XXXVIII.
The Tevat – 200 Years Later
Vagari opened his eyes, eyes that burned with nebulitic light, eyes as bright as a thousand stars. He understood now, the “gift” the Mother had given him. It wasn’t at all as the great dragon of the lake has suspected, some secret power bestowed upon him by Nintu’s grace. No, what they sensed, what they thought was a blessing of her power radiating from him, was the Goddess herself within him – her body and soul laced within his own and the one of her design, Abaddon. Vagari could see the truth of it now, the truth of him, of his shape and form. He wasn’t an amnesic Abaddon, a broken design in need of being remade, and nor was he the living ghost of Eddy Valentino, haunting that alien form. No, he was the trifecta of three beings, a holy trinity of man, homunculus, and god.
The strings tugging at his back, tying him to a hidden past, an unknown history, he could see them now – he could see her, that ever haunting her. Sephora’s face was as clear as day, smiling widely as she danced in the warmth of the summer sun. He could hear the glasses clink together, a toast to their wedding at their favorite bar. He could hear Malcom singing his praise, drunk off his ass in the background, and Carla calling bullshit on every one of his lies. They all smiled and looked on fondly. But most importantly he saw that he was never not in control; he had never been the puppet of some greater thing. It had been chains he felt, not strings. They were the chains of guilt, chains of failure, and the chains of confronting the past – the chains of the ghosts he refused to embrace. And now, the chains had fallen away. He wasn’t who he thought he was, what he thought he was. He accepted it, understood it. He wasn’t beholden to the past, to a man that was only a fraction of who he truly was, in both time and body. He was none of them, none of who they were. He was Vagari, not a man of the past, out of time and place in the new world, but one designed for it, one built to confront the present and the future. And there they were, face to face.
The gelatinous Synbio lurched towards him, viscous arms reaching out for the killing blow. It seemed to move so slow in his mind, that despite it’s clear intent it was hesitant to his touch. Vagari raised his arm and felt the flow of eons course through him, a formerly untapped river of being. “Hengnis,” he commanded firmly, reaching out with mind, body, and spirit. They touched and the creature’s relentless pursuit of him was over in an instant. Flames as blue as the sky consumed the abomination wholly in a flash of hellfire that left no shadowed place left in that grand hall. In an instant the light produced by the flame scoured away the darkness and left naught but ash when it faded. “I – I don’t understand… What are these readings? What’s happening…” Xu’s parasite shouted from the intercom, his rage and thrashing heard echoing through. “What are you and why won’t you die?! All remaining units onsite, enter the bay now! Kill him! Kill him for the Mother!”
The doors at the inward side of the bay opened and with them a flood of Xu’s creatures poured in. There were dozens of them, more than he had ever encountered before, and the headcount just kept rising by the second. However, Vagari did not falter. He rose. With wings unfurled he took to the sky, though they stood still at his back. The seemingly unending cosmic energy coursing through him was what propelled him higher, lifting him from the ground with no more effort than a thought, his will made manifest. Though static, Vagari’s wings glowed bright against the looming shadows around him as the pneumatic energies gathered within and without. Crackling bolts of amaranth electricity danced across his skin, tracing out the magics written into his very being – symbols of the power unlocked. For a moment he stared down at the symbols etched into his flesh, symbols older than even Adamic. He knew not their meaning, but knew what they represented – destiny, the right to command, divinity. The bindings of mortality fell away like the chains before, far and distant. In that moment, he was to them as Nintu had been to him all those years ago – above and beyond, a GOD among men. And realizing this, he uttered those first two words as she had, those words biblical, “I AM.”
The encircling army stood firm and fired their light-rifles, all of them. Over two-hundred beams cut up through the blanket of darkness beneath his feet, rising up towards Vagari like a meteor shower in reverse. With but a flick of his wrist he caught them, pulling each and every beam into an twisting orbit around him, into a swirling maelstrom of light. He clapped his hands together and, instantly, each spear of light was returned to their origins with devastating effect. Not a single one missed their mark, making sure there would be no second volley.
Each and every one of Xu’s Synbio soldiers fell dead to the ground, just like his hope of escape would. Vagari could hear him and his parasite raging over the open intercom, at first at him and then at each other before it abruptly cut feed. “Good,” Vagari thought wrathfully; it was about time he knew fear of the inevitable. There would be no escape for Xu this time, Vagari promised himself that. And now, with his newfound power, he would see that promise through – for Alto, for Soprano, for Trois, and BP. He could feel it all, all their rage, their sadness, of everyone Xu had trampled on in his mad and futile quest to awaken the goddess Nintu. Their spirits propelled him forward as much as his own, and before Vagari ended Xu’s vile life for good, he would make sure he felt them as well.
Vagari shouted, letting his intent echo out across the chamber. The steel bones of the Tevat quaked with the power of his voice. Though their communication had been severed, Vagari could tell that Xu had heard him – the doors at the far end of the hall began to slam shut with blaring red lights above. “No. No escape,” Vagari commanded, reaching out again before pulling back with all his might. The sealed doors groaned and began to buckle outwards. He let out a scream as he fought a losing battle against the might of the reinforced plasteel blast-doors. Vagari grit his teeth, focusing his pull to just one door, and it screamed in return as he tore it free from it’s pressurizing frame.
Their way in was secure now, but with it, Vagari was feeling drained. He could feel the power fading from him by the second as he drifted slowly back down to the cold steel floor. He fell to his knees, the unfathomable depths of galaxies gone from his eyes. The power of the Goddess wasn’t spent, however, that he could feel. It was just dormant, asleep again deep inside – a muscle sore and torn from being overused for the first time. It would strengthen in time, he was sure of it. And as sure as he was, there was a fear that accompanied it. The power had been overwhelming, both in the strength it had granted him, and the strain on his being, in every sense of the word. He hadn’t felt himself, not truly, but some greater thing above all things, and that scared him.
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Vagari sucked in a gulp of air as the gravity of mortality sunk back down upon his shoulders. It was a heavy weight that left him lightheaded and dizzy, if only for a moment before he pushed himself to his feet. The world around him was dark again, all save for those flashing red lights at the far end. Once more he cursed his lack of night-vision, but he knew where he was going all the same. There was a scent in the air, just below the smell of burnt bodies and boiled biomass. It was the cocoon, BP’s shield from all this. Vagari followed it, stepping gingerly through the ruin and carnage around him. Climbing up, he quickly found where the cocoon had attached. Sliding his hand over it, he could sense her sleeping inside, her mind calm and at peace now that the mutational horror had been dispatched
The shell cracked at his touch, it’s energy spent keeping her hidden from view. BP spilled out the side and onto the roof of the container before Vagari scooped her up into his arms, waiting for her eyes to open. “What… what happened?” BP croaked, shuffling in his grasp. “Are we safe now? Oh – dang… My head… It hurts like crazy, but… I can think again. Is… Does that mean it’s gone?”
“Yes, it’s gone,” Vagari answered with an unseen nod. “A lot has happened that I’ll have to catch you up on later, but the creature is dead. We’re safe for the moment, but we can’t stay here.”
“Right – right… But how?” BP asked, rubbing her bulbous eyes. “Jeez – that may have been both the worst and best sleep of my life… Felt like forever – ugh.”
“Honestly, I’m not really sure how,” Vagari admitted. “It kinda feels like a dream now, but I saved you. Just like I said I would. Still owe you a few though.”
“Right, but who’s counting?” she replied with a snort as she wriggled free and to her feet. “Gross… I’m all… sticky… But, this is no time to be worrying about that. Xu, he’s still out there, right? And the people he stole?”
“Yes, he is,” Vagari answered, “but we’re not going to let him escape twice. Lets go get him and bring them home.”
“Sounds like a plan,” BP returned with a huff. “Lets get to it then!”
Carefully they descended to the ground. BP didn’t ask about the bodies hidden in the dark, but Vagari could tell she knew they were there with the way her grip tightened in his as they crept by towards the flashing red lights. As the pair stepped through the crippled doorway a long brightly lit white hall stretched out before them. Both shielded their eyes as they stepped into it.
“Welcome UNKNOWN ID, and UNKNOWN ID,” blared an gratingly cheery sounding A.I. voice over the ship’s speakers, “to the Tevat – your new home away from home! We know you must be eager to start your new life as one of the chosen First Seeds, but before that, if you haven’t already, please register at one of our four Social Service Stations in Hanger Bay A. From there you’ll proceed to Turbo-Lift 1 which will take you directly to the Medical Deck for your preliminary examinations! Thank you for your patience and have a very nice…”
The feed cut off with a static hiss, replaced again by an open mic. The pair could hear stressed breathing as they made their way forward, and then a heavy sigh. “I’ve always hated that damned voice,” Xu announced dryly, “from the very first time I heard it, the day my… ‘mother’ dragged me onto this abominable thing. So cheery, so welcoming… Tch – just like every charlatan selling snake oil. They all were, everyone on board, even when we painted Mars well and truly red. So hopefully blind. You know there’s no winning this, right? No matter what you do here today. You’re simply just not on the winning side.” Xu paused his monologue for a muffled and pained wheeze. “I was raised on this ship, you know? And the happiest day of my life was when it came crashing down.” He tried to stifle another wheeze but only invoked a coughing fit instead. “Come to the bridge. At the end of the hall, Turbo-Lift 3, the center one, will get you there directly. Nothing will stand in your way.”
The intercom clicked and went dead. Vagari balled his fists, his heart racing faster and faster with each step he took down the hallway towards a series of numbered doors at the end. Was Xu giving up? He doubted that greatly. “It’s a trap, right?” BP asked curtly. “No way it can’t be… But, something sounded off besides, didn’t it?”
“Definitely sounded a little more worse for wear than he did a few minutes ago,” Vagari noted with half a frown before suggesting, “Maybe he and his parasite had a falling out? Before you woke up they sounded like they were at each other’s throats… less literally. How’s your head, by the by? Can you reach out, sense anything?”
“Awful…” BP croaked with a groan, “but I’ll try…”
Pausing their march, BP steadied herself with a hand pressed against the wall of the glossy white corridor. She closed her bulging eyes tight and reached out with her mind, feeling for anything she could. But, after a moment, she shook her head. “Nope, not a thing…” She answered with a bit of a confused tone. “This ship, it goes on for miles. It feels unending. But, as far as I can sense, there’s just… Nothing. Not even us.”
“Well, it was worth a shot,” replied Vagari with a sigh as he looked the walls up and down. “That… thing did scramble your head pretty good back there. Might be something about the ship as well though. Some kind of shielding perhaps. At any rate, just… stay behind me. Okay? Just in case there’s any nasty surprises ahead.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice!” she exclaimed with a huff. “Can’t save you if I’m the one getting hit, right?”
Vagari laughed and offered her a genuine smile before pressing forward on down the hall. The hall itself soon broke open into a circular room and the pair found themselves surrounded by doorways. Each one was lettered with “TBL” and an accompanying number – 1-12. It was just one of many turbo-lift junctions that spread out throughout the ship like veins in the body. Each and every led to unknown places in the impossibly large ship, a true feat of engineering that would probably take years to fully explore, Vagari idly thought as he scanned the room inquisitively. Maybe once everything was said and done, he decided, they might come back for salvage – that would keep his coffers full for a few more lifetimes. But for now, they only had one door in mind: TBL-3, the one that was supposedly a direct route to the bridge, to Xu waiting there for them. “Surely it’s a trap,” Vagari thought out loud, to which BP replied with, “I can’t imagine it being anything else at this point, honestly. But, what choice to we have?”
“None,” Vagari answered before stepping up to the lift. The doors parted with a hiss, reminding him all too much of his descent into the cruelty of Site-B, but more so of the last time he was human, before he fell victim to his own hubris. “I wonder how Maui is this time of the year…”
“Pffft – weird thought,” BP rasped with a huff. She eyed him up and down for a moment and then said, “What exactly happened back there, Vagari? Something… Something’s changed about you. You feel different. Better – if that doesn’t sound mean…”
“I don’t know about better,” he replied with a chuckle, “but… changed, yes.” He stepped into the lift and motioned her to follow. She did and the doors closed behind her. “Something… awoke within me – a power. I don’t really understand it just yet, so beside that, that’s all I can really tell you. But, I promise to try and explain everything once we see this through. For now, lets just focus on that… Keep your back to the walls and hold on tight, we’re in the home stretch now. This is it. Are you ready?”
“I’m ready,” BP answered assuredly, wrapping her arm around the lift railing. With a exhale she nodded sharply and then said, “Once more into the breach…”
“Once more.”