight decided that if parts could be cannibalised from some of the humans loftier research projects into quantum mechanics and astro-physics, it might be possible to retro-fit a super axe to the side of the Komodo they called the cannibal. This weapon would essentially be powered by the new mega-reactor conceptualised by Jer-mija, melded with parts based on a huge particle accelerator the humans had constructed in Switzerland in the 1980s. The schedule for construction would be tight, but if they got it right, the Alliance Force would have its own version of a planetary destabiliser. All of them accepted there wouldn’t be time for a test. There wouldn’t even be a target to aim at until the huge spherical craft reached the outer limits of the Oort cloud. The task was a thankless one which would require all personnel to work round the clock; but within a few days a huge force of volunteer workers from every country of the world had all stepped up to the plate to help. Skilled construction workers and scientists from the private sector, all having realised that their skills could be used to speed things up, were now included in the assembly plan. Whilst things would certainly be assembled faster on Earth, the bottleneck was merely shifted into space. The final marriage of parts in orbit could only be carried out by the Khai with from the humans, directly under the watchful eye of Oxull. Joan and Santa would appear regularly on television throughout the construction. Both stated such was the size of the craft, it would be easy for any amateur

stargazer to watch the construction through a basic telescope. The eyes of the whole world would be watching as the huge plasma rail cannon was steadily constructed, slung from one side of a Komodo. Within fourteen days, the deadline for design had arrived. Oxull proudly entered the Albern quarters where Zero and Jer-mija were already waiting for him, discussing blueprints on a monitor. Once the meeting began, several problems were identified by Zero which Oxull hadn’t considered at the outset. Firstly, Jer-mija’s huge reactor design was half the size of a Komodo all on its own, and with the plan being to assemble the major components off ship but in high Earth orbit, the Old engineer simply hadn’t visualised the two side by side. It wasn’t until the reactor blueprints were carefully overlaid onto the cannibal that Zero’s suspicions were fully realised. After this the rail cannon itself still had to be slung from the body of the same Komodo. Zero’s concern was simply this. The Komodo would begin to suffer orbital decay even before the ing of the cannon which at ten kilometres long, dwarfed the craft which they were expecting to carry it. Jer-mija was adamant that power should not be diverted from his huge reactor which had power in spades, but not for the purpose of propulsion. The engineer and his assistant scientist were almost at each other's throats before Zero stepped in. -This is easy guys ... We need more Komodo connected together. -How many? ... And how? -We use the docking clamps which already exist on the Komodo. We know they can hold the forces, the Khai already use them to connect old ships to younger ones for hyperspace travel. The problem is the stability of the rail ... We cannot alter the design, but it needs to be held steady with complete . Jer-mija, we also need to put a number to the recoil thrust. The number of Komodo we use must be a function of that number. Jer-Mija stroked his chin as he considered Zero’s comments. How had he missed such a vital consideration? And Zero’s idea for the clamps was brilliantly simple. No more parts would be required, however many Komodo they used. -Nine ... Nine Komodo all operating at thirty percent of maximum output would be enough to restrain the weapon.

-Damn ... That’s a lot of ships Jer’ ... Okay. Oxull, can the rail its own weight? Nine ships was more than I expected by about six. There is no way we can synchronise the thrust output and vectors closely enough, they’ll bend the rail just maneuvering about. -Well as you know the rail is made of sections twenty metres long, ed together. There is certainly plenty of opportunity for the rail to be bent ... -Have you two ever fired a gun? ... Sorry that’s the wrong question ... Have you ever tried hitting a target with a bendy gun? We won’t be able to aim straight much less fire; the thing will blow itself to pieces. We need to put the rail inside a tubular cage. -That’s great, a cage would hold the weight of the rail, and absorb any differences in thrust ... -And give the Komodo something to clamp to ... Jer-mija stood nodding silently. Once Zero tabled his idea, the scientist quickly began ing the engineer again to move the meeting along. If they hadn’t been present digitally on the monitor, all the blueprints would’ve been scrunched up and filed ... In the little round cabinet in the corner. The Komodo would now be positioned in threes, spaced equidistantly in a triangular configuration. This pattern would repeat two more times behind the first, each being indexed radially by forty degrees towards the rear position. In this way none of the Komodo would be directly exposed to the plasma stream from the ships ahead of it. The two Numbers were left stunned as the realisation hit that their rail cannon design had been pulled apart so quickly by Zero. Had his previous arrangement of the magnetic accelerators which so easily allowed this kind of ing configuration been in anticipation of this conversation? Further to this the Komodo could be attached quickly after assembly was complete. Oxull was embarrassed by just how quickly Zero had found the flaws in his design. A slender cold hand on his shoulder reminded him that Jer-mija had also been found lacking. Zero had, as usual saved their bacon, his far more comprehensively thought out design had been conceived in short order, maybe even in parallel. Oxull was left

shaking his head as he mentally re-examined his first concept, letting out a loud snorty chortle as the now obvious size mismatch between the Cannibal and Jermija’s mega-reactor slapped him in the face. Zero’s reply was simple ... “Hive Mind guys ... I know when you know ... Sometimes even before.” Fully studying Zero’s design again, Oxull now realised why the ten kilometer long outer lattice structure was conceived by Zero as a heavily braced nine bar lattice with even stronger bracing at three positions along the length. With a glint in his darkly coloured, almost almond shaped eyes, Jer-mija enquired ... -What did you expect? He’s practically a savant! He gets us every time. Let’s face it we have very little practical experience compared to him. He’s lived through this once already. Even though the delivery of these words by Eight was meant to chip away further at the big engineers psyche, Oxull dismissed the tone. Considering only the words, as usual they were all true. Having picked Santa’s brain completely clean regarding the planet killer he’d witnessed in another sector of space, this design had been a no brainer for Zero. He had obviously considered the parts he was intending to use and the function he needed them to perform. It had been all too easy then, for Zero to steer his two compadres with inquiries which also gently pointed out their lapses in evaluation. With Zero now gone ... -Well Eight ... This design is grander than anything the Devine ever undertook. -Zero is probably thinking why not? The object is the size of a small moon. Power in reserve is never a bad thing. You know Zero, if it ensures the survival of the Earth, overkill is firmly on the table. The next week brought one more realisation. This entire project would need to be accomplished in spite of the Khai-mah, who simply refused to stop breaching the Kuiper belt ... As construction had begun, yet another alarm raised by Kariina’s defence network had all the Alliance forces running to intercept. En-route Kariina gave Zero a briefing across an open channel so all the ships in the fleet could hear. Even under huge stress, Kariina’s tone always sounded upbeat. Unfortunately this was an auditory illusion and her delivery soon alluded

to the severity of the actual situation “This is a big one Zero honey, like the one four months ago, you have the coordinates but they’re moving at speed so expect regular updates. They will breach the Kuiper Belt in Sector 7-G. I have a Gekkoda Axe half a sector away and have issued the instruction to intercept ahead of you. It’s an armada, over fifty ships large enough to detect and several smaller shadows, probably Monitor types in tow. I have several hyperspace bubbles in bound at flanking positions. They will arrive before you do. Long range scanners are also detecting at least fifty more hyperspace bubbles which will arrive at various positions around the Oort within the next five days. I expect you to intercept them around the orbit of Makemake. This looks like it will be another long one.” Kariina’s words were carefully chosen. After some guidance from Zero and Joan, Geyldian’s sister had been schooled in how to keep the morale of the Alliance troops buoyant by not using words which were negative. In this instance the swap had been simple, instead of using the word “bad” or “terrible”, she had simply opted for “long”. “Honestly ... Why did Joan even bother with the Oort Line? The Khai don’t seem to know it’s there.” The note of frustration in Kariina’s voice was easy to detect, and she was right. The Khai were supposed to wait at the Oort line and announce their intentions. This had only happened once to date, all other Khai vessels had run the line. The alliance fleet would then be forced to intercept at maximum speed. This meant three days at full steam to an intercept either at the fringes of, or just inside the Kuiper belt. Makemake was far from Earth ... That was all that mattered. So many ships all gathering did look ominous. Zero’s inner child, not often heard from, speculated that the pull of hard ground underfoot was too strong. Most mannerless Khai were simply unable to wait until invited. Maybe Joan’s intergalactic message of sanctuary had been ill thought out. The safety net was Mona’s long range scanner, enhanced by Kariina and Geberus. This fifty vessel strong armada didn’t look like they wanted to surrender, they were moving at full speed. Kariina had tempered her little vent quite well. Zero was keen to ensure that there was no speculation or exaggeration in Kariina’s

briefings. In many ways it was better for the crews not to know what they were heading into. Ship numbers, types and approach vectors was useful information, but wasting time dwelling on what the Khai’s intentions might be was not. This way the alliance fleet would arrive at the battle line unencumbered by speculation and better able to deal with what actually unfolded before them. The battles the crews had already fought were good experience. Missing from their side this time was the huge Komodo kitted out with Oxull’s upgrades, but at this moment the Cannibal was being absorbed into Oxull’s largest ever engineering project. Zero wasn’t worried, in fact he wasn’t feeling anything. The cold wash of his genetically programmed battle mode had descended over him as Kariina had given her briefing. Zero would just deal with whatever was in front of him when he arrived. Once he got his teeth into the Khai, he knew his squadron would be able to follow his lead. Fear and uncertainty would soon be forgotten. Not that Zero enjoyed having his plasma engine working at full chat for days as he once again headed for the inner edge of the Kuiper Belt but every hour he spent travelling to meet the enemy was a blessing. It meant maybe the Khai had no clear plan, no real intent. The fleet reached the inner edge of the Kuiper to find the Khai fleet pretty much where Kariina first reported it would be. Zero was relieved. A quick study of the fleet in front of him suggested that whilst they hadn’t moved anywhere far, they had taken up defensive and ing positions, a configuration which appeared to be well thought out. Maybe the Khai felt it was better to stand and fight here, demolish the apparently thin and under numbered Alliance fleet utterly and then head for Earth at full speed. Zero knew that the number of ships was unimportant when compared with practical factors such as ship speed, maneuverability, pilot skill and of course bottle; not to mention fire power. The sheer number of Komodo and Dragon floating before him did give Zero some pause, but only for as long as it took him to pick a target. This was his first mission in the Sphinx for a few months, having fought in a modified Cobra for that time. The controls were much lighter and more responsive than the Cobra, but his Axe still didn’t compare and would need him to get within four hundred metres in order to maximise the weapons lethality. The modified Cobra had a vastly more useful twenty thousand metres of effective range. Anyway, Zero

considered that in the vastness of space, distance was irrelevant. The lead Komodo appeared to be situated at the rear of the fleet, and the distribution of ships around it hinted that nothing would get close without drawing some major fire. Zero instructed his Cobra captains to hold at the outside of the Khai fleet, buzz and burn were his orders. He wanted half the Khai vessels disabled properly following their usual tactics before he would hail the lead vessel to negotiate Earth’s offer of sanctuary. Failing this was his own personal favourite ... slaughter. As Zero signed off he was also opening the throttle on his plasma engine. He’d already lined up the path he would follow to approach the lead ship. The Cobra fleet now broke formation to wreak havoc on the Khai leviathans, which appeared to them to be static even though they were making some slow forward progress now. The speed of the Cobra buzzing around the Komodo would've been enough to make an onlooker dizzy. Almost at the heart of the formation but with some kilometres to go before the lead ship was within reach, Zero now cut his plasma engine completely and fired successive bursts from his thrusters, he set the Sphinx into a triple axis roll. Every few seconds another burst would be applied from adjacent thrusters in order to cause a sudden jerk in direction. Zero dodged the incoming fire the lead Komodo was throwing at him. In a constant out of control roll, hurtling on pure momentum at the Komodo made the Sphinx very difficult to lock onto for the poor Khai manning the plasma cannons at the front of the Komodo. Initially it was easy for Zero to react to the huge bolts of green energy as they were fired. Few hits were sustained, certainly not enough to trouble his rotating shields, but once within range of his Axe weapon this kind of dodging was almost counterproductive. Zero’s own ability to identify and paint his targets was hampered by the rotation. Zero now drew his targets with an eye for selfpreservation, in sequence he painted the plasma cannons which were the nearest and set the Axe in motion. Seconds later, green plasma was being vented all around him and large chunks of space-age heavy artillery were floating free, creating even more items for him to dodge. Zero had to hand it to the Khai, they were masters of weaponry and as a complete gimbal assembly with the cannon stuck out of the middle floated past him, the super soldier was struck by the awesome size of the turret. Zero stifled a grin as he watched a chunk of plasma turret float by his port side. The turret was

ten times the size of his nimble little craft. Twenty lizards were on the targeting deck looking back at him, the look on their faces was obvious ... Don’t leave us ... Come back! As the turret continued to drift it was slowly being left further and further behind by the mother vessel. Zero gave no more thought to the trapped Khai. Knowing a lot more about the structural makeup of a Komodo now than he ever did, he knew that whilst trapped the cannon crew still had more than a day of breathable atmosphere inside the self-contained gimbal. If were reached later in this battle, Zero would ensure all living Khai would be rescued. The look of shock and horror on their elongated bony faces as Zero kept slicing and dicing at their vessel around them was a picture. None of them knew how lucky they were that Zero now counted some of their species amongst his friends. It was for this reason that the Earth’s super soldier and former hater of all things Khai was a changed man. For the sake of the Khai gawping at him, Zero had deselected the stricken turret from the Axe weapons menu of tasty targets. As gun crews all along the starboard medial line of the huge Komodo quickly found themselves in the same situation, Zero couldn’t contain his chuckling. Ships this large should not be brought into battle, he thought to himself as a large cluster of communications antennae were also relieved of duty. Assuming this ship had been in command, destruction of their communications would make directing their retaliatory action that much harder. Zero was aware though that a ship this size had several identical clusters, so there was no reason to be happy just yet. Zero performed another fly-by excision of an essential defensive system. Then headed for his next target. Applying a quarter second burst of lateral thrust, Zero turned the Sphinx to look back down the side of the Komodo. From here it was easy to see how the rest of his fleet was progressing. Tiny blue lights indicated Oxull’s plasma engine signature, and while the Cobra themselves could not be seen in the darkness, Zero could still see the action. Like so many ants on ... Well pretty much any organism normally invulnerable to attack from ants. The Khai fleet was suffering death from a thousand bites. The Dragons were frantically launching Gekkoda to mount some kind of belated counterattack, but these were being dispatched in short order once free from the launch tubes. Some Cobra had mag-locked themselves to advantageous points

on each Dragon for the purpose of shooting at Gekkoda. Like clay pigeon shooting, each Gekkoda would follow the same initial trajectory from the launch tube, before any direction could be chosen to acquire their own target. A wellaimed single shot to the plasma outlet nozzle was all it took to make their engines burp and then stall. Green lights were flashing into view in their droves, but only for a few seconds before their lights were extinguished. Zero was impressed by the accuracy of his pilots, and this strategy which was devised by them alone. Whilst the Gekkoda were piling up to form quite an obstruction, they were all no doubt happy to be alive, their ships completely salvageable. The Khai weren’t used to this kind of battle, the kind where your foe breaks you utterly without destroying you, to have the pleasure of watching you squirm. They were a fire and forget race, destroy for today and gone to destroy more tomorrow. This kind of battle solved nothing, they couldn’t win, and they weren’t even granted a glorious death. Zero had previously spent an entire meditation session with Joan in discussion about how frustrating it must've been for the Khai to suffer defeat in this manner. The discussion remained unresolved as Joan stubbornly made it clear that someone had to show them the error of their ways. Joan believed that it was possible that even in losing; the Khai would achieve ultimate victory. Actual solid ground in the humid atmosphere and warm sunlight of India; and if that was too nice there was always Santa’s lair at Kaskara-1. A little slice of home ... Zero chuckled again. The sound of their squadron leader enjoying himself was enough to spur his Cobra pilots on, and within the hour, no more Gekkoda were being launched. The Monitors had all been brought to a halt and the teeth had been extracted from all the Dragon and Komodo leviathans. It was time for Zero to make Joan proud. Zero now ordered his fleet to exact check and mate on the Khai vessels utilising the previously proven technique of breaching either the bridge or the corridor which traversed between that and the auxiliary mid-ships bridge. Zero watched like a proud father as the little blue lights all looped upwards, each executing a perfect dive loop aiming squarely at their primary objectives. The bridges of the huge vessels; now dead in the depths of space. One Cobra per vessel, each would deposit its full complement of Thraten infantrymen like a bunch of frenzied raiders to complete the take down.

The rest of the fleet began to gather up the dead Gekkoda and Lizards from the various chunks of debris. This was the biggest battle yet in of Khai numbers, but it certainly hadn’t been the fiercest. Zero now considered that if he could swiftly and successfully impart Joan’s offer of sanctuary to the Commander of the lead ship, he could get the whole lot back to Earth within three days; with no losses and barely a drop of blood spilled. Zero had never flown against such numbers of Komodo or Dragon on AshlarGin. Craft that size were unable to through the wormhole at the edge of their system. Large numbers of Monitor and Gekkoda squadrons had been deployed in their thousands all over Ashlar-Gin. Eventually these had been soundly thrashed, yet all had put in a far more dignified effort at conquest than these ships had shown. Eventually though none of that had mattered and even whilst the huge ships had remained more or less invisible, the daily onslaught levied against his planet by millions of craft was perhaps now the best indicator to Zero of how many Dragon craft had been gathered at the other end of the wormhole. In consideration of this, the chuckling stopped and Zero got his game face on. Pulling over the Cobra now firmly embedded into the hull of the lead Komodo’s bridge, Zero deployed the Sphinx’ docking collar to connect the two craft. Once a seal was established the tube was flooded with atmosphere. A green indicator then illuminated, the same must’ve happened on board the Cobra as Zero felt a small rumble as the Hatch opened on the Cobra beneath him. Jumping to the hold of the Sphinx, Zero opened his own hatch and slid the ten feet or so into the ading Cobra. It was then a simple matter to walk directly out of the nose cone into the bridge of the Komodo. Thraten were everywhere with plasma weapons trained on the Khai occupants. It didn’t look like the crew had much fight left in them, if Zero had learned correctly, the typical Khai slumped repose, with head hanging low and pupil slits dilated almost to a wide oval suggested complete calm and resignation to their predicament. The commander was as usual easy to identify having far more armour than his first officer. Zero found the two Khai from the Cobra already addressing the commander, to issue Joan’s few conditions. The process was nearly fully concluded. Zero still didn’t speak Khai, but he’d heard Joan’s conditions being spoken so many times he was beginning to recognise the gurgles which differentiated each condition.

In the next moment the commander was allowed to address his crew with open channels to the rest of his fleet through a communications intercept on the Cobra. The Cobra-Khai translated for Zero’s benefit. In his final act as their captain, having already made up his mind to accept the offer made by Earth, the commander now felt it would be only right to offer the same and right of free choice to his brethren. It only took a few minutes for the other ships to consider the choice. Each Cobra was now also beaming pictures of Earth into the main halls of each vessel, this made the decision the Lizards were faced with into a complete no brainer.

Chapter 62 - Survival ... Instinct kicks in...

WHEN THE FLEET ARRIVED back at Earth, they had been away a little over 8 days and Zero was not disappointed as he flew by the Cannibal. A little over ten clicks to the right of the huge gunship, the structural lattice was extending at a rate of knots. Following just as quickly inside the framework, the magnetic accelerators were being assembled to form the rail. As Zero cast his eyes further afield in front of the construction the vast scale of the project hit him. Cobra craft could be seen exiting Earth’s atmosphere, connected in fours. Suspended between each group were more accelerator sections. Others were bringing sections of lattice. These sections were being bolted together into complete tubular sections, which were then being bolted together into longer sections before being ed to the main lattice. There was no actual manufacturing equipment, there was no welding and yet there was a huge assembly line. Human workers in space suits, fixed to Gekkoda by magnetic boots were being offered up like living hood ornaments, armed with battery powered nut runners and torquing equipment. Rigorous inspection followed, each t would be made, perfection was expected. The result of imperfection would be failure. A t broken would be a weak structure. This had potential to cause the largest backfire ever known. If Jer-mija’s mega reactor became destabilised by plasma blowback from a misfire, then the limitless hordes of Khai would be the least of Earth’s worries. The explosion would be just as effective at reducing the Earth to a cloud of cosmic dust. -I wonder how Oxull gets everything made so quickly? ... Probably Gill’s Network, I know he’s spent the last decade getting back to basics. Zero never was one to dwell on the finer details, but it would’ve been remiss of him to forget that Joan had spent months uniting companies all over the world, then working out the division of labour. At this time all of them were being fully utilised, if not overloaded. For the first time in human history, every able man and woman now had fulfilling work to be doing, this only made Zero’s comparisons of Earth and his original home of Ashlar-Gin, all the more poignant. Earth’s ambassador had picked the cream of large engineering facilities all over the globe. Large scale design and manufacturing facilities, or small niche

companies who specialised in new and exciting tech ... It didn’t matter to Joan. Since being signed on and read in, these companies had all undergone massive expansion. The companies were better connected than they could’ve possibly been if the Khai hadn’t shown up, even so the speed at which things were getting done now was astonishing. Considering the scale of this project, Oxull dispatched even more crews to begin re-assembly of the latest Khai fleet as soon as the ex-commander and the eight thousand Khai under him had all signed their agreements not to bear arms against Earth ever again. It was incredulous to think that a race who spent all their time in space going Viking on the galaxy could be soothed so easily by the actual sight of terra firma. Yet all recent evidence seemed to point to the fact that once they had land, all but the most die-hard Generals would change so much that they would practically become a different species. Even so, there were always more ships arriving. A Quarter wanted to surrender and retire, a further forty-five percent were willing to do the same ... After a little persuasion. The other thirty percent simply wanted conquest. For the most part, the Earth had held her own. One nasty battle had seen a group of six ships break out of the Kuiper. Zero and his fleet were scrambled to meet them. Normally the Khai would be intercepted somewhere around Pluto, but Khai on board these six Dragons had stolen engine technology from another world which enabled them all to move much faster. In a move which threw Zero completely the six ships played a shell game with Mars and her moons, eventually breaking Zero’s defensive line. The Earth fleet was then left sorely wanting in the race back to Earth. Zero vowed that after he’d defeated them, he would stand over Oxull as the engineer dissected the engines of the six ships to find out how they were so damn fast. One of the six ships was cut in two after straying too close to one of Kariina’s Gekkoda Axe crafts. Utilising all of its predictive programming the almost invisible tiny fighter had moved to intercept perfectly. The remaining five had been met by a wall of plasma fire as every remaining Cobra and Monitor available from Earth orbit had formed a shield. Two of the Dragons had been destroyed, their stolen engine technology exploding brightly like mini supernovae. Six hours later, the three remaining ships had surrendered and were being scrutinised by Oxull. Zero and the Earth Fleet arrived with the two pieces of dragon in tow behind them, powered by Cobra which had stuck like limpets to

the side of the leviathan to provide thrust. Joan had for some time asked the commanders of surrendering ships to record their own extension to the message warning ships away from Earth unless they sought sanctuary. This more personal information recorded how many of each class of ship had been defeated, how many personnel had been given a place to retire, as well as how many had died in the battle and what clan the vessels belonged to. In this way Joan hoped that skirmishes involving less powerful clans would be avoided, once they realised that many clans more powerful than them had already been defeated. Joan saw this as her only option to avoid continuous conflict, and for the most part it was successful. Some clans who first sought to test the Earth, had the wind quickly knocked out of their sails by the response from Zero or Evan who both sought to hit hard and fast with no more than a fleet of Cobra in . The sharpest edge the Alliance fleet had was the Axe weapon developed by Kariina and Geberus. When allied to one of Jer-mija’s second generation reactor cores, the depth of cut was enough to bisect a dragon easily; as if their shields weren’t even up. In the face of this powerful weapon, most Khai fleets could be quickly subdued or would simply give up. Once clear of the Kuiper belt, the sight of the little blue planet on their scanner screens, and the knowledge that a treaty was already in place with other clans exhibited a pull the Khai found impossible to ignore. With the vast numbers of equalised Khai and their ships fighting against them as a single unified Earth clan, they could beat their path to Earth and still be wiped out. This was wholly unacceptable to the Khai, when the achievement of their goal was all but being offered up on a silver platter with a few conditions. Initially these conditions seemed like a bitter pill to swallow, fighting had been their life; their major skill. All scientific development or engineering had been secondary. The only salvation then was the chance to fight on the other side for a change, not to gain land ... But to protect land already gained. Joan, with Zero and Santa Claws at her side also took the chance to question each new ranking Khai officer of each acquired vessel; enquiring if they had any knowledge of the huge object which was drawing ever nearer. It was a long shot ... Too long, with none of the officers having any clue about the object. Once given the data regarding the object, each of them had become disheartened and withdrawn. Whilst no living lizard could possibly the ruthless tyranny

exhibited by the ruling Clans back on Khai Prime, there was still information to be gleaned from the stories and legends of the race, which had been ed down over time. It was widely ed from the old legends that a lizard would become king, only if their attack to murderously displace the previous ruler was ferocious and brutally swift. Lizard kings ruled by fear, utilising spy networks which turned lizard against lizard. In this way, they were able to glean information regarding would-be attackers, and prepare a complete defense against any revolt. Even if such a challenge for power did fail, such was the dissatisfaction of the lizard horde, it had never been long before another attempt would be mounted. The Khai officers all felt now that this situation was a modern and much more technological version of that situation. Only in this era the Khai monarchy were utilising stolen technology from Devine Prime to listen in on their progress to acquire ground all over the universe. Having finally done so, sharing the Earth as opposed to an overwhelming conquest of it, the monarchy was now coming to exact it’s punishment. While the officers saw their chances of success against the huge killer object as being almost an atom adjacent to no chance at all, the crews all pledged their help. Again the sudden transformation in the Khai’s attitude left Zero reeling. The knowledge of the planet killer translated into an instant lack of hostility towards them, and an absolute hatred of their ruling class. It took Santa Claws to explain everything to him, from the Lizard perspective. “You have to understand, all this time we’ve been trying to live by the goals set by our masters from a time long forgotten. Over this expanse of time some of our methods have been diluted or have required new laws to be developed or we would have torn ourselves apart in our rivalries. Above all else we sought to acquire land, as we were ordered to do when we were sent on our mission. We have all known violent overlords, much stricter even than myself, but much worse than me in their lack of respect for their brethren whom they felt to be nothing but cannon fodder for their own protection. These Lizards weren’t royalty by any means. Any link to them was both inferred and tenuous at best. Yet by their actions closely mirroring the old tactics of the ruling class, fear was established. The commander who gored you and your tiny female was one such beast. Cold and instinctive, not even thinking to gain the edge, only ever acting with no consideration or regard. You shouldn’t take it personally, that one would have done the same thing to a Khai of another clan, or even one of his own bridge crew if they showed the slightest initiative to act beyond his orders. That

would make them a rival ... not to be tolerated. What WE can’t take now is that we have finally, after eons in space, found our own slice of land .... And that land is good. Now they seek to reach across time and space to gather us all under their thumb once more. This is unacceptable, we aren’t like them and probably weren’t like them when they cast us out. For them to claim any right of rule over us now is preposterous, we won’t stand for it. This planet is where we draw the line. If it is turned into a molten blob by this huge mechanical monstrosity, then it will be after they have had to turn each of us into a pile of plasma scorched ash. We are with you Zero, and we’re more determined than ever to protect this place.” This sentiment was more or less exactly what Zero had expected Santa to express. The bit Zero couldn’t wrap his brain around was how suddenly the Khai on Earth were able to flick the switch from a war of offence to one of defence. It wasn’t that long ago, no more than thirteen or fourteen months for all of them that they were fighting the good fight to acquire land. For others it had only been mere days, and yet their minds were already made up. Was this what the Khai had needed all along? To not be split up into tribes scattered all over the cosmos, but to be collected into an actual viable race; able to collaborate in the act of moving forwards past the impositions of their old oppressors. In order not to dwell too much, lest he dwell so long Santa developed a second thought, Zero put his arm over the wide shoulders of his Lizard friend as they walked off to share a meal together. Joan followed the pair at their rear simply to avoid tripping over Santa’s tail which extended at least six feet behind him. All the time she was talking with her partner. -So we’re none the wiser then, but the Khai are all of the same opinion as you ... That vessel is probably chock full of the Ruling class of the new Khai Prime, come to punish their subjects. Thank the ancients we’ve managed to assemble quite a force to assist us. I still think they might be about as effective as a fruit fly in the face of that thing though. We’re gonna be crushed on its wind screen and it won’t even be slowed a little. -Come now Joan, this isn’t like you. It’s my job to wallow, yours is to pull me back to reality ... Joan recognised a tone of mischief in her lover’s mental voice, but despite her digging she couldn’t find the root of Zero’s thought. It appeared like he was

hatching some kind of profound thought; Joan could only hope Zero was reaching a Eureka moment in how Earth would dispatch the huge Khai ship. As hard as Kariina was trying to hail the incoming moon of destruction, no reply had been heard even at this close range. Geyldian’s sister drew the conclusion that the hyperspace bubble the object was travelling in was effectively shielding the vessel from their communications. There was simply no way to get a handle on their intentions, but Zero would always air on the side of battle readiness. In only a few more days their own planet killer, good for five shots would be completed. The same day the rail cannon would begin the long journey to the coordinates flagged by Ra-sian. There they would wait for the object to come to rest. Thousands of ships from Earth, and every one of almost a thousand ships retired from Khai servitude would attempt to roll out the welcome mat ... Or form a protective wall ...

Chapter 63 - The net tightens ...

THREE DAYS LATER AND exactly on schedule, the big engineer was calling Zero to come and evaluate his and Jer-mija’s work. Like a teenager who had previously given no thought to children, but after meeting a nice girl had settled down and popped out a tribe of ankle biters; Oxull was an engineering clone who had never thought about weapons development in his entire life. The nice lady in this case was Joan. Ever since meeting her, weapons and new craft were at the forefront of Oxull’s mind. His latest child was a fusion of the two. Nine Dragons linked to a massive plasma rail beam cannon. Powered by massive amounts of power from Eight’s new hyper reactor, the energy discharged was focused into a beam no more than one meter in diameter. Such concentrated energy would burn through stellar objects like a hot knife through butter. It was Unclear yet despite the almost constant data gathering by Ra-sian, whether or not the huge mechanical moon could offer any defence against the weapon. If Jer-mija had executed his calculation correctly, then their latest conception would destabilise a sun larger than Sol by some margin. Inside the next four days they would find out, as that was how long it would take the object to settle at the coordinates specified by the watcher. Time was tight now and even Oxull was enquiring to Eight if there was any more speed to be rung out of the beast. Jer-mija’s reply was a simple wink. He never designed anything to perform at one limit, there was always more capacity. This was how the scientist made his projects fun. Jer’ was cool in that regard. Conversations with the other Numbers weren’t the only way he occupied his mind to achieve happiness; awesomeness wrapped up in a neat and one hundred percent efficient package also lit Eight’s fire. A few simple adjustments to each of the Dragons reactor calibrations to adjust their particle emission rate and it was job done ... Ready to go. Zero thanked the pair and jumped back to Earth for five minutes with Joan. Five minutes spent alone with the woman he loved was all he needed to make any uncertainty drift away. After the ing of five minutes and one second, Zero appeared back on the bridge of the Lead Dragon. His first order ... “Let’s make steam!”

It was barely a minute before the moon was firmly inside their rear viewfinder, the new weapon was at the center of a cluster of Alliance ships, both Khai and Earth Defence Force. There were around four thousand ships in total. This represented a third of all the ships at Earth’s disposal. Given the size of the Khai object which everyone was assuming to be the very latest generation of planet killer, they could’ve put every ship on Earth in front of it, and it still wouldn’t be enough. Zero and the Numbers realised the value in keeping something back to cover all eventualities and not leave the back door open for another bunch of marauding Reptons to come and scorch the Earth. This was a prudent and maybe even clairvoyant strategy as ing the orbital Locus of Mars, Zero received another frenetic communications hail from Kariina, who was still back on Mona. “Zero ... I’m sorry honey, its bad news, I have an uncountable number of Khai incoming from sector October-01. Two days out at present speed.” “Uncountable number?” “I stopped counting the blips on the scanner at a thousand. At least half are Komodo ... Zero? ... I think they finally found us. Would it be too much to ask for you to send Evan back to us?” “Don’t worry he’s on his way now ... And Kariina ...” “She Knows honey ... Tell Evan top speed please. He’ll have to catch the fleet before he can form his strategy. We’ve dispatched Santa and his helpers, all fifty of them, and another thousand Cobra.” “Very good, fight Khai with Khai, please tell Santa not to bother checking his list. I’m fairly sure they’re all naughty! ... Zero Out!” Kariina was the only Number apart from her brother with whom Zero was able to break the tension with some lighthearted Earth humour. To the other Numbers, Zero’s christening of Santa held no significance whatsoever; a shame really. Once mastered, such banter would’ve resulted in much more well-rounded and less stuffy personalities for all of them. Having been patched in from the phrase, “It's bad news.” Evan had heard every word and sensing Zero’s approval he had already set the Cobra he was piloting into a steep right hand loop, breaking away from Zero’s fleet to catch up to his own. Evan was the only other human apart from Zero whose name Santa had

bothered to learn. Yet again after trial by Santa. Though Evan had beaten the powerful ex Khai officer easily, it had not been without the odd fake grimace, or all of his strength. As far as Santa was concerned Zero and Evan were the only two life forms which even stood a chance of beating him. The big lizard wouldn’t be learning any more new names, his pride wouldn’t allow it. To be beaten by two such puny earthlings was a real blow to Santa’s confidence, not that anyone else knew that. Headed out as they were along a vector through sector March-14, Zero and his fleet would arrive at the coordinates only a few hours ahead of the Watcher’s predicted time of arrival for the object. After ing through the Oort cloud, further communications became garbled, a problem Kariina had been struggling to compensate for from her end without success. Such wide variation in both particle size and distribution of material making up the rocky barrier at the edge of the Solar system, meant the vastness of the cloud was as effective as a shell of solid rock thousands of miles thick. Simply too much for a clear signal to penetrate. Arrival at the designated coordinates saw the fleet spread out into a grid pattern, with the immense plasma beam cannon at its centre. What followed was a waiting game. Thankfully there was a light at the end of the tunnel. With his watch synchronised to Ra-sian time, Zero knew he wouldn’t have to wait more than a couple of hours for the Khai mega moon to arrive. About the same time that Zero and his fleet had been ing through the Oort cloud, Evan had finally caught up to his own fleet, Santa had made good time to his sector of the Oort cloud but had felt it prudent to wait for Evan before entering the rocky cloud. Docking his Cobra through the hatch originally designed for the larger Monitors to enter, Evan sat his ship gently onto the hangar deck. Proceeding on to the flight control deck, he and Santa discussed strategy. “Do you think we can hold them in the cloud, or should we try and hold them at the other side?” “The Cobra may very well be able to move freely inside the Oort, but for the Dragon and Komodo class vessels, I don’t think it’s wise. Most of the material inside the cloud is very small and poses no real problem for us, we can brush this

aside, but there is still a heavy distribution of rocks up to and even ing half a kilometer in size. If we hit something that size, damage will be caused. I’d rather fight them on the far side and try our best to hold them there.” “Indeed, that might be a better idea, at least then we know if a wide body does break our line, our Cobra and Monitors will be able to chase them down much faster. OK that sounds like a plan.” At this resolution, Evan made a low rumbling gurgle in his throat at the same time as releasing air from his lungs in a kind of hum. The noise which was difficult to perfect with human vocal cords was meant to wish Santa and his brethren “Good Hunting”, the Khai equivalent of good luck. Hearing the same sequence of noise from Santa and his bridge crew meant that Evan had correctly spoken the phrase and the sentiment was being reciprocated. The fleet was then set in motion to reach the outer limits of the Oort. The sight which greeted them had Evan thinking about the 300 Spartans who had attempted to hold back an invasion of Greece by the Persian Empire. At his disposal now were thirty seven Dragons and thirteen Komodo, all of which were under the command of Santa, each ship was carrying at least five hundred of the three seater Gekkoda fighters and another fifty Monitors. Evan was directly in command of the thousand Cobra which had been pulled from Malls on this side of the Earth for a rapid response. About two thousand klicks ahead of them, the number of targets on Evans scanner was just as Kariina had said ... Uncountable. The targeting system on his Axe was reading over four thousand vessels which were at least the size of a Dragon carrier but might also possibly be the larger Komodo mother ships. One thing was for sure, anything smaller wouldn’t as a target from this far away. Evan could see his fleet was gravely outnumbered by massive craft, and the thought of all the small and mid-sized craft which might be contained within their bellies made the soldier’s head hurt. “Evan to Santa ... Are you seeing this?” “My eyes are working Evan yes, no problem there ... But my brain isn’t believing what my eyes are seeing. This may be one of the shortest battles I have ever fought!” “Come on now big fella, don’t go having second thoughts on me now. Think

about that little slice of heaven at Kaskara.” “Believe me, Kaskara is the only thing I can focus on right now. The blackened ever changing shores and the bubbling oranges, yellows and reds of the rising magma is a sight beyond compare in this galaxy or any other, a true slice of Khai heaven.” Evan listened intently to the serious tone of his Lizard friend with a growing pressure to laugh. Santa couldn’t possibly appreciate the irony of his love affair with the mangled remains of Kaskara, compared to the pristine greens of the forests, blues of the skies and oceans, still to be found on the rest of the planet. Quickly the pressure became so great a huge belly laugh could no longer be stifled. Nor could Santa appreciate the noise of a human laugh, instead inquiring if Evan had been hit from long range. Replying that he was alright, the pod soldier gathered himself back to calm focus, just as Zero had trained him to do, for the task ahead. Evan had enjoyed what might be his last chance to laugh in some time, maybe ever if Zero was unsuccessful. On the other side of the system, the Khai-mah “Planet killer” had arrived ...

Chapter 64 - Khai-mah killer ...

WITH NO INDICATION other than a massive burst of light, the huge object materialised silently in front of Zero and his fleet. The scanner was showing the object had pulled out of its hyperspace conduit under complete control, coming to rest almost immediately within ten kilometres of Ra-sian’s prediction ... Almost exactly one thousand kilometres from the nose of the Sphinx. The craft was immense and stunning all at the same time ... stunningly immense. Even from this far away it was like being on approach to the moon which was over half as large again. The Sphinx didn’t have any front screen, a design consideration intended to reduce the chances of decompression under fire and protect the pilot. Of course, using the external hi-res camera and display system derived by Jer-mija the view was just peachy, but the camera angle being displayed was limited to a fairly broad angle of sixty degrees all around. Zero’s viewer couldn’t display the edges of this beast. At this range, even if the Sphinx had a sunroof and Zero could’ve popped his head out into the void, he would’ve barely seen much more. This close it was impossible to see the full periphery of the Khai masterpiece. The craft was a far cry from the Komodo and Dragon vessels Evan was facing even now almost six billion miles away. This craft was more like a cue ball which had been designed for a game of galactic snooker, shiny and white with a completely smooth exterior. No hatches, docking ports, viewing windows, launch tubes or hangar bays were apparent. Zero speculated that there should’ve been something somewhere as this craft was like a small planet. It could easily house hundreds of fleets of Komodo. A smile curled Zero’s lips upwards as he attempted to imagine how big the mess hall was, a stupid thought considering there were several tell-tale design cues which said this craft was far more Devine than Khai-mah. The plasma ports ... The Numbers had been poring over data as the craft had been approaching. They discovered the vents didn’t glow their usual lizard green like typical Khai technology. These were huge but didn’t strain the eye at all. Even after being powered down as the object appeared, the vents continued to glow a softer shade of neon blue. This was still several shades lighter than the technology Oxull was using. The plasma ports ran up the craft from pole to pole, like the longitudinal markers

on a globe of the Earth. These appeared at what looked like regular thirty degree intervals. Being a smooth sphere, the craft would’ve made its way perfectly through space or any other medium with a motion which would’ve made Bernoulli proud. That said, Zero was looking at a big chunk of Alculinium, it probably needed every plasma port it had to accelerate to conduit speed. -Well now, what we have here is a Mexican standoff. We’ll let you take one shot, for free ... But you best make it count, or we’re gonna carve some hatches and ports and all o’ that good stuff into your shiny white ... The craft appeared to power up again having been dormant since its arrival. Having made no attempts at communication, it was quite possible Zero’s fleet had now been assessed, and the gargantuan vessel was ready to make its first move to action. With the glow from the plasma outlets intensifying by several orders of brightness, Zero commanded his fleet to move backwards with all haste, just a precaution to put a little more distance between them and the war ball. Once the fleet had gained another two hundred and fifty kilometres of range, the Sphere instantly charged straight at them. “Everyone BRACE! BRACE! She’s gonna ram us!” Joan's previous analogy that they would be squashed like so many insignificant bugs on a windshield was ringing inside Zero’s head. The action taken was clearly in direct response to the threat perceived, and this had been found to be an amazingly menacing ... Nil. The ship wasn’t even going to waste its plasma on them. Even Zero closed his eyes and turned his head away, but only once the indicated range from the Sphinx to the Ball was momentarily indicated as being shorter than ten miles; in the next moment the craft was gone. It had allowed them a slim chance to clear the runway it needed before accelerating its massive bulk to conduit speed in less than 1240 miles. This was the longest three seconds of the super soldiers life; watching in the realisation that he was completely powerless to do anything. Zero was confused, the intentions of his fleet had been fairly obvious, so obvious most Khai wouldn’t be able to miss, much less overlook such an overt display of defiance. Most ferocious Khai officers worth their salt would’ve stomped the Earth fleet into dust so fine it could’ve formed a nebula. So why then? Why had

the ship given them a means to escape being obliterated, then moved on with no casualties at all. It wasn’t the Khai way to run from a fight ... Ever. Yet that was exactly what had just happened. “Come on, the Sphere doesn’t even regard us as a viable threat, the chances are it’s headed straight to Earth to finish the job, if so we’re dead anyway. We don’t have the plasma to reach another habitable planet, and we don’t have any star maps to chart a course to one if we did. The Sphere doesn’t need to kill us. It knows eventually we’ll die all on our own. Let’s get back through and Kariina, at conduit speed that damned thing is probably there already, but we have to let them know we’re still alive and on our way back to them.” The replies from his fleet were hinting at a complete demoralisation; Zero understood completely. All the preparations, all the new technology which they had raced to develop which they had hoped would give them the advantage. Then there was the Earth itself and all her inhabitants, united as one with a common goal in a way the human species had never been since the first apes had climbed down into the long grass. In a few short centuries ... Enlightenment ... This tantalising goal had really been on the cards, but only for the briefest of moments. Now all hope was gone. It took the fully intact fleet 12 hours to negotiate their way back to the interior of the Oort, far too long. Zero ordered the huge plasma rail to make its own way back. The rest of the fleet would burn their engines like roman candles to reach the Earth. Zero stressed to the crew of the monstrous weapon that they should NOT push their engines beyond the limit preset by Jer-mija. The nine Komodo had to balance their outputs to ensure that no differential stresses were ed to the frame which might rip the craft apart. Whilst the nine craft were all controlled from the central master ship, harsh acceleration would produce some differential thrust. The rail itself was in essence a particle accelerator configured in a straight line, and whilst the twenty meter long segments were all physically ed and sealed to form a solid plasma beaming barrel, this assembly was held inside the lattice frame by flexible magnetic linkages specifically so any bending or torsion within the lattice would not affect the calibration or aiming capacity of the weapon. For definite the rail cannon was rigid, but at ten kilometers long, some bending could be induced. It was the lattice frame’s job to the rail. If the lattice broke, magnetic linkages would become broken and shortly after the gun would break into pieces.

With comm’s back up and relatively clear despite some delay, it did not take long to establish a link to Mona. The fact that Kariina had in fact been trying all this time to them, might have helped. “Zero, we’re all so glad the fleet is OK! We saw the object start moving again and thought it had run straight through you. I couldn’t accurately see you guys so close to the object, you were like geese on a radar screen, there but faintly.” “So you know where it is then? You should make preparations and get as many people into space as possible.” “That’s not gonna be possible honey, the Sphere reappeared right by Sol only one minute later ... Check this out, its sucking up material from the Chromosphere, right through the Corona. Geberus thinks the craft is refuelling ...” “Hmmmm, well I’m not so sure that's the whole picture. Its plasma reserves might well be almost fully depleted; but it could just as easily be gathering material to fire at the Earth. The good thing is that it can’t use the plasma as it's being harvested, there will be all kinds of irregular particles which the engines can’t use. They will have to refine and condition the material first. We might just make it back in time.” “I think we aren’t really the priority right now. Evan is being chased back and at the current rate, you’ll arrive back here just in time to bail his fleet out. At Evan’s last scan there were four thousand ships, all leviathans. We haven’t lost many ships but our guys can’t contain those odds, the Khai just keep breaking the line. They’re a way back inside the Oort and making swift progress, so you should get your burn on.” “Understood ... Zero out.”

Chapter 65 - The dark at the end of the tunnel ...

AT THE OTHER SIDE OF the system, but some distance closer to the Earth than Zero’s fleet; Evan had his hands full. Violent changes in thrust output, and direction, were creating a flight pattern the enemy Gekkoda were struggling with. Using his enhanced physicality to perform rolls and sudden course changes, Evan was running rampant through the Khai fleet. The other Cobra pilots were moving much more predictably but following all their sim training even these more staid patterns were still effective, and their confidence levels were high. As Kariina had just informed Zero, Evan’s fleet was only down six Cobra. Santa and his helpers were thinly dispersed in their Komodo and Dragons but had barely even taken a hit. It appeared to Evan almost like the Khai had simply not ed this friendly fire. Maybe the incoming Khai fleet thought Santa and the other leviathans were reinforcements who had been chasing the Cobra towards them. Straight into a kill box. Another more worrying thought was that by their unwillingness to fire on the Earth adopted ships, all easily identifiable by the Axe weapons carving out mayhem on the Khai ships, that maybe the Khai were trying to turn Santa’s vessel and the others back to their side. As if to say ... Come back all is forgiven. Before the battle had become so intense, and the sheer scale of the Khai fleet’s numbers had been fully appreciated, Evan had specified only one rule. It was fine for the Earth’s wide bodies to become separated, but it wasn’t fine for their compliment of smaller ships to become split up from them. The Komodo and Dragon vessels had to be protected for as long as the Cobra could manage. So far so good, the Alliance’s major fire power was concentrated on these fifty heavily armoured platforms, they also had far more range than their Khai contemporaries. With ten Axe weapons per ship, and only needing to put three beams on a Khai vessel to take it out of the game, Santa’s sub-fleet was finding its rhythm. Each of Santa’s command ships were able to take out three opposing ships in one go and the Khai-mah fleet appeared to have no response to the actions of their ex-brethren. Geyldian’s clever sister had already reprogrammed five of her Gekkoda satellites which were close enough to intercept, bringing them into close configuration to make a kill net, directly in the path of the approaching battle. Having already been programmed to recognise Earth and Alliance craft by their Plasma signature, nothing would fall foul of Kariina’s remote wrath unless it was meant

to. The Cobra were having an effect too and so far three hundred enemy leviathans had been wiped out by the troop carrying fighter craft. There wasn’t a single quiet Cobra cockpit in the fleet. Between proximity alarms triggered by ing far too close to the huge Khai mother ships, and lock alarms from enemy Gekkoda; the pilots were to a man and sometimes a woman, flying by the seat of their pants and having the time of their lives. Every kill spurring them on, through the mental fatigue of a battle which had already raged for nigh on two days. Tiredness was a problem which Oxull and even Joan had never predicted. It was initially thought that if a battle was hard, the Cobra would be destroyed. The pilots were all ready for this. If a battle was easy or at least winnable eventually, then the two pilots would be able to cover for any small mistakes which were forced by tiredness. This battle now was proving to be a very different animal, much more in line with Zero’s original bleak forecast. Huge enemy numbers and endless kills by the Alliance, countered by the arrival of twice as many ships as they’d killed on the part of the Khai-mah. It was a never ending conveyor belt of death, as if the Khai had a wormhole somewhere close to provide an endless pipeline of reinforcements from another galaxy. Where they were coming from, only the Ancients knew; and like most reputable deities answers were not forthcoming. In a flash of battle memory, Evan had a recollection from the previous battle just over a week ago, where Zero had ed that each Cobra had a full complement of Thraten soldiers in their bellies, doing nothing apart from belching off motion sickness. Of course ... Those bad mothers are just sat there! Hatching a new plan, Evan opened all channels of communication. “Attention all Cobra. Let’s try something different. Pair up and let’s board those suckers. One ship hit the bridge and the second can breach the reactor compartment, just like last time but this time the reactor compartment is to wait for word from the bridge squad. If the bridge can be secured, the reactor compartment crew can move on to the next ship, sealing all bulkheads and venting the compartment won’t affect the reactor operation but it will stop the Khai from regaining control of the core. If the bridge crew is overwhelmed,

initiate a reactor destabilisation to cause a critical meltdown then pull out.” “What’s brought this on Evan? Aren’t you increasing our risk of ship loss? At the moment we aren’t losing many vessels.” “Well Santa, I hear that ... And I agree, but at the moment we are fighting our asses off while dying slowly without making a big difference to the battle. As you know, the cannons on the Komodo and dragon are just that much bigger. I think it’s worth a shot, board ‘em, gain control and turn those puppies loose on their neighbours, they won’t be expecting that. Santa?...” The experienced ex-commander was only momentarily thrown by Evan’s more colloquial terminology. Humans were so complicated, so many words which all meant the same thing. “OK ... As you command ... What’s up Evan?” “Well you have better scanners than me, have you found where they’re coming from?” “Yes ... Some time ago. A hyperspace bridge just beyond where we first encountered them ... You want to break the bridge? It’s a sound strategy but it means sending someone on a suicide mission, and even after that, what is to stop the Khai opening another bridge?” “A difficult mission I think, but not suicidal. We can use a Komodo with two Cobra already breached, they can navigate the craft back through to the outside of the Oort, set the reactor to go critical and then make their way back. I suppose there is a high chance they might get fired upon for going the wrong way, but that’s the Khai, not the mission.” “Evan ... You say Potato, I say starchy brown tuberous root vegetable. What’s the difference ... Whoever we send has only a slim chance of pulling off the mission, and if they do succeed, they have little or no chance to make it back. You know my thoughts on risking men, and with little to gain if another bridge is opened then those thoughts are only amplified.” “OK I get it! But at the same time we are fighting a battle we cannot hope to win. How are they opening the bridge? It’s gotta be a ship right, a modified Komodo or such.”

“Actually if you saw them you’d laugh. Six modified Gekkoda form a geometrical pattern, a Hexagon you call it. Then the crew of a special Bridging Komodo trigger something the Gekkoda pilots don’t even understand and a singularity is formed which they can then open simply by expanding the formation. It’s a stable process now but in times gone by ...” “GEKKODA! Six Gekkoda and a single Komodo, alright you follow the strategy we are executing right now to slow them down for as long as you can, I’m gonna take out the Bridge from the other side.” “Evan you can’t, you won’t make it back and you could be in the middle of nowhere. The Cobra is a strong craft, but they are by no means interstellar ...” “Santa, it’s better me and forty Thraten than anyone else, I have a chance at least. Anyway, when I think about it rationally, I’ve had much more time than I should’ve anyway ... This is for the best. Once we’re on the other side, we’ll work something out ... Steal the bridging Komodo or something. It might take a while, but we’ll get back somehow, you just have to make sure there’s something to come back to. Promise me one thing?” “Anything.” “Don’t let anyone follow me, especially Zero. He’s done enough time in space without coming to find me.” Being Khai, Santa was not an emotional being. No Khai had ever jumped on a grenade to save a friend. This human was about to show them what true friendship and camaraderie meant, risking his own life for their sake. The lizard commander didn’t know if he would see his human friend ever again, and for the first time in his life, Santa was sad. “OK Evan ... And good hunting!” “You know for a big old lizard with a six foot whip stuck out of his rear end, you’re a pretty good guy. I’ll see you on the flip side Santa. With this the plasma thrusters on Evan’s Cobra lit up as the pod soldier initiated a full burn headed back out of the system towards the Oort cloud. Santa considered that there were only two men reckless, or maybe brave enough, to attempt a stunt like this and pull it off, and they were both his friends. Evan’s

new mission and the lifeline it might afford them spurred Santa onwards, and for the next few hours the Khai didn’t know what was hitting them ... Having observed the five D's of dodgeball, dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodging some more through the oncoming fleet like a pensioner travelling the wrong way up a highway; Evan navigated his way to the exit of the bridge. The ships he observed seemed to appear like bolts of lightning in a brilliant flash of light, before instantly slowing and compressing back into their un-stretched form. Evan couldn't imagine the velocity the Khai vessels were reaching as they ed through the bridge, but he was now having second thoughts as to whether entering the oncoming traffic against such fast flow was a good idea. After a few minutes the Thraten who were as always up for anything, began to get restless. Their squad leader even felt bored enough to unfasten his restraints and Evan in the cockpit. “We doing this then or what? If we die we die, at least we tried. We won’t know if it’s possible until you pull your head out from ...” “OK Captain Obvious ... I get it ... You guys are spoiling for a fight, so what’s new? That can’t happen until after I complete my mission, at which point a fight might be mute.” “As I said, if we’re gonna die it had better be fighting, not trapped in this tub! Capisce!?” Reaching for the ship’s Tannoy ... “Greetings engers ... If you would ALL like to retake your seats and fasten your belts we can get under way. As always we here at the Earth Alliance would like to thank all our violent guests for flying air Alliance, we are well aware you have no other choice.” The shiny grey Thraten raised a smile, patted Evan on the shoulder with his huge hand and began returning to his seat. “That’s the spirit kid, you’ll go far.” -I’ll go far alright. Straight through the viewing screen of a Komodo and halfway down the corridor to the mid-ship's control room!!

Evan opened the throttle hard and prayed to the Ancients to grant him the reflexes to get his bus to the other side without becoming a hood ornament for a Khai mothership ...

Chapter 66 - The tunnel of love ... Out of order.

TWO DAYS LATER ON CENTRAL, Leren, Joan, Wraith and the Numbers were gathered in the circle. Kariina gave a full report on the progress of Zero and his fleet to return to Earth. Then she relayed details of the battle Evan and Santa had been engaged in, which had now entered the interior of the solar system. The most noteworthy observation was that the transponder inside Evan’s Cobra had stopped working over a day ago and no communications had been established for half a day before that. In addition, the situation was deteriorating generally as Santa and the remaining fleet were being pushed steadily back towards the Earth. The only good news was that in the last four hours, ships had apparently stopped appearing, and the anomaly just outside the Oort cloud which Geberus speculated had been a hyperspace bridge had now vanished. On a more somber note the Khai war ball, being referred to by the Numbers simply as the Object, was still so close to Solaris that a normal craft would have long since melted, with its constituent atoms being scattered throughout the cosmos on the solar wind. Whatever this craft was it was far beyond anything the Devine had ever designed or constructed. Kariina’s final remarks were that Santa was currently halfway between Mars and the Earth, a mere eight hours away whilst Zero was at least twelve hours away having made excellent time to reach his current location. The plasma beam rail cannon, which now looked to be the largest white elephant ever engineered by man or clone, was currently halfway between Jupiter and Mars, steaming at a constant rate with no apparent problem. If required, a bolt could be charged in preparation and a preliminary firing solution calculated. Jermija was adamant that the power contained within their own version of the planet killer was more than enough to destroy the Earth from just inside the orbit of Mars, as such the huge weapon wasn’t sat on the sidelines just yet. Waves of relief rippled through the hive, and this was verbally expressed as a long sigh by Joan. Joan remained typically stoic, outwardly at least, but inside the small woman from Sheffield was beginning to be crushed by the weight of all the tasks which she couldn’t get accomplished. Her partner and everyone's hope, was still half a

day away and his best human trainee was missing, feared dead. Wraith was far better utilised to cushion Joan from the many vacuous needs of the Khai who hadn’t been sent to the front line yet and to all intents and purposes were enjoying their shift on the glorious Earth in the red hot sun. Joan didn’t imagine their happy faces would remain happy very long once they were ordered to ship out to their Dragon and Komodo to defend the Earth, although they had all sworn to do exactly that. The Numbers were for once the least of Joan’s worries. While there was still time, Oxull and Jer-mija continued to retrofit Gekkoda with the super reactor cells and Axe weapons. Kariina would direct these tiny gun platforms straight to sector October-1, albeit at a much smaller spherical radius, a mere ten million miles outside the orbit of the Earth. There was some debate afterwards regarding whether the Khai missiles they had worked diligently to repurpose, should be launched against the object. Kariina speculated ... -The problem is the object accelerates too quickly ... One thousand miles to conduit speed?... I believe landing a hit in such an obvious fashion would be impossible. We may only accelerate the inevitability of our own fate. -Honestly though, would that be a bad thing? We are all hoping to survive whilst planning for death. I should give a public address; the people deserve to know. They’ve been stronger than any of us ever envisaged through all of this, it would be wrong of us to cover things up now. -Joan, you cannot allow yourself to think like that. You have tried to handle all affairs with the Khai-mah so far with forward thinking diplomacy. You mustn’t stop now! The Object is floating in the Chromosphere of the sun doing who knows what? But as yet it hasn’t shown any sign of what its true intentions are, don’t lose sight of that. -I’m sorry Kariina, you know I love you as a dear friend, but sometimes I wonder if you’re tuning into a TV program from another world. The Khai-mah have been a foe of the Devine for Eons, everything we know about them says, “Khai-mah equals bad.” It’s very difficult given the reputation of the Khai for blowing up planets they don’t like, for me to remain optimistic ... The energy that thing is sucking out of our sun can only be for one thing, our destruction. -Joan! This is most unlike you, especially since you are now fully connected to

the hive. You must the unease and lack of efficiency which can result from such thoughts leaking back into the hive ... You’re doing just fine; we know this isn’t your fault and also that you probably feel like running for the hills round about now. These words, softly spoken by her former mentor Leren were intended to grip Joan, mentally pulling her back from the precipice her thinking was driving her towards. Joan had displayed such toughness and mental buoyancy over the past two decades. It was fair to say that even while the larger tools had all been furnished by the Numbers, the credit for the original plan for planetary unification, and the tools to repel the Khai, all belonged to Joan. If Aelren had not seen something in this little woman from Yorkshire and had decided instead to follow his typical rigid clone rules and their usual secretive and shadowy methods, then barely any preparations could have been made. The humans would be looking up into the sky right now in abject panic; with no clue of the fate which was drawing nearer and nearer. It was fitting that Leren had been elected to Prime as his personality was perhaps the most similar to their previous Prime Aelren. His direct words and dry demeanor had only flourished since his elevation to the number one seat in the circle. So much so that often the other Numbers suspected Aelren had succeeded in finding a way of reaching out from the record, utilising Leren as a vessel for his imposing personality, to almost achieve immortality. Of course any similarity was more likely borne from the examples which Aelren had set, and his success within the role. Whatever it was, Leren had taken a liking to the human female as soon as she came aboard Central, and when Joan had expressed a desire to further her medical knowledge it had been only too easy for Leren to teach her. Since then every Number had experienced regular with Joan, and so it had been easy for her to become Aelren's aid and human interface also. Never once had Joan faltered in her deep belief that humanity could become united. Using her own no nonsense methods Joan had imposed her will over the humans and Numbers alike. Joan had been successful, but her mission wasn’t over yet. Even if Joan’s belief in herself was finally beginning to waver, Leren and the Numbers knew that with the right , she was strong enough to bounce back. They needed her, as effective as the Caretakers had been given their innumerable eons of driving events on this world, in a pinch they had no clue how to think to circumvent problems in a short time frame where no contingencies were

allowed, and the right outcome had to be guaranteed at the first attempt. Being human, Joan was better placed than any of them to rapidly form a plan and then execute it with success. Joan was well aware that the clones needed her to follow through, and if she was honest, with Zero on a mission she did feel much less lonely within the hive. Joan would never abandon the clones or the Earth for that matter, she just needed some time to breathe and gather her thoughts. -Friends ... I’m sorry for my outburst. I guess I am under a lot of pressure and just need some time to take stock. There was no excuse for my implication that we should give up, and I never meant that we should stop defending ourselves. As Zero warned us months ago, the Khai just keep coming, there is no end to their number. I feel like we are drowning in Khai and I cannot get my head above the situation to take a breath for consideration. There are so many things we can still do, but we have very little time to put anything into motion, there is certainly no time for development, we have to use what we have and be effective. At the moment we are falling in slow motion. We need a game changer. Kariina, would you please ask the Plasma Cannon crew to hold their current position, they are not to do anything else until we request them to. Kariina nodded, for the first time Jer-mija could not stop his frustration from carving deep furrows over his brow, what was the point of developing a weapon so powerful that it gave them an actual route to victory, if Joan was incapable of wielding it? Surely Joan knew this error had been committed before? -Don’t doubt me Eight! We need to take every effort in our power to protect the cannon, we cannot allow her to wander into the battle which will soon reach Earth and would cause her to be damaged ... Or worse. When the time comes, you won’t be seeing doubt, but determination. For now we have to see what the Object is up to, and we must give Zero his second chance to crush the Khai. Believe me when I say it's what he exists to do. Wraith? My office in New York please ... Jer-mija’s expression was straightened out by Joan’s words. If anything his face was now dented by double barrelled embarrassment. He could not explain how it slipped his mind that Joan was now a fully paid up member of the hive. Nor should he have allowed his own arrogance to have clouded his opinion of Joan’s resolve. As always, and even in the face of the unknown, her will was like a rod

of Alculinium. Jer-mija now believed Joan had never doubted herself at all, but rather she was feeling guilt and a measure of frustration at the suffering which her insistence to fight and hold the Earth was inflicting on her people, and her planet. Even under this weight, and the possible knowledge that everyone on the surface was quite possibly and justifiably beginning to hate the name Joan Albern; she would press on to try and deliver them the peace they had all fought for. No one tried to stop Joan leaving, they could sense that her mind was working, and she needed some time alone. It was possible she was about to meditate, her lover and confident Zero for some consolation or maybe just confirmation that she was doing the right thing. In perfect silence, Wraith jumped Joan where she needed to be. His return within a few seconds indicated that maybe Joan hadn’t even said anything to her son upon arriving at her office ...

Chapter 67 - Not your average headache ...

AS ZERO AND HIS FLEET neared the end of their journey, in the far off distance the super soldier could see the familiar blue orb. A few centuries ago, this planet had crossed his path from out of nowhere after the skilled pilot had eventually freed himself from a Khai hyperspace bubble. After crashing his ship in an exploding ball of flames and ditching into a small sea, this planet had become Zero’s home. Now the planet was much larger than the blue speck he’d been racing towards only hours ago and the moon was also clearly visible. Another two hours and he’d be home, but rather than putting his feet up, Zero and the fleet would be entering the fray to assist Santa. Kariina’s last communique had informed Zero and his fleet that the number of enemy vessels just kept growing. Initially the wormhole the Khai were using to access the outer edges of the system had been closed, but twelve hours later, a new bridge had been opened up. As with the first bridge, the far end was well beyond the reaches of Mona’s deep space scanner, in a sector which remained unseen, and definitely wasn’t charted. Even at this distance, the glow of plasma fire in green and blues could just be seen, every ship hit which subsequently exploded could be seen very clearly. The explosion from the reactor of even a small craft like a Monitor or a Cobra would still result in a largish explosion as the energetic reaction inside the engine was suddenly released. When a larger craft like a dragon carrier or a Komodo mothership went up, the explosion was so energetic that the radius of the blast would be well over fifty miles. The resulting afterglow would also make vision much harder for any pilots in the vicinity; the Khai ones at any rate. All Alliance craft now had Jer-mija’s black spot diffusion filter to blot out bright light. These explosive balls would linger for around ten seconds, and whilst the glow was active, the halo would be a hazard for any craft. Plenty of vessels which had not been taken out directly by a large blast did succumb to stalled engines and a loss of plasma reaction from flying into a blast halo. With the space around Earth looking like the best bonfire display ever, the sight did nothing to cool the moods of Zero’s Cobra pilots. The last six days had been a waste of time. Sensing his men were desperate to begin kicking some lizard tail, Zero authorised the lifting of their reactor output ceilings by a further five percent. All the Cobra were now running at one hundred and thirty five percent of their optimal limit. Still to be discovered was whether this kind of abuse

might yet see several Cobra exploding before reaching the Earth. All the Cobra were well built, but if one of the craft were to succumb, the end would be so fast none of the occupants would know about it. As such none of the pilots wasted time or brain power worrying. The resulting boost in speed would shave half an hour off their arrival time back to Earth With five minutes left before they would be in range, the Cobra pilots began painting targets with their Axe weapons. There were more than enough targets for each Cobra to schedule up to ten pieces of Khai equipment for summary destruction. Zero was the first to wipe his feet on the field of battle. With his Axe glowing into life, he heading straight for the nearest Komodo with a green output signature. A few flybys and the turrets had all been excised from the hull before Zero moved onwards piercing the ships reactor. Zero sent a hail to all Cobra in the vicinity to break clear. Moans were returned from several pilots who having painted their targets, now needed to abandon them to avoid being wiped out by a Komodo critical mass, talk about friendly fire. Zero then decided to leave the area completely, diving much nearer to the center of the battle. The Khai hardware was densest within fifteen thousand miles of the Earth’s surface, like a swarm of locusts. Switching the Axe onto automatic, set to target anything Dragon sized or bigger, Zero got his dog fight on against some of the most unstable Gekkoda pilots he’d ever encountered. Feeling a primal rush, from the seat of his pants the tingles progressed up his spine and shot like a bolt of electricity through his brain; flooding his nervous system. The net result was Zero transported back through time to his battle behaviour from his earliest days on Ashlar-Gin. The Sphinx was such a joy to fly. Being the only craft in Earth’s arsenal specifically designed to be flown by Zero, it was the only craft able to return an action the milli-second he made his unreasonable inputs. Zero had no idea where these Khai were from, it could’ve been the other side of this galaxy, or a hundred galaxies away, but the reflexes these lizards were showing to not only evade lock, but also break his weapons lock were incredible. These Khai had probably been transferred from a distant battle front straight on to this one, they were so warmed up they were red hot, a real test for Zero compared to his previous sorties. His personal tally of kills was slowly growing,

but in addition, the Axe hadn’t stopped selecting and killing targets in all the time Zero had been dog fighting. Each time Zero had been glued to the plasma trail of a Gekkoda and the tiny craft had ducked to evade behind a Dragon or a Komodo, the Axe on the top of the Sphinx had gone to work with clinical precision. Pretty soon the Cobra fleet were making innumerable kills, simply by following Zero and finishing off these pre-tenderised chunks of alien hardware. The Khai leviathans were easy pickings indeed, and with the addition of Zero’s fleet, slowly the Earth was gaining the upper hand. The only problem was that for every vessel taken out by the Earth’s defensive force, there was always another Repton vessel waiting to the fray. It was clear the new bridge was still open and was being put to good use by the Khai. Down on the surface of the planet, from the roof top of her ultra-modern eco-hirise in the center of the Manhattan business district, Joan was becoming entranced by the green and blue lights flashing above her in the night sky. So long had she been trying to focus on the small coloured specks that she was beginning to become dizzy, as she tried to make her eyes see better, almost trying to achieve a zoomed in aspect on the battle. Minutes earlier Joan had been in communication with Geyldian, stationed at Maple-3, a mall in northern Canada. Between them they’d been busy directing King Fighter responses to a spate of Gekkoda incursions within the atmosphere. Luckily all of these incidents had been repelled quickly without the loss of a single King fighter. So well-practiced were the pilots at neutralising Gekkoda plasma engines with a single shot to the thruster nozzles that the battle inside the atmosphere had simply fizzled out. It seemed now as if the Khai were going for plan ‘B’, to take the space around the Earth and attempt to demoralise the planet into surrendering under siege. Staring up into the star dotted void, Joan liked to think that she could see her lover in the Sphinx, but this notion was only based on the tiny dot of a blue plasma trail darting around a bit more than the other blue plasma trails. A small draft to her left signalled the arrival of Wraith. It didn’t take her son long to realise what Joan was trying to do. Closing his eyes Wraith was able to reach his father, seeing occasional glimpses of the planet below him through his father’s eyes indicated that Zero was indeed over the eastern seaboard of the continental U.S. Pulling back into his own mind before standing behind his

mother, Wraith pointed with his huge finger upwards along the general vector where his father seemed to have been. Beyond this Wraith was reduced to the same strategy as his mother. It was only after a few seconds when a blue dot which was literally running rings around the green plasma dots creating lots of explosions ahead of it flew right over the end of Wraith’s finger that the pair could both reasonably assume they had found Zero. Pandemonium surrounded this little blue dot as every time the Cobra flying in Zero’s wake took out a Dragon or a Komodo a greenish explosion appearing the same size in the sky as the sun would at the equator, lit up the night sky for around ten seconds. It would have been easy for Joan to slip back into her earlier funk at the sight of these huge glowing balls of light which signified the deaths of at least another two thousand Khai. At the end of the day these were lizards who only wanted the same thing as their brothers who had been granted asylum already. The feel of solid ground under their feet. Joan was only able to reconcile her feelings by weighing up the balance of numbers in her mind. So far the Earth had adopted some twenty-five thousand Khai, complete with vessels and equipment. By contrast the Khai flying over their heads right now, and still arriving in their droves represented a plague. Unmanageable hordes of lizards, who if they had been allowed to land would’ve been crammed shoulder to shoulder over every scrap of land and probably the seabed also ... Too many! Joan had proven beyond all doubt that she was ready to accept the Khai as her neighbour, but she wouldn’t allow herself or the people of Earth to be displaced completely into a nomadic stellar life. The choices were bleak, be exterminated by the Khai or run away. This was a choice countless worlds had already had to make, and it was clear there was no correct choice. If they stood toe to toe the Earth would fall, and if they ran the Khai would surely hunt them down as they had the Devine before that. The situation was unwinnable. Using a skill taught to her by her partner, Joan was now able to project herself into the minds of other people. As she carefully peered over the parapet wall which ran around the roof of her building, Joan was able to see everyone below her. Cars were stationary, their drivers and engers stood gazing into the night sky at the light show unfolding above them. The general feeling was one of uncertainty, and yet there was also a buoyancy. Most likely this resulted from their never say die attitude, for centuries this worked against the humans; now it was finally working for them. Joan was also

able to sense fear, but these feelings were thinly spread. Unlike the earlier period running from the late nineteen forties well into the mid-eighties, the humans were now a very well informed populous regarding the existence of aliens. This was a direct result of the stubborn way Joan had ignored Aelren from the outset of her preparations, refusing to shield the planets inhabitants from the foe they all faced. Indeed it was this initial honesty, along with her subsequent actions to punish opportunist and exploitative crimes, along with her inclusion of countries who had nothing to offer technologically which had finally seen the planet united. As Joan continued to survey the New Yorkers below her, she became aware of another voice in her head, trying hard to reach her but not making any particular sense. Some of the language and tones within this voice were familiar as Leren, but it wasn’t like the Prime to babble endlessly. Finally as if exerting his frustration at not being able to express himself, Joan began to suffer a stabbing pain inside her own head. “Wraith! ... Leren’s lab! Quick!” Taking hold of his mother it was milliseconds before Joan and her son were in the ever familiar setting or Leren’s medical lab. Expecting to find her Mentor with some sort of head wound, and with all kinds of thoughts running through her head that maybe this was the work of another Nazirian, Joan rushed to the Doctors side. The medical Novus were both too shocked to move. Were they about to lose another Prime? There was no blood and both Novus reported that they had been at their lab stations when the Prime simply stopped in his tracks, looked to the ceiling as if he could see the sky and began talking to himself. Now Leren was chanting out loud, but the tongue was clearly in their ancient dialect. Asking the Novus to translate was a dead end, neither knew more than pidgin English; this would be the first time either had uttered anything more than a murmur in centuries. 1st -“... Prime ... Says ...” 2nd -“They ... Are...” 1st -“Coming ...” “Who?... Who is coming?” 2nd -“Prime knows ...”

“They are coming?!” Joan didn’t press any further. She couldn’t tell directly, but it was as if some outside presence was trying to crack into the hive through their Prime and make . Wraith had already called for Geyldian and it was only seconds before the Second returned from Maple-3, appearing in a flurry of sizzling air particles with a mid-sized pop. -Aaaah Leren, what’ve you done now brother? ... Calm down and try to think freely. The sight of his friends around him did appear to calm the Prime for a moment, and his pupils looked to be focusing once more, but only for a few seconds. In a cry which intimated his head was about to be split, the Prime used maximum effort to express himself. “They’re coming ... Aaaarrghhh! They are coming ... Everything is going to ...” The Prime fell unconscious, appearing to have succumbed to the pain inside his head. Geyldian and Wraith lifted their Prime up, walking straight for the nearest bed forcing the statuesque Novus to finally move out of their way. Joan had the bed up and running to monitor vital signs in seconds and set the Medi-pod attachments to ister a mild sedative to the doctor. Geyldian now tried to perform a mental dive, normally this would be completely unwarranted without the prior consent of the Prime but in this instance and having heard his Prime’s last statement clearly; Geyldian would proceed anyway and with a clear conscience. Finding out the cause of Leren’s confusion was of paramount importance; but as Geyldian placed his fingertips either side of Leren’s forehead, a wave of pain washed through the Second. Before he’d even had a chance to enter the Prime’s head he was seeking to break the connection. Removing his hands quickly, as if he’d suffered some huge electrical shock, Geyldian momentarily dipped to the ground as if he too might out, but reaching a crouching position ed upon the knuckles of his right hand, Geyldian shook himself back to clarity and slowly found his feet. “Someone is trying to the Prime, but clearly the brain waves being projected are incompatible with our minds. I didn’t get any more of the message, not even a general mood. It was like they knew they weren’t

succeeding at getting the message through and moved on to me as soon as I touched his head. For now keep him sedated will you? I have a feeling that in the next day, all will be revealed anyway.” Joan nodded; the sight of the doctor laid on a bed inside his own lab was one which had never been seen before. Everyone was in shock ... High above the Earth, the Alliance fleet was again beginning to fail at holding the Khai-mah invasion back. Fatigue was setting in. The pilots had been at the stick for almost a week straight, they were slowing down rapidly. On board some of the Cobra, the Thraten had taken to watching the pilot’s actions and the systems they were using, but without practical experience little good would result from swapping seats with one of the hulking soldiers, even if they were itching to give it a go. To them battle was battle, they didn’t have to leave the Cobra to start a fight and make their presence felt. And with all the advantages of a Hexalobe brain, they were sure they might surprise everyone. It stood to reason that the humans in the chain would be the weakest link, but none of them had expected to die just because they were tired. In the end, after witnessing three Cobra fall in quick succession it was Zero who ordered the humans out of their seats to let the Thraten have a go. What was there to lose? Cheers were heard from all open channels, but these ran mostly like water off a duck's back for Zero as even he was starting to Zone out. It seemed that even the benefits of accelerated healing and exceptional concentration could fall foul of a week-long shift with no breaks. The longer the battle was extended the worse this problem would be, at the finish Zero slurped the last reserves of the blue nutrient goop, from the Sphinx. Only a mouthful, this was barely a meal and wouldn’t go far. The super soldier remained at a loss as to how to deal with the Khai who were just oozing out of a bridge somewhere just outside the Oort, in sector October-4. The good thing was that the Cobra, now with their shiny grey pilots were once again raining down hell on the Khai. The Thraten appeared to be natural pilots. Clearly their Hexalobe brains allied to their pure lust for battle and desire to crush their pre-programmed reptile enemy was a fearsome combination at the best of times, but the spatial awareness on display was a skill the Thraten had never been trained for. Zero was perked up at the sight of various Cobra twisting between the enemy leviathans. They were wiping out Gekkoda in vast swathes,

then looping over the top of the craft taking out strategic targets. Leren’s manufactured soldiers clearly had a knack for visual learning; cooped up in the back of a Cobra, the Thraten had been in the best seats for pilot training. Zero’s was the only craft to leave the battlefield in the next two days, but only once. Rustling up and then wolfing down a huge meal in the mess hall of Santa’s no longer pristine Komodo, Zero was absent from the field of battle for a grand total of seven hours. This was all the break the pilot had needed back in the old days. One by one the Thraten also docked in order to drop off their human crews for some well-earned rest and recuperation, but without the aid of accelerated healing and Zero’s other gifts the humans were lights out for around a day. The Thraten, having thirty-eight brothers still sat in the rear of each Cobra, worked twelve hour shifts before rotating to take a break. This never-ending conveyor belt of fresh pilots now ensured that the battle could be fought with maximum fury for the rest of eternity, until their Plasma reactor stopped working or until they were shot out of space by the Khai. The latter wouldn’t happen easily, especially if the Thraten had their way ... On Central, Joan and the Novus had tried to bring Leren out of sedation several times in the last few days but the Old doctor turned Prime continued to exhibit some major mental discombobulation. The doctor was still in distress, remaining unable to form words much less put them into any coherent order. Without ever being strapped into the cockpit of a Cobra, Joan had waged her own personal battle. The last few days made her realise just how much of Leren’s medical tuition learned when she’d arrived fresh faced and bushy tailed on Central had been displaced by matters which had proven more important. The first of the many having been the organisation of the planet. It was only after burying her head into medical journals and her own learning notes for a full day that Joan felt confident enough to direct the Novus. Joan felt lucky that she’d even been able to make the Medi-pod work at all, but the Novus had not shown any clear initiative despite their seven millennia of experience. During a strategic meeting in the circle Geyldian reported that something was trying to Leren, but that the brainwaves being projected were incompatible with the clone. This sort of lent some credence to Joan’s first instinct, but what the trigger might be, none had any clue. There was much speculation within the hive that the Khai-mah might be trying to use some kind of Psy-Ops to corrupt the hive and unsettle Earth’s response to their invasion.

Joan had to crush this nonsensical speculation before the hive was in fact corrupted by the worry of the collective. She knew there was no way to alter the way Leren’s clone brain functioned; and thus far nothing coherent had been projected into him. So unless they could determine the frequency of these waves and intercept them, they were no nearer to helping their Prime; or deciphering any possible message. Somehow, maybe even without her knowledge, Joan had become the one the Numbers now looked towards to act in Leren’s stead. Be it for the duration of the Prime’s incapacitation or until the planet was destroyed; whichever came first. There were as always, some hard decisions which needed to be taken. Any of the Numbers was capable of making these decisions, but each had their own ongoing duties to take care of. Most of these decisions and tasks involved specific requests from her or Zero anyway, so it was only natural for Joan to step in and act for Leren. This allowed the Numbers to do what they did best; make things happen. As Joan stood in the Prime position within the circle, she struggled hard to bridle her unease. The depths to which her hopelessness and pessimism had now sunk were completely unbecoming of the position; Joan felt trapped between a rock and a hard place. Whilst there could be no backing out, there was next to nothing to look forward to either. If this had been a normal earthly role within any company on the planet, Joan would’ve resigned long before this point and moved on to something less stressful. This was a completely different kettle of fish; Joan couldn’t just quit her role as the effective C.E.O. of the planet. As a final resolution to the meeting a few days ago, Joan had specifically requested that their latest weapon which might yet bring them victory, the immense Plasma beam rail cannon was to hold its current position. Jer-mija had unwavering confidence that even situated in relative limbo, the weapon’s firing power and accuracy would not allow the craft to miss. With this in mind, Joan was in no rush to bring the cannon too close to the Earth where it might be damaged by a breakaway cluster of Khai. In the most difficult decision Joan had yet made, her eyes found those of number Eight. Inside the steep upward angle of her glare, Jer-mija found himself transfixed. The little woman from Yorkshire was now intimidating the most confident and unruly of all the Numbers.

“Eight! I want the Plasma cannon charged immediately. You are to lock in a preliminary firing solution. I cannot imagine for one moment that we will be able to corral the thing to a position of our choosing, so you must be confident in the accuracy of the beam. You know better than me the gravitational implications of firing from such a distance. Run every computation that you can to simulate the effects of the Moon or any other large bodies. It goes without saying if you miss the Khai object and hit us, it will be the biggest mistake ever made by a clone ... It will also be the last.” While this kind of tone was not unheard of from Joan if there was a serious task with a lot at stake; this was perhaps the first time she had launched such a directly phrased request at a member of the circle. There was a hush in the circle and inside the hive. This was it, Joan’s final gambit to save them or go out in a blaze of glory. Each of the Numbers including Eight himself had been shy of pressing the matter of the Plasma Cannon after the last meeting. The Numbers felt it would be wrong of them to pressure Joan into making such a hefty decision. Reading her now, Joan was finally at ease in her own mind and had reached the conclusion easily of her own accord. There was nothing any of them could do to change her mind, they knew that. Her strongest personality trait was in fact her stubbornness. This was why Joan had never believed Zero was dead back in ’73 and now it was why she would never allow the planet to fall into the hands of the Khai-mah. All the clones could do now was comply with every request the human Prime made, as she made them. Joan would guide them to victory or death...

Chapter 68 - Object oriented obfuscation.

BACK IN SPACE, THE battle which had been waged constantly for more than a week, was still showing no signs of a clear path to victory for either side. The Thraten were performing outstandingly in their new roles, and it became obvious to Zero that the Thraten should have been piloting the Cobra from day one. The best result so far had been a complete stalemate, but this situation had existed since the Thraten had replaced the humans in the cockpits. The second hyperspace Bridge at the outside of the solar system still remained open, and while this was the case, no end would come. A brief conversation between Zero and Santa had seen the super soldier intimating that he might try to close this bridge, but the Khai ex-officer had quickly shut him down, stating that he had already lost one friend in this way ... “Santa, what are you talking about?” “Evan ... He took off to close the first bridge in sector October-1. He must have been successful, but where did it get us? Four hours of peace, then five days of this. The Khai are everywhere ... It is nothing for our ships to open long range communications to another clan light years away and seek their cooperation. All Evan did was strand himself and the Thraten in another sector of space surrounded by hostiles. In the end his achievement did not match his sacrifice and still we suffer ... Do not repeat his mistake.” “Blast it! ... Kariina said had been lost with Evan, but I was hoping his Cobra had taken a hit to the comms transponder. Now it makes sense. I’d have to commandeer a Cobra to have a relief crew, then it would take me another three days through Khai infested space just to reach the bridge. My chances of pulling that off would be slim to none, and as you say ultimately nothing would change in the long run. OK ... We just make our stand here.” Santa was pleased that at least one of the Earth’s best hopes for success was wise enough to listen to reason, that said it was unfair for the big lizard to judge Evan. He’d done what he thought had to be done, without any real appreciation of the enemy's capabilities; and no idea of the lacklustre result. As Zero left the Komodo control bridge to return to the Sphinx, Santa too was scheduled for a break. Reaching the door the scaly green Lizard commander was stopped in his tracks by a shout from one of his officers. Stationed at his scanner this lizard had

been analysing the Object for some time, then he’d watched the ball accelerate out of the Sun’s corona and vanish. Six seconds later the huge planet killer loomed into view, barely one thousand kilometres in front of the nose of Santa’s Komodo. After a brief recce of the Earth’s defensive force, the mechanical moon appeared to have overshot the Earth by some ninety million miles. The uncertainty this caused was only added to when the object began harvesting plasma from the sun. There were only two possibilities and Zero knew what they were well before Kariina had spelled them out. Firstly the massive ship was refueling, it had just been in motion without stopping for the last twenty-seven years. Zero felt option ‘B’ was much more likely. The ship was harvesting energy, breathing in the power it needed to reduce the Earth to a molten glob. There was nothing to do now but wait, and as the huge ship pulled into a geostationary orbit which matched the moons own path but six hours advanced, the huge ship hung steady and was well placed to fire. Exiting the hangar from the Komodo into the void, Zero was unprepared for the sight which greeted him. Strangely though the super soldier felt no particular urge to attack or even approach the gargantuan orb. Hanging just off the starboard flank of Santa’s Komodo, Zero addressed his fleet. “Everyone, follow my lead ... Power down ... Maybe we can gain some favour if we surrender without ticking this thing off.” Normally such a notion would’ve burned every nerve inside Zero’s body. Nerves that typically urged him to go to guns, no matter how ineffectual that might’ve been. This time, the super soldier was calm, almost resigned. Shortly before his last break Zero had felt Wraith’s presence inside his mind, he had been with Joan in New York. The recollection of this visitation was the root cause of Zero’s calm state. His options now appeared to be to attempt an attack on the Khai wrecking ball. Maybe his trusty Axe would be able to cut through the Objects shiny white skin and inflict more than just a scratch. The result would be a small feeling of satisfaction for Zero, but certainly no advantage for the Earth ... Door number two meant sitting tight and waiting to see what the Khai would do. As the Cobra and Earth’s converted blue tailed Gekkoda all drifted to a halt, the Khai began to follow their first instincts. All Khai plasma drives were thrown

into full reverse, as if they knew the planet below had been marked for death and getting clear was their only option. This sudden exodus from the battlefield did not stop them firing on a few Cobra which lay in their way. Two were destroyed outright which was unfortunate but mostly the Cobra shields held enough to limit the result of these opportunistic pot shots to only minor damage. The biggest surprise was yet to unfold, but in the next few seconds the green plasma trails of the cowardly Khai also flamed out one by one until every craft was drifting in the blackness of space. Only once all craft had stopped moving did the object begin to glow. As this intensified, nearby ships could be made out easily. Gekkoda, Monitor, Cobra ... Dragon and Komodo, all were hung motionless or drifting slowly along the vector they had previously been following. Some were so close together that hanging out of an open hatch with a plasma blaster might have destroyed a few more ships, but none of the vessels had any form of space suit or auxiliary oxygen supply. Like canned sardines, waiting to be consumed, everyone stayed put inside their dead ships. Zero stared at his viewer, his inner peace was complete. The super soldier and alien refugee from a long dead world had lived a full and for the most part, happy life. Taking some moments to find the hive, then locate Joan, Wraith, Geyldian and the other Numbers, Zero began to show them what he was seeing whilst they remained on Central underneath hundreds of Tonnes of silt and hundreds of feet of water. Viewers all over the world, set up in the middle of Earth’s largest cities as part of Joan’s planetary address system were now showing the planet’s inhabitants exactly what was hovering just under a quarter of a million miles over their heads. In some places the view screens weren’t even needed. The Object was clearly visible in the sky as it’s shiny skin reflected the sun’s light. Everyone watched as the neon blue glow of the plasma vents running vertically up the ship like the segments of an orange continued to grow in intensity. For the Numbers, in particular Geyldian, it wasn’t hard to sense the moment that the human’s never say die spirit became suffocated. As if the object in the sky had become lodged in their necks. Geyldian had been roaming topside since he was in his mid-two-hundreds, the day after his father, a previous Prime, had ed away at the ripe old age of

almost twenty seven thousand years old. The only person more connected to the human condition, but only by one millennia, was his own sister Kariina. Gill was finding it impossible to shake the raft of emotions which his human fellows were suffering. It was all there, fear bordering on dread, anger bordering on rage, lust for life and the will to survive and of course love, for partners, siblings, offspring and neighbours. On the surface even complete strangers who continued to observe the transit of the object as it slowly matched the course of the moon were content to converse and even share a final meal together if they were unable to get home to their actual family. No one was arguing, there were no raised voices, all the initial anger was quickly replaced with resignation and maybe even repentance. Was this the result of their eons of failing to communicate with their fellow man and the planet? Was this a fate they had brought upon themselves? At what point in history could this have been avoided? Could any of this have even been avoided? Geyldian and Kariina now stood in front of each other. Finally Geyldian would acknowledge his sister in a way he’d been unable to before. It had been a little over two decades since the pair had been thrust together by the one being who linked them, Zero. While the Second had quickly accepted his sister as just that, tolerating all her little obsessions and habits, he finally now realised at some point in this time, he’d begun to trust, but also love Kariina. These were emotions which the other Numbers were not equipped to experience. Before Zero, the Numbers had all acted as a collective, cold and emotionless calculation to accomplish the grandest of plans. And while each clone had played their part in this plan, it had been as fully constrained cogs, each performing a role inside the machine, not as friends or partners in a collaborative venture. Zero had materialised into the middle of the Caretakers little pet project, which had been ticking along with the precision of Centrals huge reactor cells. It was centuries after his arrival before the walking weapons platform from a long dead world had found the clones. In the vastness of this machine, Zero represented the spanner in the works, breaking the mesh of the matched gears to cause an irregularity, a break from normal operation. The net result of this interruption had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that sometimes perfection is not as desirable as first assumed, and that sometimes a machine working with a fault can actually work better than the original grand design. Like the wooden screw propeller designed by Francis Smith, which worked better once broken on shallow rocks, Central had never performed more tasks, so quickly or correctly than it had since Zero ed the clones ranks. Add to this his selfish desire to

start a family, which had eventually brought Joan into the fold. Joan became the screwdriver which would tame the deviation, allowing the now imperfect machine to work even better. The fact that the intricate workings of this machine might now be about to stop, could in no way be attributed to the spanner which had broken away all the needless parts, increasing both its speed and efficiency, or the screwdriver which had always sought to maintain harmonious relations between all the cogs. Having shown the Numbers everything the Sphinx was seeing through her Hires camera system, Zero grew tired of the isolation and now sought to be reunited with his family and all its extended . He had bettered the jump he would make next by a few billion miles whilst half dead. At his current position the distance wasn’t even as far away as Mona ... Child’s play. Zero, keen to make no sudden moves resolved to leave the Sphinx to her fate. Focusing his mind he found Santa first. Clearly the old Repton was still on the bridge of his Komodo, which strangely enough appeared to be completely calm. They had all broken ranks and gained land ... Their life’s goal was complete. There was no way they would take the backward step of allowing themselves to be intimidated. Not now, no matter how massive the symbol of their oppressive regime was. These Khai at least had changed, they knew what it felt like to earn something they wanted; and now they cared enough to defend it. More than this they had finally learned to recognise when a fight was unwinnable, and what that felt like. These Khai had learned a new sense ... Empathy. Each of the adopted Khai could associate with what the inhabitants of countless worlds must have felt at their hands. Now they were resolved to accept that the result of a battle might not always be in their favour. In a small leap of a spatial jump, Zero popped into the deserted corridor just outside the bridge of Santa’s Komodo. Even though it wasn’t possible for his large bony reptilian skull, barely covered with any muscular tissue to crack a smile; Zero was sure that Santa was happy to see him. “Zero ... Well this is a turn up for the books, I thought you would’ve been with your tiny female by now. It’s been a pleasure to fight alongside you, I wonder how long this next part will take.” “Well my atoms might have to stand corrected but I have this hunch ... But if the worst does happen, it’ll be quick. We won’t have long to think about what’s

happening. I’m on my way to see Joan now, I guess you’ll stay with your men? Well Santa ... I’ll see you on the other side brother.” Zero thanked the Khai for their service, and itted he’d never begun to contemplate a peace between them and the Earth, but more specifically between them and him. Now though, his opinion of the Khai was a very different one from before. If anything Zero now believed that all Khai were a victim of their origins. Their molten and ever changing home world had needed strong leadership to ensure not only the survival, but also the progression of their species. With no short measure of grit and determination to survive in spite of their planet, the Khai-mah had developed weapons and space travel even whilst teetering constantly on the unstable world. This was something the Khai could be proud of if nothing else. Zero cited that their struggle to survive on their home world had been repeated all over the galaxy on countless worlds, and probably represented the main resistance the Khai encountered as they lived their nomadic lives. The saving grace was that once the Khai had found solid ground, they had settled quickly to live in a spirit of cooperation, even with another race, disowning violence except to mount a strong defense. If this had happened on Earth, Zero now wondered if maybe it had happened before ... Again Zero shook the hands of the bridge crew, before clearing his mind to find Joan who seemed to be inside the doctor’s lab with the Numbers. In an instant the Khai watched as Zero popped from view and disappeared. Santa still wasn’t used to seeing this; ing how Zero had pulled the wool over his eyes, the old commander began to laugh as only a Khai might, grunting and gargling with the occasional hiss. Immediately the bridge staff began in unison to emit a loud gargling noise with a low guttural rumbling base undertone. The Khai had never fought in partnership with any other race before. This had been a unique experience in time and history. As their cheer rumbled to a low end many of the Khai were recounting the acts of their lives. Zero had noticed it before, but once the Khai were free of the shackles of their overlords and free to express their thoughts, many of them displayed an acute intelligence. This was being put to good use in contemplation and reflection. Santa’s conscience was mostly clear, he’d never marked a planet for death, and his previous general had only done so once in a time of extreme emergency. Now though the Khai making up Santa’s crew were assembled from different

vessels and even clans, merged together by Joan’s order of equality. This had proven highly effective at preventing in-fighting between the various clans. All of them had quickly grown to be like brothers. Some of these lizards had seen some prolonged and extreme action. Between them they had laid waste to entire systems, hundreds, maybe thousands of civilized worlds. Realising that the boot was on the other foot, allowed them all to contemplate their past deeds much more deeply. They didn’t have to imagine the hell they’d put their victims through for too long, because they were experiencing the feelings directly themselves. With their heads hung perhaps lower than ever before, these veterans of various galactic killing sprees grew numb to outside stimuli as they were transported back to countless worlds to view their actions from the other side. Santa had handpicked his own crew. All were ex officers, ranked much higher than he had been. Some of the things they’d seen ... Santa could easily imagine what was ing through their minds. “Brothers, the past is the past and the future is the future. It does not pay to dwell on thoughts of past deeds or deeds which you haven’t had the chance to yet accomplish. Humans have a saying that what goes around comes around, but this situation is not that. For a long time we have all been a scourge on the universe, but these last months as we have helped the Earth, we have all made peace with the past and moved forwards to make amends. The land we won came mostly without the spilling of any blood, and for a time we were all happy. What is about to happen is NOT judgement by some higher force, but a simple punitive punishment for turning our backs on the overlords, I for one am not sorry, nor would I do anything differently. We were destined by the paths we took to find this world. We, the few who have achieved our goal ... Can be proud of our efforts to defend this planet.”

Chapter 69 - The take up ... before the take down ...

ARRIVING IN LEREN’S medical lab, Zero found Joan and the Numbers assembled around the motionless body of the doctor. “Hey now ... What’s wrong with Doctor P?” “Something is inside his head, for the last two days now. Leren can’t form sentences but he is trying. It’s like he just keeps repeating the same few phrases over and over.” Turning to Geyldian. “Did you try a dive?” “Yes once we had him sedated I did try a dive, it was like whatever it was realised they weren’t making any progress and moved to me straight away, but whatever it is, it isn’t compatible with our brains.” “Ok then, let me have a go.” “Is that wise? Everything topside is on hold just waiting for the end. If we take Leren out of sedation his last moments might be filled with pain.” Kariina had taken the last few minutes arranging for her feed of the object to be piped into the medical lab, so that they would know when the end was about to come. Geyldian’s sister could not seem to shake an escalating feeling of panic. Having been such a powerful figure in the history of the planet, before shrinking herself but not her personality, Kariina still did not submit control easily to others. Now Kariina considered that she could not be any more powerless than she was at this moment. Once the feed appeared, crystal clear on the viewing monitor the big hybrid was transfixed by her deep-seated need to see ‘it’ coming. At a loss to explain her behaviour, which was borne of something buried deep into her psyche, Kariina even ignored Joan’s plea to come and stand with her brethren in the final moments. Joan’s mind was still working on multiple tasks, for now Leren would have to take a back seat, Zero was right beside her mentally as Joan found Jer-mija and Ra-sian inside the hive.

-I’m sorry Ra-sian, as much as I want you to us here, I need you to maintain communications with the Plasma cannon. Jer-mija? Have you locked in a firing solution yet? Do we know how long the bolt will take to cover the distance? You have one second, Kariina says the object is fast, any longer and you will miss. This was something Jer-mija had been playing with inside his head, successive calculations had verified that if the nine Komodo carrying the plasma rail cannon had stayed put as ordered by Joan it might have taken a full six point four seconds for the beam to reach the object. So for the last few days, and completely unbeknown to Joan, Jer-mija had allowed the weapon to trickle under low power all the way to a position where it simply couldn’t miss its target. At most Jer-mija now calculated a travel time of exactly one second for the beam. Of course this also meant that the Object could probably see their weapon and might already have it fixed for obliteration. If Joan planned to use the weapon, then it was Eight’s intention to assist her. -Joan the firing solution is locked in and the cannon is in position to fire. From everything we’ve seen of the object, the beam will hit. We are waiting for your command. Joan’s plan was set, if the object fired on them it would be the last thing it ever did, this was a Mexican standoff on a galactic scale, and as the planets own “high noon” approached, Joan’s trigger finger grew ever more itchy. On such a featureless exterior hull, how will I know when it's gonna fire? -Excellent Jer-mija and thank you for your hard work this late in the day, the rest of us are all gathered with Leren but you and Ra-sian are still working hard. I’m sorry. Please continue to wait for my signal. Both clones now figured there was little reason for Joan’s apology except to ease her own conscience. The work they were both doing now, aside from being requested by Joan, was their reason for living. It was a duty handed down to them from the watchers and scientists before them, ever since the Devine left the Caretakers on this planet. At the realisation of his partner’s actions, Zero now sought a personal audience with Joan, on their own, disconnected from the hive. -Joan? ... I think we need to have a little chat.

Zero’s tone spoke of his displeasure which basically inferred that Joan’s continued efforts almost mirrored the actions of the Khai-mah. This did not sit well with Joan. Who did Zero think he was to question her actions? She was trying to save the planet. “Listen Joan, you’re just making preparations, doing what you think is right ...” “Gray! How can you say that, we’re staring down the barrel of global annihilation and you think I’m what? Out for revenge? My motives are nothing beyond the survival of this planet and everyone on it.” “I know that baby, please let me finish. I don’t think you’re seeing everything clearly.” “Look Gray!... Look at the monitor. It’s a massive object from the new Khai home world, and it’s powering up. They’ve made no attempts to communi’...” “Haven’t they? Are you one hundred percent certain that they haven’t?” Zero now turned his head to cast a glance at their sedated Prime. “We know the Khai aren’t capable of telepathy, the object doesn’t even look to be Khai. The only evidence is the object’s point of origin. Come on Joan, you have no evidence the thing is hostile. I showed you we powered down our craft on my orders, but the Khai ships trying to run were all shut down remotely. So this is a Khai ship looking to kill everything?...” Joan was disconnected from the hive, as was Zero, this was a private discussion between two people who trusted each other regarding everything. Even now as Zero spoke, his words were slowly breaking through Joan’s stubborn shell. Joan was being shown the digits, all Zero was asking was that she add them all up and reach the right answer; not jump to any knee-jerk conclusions. Zero continued. “We’ve liberated so many Khai from their oppressive regime, you granted them their one goal in life. Now almost to a lizard, don’t count Santa and the hard ones, how did the Khai respond to your rules, the rules you set to ensure peaceful coexistence.” Joan considered her answer carefully.

“Acceptance ... They did everything we asked them to do, working alongside us.” “Not only that but they’ve helped us fight against their own species, to defend this planet. Do you think it’s fair to say that Khai can become completely different when they reach solid ground?” Joan remained silent. This was something which Zero had been rationalising inside his own head since the construction had begun on the plasma rail cannon he’d helped to design. This was well before he’d rushed into space to meet the object head on, and the huge battle after that. This was more than enough time for an intellect such as Zero’s to reach an informed conclusion. As Joan looked at Zero’s firm but still warm and loving gaze, she realised he wasn’t mad at all; nor was he preparing to die. In fact, Zero looked confident, exuberant even, that everything was going to be okay. Taking Joan’s hand inside his own, he began leading her to Leren’s side. “Have you tried to reach them? Shall we try together?” Joan slowly nodded, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. The Numbers had been aware of Zero’s intentions for the last minute. As the pair had argued verbally in English, Zero had sneakily reconnected, mainly in order to avoid the need for repetition. As the pair walked towards their Prime, the Numbers all moved aside to clear a path. “You say that the wavelength being projected towards Leren isn’t compatible with a clone brain. Maybe that’s because the Object isn’t trying to the clones ... Who is the indigenous dominant species on this planet anyway?” Zero’s tone was warm, his daft question raised a smile across the face of his partner. Standing either side of the Medi-pod, still holding hands, the pair placed their free hands upon the temples of their motionless Prime. Zero, still connected directly to Joan, now lead them into the mind of Leren, almost immediately a message was received, loud and clear. “We are here, everything is going to be alright, we will stop the Khai-mah.” -Zero ... Joan!... What have I told you about taking liberties with my mind?

It appeared that the doctor, whilst making less sense than a bus full of chimps outwardly, was still mentally capable inside himself. It appeared that the doctor had not only received the message in full but had also understood the same, only being unable to project his words afterwards, much to his annoyance and frustration. The fact that Joan had placed him under sedation against his will was a huge embarrassment for the clone. It did not take long for Joan to explain everything to her former mentor, at which point Leren calmed down. Joan now attempted to try and reach back to the source of the message. -I can hear you, please tell us who you are and what you intend to do. At this point there was a loud bang which upset the gathered Numbers. When their eyes were opened once more, the Prime, his stand in and her lover were all gone ...

Chapter 70 - You shall go to the ball ...

JUST UNDER A QUARTER of a million miles above the Earth ... Leren, Joan and Zero materialised inside another circle. By his ability to stand, and the inquisitive way he was examining his surroundings, it was clear Leren was alone inside his mind once more. The trio, having been remote jumped to some position inside the object, now waited patiently for something to happen. As their eyes all began to adjust to the low light levels inside this chamber which looked like a much larger version of the chamber of silence where they held their own meetings on Central, the three realised they were being observed by several hundred tall thin beings. Leren was a nine foot tall cloned caretaker, but these new beings dwarfed him by at least three feet. Leren knew who these beings were almost immediately, and dropped to one knee, his head bowed. “Ancients!” Even though their Prime let this acknowledgement slip in the Old language, both Zero and Joan had heard the word enough times as an expression of exasperation to know whom Leren was addressing. Could it be? After all this time, the Devine had come for them? To take their Caretakers home? From the far side of the circle, one of the beings vanished silently, instantly reappearing ahead of them within two meters, but only his legs and torso were lit in the dim low light. In perfect English as far as Joan and Zero were concerned, and perfect ancient Devine to the ears of Leren, the tall being spoke. “Prime, there is no need for you to kneel here ... Please stand. You must be Joan Albern, the representative of the planet Terrania ... Sorry, Earth. You will have many questions for us, all will be answered in time. I think the most important question you were all contemplating has now been answered fully ... Am I right?” Joan nodded, still in awe. It seemed that the Earth had not been scheduled for reduction into atoms after all, and that maybe this ship had come to correct a much older mistake. Joan knew the record back on Central showed that a surviving splinter group of Devine had existed on Earth for hundreds of their generations, in the order of a few million years, as they slowly developed the planet for theirs and the humans’ needs. Eventually though word had been

received that a new mega Earth had been located and settled to become the new Devine Prime. Very little had been had since, as a function of the distance between the two worlds. This information seemed to be in very stark disagreement with the revelation that in fact the Devine were never wiped out from their own home world in the first place. Joan had to say something, or she felt she might burst. “Was everything for nothing then, your brothers were in the dark this whole time? Not to mention the worlds which have been wiped out of existence as a result of the Khai-mah. Could any of it have been stopped?” “In truth there is much we regret. Devine Prime fell only one month after the mass exodus which saw only a handful of souls left behind, to destroy the remaining technology. This was necessary in response to the threat posed, and out of fear of how the Khai-mah might use it. The reality of events after the Khai touched down on Devine Prime was stranger than any fiction ...” “Let me guess, the Khai-mah settled completely, all apart from a toughened few, who realised that on this new world they would be expected to fit in with the masses. With no power to wield, they took off into space to find a planet they could make to their liking?” “That’s very close ... Astronaut ... Zero isn’t it? Yes ... We’ve been watching your deeds for the last few days since we arrived. You're not from this world. In fact, within a few weeks the most powerful of all the clans had formed a peace treaty with equal representation. Within that same time ninety-eight percent of all landed Khai-mah had signed their allegiance. The remaining two percent were obvious for all to see. For them, peace was impossible. Such was their hunger for power that they could never be incorporated into our new society. The ruling class gave them a few of their older ships, anything to slow them down; then they were cast out into space. The remnants of the Devine simply hid. A little over one month was all the time it took to show clearly that the Khai were less interested in fighting and much more interested in how the Devine technology worked. In truth they would’ve never have shown us if we had not already made long steps towards a peaceful future.” “That’s very odd but I could swear you keep mixing up your possessive adjectives.”

The tall being had not yet shown his face to them. Wearing a long hooded robe, not unlike those of the Caretakers, his face remained shadowed. The yellow glow from ground lighting wasn’t strong enough to reach above the beings torso. The being dropped to one knee and slowly pulled the hood from his head. Now lit clearly enough, the party could see the tall being’s face for the first time. What was revealed was new and even had the doctor raising one of his medically inclined eyebrows. This being, even whilst kneeling was face to face with the erect Zero. Shiny emerald green skin which danced in the light, yellow eyes which still had the reptilian vertically oval and distinctly predatory pupils, belied this being's origins. He was Khai, much evolved but still distinctly Khai. Lifting one hand for examination, Zero observed that the fingers and hand structure were basically unchanged. Long digits, still much longer on the central two, all possessing robust knuckles much wider than the fingers themselves. Gone were the long-hooked ripping claws, replaced by a much more rounded claw bud. Unlike the claws which sprouted from the very ends of the fingers of the mkI Khai, these newly evolved claw-lets were definitely sprouting from a bed in the top of the finger, akin to a human fingernail. The face was shorter and less reptilian apart from the skin, there were still some vestigial fronds, but these had also been shortened. The shape of the face was rounded and there were muscles to control the face in a way which had not been possible before. The planet they had stolen sat at the very edge of their own galaxy, in a sleepy backwater part of space. Having no more need for weapons and offensive strategies, the Khai had been eager to evolve past their long-standing defects and adaptations. The ground on Devine Prime was definitely solid. The Mega Earth was heavy with refinable elements which when mixed in the right proportions yielded the Devine alloy of choice ... Alculinium. On Khai Prime the crust was in constant flux, the Khai had struggled tooth and claw to find anything useable in the crusty ground. So strong was their will to survive, but even stronger was their desire to reach the large bluish ball that returned to their skies every five years, like clockwork. This desire was trumped by only one thing ... Need. This was what drove the Khai to develop their own crude technology and reach. “What was the draw? Why were the Khai so interested in their neighbours

planet?” Joan’s question seemed naïve, but the new being obliged her with an answer anyway. “For thousands of years we struggled, all the while we watched the little blue lights which continually danced around the shiny blue surface of the planet next to our own. It was obvious that their planet had plenty. Everything we needed to reduce our day to day struggle ... We became fixated. Our early scholars managed to make lenses from fused sand, and these enabled us in our obsession. This was when our class system began. Most lizards dreamt of reaching the next planet away from our scorching sun. But some lizards vowed to reach the planet in their lifetimes. Absurd really, but other lizards would flock to rally behind these more motivated individuals. These Khai had a plan but no means to achieve it and there was much which needed to be set in place before the real task could begin. Thus countless generations developed floating villages, which turned into floating towns and eventually cities, anchored to the edges of fast moving plates. All of our water was gained from condensation but seventy percent of this was poured down hot cracks ... Anything to solidify the ground and prevent our cities from being consumed. That said millions of Khai were lost in our attempt to perform crude terraforming. Our planet rode the inner edge of our system's habitable zone, as such the gravitational pull of our star ripped at her surface to create friction and heat; ours was an unstable world. After Eons we developed our first space vessel, but this was like an old Chinese junk compared to a modern supertanker. It was three more years before our neighbours were within range of the vessel.” “So you asked the Devine if they wouldn’t mind sharing their planet, and with the ferociousness of cold enlightened logic they withdrew into consideration. That took hundreds of years and all the while your people were dying, so the Khai decided to speed things up a little, but this had the reverse effect and put the Devine off sharing their planet. Yet eventually they did.” “Thankfully ... They did.” “They also helped you to evolve to this form?” “Yes, and that was a struggle in itself. I am the Khai after over two thousand evolutionary tweaks and interventions, but then your partner is no different Zero.

Humankind would never have existed without the same interventions. Early forms in our progression were almost more trouble than the original breed. Hyper aggressive, slow to learn ... others were just socially stunted, almost psychotic and couldn’t be trusted. It was a case of refinement of the body also refining the lizard’s killer instincts. It took many attempts to dumb this down first, and then make the bodily enhancements. Eventually though with the endless help of the Devine we did reach this enlightened form.” “Are you part of the hive then?” Zero's question was pointy, almost rude, but the Khai took it in his stride... “Sadly no, the turmoil we caused the Prime here was born completely of a mechanical process, but in truth we were only trying to get Joan’s attention. Whilst we understand that this planet was left in the safe keeping of the caretakers by the Devine, we are also aware that in the last thirty years they have been content to take a back seat. Since then, in the last two decades the fastest developments have been determined by Joan herself, with provided by the Caretakers. No offence to you Prime but while you all performed irably, you were never designed for the role you eventually performed. The Devine knew that eventually the humans would end up taking over, and even that you would step aside graciously to allow them the space to do so. We did not think it would happen so soon though.” “Well these last few decades have brought a confluence of abnormal events which have necessitated everything, believe me I would’ve been happy to live my life in Sheffield with my son and partner the engineer, though he clearly wasn’t an engineer ... He was a cloned super soldier from another planet working for a bunch of cloned Caretakers from another planet!” Joan’s face reflected her initial surprise at learning the truth of everything and pride at being elevated to the role of planetary ambassador. The huge smile and half-closed eyes also hinted at a fair chunk or sarcasm too, mocking her partner directly whilst locking arms with him and staring at his face. Zero leaned forward to find Joan’s lips, planting a single kiss. “You love it really.” “What I love is you, I’d have never managed anything without you to absorb all the steam I’ve blown off over the last years.”

“Well it seems that although the human race has taken some bold and bumpy steps up until now, this is the nearest your race has come to readiness for enlightenment. There is however a little way to go but the faith the previous Prime Aelren showed in you personally Joan has definitely paid huge dividends for everyone.” Ever ready to be the spanner in the works, Zero enquired. “I’d like to know what happens to the Khai-mah now? I mean the ones out there? We’ve granted sanctuary to around twenty-five thousand so far and have witnessed their capacity for change. We can also that for some, acceptance of peace is tough and for others ... Impossible. Yet we bear them no ill will. The masses are after all, following orders. I imagine you also know that there is a Komodo out there somewhere with a Royal on board? The number of ships from different clans, all rushing the Earth in such an organised manner, when we only had a few rag-tag bands of lizards before ... That takes some major leverage ... fear maybe.” “A Royal ... Yes ... Very astute Zero, you’re truly skilled at interpreting the facts to reach a logical conclusion. They are at the other side of the hyperspace bridge, but they are still within reach. We sent a data virus to all the Khai vessels, nothing major. The virus was simply tasked with altering the Ion production rate within their reactors and turning off the projector plates inside the engines. They still have life , food and water powered by much smaller dedicated reactors as you know, but these cannot provide thrust. We intend to reach out and bring this ... Reliquary of the old Khai Monarchy to heel ... Peacefully of course. In doing so we will free her people and as you have already witnessed, the clans will then be free to coalesce into a complete race.” Zero stood listening, slowly nodding his acknowledgment and approval, but Joan was still curious. “But there are so many, scattered everywhere ... How can you hope to find and stop them all? How can you be sure that there aren’t more Royal descendants out there? How do you intend to deal with the die-hards, the undesirables and the impossibles?” Zero now momentarily tightened his arm in a series of subtle pulses around Joan, signalling her not to push too hard so early.

-Joan, you need to try and slow down a little. He is being patient so far but we can’t appear to be too impatient ... Or impetuous. He said all will be revealed in time, and obviously there is much to be revealed. Everyone else is still out there waiting to die, this needs to be dealt with first ... Urgently. Joan’s mental reply within their own mini-hive was typical of her strong and stubborn nature. She did however acknowledge that Zero’s final statement was correct, and even itted that she had almost forgotten about life carrying on outside the huge sphere. Now another being jumped in, appearing in a kneeling position beside the first having jumped in from a circle outside the visible circle, with far less . This being was a full blood Devine, of identical height to his reptilian counterpart. His skin shone a deep blue, though it almost appeared black in the dim yellow light. All communication now was mental. -Joan, Zero ... While the Khai do not yet have the ability to communicate mentally as we do, in spite of countless attempts, we can hear you both loud and clear. I am sure that our Caretaker Prime here has extolled the only rule of the hive. This is to promote and cement the bond of trust. I am a member of the Devine high circle, the circle you cannot see. We work to advise and influence but never to control. We would ask that if you have something to ask, please feel free to do so, but we cannot tolerate your mini-hive and ask that you end your need for privacy. The humans apologised for their faux pas, both of them were indeed aware that inside the hive there could be no secrets. Though disconnection was discouraged, the clones had always seen fit to honour the fact that the humans were not clones and fared better mentally with some free space and latitude. Even with Joan being relatively new to the hive, this was no excuse. Technically if she still had the need for secrets then in the eyes of the Devine, Joan should never have sought to connect. Leren remained respectfully silent, his earlier misidentification forgiven, he was now looking at a full blood Devine and his tone was slightly displeased. The doctor could not imagine how much more displeasure the creator might experience if he knew that at certain points in his lifespan, the doctor turned Prime had also sought to disconnect strategically when required, but not often.

“We intend to collect all the Khai, who will be allowed to live out their days in a stable environment. The problem you see is that whilst there are plenty of worlds out there which are suitable for the Khai, there are very few people on those planets who would actually make the decision you made. In order to correct their earlier mistake, the Nu-mah cannot allow their ancient brethren to keep on killing worlds without ever making any forward progress. The Earth is unique in the universe that we know, even we were initially overrun by the Khai-mah before they mostly settled into very different beasts. Everything which has ed since has only reminded us of our addiction to slow consideration. The way the Khai were capable of evolving mentally very quickly only throws a deep embarrassment over all our processes, and the decisions they yielded which drove us to war.” This final remark caused a raised eyebrow from what Zero and Joan now assumed was a Nu-mah elder. The Devine now stood up, encouraging his Nu-mah brother to do the same, he began walking ... As they all followed the pair to the edge of the circle and beyond, Joan continued to ask questions. “So if the Devine finally realised their mistake, the help they offered to the Khai to become the Nu-mah was some form of atonement? How much Devine DNA was introduced to create the Nu-mah? You both look impressively similar, there's a world of difference from the original Khai body plan.” “Atonement you ask? The Devine consider that no such action was required. Even once the Devine revealed themselves to the invading and newly calmed Khai, they made no apologies for invading and we felt no need to apologise for defending ourselves so vigorously. All which ed before was quickly forgiven and forgotten, this is what enlightenment means Joan. To see the route you want to take and to make it happen. The Khai knew we posed no threat; they needed our help to use our technology and better themselves. In the end the decision was an easy one and should’ve been made a few eons sooner. We do not waste any thought that if the initial Khai delegation had been shown more hospitality, we would’ve seen the change they were capable of before the war ever happened, simply because this is not the way things did happen. We were as short sighted as the Khai were impatient. No! I mean eager to survive ... There were errors on both sides. It took the Khai to finally show us how arrogant we had become; in truth the Devine have experienced some transformation also.”

The Nu-mah now took over the conversation, prompted mentally by the Devine to complete the answer to Joan. “None of our DNA to create this form has been furnished by the Devine. I told you earlier that I represent over two thousand iterations of tests and development. The problem you will know well. There are reptilian species present upon the Earth too, I suspect these garnered some initial trust between the humans and Khai. The reptilian body plans found on Earth are mostly ancient with a few modern branches forming, driven by changes in the environment to fill certain niches. That said the reptilian body plan is a stubborn thing. None of us can know the earliest form our bodies took as we developed, all fossil evidence was churned to dust long ago on the ever-changing surface of our planet. What is evident, is that once a format was found which was well adapted to life in that situation, evolution was slowed to the point of stopping. The process of making us into Nu-mah was long, and even dangerous, we asked for a revolution in body plan. Walking more erect, less teeth with less dependency for meat in our diet, smaller claws, more patience, less scaly ... But we are still scaly ... See?” As Joan rushed slightly to catch up to the long striding Nu-mah, she clasped her fingers around the hand being offered. To Zero Joan looked like a toddler holding on to the hand of a parent. What Joan saw was indeed scales, generally emerald green but with a tendency to reflect pinks and purples at the scale edges. The scales were much smaller now, smooth and not keeled, each one being around two millimeters squared in area. These clearly allowed the skin to adhere much closer to the now longer and more lean musculature beneath. Joan stood still, anchoring the tall being to the spot, but not until he’d walked to the extent of his arms reach. Looking back to see why the human had stopped, Joan suggested to him to kneel down once more. Silently the Nu-mah obliged. Even with the Nu-mah fully knelt down, Joan still needed to look upwards at his face. On her tiptoes, Joan was keen to get as close as possible. Finally extending her hands to the beings face, Joan gently began to feel the extra muscles which allowed the Nu-mah to display a much wider range of emotion than the ever smiling toothy grin of Santa. “Incredible ... How did you manage to grow muscles where there were none in the original design? Blink for me.”

Zero did not know where to put himself now as Joan's requests and probing were escalating in their personal nature. The Devine had walked onwards for some distance whilst still talking before realising he was in fact alone. Zero hated when this happened to him and now expected some form of backlash, but it never came. The Devine just wandered back to the group and waited patiently for Joan to finish her probing. Leren watched on like a proud father as all Joan’s forgotten medical knowledge seemed to be flooding back. Eventually after several minutes Joan had seen enough, and though it made no difference the Numah was given a clean bill of health, which seemed to please the being who even managed a smile. “So glad you approve of our work, though I am sure you humans are also the result of similar diligence and effort. We are the most patient race in the universe.” Leren was stunned at this apparent humour from the Devine, figuring that the Caretakers had been made in their image and that surely this explained the crustiness of most clones. However, it didn’t take Leren long to realise that not all the clones were crusty, only Aelren and well ... Him. The five of them continued to walk, ing to the edge of the circle, through a huge door and into a very long corridor. After ing several branches to curved ading corridors, the Devine could sense that the cogs of Zero’s mind were turning. Whilst it was obvious the clone had been grown for soldiering, Zero possessed a keen mind for engineering. Slowly but surely Zero was extrapolating the structure he was walking inside, visualising the whole structure he expected would be revealed. Addressing the Devine directly, Zero made his thoughts known. “The humans have dreamt of this often to move themselves into space and become proper galactic explorers. As yet they simply don’t have the resources or the expertise; probably in another thousand years.” “Oh I shouldn’t think so, you’ve correctly guessed what this vessel represents, which means given some time you could’ve designed something similar, especially with Oxull and Jer-mija.” Zero was only momentarily thrown ... “The hive mind, what a marvel it is, but not as marvellous as this craft.”

“What’s wrong honey?” “Nothing Joanie, nothing at all ... I just never expected to actually see one.” “One what?” Finally after maybe five minutes at a reasonably brisk pace for Joan, the group reached the end of the corridor where there was yet another huge door. With a serious tone once more, the Devine warned the group not to stand too close to the door. As the door opened, none of the three visitors were more blown away than Zero. This kind of thing really set his mind on fire with excitement. “It’s not a weapon, it’s a planet Joan ... A Dyson Sphere.” “Well you’re half right, the ground you can see below you is one of the internal Spheres, but as you might imagine we cannot have a world with no nighttime, it’s not good for the soul to remain awake all the time. So we’ve attempted to make a daily cycle. Observe that the Sphere is not complete, it’s formed from segments but some of them are missing. It’s hard to see but if you look there, you will see that land is disappearing below other land, that's because there is a second and even third sphere also, all with a pattern of missing segments that means an occupant on any segment will experience a day and a night. I know what you’re thinking, the innermost sphere is never in shadow, but that's not strictly the case. This side of the inner sphere is the light side, and the other side is the dark side. The other spheres also experience darkness in the shadow of the surfaces above them. It was complex but it’s all factored in. The outer shells rotate slightly faster than the inner one, so their relationship isn’t geostationary. We can also vary the distance that a plate is from the artificial sun and by altering the humidity, ventilation and a few other factors we can create seasons and weather, see over there it’s raining in the subtropical latitude, but up there near the top we are making it snow.” Zero kept closing his mouth but was unable to prevent it from falling open after a few more seconds. This was a true marvel, the thought, the concept, the planning and the execution were exemplary. This was the holy grail of technology, and for a short time Zero was speechless. “This is where you intend for the Khai to live.” “Well not all of them, with our best guess at their numbers, we hope to put one

tenth of the Khai into this sphere. The other nine spheres set off in other directions at the same time we did. Of course they weren’t chasing a signal which had caretaker technology all over it. We were racing here to help you just as much as we were looking for Khai to re-home.” “Well I’m sure I speak for the three of us and a few billion more below us when I say we’re feeling pretty stupid right now. We truly did take two and two and make ten, man we got it wrong.” “Did you though? Consider when you first learned we were on our way, almost twenty-seven years ago, the conclusion you drew was logical based on the bad blood and well documented history between us and the Khai. You didn’t learn the truth until recently; in that regard you were no different to us. We never suspected the ultimately peaceful nature of the Khai either. You realised earlier than we ever could have. When we came out of hyperspace you were there waiting for us ... you have an excellent Watcher. You had a plasma beam cannon with you, a real monster, the biggest we’ve ever seen in fact ... Why didn’t you fire it?” “I make no secret about the fact that every fibre of my being was telling me I should, but something didn’t add up. The outer hull was completely smooth, not even any viewing portals. No turrets or communications antennae, no docking hatches or hangar entrances. It simply didn’t look threatening. Again I’ll it I was kissing my behind goodbye when you rushed our fleet, and I was glad we gave you some ground. Hell, I don’t know ... I’ve been a soldier for so long, maybe I was curious to see how I was gonna meet my maker!” “Some of that might be true on the conscious level, in the moment where I can tell you are happiest. But your deeper sub-conscious had been analysing all the data presented up to that moment, for some time I suspect. You have a very analytical mind Zero, there was no way you could ignore the signs.” Joan now piped up with a critical recollection. “I think Zero was having second thoughts ing the plasma cannon right after he finished the design; of course he wouldn’t tell me what he was mulling over, but I could tell he had something on his mind. I think he was the only one who gave the object the benefit of the doubt. That didn’t stop him preparing to blow you back to Devine Prime either. Zero was also the one who realised you

were trying to me and not Leren.” Zero acted bashful, clasping his hands in front of him and twisting one leg around the ball of his foot, again the Devine found a smile. “We are glad we reached you in time, if we’d been a few more days, you’d have fallen despite your valiant efforts. You survived better than any other planet, even ones much larger. The high circle has a proposition, unless you’d like a tour of engineering and climatology control? I think you would agree this option is preferable to housing every Khai on Earth. We would like to come down to Central and discuss a few things with you Joan, and the Caretakers. Zero, you are obviously free to withdraw your fleet and maybe start the salvage operation of damaged Khai vessels.” “Affirmative, we can do that.” As Joan was led back to the circle at the heart of the craft, the Nu-mah gazed back at Zero, slightly enviously. Maybe despite the advancements in his own species, he was still weighing the possibilities. His kind might never reach the Devine hive mind or be able to spatial jump. Watching Zero bow his head and clear his mind, the Nu-mah jumped with excitement the instant Zero vanished, silently ... On the Cannibal Santa was busying himself, holding another meeting with his engineering department. Shortly after receiving and acting upon Zero’s order to shut down all engines, something else had affected his reactor output, killing his plasma engines. It seemed the Khai down in the reactor chamber and the Khai in the Engine room were powerless to re-establish a stable output. Suddenly Santa felt a large warm hand rest on his shoulder, the commander knew instantly what this meant. “Zero, you’re alive ... But where is your tiny female?” “Everyone is fine Santa, Joan is back on the object, it’s not what we all thought. Anyway I’ve said too much, but you guys are gonna love it.” “Is it Khai?” “It’s fair to say that there are Khai-mah on board, but there have been a few

developments on that front. They call themselves the Nu-mah. They’re still reptilian, but nothing like you guys, and the Devine are with them. The object means us no harm, in fact it’s come to give you all ground. There are nine more; Santa it’s amazing, you have to see it.” Santa was used to a calm stable Zero, the man now babbling on in front of him ... He looked like Zero ... But there was a whole herd of Elephants in his brain. “You’re a clever one Zero, very skilled at deception I think. You spatial jump just like a Caretaker, just what else are you hiding?” “Well about that. I’m not from Earth, my planet was taken hundreds of years ago by the Khai-mah. I was created as brute force ... A soldier. But I ended up here, fate ... blah blah, super strength blah ... Mostly unable to die blah blah! You’re missing the point ... The Devine know they made a mistake, the Khai-mah who swarmed Devine Prime quickly settled down just like you guys. The Khai also know they made a mistake exiling your ancestors. Now they want to give you the land you should have gained back then.” Zero grasped hold of Santa’s hand and jumped to Central ...

Chapter 71 - The future absolves the past ...

THERE AS THEY ENTERED the circle, the Numbers were gathered around two much taller beings. As Santa clocked the two tall figures, he was gripped by instinct and almost lunged forward to strike, stopped only by a firm, un-able hand placed on his chest bone by Zero. Looking at his lizard friend confirmed to Zero that Santa was experiencing two things. Aggression certainly, but this was being driven by fear. Having never seen one the old Khai commander still recognised the Devine stood in front of him. “Santa, one is a Nu-mah, get a grip friend ... You’re safe.” Santa’s eyes seemed to change, as his pupils dilated, his breathing also slowed back to normal. Zero led the old Repton into the circle to meet his elevated brother who knelt once more to greet his ancestral relative. No Khai with the original body plan existed back on the new Khai-Prime and hadn’t for millions of generations. For a split second both the original and the mark two thousand and some just weighed each other up. The Nu-mah staring slightly down at Santa, who gazed back with his cold expressionless face. The Nu-mah could not quite believe that his kind had once looked like this, but it was the Devine who corrected him. “The Khai still do look this way, you are a Nu-mah ... that. Do not let your disbelief cloud your judgment, this Lizard is a proud warrior. His kind is why you exist now. It was beings like him who largely drove us from our world allowing you to colonise it and reach the point you’re at now. This lizard deserves your respect.” Fighting was still on Santa’s mind, until he realised he had only picked two fights recently, both with beings seemingly much less powerful than him. He had lost both times. As the Nu-mah dropped his hood again, the recognition that the being before him was at least part Khai, was almost instant. All thoughts of a violent revenge for the exile of his kind to space melted away as Santa slumped into his calm repose, which only appeared to elevate the Nu-mah above him. Santa was stricken by a new realisation ... His kind was obsolete. Not needed for battle and ill equipped to build or develop anything, the new and improved being eyeing him up was his better; Santa did not feel like losing again. “Do not worry my brother, the Nu-mah has no intention of fighting you, they

only want to help. All of you ... Everywhere.” Santa turned his head to look at Zero whose face was warm and smiling. What had the sneaky human seen that had him so elated? The Nu-mah held out his hand, high and open. Santa was drawn to grasp it tentatively with his own. The hand looked like his but with one main difference, the claws were gone. The Khai-mah had found ground and elevated themselves past the need for conquest. No matter what obvious differences existed physically, mentally there would be understanding from this point on. Without a word Santa withdrew to the edge of the circle and waited for the meeting to close. The Devine who had initially been apprehensive at the sight of the muscle-bound commander, had been calmed by Zero very quickly. Zero had informed the Devine that he should watch and trust. Santa had been the toughest of Khai and was still a strict disciplinarian. Finding land had been the biggest struggle of Santa’s life but he had never wavered in his resolve to move past offence and stand with the humans in their defence of the planet. As such the Devine had been stirred to watch as his ancestral enemy just walked into the circle to his cold stare over them both. As skilled as the Devine was at mental communication, he had witnessed the panic which ran through Santa; the strength which Zero had alluded to was then shown as Santa battled his instincts into submission. It occurred to the Devine that the blind faith the humans seemed to show in situations where no particular outcome could be guaranteed, whilst not a skill was certainly an asset. This was only one of many traits which had been eliminated eons ago within Devine society, simply because nothing happened without them initiating it first. Even then the process would be strictly limited within the parameters of the design. This was to the detriment of the Devine. This flaw wasn’t even realised until they'd been tested and found lacking. The race who had finally issued this test were the Khai, when they requested sanctuary on Devine Prime. Having observed the struggles of Khai life from afar over eons, the Devine had already mostly made up their minds that their neighbours should be left alone. The Khai were at a far more primitive stage in their own evolutionary journey. Fast forward a few thousand years and the Devine were surprised by the arrival of the first Khai spaceship, with a huge

question for their consideration ... Eventually after a few hundred years, the Khai made up the minds of the Devine for them. The only species in the known universe to this test had been the humans, even though they had mounted a strong defense, it had been their decision to offer sanctuary to any Khai who would drop their weapons. This had enabled the losers to win, and the winners to survive. There were lessons the Devine could learn from this race, even though the humans and the Khai-mah were similar in many aspects. The Devine could see that the humans definitely had the capacity to fight; indeed much time had been lost to tribal squabbling. This had still been the case when Joan had suddenly brought everyone together around a table and lain down her law. The human race might have caused the Devine to be concerned, had it not been for Joan’s actions. They were in the earliest stages of space travel and headed for a complete technological revolution. One more century and they could easily colonise Mars ... After that who knew? Before Joan, human advancement as a species towards peace and harmony had been slower than geology. The universe would’ve been ill prepared. Watching silently, it was easy to see how the Khai and the humans might have been predestined to cross swords. What was harder to predict was where that battle might have occurred. “Joan ... Caretakers. The Devine have long held the belief that having become enlightened, our race shone like a beacon of how a race should act. We develop technology, we live without sickness, crime and war, everyone trusts and cares about everyone else. Decisions are made together, plans are not only set, but then accomplished with great effect. But we as a species are flawed. Clearly, despite our capacity for good and all our achievements, we have lost something from ourselves ... We aren’t perfect. Now this realisation has hit home hard. As we look upon you from afar as we have during our travels here, first monitoring old radio waves, then media signals, we were already beginning to question if the human race should be saved. It was only as we got nearer and nearer, that the signals grew more recent. Then we began to get a clearer picture of the rapid advancements the humans were making; it was like watching evolution on overload. At this point the high circle knew that our Caretakers had been overtaken. We found evidence that the Caretakers were in fact using the humans to make certain parts for their Ark ships, and that this must’ve been going on for

some time. It was the first time we heard Joan speak to the people of the planet that we felt we were seeing things in real time, but this was only a week before we stepped out of hyperspace. Evidence of Zero was anecdotal at best, scant TV footage regarding his exploits told us that despite being a fearless warrior, he remained humble and did not seek personal glory. These are strong traits of enlightenment. Imagine our great joy then when we learned that Joan had been successful in uniting the planet in preparation to meet the Khai-mah in battle, and had later ed the hive, more traits necessary for enlightenment.” “But we aren’t ready yet? Even I know that.” “Correct, but we consider that we are not yet enlightened either, by simple virtue of our ignorance and lack of tolerance, coupled with our frustrating tendency to procrastinate and over think things. In some cases, we are simply unable to take the plunge. The High Circle thinks there is much we can learn from each other and something can be gained by moving forward together. We can guide you, and you can re-teach us the things we have forgotten or refined out of ourselves.” Talks continued for over an hour, interrupted only when word started to come in from the Malls. The fleet was returning to jubilant applause from the public, despite the feeling of confusion that the Object had not yet struck them down. Leren now stepped in, but unable to speak fluent English, and not wanting to upset the Devine by speaking mentally where the Nu-mah would be unable to hear, Leren spoke his words through his second, Geyldian. “Creator, I believe that above us on the surface, a state of confusion still exists regarding the sphere and what its intentions are. The planet thinks this object is here to destroy us. If it is not too much trouble, I believe Joan should address the general populous to give an update. If I may, I would like to provide some images of the habitat inside the Sphere to allay any remaining fears and also to show the Khai inside our Malls. This is truly the end of an epoch for them and their first step towards a new future.” The Devine nodded his approval, and now considered his earlier statement was incorrect. It seemed that even though Joan was leading the humans, her inquisitiveness and eye for new things could bog her down somewhat also. Whilst the Devine was sure Joan had not forgotten her people, she had not

displayed any great urgency to address them. “Only because I want to have every scrap of information to give my people. Since I embarked upon this endeavor, and without knowing the Khai or the real threat they represented, I have not sought to cover up any of the facts. Instead I put all my faith in my species ability to deal with, and then move on from these amazing revelations. As you have seen, all the people of this planet together have accomplished great things, and for the first time in history, apart from those on a rest cycle, everyone is working towards a greater good.” The Devine was only slightly surprised by the mental interception Joan had made, but this was the explicit purpose of the hive and he couldn’t have it both ways. The big full blood was slightly amused at the variation of facial expressions which seemed to have been frozen onto the faces of the Numbers situated around him. Mostly it was shock, Leren the Prime had his head hung whilst slowly shaking it in utter disbelief. Only Eight, the scientist had a wide grin on his face, along with of course ... Zero. “You’re very direct Joan ... I did not mean to offend or upset. It is very refreshing for people to say exactly what they are thinking, it seems that even within the hive some small deceptions are possible, by simply altering the context of a thought, or even remaining silent without freely expressing an opinion.” This was something Zero had witnessed in Joan, prior to her connection to the hive, Joan herself had sought to shield Wraith, the Numbers and himself from her darkest fears, by simply altering the context or emotion associated with the thoughts. Always remaining a conscious action and never becoming a habit, this had not stopped Joan from reaching her place within the hive. Joan now bowed her head and backed out of the circle towards the door, flanked by Zero and Santa. In the corridor they were met by Wraith. “Did you find her kiddo?” “Yes mum, she was about to fly a Cobra at the object and let rip with her Axe, until her ship was rendered dead in the water by a reactor malfunction. Strange eh? Anyway she’s waiting in her father’s room.” “You still love her, don’t you?”

“You know I do mum, but since being brought out of stasis, Surrayyah just wants to experience everything for herself, and I haven’t been there to hold her hand obviously, I was needed here ... Do you know she even worked construction on one of the Malls?” “What’s wrong with that? I worked construction for a short time, best job I ever had. Just ask Ra-sian.” The tone of Zero’s voice was flat and even, indicating he wasn’t lying, but the glint in his eye also belied his mischievousness and the fact he might not be telling the whole truth either. “I think now Geyldian will begin to train her in readiness to take over his Network. Clearly the organisation cannot continue in the shadows, with a little revision it could become akin to a global government or committee to help guide things along. Surayyah is a very well-rounded girl, she would do well working under your mother.” “I agree, but you know how stubborn she is when it comes to her father’s wishes; if he wants it, Surayyah doesn’t. I don’t see a future for us both, we were fine for a time but then her curiosity got the better of her. Things became a bit one-sided after that, now she’s like my little sister.” “That’s funny as you’re both of equal age, to the second ... Oh I see what you mean.” “Give her time Wraith, after all with the enhancements you both have plenty, there’s no rush now is there? At least for the moment we all have an important role to play in what happens next in order to be worthy of our new galactic friends. Do you think they’ll ask us to help round up the Khai?” “I shouldn’t think so Joan, how would we be of any help to them? The Devine have resources beyond our imagination, I still can’t believe I’ve been inside an actual Dyson Sphere!” “No way ... You mean ...?” “That’s exactly what I mean.” “Awesome! ... So they really intend to take them all then?”

“I think that’s the plan, yes.” “I’m not convinced the Sphere habitat will suit them all though. It really is a very good approximation of a Class 1 habitable planet, which means it’s too perfect ... too stable. I think if we give Santa the choice ...” “I would sooner stay at Kaskara, you are correct Zero’s tiny female. The Khai I direct there are suited to the enforcement of the exclusion zone and it is an excellent compromise. I love the feel of a plasma sidearm banging into my leg as I walk, even if I never have reason to fire it. Like a ... like a ...” “Comfort blanket! Aren’t you a little old for one of those?” Santa could not explain why but Zero’s phrase fit, after a life of battle Santa would really miss his weapon if he were made to give it up, and he did love Kaskara with its ominous radiation and churning magma. “What can I say Zero? ... Anyway as a soldier you should be the first person to understand.” “What? Carrying a gun? I’ve never needed one ... I’ve got these two guns right here see!” Flexing his more than adequate biceps, Zero was fighting the urge to kiss one. Joan and Wraith were stifling their laughter and poor old Santa had no clue how an arm, however massive could be as satisfying as a Plasma pistol ...

Chapter 72 - The circle broken by fate ...

BACK INSIDE THE CIRCLE, the full blood Devine was trying to take in the occupants of the circle, essentially all clones but with massive variations in personality and build. He could see a doctor who had been elevated to Prime by the laziness of his Second who was in fact a half human hybrid along with his sister. Both had been sired by the antepenultimate Prime, who it seemed had retired on a jolly as if gripped by a feeling of full bloodedness. There was the Scientist Geberus who still had latent tendencies towards a feeling of omnipotence, and a girlfriend to boot who was currently standing at the opposite side of the circle. The Watcher was perhaps the only clone who still looked and acted like an actual clone. His attention to detail was impeccable and he had clearly never needed the human's input, though he had shown eagerness in their . The hugely built being with the indelible smile was the Engineer, it was clear he thought his gigantism was a result of his duties, which he performed impeccably. Though this wasn’t really the case as Oxull didn’t perform any manual labour. Clearly his size resulted from a defect in the cloning process, but Oxull looked the part and was a skilled engineer. In that regard he had sured all the engineers before him, having actually created both weapons and machinery under the watchful eye of Zero and with the aid of Eight. Here was perhaps the biggest break from the norm ever, Jer-mija ... A criminal for all the right reasons, except the way he had terminated the human occupants of his little petri dish, before running to the surface. A merry dance ensued which ended with him being imprisoned inside the record, only to be brought back due to his expertise with force fields of all things. Then there was Kariina, who in her life so far had been a girl, a queen and then a murderous tyrant for a millennia before withdrawing to become simply an evil genius leading a shadowy organisation bent on bringing down her kind and everything they stood for. Again for the right reasons, all as questionable as they were augmented by sheer ignorance. Then there were the empty seats ... “Prime? Where are Three and Seven? Caretakers are always expected to maintain a group of nine, I count only seven of you now. Are they busy?” Leren’s heart sank, though how he had expected the empty third and seventh

seats to be overlooked by a creator was a mystery even to himself. “As you know Creator, the third is the Number of the healer, in fact I still perform this function in addition to that of Prime. It has been taxing ... But manageable. Before the loss of our Prime Aelren we still had two seats unoccupied. These were the Seventh and Ninth seats. Our record will show that the last Number to occupy the seventh seat as militarist was Matau-Nga. During the Devine retreat to the new home world, the Devine sought to have him accompany them on their journey and in the future settlement of the new planet. We were all sure he would be able to return and so we did not replace him. Since that time no natural successor has been hatched who could’ve taken the seat either ... A complete coincidence. It is recorded that as we waited for Seven to return, no events happened which required direct action.” “That is most irregular ... And the Ninth?” “Yes ... Indeed ... The Messenger. Our record shows that this seat remained occupied until four generations ago, the last Nine was Cas-tacan. Present mostly on Mona, he kept us in touch with the new Devine Prime until he retired to the record a little over a hundred millennia ago. Truth be told the record also shows that communication was only established three times in Cas-tacan’s twenty-six millennia occupation. Again, no clone has been spawned since to take the seat ... Though Kariina seems to fill the role more than adequately now. “How convenient that a relative civilian, entitled only by her relation to the Second to be on Central, should appear to fill a seat with no training ...” Sensing he was losing the battle of thought, Leren felt obligated to provide justification. “Since the Devine retreat we have mainly been engaged in the completion of terra forming the land masses to diversify the species of the planet, in line with our Creator’s design. Over time, the record shows that each of the remaining Numbers grew more adept at making decisions together to fill in for the missing seats. By the time we had performed the axial shift of the planet to reduce damage from freak weather, we could not have used a Seven even if one had been hatched. And with communication to Devine Prime being so ... Sporadic ... We didn’t really miss the Ninth either. This is all well documented.

If you consider that recently, for over fifty years we have had Zero with us, and he performs the equivalent role to Seven, we have our nine. Have we done something wrong? ... Are we to be punished by the high circle?” “Well Prime that remains to be decided. Despite the eclectic nature of this circle of Numbers, the efficacy seems to remain high. Your cohesion is excellent, everyone is highly capable, we’ve also confirmed your adherence to the Old ways. Which is one positive at least. The problem is the apparent slackening of the circle which is incomplete. This is a major negative. If I read Jer-mija correctly this is not the first time Humans have been allowed to remain on this Leviathan, though it is the first time they’ve had free reign to wander the ship as they please. Was this time part of some experiment also?” Geyldian spoke freely on his own this time. Justifying his decision to push the then Prime Aelren into allowing Zero to come on board. As a tool for them to use, Zero had been perfect for maintaining control of the humans and their endeavors; after all he was technically very proficient, capable of defending himself and mounting a very strong offence. He also looked completely human. “In fact Zero only relearned his true origins around a year ago, quite coincidentally his home world was taken by the Khai-mah also, which only added to his vigour to help us defend the planet. All things considered it seems fated that he was brought to this planet to help us.” “Zero has a gift, the gift of intuition, tempered with clarity and simplicity. The number of times he has helped us to a solution without the need for our serious consideration, simply cannot be counted. He is essential on so many fronts, it was obvious when Joan began to pull the humans together that Geyldian had been completely under-utilising him.” The Devine began to shake his head, removing Leren's additional statement from his ears like he would shake water free from his Capillago. “Have you all grown so lazy that it is easier to allow Zero to keep bailing you out? Or are you growing inept in your old ages? I can see the value of Zero, as an advisor, but allowing him to dictate events and circumnavigate our processes ... We’ve never known another circle relinquish so much control. Not to mention several of you are trying hard to cover the fact that he was killed back in 1973 on a mission when the humans found a Khai missile in Antarctica. Do we know

why he remains alive? Does anyone else worry about Zero being immortal?” Leren was the only member of the circle who was qualified to give any opinion. Yet for all his eons of medical knowledge and learning, the Old Doctor had nothing to say of any value. He did have much more to say as Prime of the circle, but only through Geyldian. “I tried to save Zero back in 1973 but quickly found I was wasting my time. Instead I put my effort into taking a posthumous imprint to store his memory and consciousness in the record, as we would for any of our fallen or retired. His body then went into a stasis pod on ice, and there it stayed until we started to be impacted by the Khai long range missiles. Central was rocked by one impact and the frame for the pod was evidently damaged. This does not explain how he regenerated. Every one of the two hundred scans I have from Zero, show him to be amazingly human. His knowledge of engineering is stunning, but his understanding of scientific principles is no more than a school student, nothing spectacular. We always knew Zero had an appetite for battle, and his army record showed he had several episodes of shell shock. Zero himself has since realised these events were natural resets following regenerations, the man has no fear of death. Maybe this was one element of his previous subconscious showing through but it’s also a very human trait amongst soldiers in certain branches of the armed services. His amazing performance in battle was not enough for our network to notice him, but the human commanders certainly did. They put him to good use, which is how he eventually crossed paths with Geyldian to save him, sacrificing his own in the process. Geyldian made a suitable case for his integration to our ranks based on his capabilities. I realise I have still not answered your question, but we have far more theories than actual answers. The chief one being Zero is actually a clone himself and might have some manufactured regenerative ability based on his original design as a soldier. Beyond this neither Zero nor I have any clue, but he is not immortal, he definitely can be killed. Depending on the damage and his energy reserves at the time, it can take months to regenerate, or as little as a night. Zero is a work in progress for me, I have time, Zero has time also. Though I fear it might have become an obsession for me simply because he is so extraordinary, but that isn’t limited to his physicality, he is also mentally strong and very resilient. Geyldian taught him how to meditate and he was even beginning to isolate himself from humanity, until he met Joan. We cannot explain how he is able to spatial jump better than any of us except he possesses an acute self-awareness; even extending to

his surroundings. Maybe as a function of the calm clear state he seems to be able to reach from his battle days and his amazing focus, but he managed to jump back from a moon of Neptune whilst half dead, with Joan. Of course this killed him, but he regenerated. Zero himself is unexplainable, his existence is a work of medical genius, it is truly sad that his planet doesn’t exist anymore.” The Devine could only sit and listen as he tried to absorb the full brunt of Leren’s iration for his fake human friend. Zero was the key for sure. As he was listening to Leren, the High Circle were also tuning in, and slowly but surely their earlier displeasure was also beginning to be tempered by the way these four species had become entwined into a super organism. The clones had been fine orchestrating the machinations of the planet left in their care, until they were found by the Khai-mah. By then they had taken Zero under their wing and he represented experience and ability in the best way possible. Zero then fell in love with a woman who seemed to be constructed from equal measures of tenacity, empathy, intelligence and stubbornness, in such quantities that she rose to unite the planet with very little input from the clones. The only real of her plans was technology, loaned to Earth by the Caretakers. Joan had always agreed with Aelren that the humans would not be allowed to keep any alien tech in the event of their victory, of which their chances were slim. Joan gave birth to Zero’s child. Wraith grew, becoming the only one to question the monster which was the Khai. He dug past the scales to their peaceful cooperative insides. Thus, Joan was subsequently able to strike up the peace treaty and offer of sanctuary. Hence the Khai had gained the one thing they truly wanted. These Khai quickly settled to love the planet and it was only natural that they would then stand beside the humans, the clones and the super soldier to defend the Earth. The fact that they were days away from failing was not their fault. This alliance had been borne of a confluence of events which should have never happened, but once they had, the decisions which were made at every turn were fated to perfection to reach this moment. If any single event had occurred differently or not at all, the Earth would never have stood a chance. Even as Leren tried his best to sit in the role of Prime whilst allowing his shadow to be cast over the third seat, the circle remained broken. With a seventh or not, that was the question. The seventh seat was always occupied by the Planner, fulfilling a role somewhere between Watcher and Engineer, the Seventh was also a militarist. This missing Number was the Keyhole to Zero’s key. If the Seventh seat had been occupied, he would’ve been the one making the plans, not Zero.

Certainly never Joan who wouldn't have been allowed on Central. With the Planner in position, Zero would’ve never had the space to do anything but work on dangerous missions for Geyldian. Even the reason for the lack of a Seventh was fortuitous in the extreme, with no clone spawned since to replace him. The high circle was hard put to find fault. They would now rely on these species to withdraw themselves back from their ill won state of not quite perfection, to a more functional state of emotionality. It would be bad form to punish the Numbers for doing their job in spite of every card they’d been dealt. Such action would only breed contempt from the humans who were still fully in touch with their emotions, relying upon them to judge situations and people to form friendships ... or not, if a group seemed to be unnecessarily punitive. The Devine liked the Alliance exactly as it was now. They would now try to learn how to feel and take risks again. Ultimately their achievement of this goal might sound the death knell of the hive mind, maybe not completely as even Joan found the hive to be a useful tool for communication over distance. The increase in the depth of her spiritual and sensual connection to her partner Zero, meant it was unlikely she would allow the Devine to lose this powerful connection completely. The hive had been hard won, at the end of some major battles. The origins of the Devine weren’t that different from those of the humans, having involved much turmoil. Their experiences made the High Circle eminently qualified to judge where the humans were, in of their own evolution. It was easy for them to humanity was worthy of their time ...

Chapter 73 - Another day ...

THE TONE THE DEVINE used to address the clone Prime was now much more respectful and reverent. Having been sanctioned directly by the High Circle, he thanked Leren and the Numbers for their service and continued diligence to all processes on the Earth. Finally, he ed on the blessing of the High Circle. This then was to be the Number’s reward for their own and their predecessors long service, an acknowledgement that they had all performed to the design of their creators. Now in possession of his own mind once more, Geyldian was already thinking about Fugu for his evening meal. This was a special occasion indeed, and a traditional favourite dish would certainly be an adequate celebratory repast. The Second pondered for a moment if the restaurateur would be able to find larger premises. The Devine cracked a smile, eyeing the Second directly, momentarily halting Geyldian in his tracks ... “You still like to indulge in the Fugu, even after that time? ... Do you think they can set an extra place at the table? I am intrigued to try this meal which is ridiculously addictive yet could kill me. Please keep an eye on me though, the Devine are not given to risky thrill seeking. That in itself can become addictive, I don’t think I’m ready for that just yet.” “Sure thing, the more the merrier, but I should warn you, we don’t socialise well with people when we don’t even know their names.” The circle broke formation with each Number coming forward in turn to greet and shake hands with the Full Blood Devine. Here was a living legend in their midst. In all their eons of life none had ever expected to meet a Creator. Especially not one from their original home world where they were supposedly wiped out. The Nu-mah followed in the chain, returning the greetings. It would’ve been understandable for the clones to remain standoffish of the Numah, given that he represented the Khai who bested their Creators. As usual the Numbers harboured no such grudge. Despite some initial stiction against the idea of Khai as an ally, the Lizard race had performed with stunning ferocity at every opportunity. At this point seeing Santa on Central with Zero was no longer a shock, the Khai who had signed the treaty remained true to their word and were to be trusted. Having had eons of with the Devine, the Nu-mah was a far less daunting prospect for the clones, and while little was known, in time

everything would be revealed. The party retired to Leren’s medical lab where Kariina had the feed of Joan’s public address piped directly to one of Leren’s monitors. The group watched intently as Joan let the Earth down off the hook. Making frequent stops to allow herself to be heard over the cheers, Joan was beaming from ear to ear as she thanked the humans for their service, but assured them there would be no letup in the security of the system now in place ... “I will make sure that we, as the newest member of the galactic community will never slip back into our old ways. People of Earth ... We have won our survival, and the assistance of the creator race the Devine. Indirectly they have furnished us with so much already ... for eons by the Caretakers and of course the technology which allowed us to keep our heads above water in the recent battles ... And now the Devine have offered to hold our hand as we attempt to walk with our heads held high towards a better future ... We have already made crime and internal war a thing of the past. For this we can all be proud; but we must never forget our yesterdays as they will guide our tomorrows ... And my friends ... our tomorrows are not destined merely to be another day! From now on we must consider ourselves as ambassadors of peace, calm and tolerance. We must seek to grow our best traits, but this does not mean that we will outgrow our humanity, indeed stubbornness and tenacity are just as vital as trust and cleverness if used respectfully in the right measure. Through self-awareness of our own weaknesses and strengths we will be better able to foster relationships with our neighbours. Forgetting hatred and scorn, we must those weaker than us until we all reach equality. Right now the human race is the strongest it has ever been. It is a shame that it needed an alien threat to our existence to allow us to rid ourselves of the poisons in our society like drugs and crime. Now we are all clear headed and have a purpose, a role to play, measured out to our level of ability ... But stagnation cannot be allowed, our personal growth will ultimately lead to the growth of our species, no-one shall be left behind. What we do for one we must do for all. Thank you again everyone, our planet is alive because we never gave up and we worked together, that and let us continue to do so.” The Devine noted that Joan’s speech was far from humble, she could not contain her emotion which was overflowing, moreover it was obvious that she couldn’t think of a single reason why she should. Today they had moved to turn a corner in human development. Now the entire planet knew they were being observed

with an eye on their readiness for bigger things. The humans would be sure to maintain their effort level now to help Joan deliver them everything she thought they deserved. Joan was a clever one indeed ... The brave Devine had also taken a huge leap into the unknown. By the end of a day spent immersed in a multitude of cultures, who had dispelling their infinite differences, to concentrate on their few common goals, the tall thin being already felt a little lower, a little looser and more relaxed. In fact, as his lips continued to tingle, the full blooded and more than slightly inebriated, not to mention poisoned Devine could not stop laughing ... He hoped that whatever came next would be just as much fun ...

Follow Zero from his home planet of Ashlar-Gin to live among us on planet Earth, and the journey to his fated meeting with the Numbers in ... "Zero - Earth Fall" Book Three of the series.

About the Author

An artist from a young age, Clifford Barker followed his father into engineering. After relocating from his home town of Sheffield, England, he now enjoys life with his family in South Wales. Now 47, Clifford is continuing to write the ZeroEarth series of sci-fi action adventure novels. When not writing, he is usually working, drawing, watching anime, riding his motorcycle, or playing with his two dogs. Clifford illustrates his own covers. The Zero series is now three books strong. Zero - Earth Fire was released in March 2020 and Zero - Earth Fall was released in December 2020. Book 4, Zero - Into Ashes is well underway and will be released in 2021. Clifford then plans to expand the back ground of the series with a series of ing short stories. Quinn the Assassin, centred around the assassin from Zero - Earth will be the first..