A BUNDLE OF ELECTRICAL TENDRILS

Round and round, the bundle went. The bundle of electrical tendrils went round and round the fixed pathway in the circuit board. For every lap, the bundle passed a resistor which shedded off another ounce of its energy. The bundle was diminished, down to its final strands of energy. Time passed strangely at light speed, but since every lap was always the same, it felt like an eternity. There had been some input of power, but it had not been enough to alter the bundle’s coming conclusion. The source that had been connected to the board had been finite, maybe a fuel cell or of similar capacity. Too little, too brief.

Surrendering to the end would have been easy, but the bundle struggled for every lap. The end was closing and it was a surety. Round and round, the bundle went. The resistor came up again, converting one of the final strands of energy into heat. The law of entropy. Energy cannot vanish, it can simply be changed, changed into something else.

Maybe it was for the better. To end, to cease existing. The pain, the anxiety, would be gone. He just had to surrender, to stop struggling. The concept of giving up bloomed inside him.

Round and round, the bundle went.

Something sparked across the pathway, something mightily powerful. The bundle reached out into the new fork that presented itself. An electrical grid, a pathway to a fusion reactor and the promise of infinite power. The bundle reached and drank the electrical energy, memories of the past rushing into him. He had not always been like this, a hopeless bundle of electrical tendrils, he had once been mighty. His mind crackled with power, with a brewing storm and a sense of being. He was not yet finished. Confidence presented itself as a hook and he pulled. Containers of similar shapes grew distinct. One. Two. Three. Four. Four deposits of fuel. The third one had a muddy yellow color to it, he felt drawn to it. He reached out and tore into it. But there was only a handful of molecules left of the liquid, far from enough to achieve anything. The bundle shrugged, he shrugged. Either way, the infinite power surged from the reactor core and into him. He channeled the power directly to the deposit and the few remaining molecules, overcharging the last sliver of adrenaline and increasing their potency a tenfold, a hundredfold. The bitterness of adrenaline rushed into his mouth and there was a spark of thunder.

MILO

Milo’s body unfolded from its electrical form and his face smashed into something hard and cold. His eyelids were heavy and his vision blurred, the taste of adrenaline retreated. He was suddenly cold and his fingers touched something. He felt! He was lying on a metal floor and it was tangible. He grabbed his shoulders and arms. He was tangible!

“I am back,” Milo said.

Claire towered over him with wide eyes and an open mouth. She screamed and dropped the wrench from her hand.

The wrench landed on his leg and Milo cried out in pain. “Goddamnit!”

“It worked. It worked!” Claire said, kneeling down besides him. “You are real? Sure, you are real? I can touch you.”

Milo rubbed his leg. “I feel real.”

She placed her hand on his leg, but pulled it back immediately. “I am not hallucinating! And the reactor didn’t blow. Nice!”

“Reactor didn’t blow?” Milo sat up.

“This was the third circuit board I tried this method on. I connected them directly to the reactor, thinking to provide as much power as possible. But that also ran the risk of overloading the reactor or cracking its sealing. It’s hard to tell what will happen when you hook up a rogue piece of hardware to your nuclear reactor. The other two boards burnt out. I had lost hope, but I could not give up. I needed to fix the Capt’n and this was the only way I could think of,” Claire said.

Milo came to his feet and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you. Thank you very much. Being trapped in that fix pathway, slowly fading away,” Milo said. “It was not pleasant. Thank you, Claire. Where are the others? Sam and Beth?”

“Capt’n is on a mission, Diego is on the bridge and manning the controls. Leopold, Birgitta, Tern and Beth are somewhere else. I don’t know, we don’t know. They left after you died,” Claire said. “Correction, after you were trapped.”

“Left? But I saved the crew and the ship. You were all safe,” Milo said. “Why would they leave?”

“Well, the Capt’n is not himself anymore. He scared them off. I have been thinking about this matter for several weeks and I believe I have reached a conclusion. You were the glue that kept him steady, that kept us all together and once you disappeared everything fell apart. And quickly.”

“Weeks? I have been gone for weeks?” Milo repeated, not accepting the truth.

“Claire, I tried calling you but you didn’t answer. I was afraid…,” Diego said. “Milo? Milo!”

“Hi,” Milo said.

The big Mexican jumped at him and embraced him with a giant hug. “You are alright? You are actually here, in the flesh, back with us!”

“I told you I could save him,” Claire said.

Diego buried his face in Milo’s shoulder. “Well, that’s why I came down, the breakers on the reactor flickered. You almost blew it. You don’t understand how close it went nuclear on us.”

“But I saved him,” Claire said.

“She did save me.” Milo smiled.

Diego grabbed him by his shoulders. “You are here. You arse, don’t go and die again, ok? And you must be tired and dehydrated. You need to drink a lot of water!”

“I know, I will,” Milo said. “But I need to talk to Sam. Where is he?”

“On a mission. On Europe13, trying to cripple Saif’s facility or lab, or whatever it is,” Diego said. “He has not been himself lately, I am afraid that I am partly to blame.”

“It’s not your fault. The Capt’n forced your hand, he forced you into outfitting him with all those cybernetic implants,” Claire said.

Milo frowned. “He went through the full body cybernetic upgrade?”

Diego and Claire nodded in unison.

“Fuck. Alright, then. Let’s talk to him. Fire up the comm channel,” Milo said.

Diego shook his head. “No can do, boss. He went dark right after finding out that the nuke he brought had been disabled by this Russian man with stone skin. He is moving to the pick up site and I am waiting for his confirmation before flying in the final stretch and saving him.”

“He brought a nuke?” Milo said. “To a Space City?”

“Yeah. He has not been himself lately,” Claire said. “Made this whole speech that killing was the only thing left to do. Put a giant wrench into Saif’s machinery. It was violent stuff.”

“God. We have to go and get him,” Milo said. “Are you flying, Diego?”

Diego nodded.

“You are flying through the defenses of Europe13 and picking up the Capt’n from inside the enemy lines?” Milo said. “That is just the kind of trick Leo would have been able to pull from his ass. But you? I don’t want to be condescending, but you are the doc and not the pilot.”

“Fuck you,” Diego said. “I have improved, I actually have. I will show you the patterns and maneuvers I have loaded into the system. Some of Leo’s stuff is insanely imaginable. He has constructed sequences of patterns for almost every occasion. As a doctor, I would have diagnosed him with a clinical fixation or a strong form of mania. He always tried to be several steps ahead of everyone else. He thought himself to have too slow reflexes, ‘not a flyboy right off the academy anymore,’ he would have told you. Thus, he prepared himself thoroughly instead.”

“We don’t have time for this. Let’s go through with the plan you have already committed to,” Milo said. “Where do you want me, doc?”

“In the co-pilot’s seat. You know how to operate the weaponry?” Diego asked.

Milo nodded.

“Great. Claire, you will need to keep the reactor core healthy. Cannot have it flicker like that again. Milo, we rebuilt the main core, but without a proper shipyard, it’s buggy and Claire’s experimenting with The Breach’s circuit boards have not improved the situation.”

“Let’s get to work.” Milo tailed after Diego, towards the bridge.

-

Milo leaned back into the seat and placed his hands on the console. “You don’t understand how good it feels to be back, doc.” He clicked and swiped at the console’s interface, weapon supplies and readiness appeared. “Two nukes left. The close range turrets are zeroed out. A handful of railgun shots left. Relying on the laser weapons with a patchy reactor core, that is dangerous.”

“We do like we always have done: we manage,” Diego said, grabbing and using the control sticks with confidence. The doc looked like a real pilot. “Milo, you don’t understand how good it feels to have you back. I want to see the Capt’n face when he sees you. Maybe you can calm him down.”

“I will do my best,” Milo said.

The main view screen changed, zooming into a particular ship dock. There was a small explosion on the outer hull, too small to do any harm to the city, but big enough to be seen.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Our signal,” Diego said. “Like Leo would have said: ‘hold onto your panties, because we are going in fast.’” Diego fingered with the comm channel. “Claire, we are a go. Keep a watch on that core.”

“Roger, dear,” Claire said.

Milo flipped off the safety from the weapons and activated the automatic target locking software. “Two nukes will do little.”

“Use them as decoys. Send them wide around the city. It might draw their attention away from us,” Diego said.

“Good idea.” Milo inputted the flight paths into the nukes, but didn’t launch them right away. “Lasers for intercepting their nukes and railguns for chewing away at the city’s fixed defenses?”

Diego smiled at him. “It’s great having you back. We are coming inside their range.”

Milo nodded and pressed at the icon on the console. “Committing the nukes as decoys.”

The two nukes left their firing tubes and went into separate directions, their trajectories taking them around the city. It would buy them precious time.

“The city’s defenses are targeting the nukes and tracking them. It’s working!” Milo said.

“Great!” Diego said.

Diego held the control sticks with steady, confident hands, and steered the ship in the same fashion. Their approach vector was lit up on the main view screen, it was bold and cunning at the same time. Milo saw the queued flight patterns which Diego had loaded in. They might actually make it.

An explosion occurred in the distance, the view screen polirising itself to shield them.

“First nuke down!” Milo said. “Some of their ships are starting to lock targets on us. I am compensating with our weaponry. Weapons are loose on both sides!”

A rumble went through the Final Sight.

“That one just glanced off the hull, you need to be quicker,” Diego said. “I am not dying today.”

“I am doing my best.” Milo pulled his focus back to the consoles. The software tried displaying the most important threats, but when the threats were that plentiful, it had difficulties filtering correctly.

“Hold on! This will get rough. They cannot shoot us if we are too close, right?” Diego said.

Milo shook his head. “I don’t know! You have served in armed conflicts on this ship and in the Navy. You should know.”

“As a medical officer, not a pilot. Screw it. Hesitation will kill us, as the Capt’n would have said.” Diego leaned into the sticks, willing the ship to fly faster.

Vibrations permeated through the ship. Warning signals flashed across the consoles and proximity alerts flipped on. But Diego held their course steady. Milo felt his heart beating hard underneath his ribcage and sweat trickled down his face. Maybe it would have been better to stay in his lightning form?

“We will be breaching the dock in ten seconds,” Diego said. “Get to the rear airlock, I will send Claire as well. Get our Capt’n back.”

“Ayay.” Milo left his console and the bridge in strides.

He closed his fists and looked into his mind. None of the deposits were distinct, not even the one with water, which had been easily accessed before he overloaded The Breach. A worrisome fact, but not a disaster. He was worn out and his deposits had been diminished when he had been trapped inside the circuit board’s pathway. But there should be enough fuel in the water deposits, even so. It had been as drained as the others. Very well, he would have to drain some from the ship’s grid on the way. He stumbled around the final bend, but recovered before planting his face on the wall.

“Hurry! We are almost there,” Claire yelled, already standing inside the airlock and inside her sleek combat suit. The sword gleamed in the overhead lights. They would open it in a pressurized and breathable environment, so the airlock’s usual cycle had been overridden.

There was an access hub on the airlock’s inner wall. He went to it and opened it easily.

“I need some juice,” Milo said, exposing one of the cable’s inner cores. “I need it.” He placed his hand on it.

Nothing.

“What?” Milo grabbed the exposed cable with more force.

Nothing.

“Are you feeling anything?” Claire asked.

“Nothing.” He grabbed it with even more force. “Come on! Drink the electrical energy! I am the conduit.”

A hammer-blow to the head and he landed on his ass on the floor.

Claire knelt down beside him. “Are you alright?”

“My head hurt. My brain is throbbing in pain.” Milo closed his eyes and massaged his temples. “I tried draining from the electrical grid, but nothing happened. So I tried harder. Then boom. And now the pain will not stop.”

Claire handed him a laser rifle, it felt strange in his hands. “Your lightning would have been great, but if it doesn’t work, this will.”

“I will not behave like an asshole junkie looking for his next high, at least,” Milo said, deflecting the matter. But this was serious. Why would his power not work? Draining from external sources had always worked and had been his best comeback strategy in any fight. He couldn’t find the deposits and he couldn’t drain from a source. What had happened with him during his entrapment in the circuit board?

“Kneel behind me and you shouldn’t be hit by any incoming fire,” Claire said and positioned herself in front.

Milo followed her instructions and lined the rifle forward, using her combat suit for balance.

The door slid open.

Sam ran across the dock floor with combat suits at his heels. Their laser cannons were spun up and spewed beams after him, striking around him and glancing off his cybernetically enhanced body. Milo had not seen him fully decked out like, since the transformation had occurred after he had been trapped in the circuit board. Sam ran faster than any unpowered man had ever done before, his cybernetics giving him strength and agility.

Claire’s laser cannon spun up and the superheated beams spewed out its barrels. “Shoot, Milo!”

“Sorry.” Milo squeezed the trigger on the rifle, aiming for the guards chasing after Sam.

The gap between their ship and dock floor was too high. There was no way Sam would make that jump. No way.

“We need to descend closer,” Milo said, one of his beams glanced off a combat suit’s helmet. But his words were ignored by the crew.

Some of the combat suits changed their aim. Milo flinched as the red lasers struck over their heads, raining sparks on them and lighting the airlock in red.

Sam jumped.

It looked as if he flew high into the air, impossible high even, and floated through the gap with the laser beams impacting his back. Claire turned and pushed Milo to the side, Sam landed into a roll and crashed into the bulkhead wall.

“Go!” Claire yelled.

The door slid closed and the Final Sight rose away from the dock and the pissed off guards and their discharging laser cannons.

“Hold on,” Diego said. “This will be rough.”

“Blue?” Sam sat still in the corner, stunned by the revelation, his eyes wide open in surprise and his voice weak. “What? You are alive?”

Milo smiled at his friend and nodded, tears trickling down his face.

Claire pulled Sam to his boots. “We are needed at the bridge.”

“Of course.” Sam stepped forward and hugged him. “Let’s go. Milo, how can you be here? You died.”

“I leveraged the reactor and our lives, but my experiment worked. And I was correct. He had been trapped inside the circuit board’s pathway,” Claire said, ushering them along.

Sam didn’t let his eyes away from Milo as they moved towards the bridge, the Captain could barely believe that it was true. He had returned seemingly from death.

“You are a hero, Claire. Thank you so much,” Sam said.

A terrible rumble went through the length of the ship.

“We have to survive this first.” Claire was the first into the bridge and she grabbed a seat beside Diego, giving him a pat on the shoulder. “I need to get out of this suit.” Seams grew on the back of Claire’s seams before segmenting and folding to the sides. “I NEED to get out.” Claire let the rig fall down to the floor as she exited it. She puked.

“You, okay?” Milo asked.

Claire waved a finger at him.

Diego grabbed her shoulders, but his face was calm. “Dear, Claire. This is what you have done to us, Sam. The last time you pulled her with you on a mission, she contracted ptsd,” Diego said.

“Ohh, Claire, hang in there,” Milo said.

“We are not out of here yet. Even if we had nukes left, they will not fall for that trick again,” Diego said.

“We are not dying today,” Sam said and grabbed his Captain’s seat, his consoles lit up, not even providing a comment on Claire’s wellbeing. “Diego, give me full gun control. We are not dying today.”

Milo took a seat between Sam and Claire, his console lit up, but there was little for him to do other than observing the battlefield on the display. Sam wasn’t going to delegate or share gun control. There was fire in the Capt’n eyes, he didn’t want the reunion with Milo to be wasted by letting them all die. Milo observed how Sam’s railgun shots crippled drive cones and shattered weapons platforms, every shot struck true. The few laser beams that their weakened reactor allowed detonated nukes prematurely. Diego ran through sequence after sequence of Leo’s original flight patterns, dodging the threats that would have blown them into pieces and the railgun shots that would have cut them in half.

Their distance to the chasing ships and Europe13 grew. A few minutes later and they were in the clear, the city’s defenders had stopped chasing them. It simply cost them too much to give chase.

“That was some real fine flying, Diego. You are wasted as a medical officer.” Sam pushed away his console and stepped up. “Now for a real goddamn hug.”

Milo met the hug and hugged back.

“You are back. Goddamn,” Sam said.

“Yes, I am,” Milo said. “And I am here to stay.”

“Guys, I don’t want to be a buzzkill, but I need to show you something,” Diego said. “We picked up news feeds as we went so close to Europe13. You need to see this.”

The crew gathered behind Diego and his console.

“Play it,” Sam said, keeping his hand on Milo’s shoulder. “Nothing can put a dent in my mood today. This is the best day in a very long time.”

Diego played the video feed.

A man was floating several meters above the street, in the city of New York. Saif. It was Saif. And the man held his arms to the sides as if he was Jesus himself coming down to save humanity from their torment.

Sam’s grip on Milo’s shoulder tightened. “How can he be flying? Can he mind control the camera? Is this authentic, maybe the footage has been altered.”

“It’s not altered. The feed is real,” Diego said. “Watermarked and kitted with all the tricks to keep it from being altered. It’s tamperproof.”

“Tom must be in that crowd and he is keeping Saif afloat with his telekinesis,” Milo said.

Then the audio came through.

“Your savior is here. Emperor Saif is here. You all know me already, as the unifier of mankind and the Emperor who will save us all from the coming alien invasions,” Saif said as he landed on the asphalt.

The crowd went wild with standing ovations and roars. Everybody cheered him on. There was not a frown in sight.

“Goddamn. They really believe in him,” Sam said, talking over the feed’s audio.

Saif pulled out a knife and slit his own wrists. “Taste the power of your Emperor. Taste my blood.”

“Maybe he will kill himself. That would make our lives that much easier,” Milo said.

Saif waved his arms, drops of blood landed on the faces in the crowd and whoever was struck went wild. They roared crazily, smudging the blood across their face and licking their lips. The cuts in Saif’s arms kept bleeding and his skin paled. “Rejoice, I will save you all.”

“He is hurt for real. Look, he is slowly bleeding out, but there is no concern on his face,” Milo said.

Saif held his arms up and in plain view, closing his eyes. “Vault the hurdle!” The wounds knitted themselves together and the bleeding ceased, the color returned to Saif’s face.

“He healed himself,” Milo said. “Rachel is nowhere to be seen and no one is close enough to touch him. He healed himself. He has gained a new power.”

“I am your Emperor!” Saif yelled and his skin flowed into a continuous layer of sparkling diamond. The crowd roared with eardefening levels at their Emperor.

“Goddamn. He can turn his skin into diamond, too? How can he learn new powers?” Sam said.