CHAPTER NINE
ROSLYN RESEARCH FACILITY: Heroes March
“Tanya, you’re gonna have to stop.” I could see the strain on her face, and I knew damn well she was pulling deep into her stamina.
It had been a little over four hours now, and Tanya had spent most of that time trying to heal the sick and the wounded, including her own mother.
“How far did you pull?” I asked as I helped her down onto a bench.
“Pretty far, Gavin. I’m sorry. I know that this puts more pressure on the team. But I had to make sure that she got that last round of treatment before we go.”
“It’s all right, just sit and rest for a little bit, okay? We have some time before we push back into the tunnel.”
I took a moment to look around at what used to be a cafeteria. The colonel and what was left of the Marine security detail were busy, lined up down a table. They were reloading magazines with ammunition and taking on supplies that Rosalind had phased out of the lower level. My father was over talking to the professor and ARi, and I looked down to find my mother grabbing my hand.
“Mom, when I’m gone I need you to do something for me. I need you to help Roslyn and Professor Giles convince the others to go into stasis.”
I looked at her for a moment, and I could see the strain on her face. “Please, Mom. I know Dad’s gonna want to stay out for a while, but if you go in, I know eventually he will too.”
“Gavin, I can’t leave your father out here,” she said, and I could feel her hand as it began to tremble.
“I’m going to be gone for a long time. It’s not going to be like it was last time. I want to know that I’m coming home to my family. I want to know that while I’m gone, you’re safe. You don’t have to do it right away. But promise me you will.”
She paused for a moment and took a breath before looking up and over at Tanya. Without a word, she took a tissue from her pocket, reached up, and dabbed some of the blood from Tanya’s nose.
My mother caught the quick glare I was giving her. “Gavin, I don’t understand how all this works yet. But I’m assuming that whatever this fine young lady did to heal her mother, has taxed her.”
She smiled softly at Tanya before sitting back. “And I’m sure I’m going to hear all about how ‘you’ve’ been doing the same thing the entire time you’ve been gone.”
Again, I glared over at Tanya, but she just shook her head in response. “I didn’t say a word.”
“No, and she didn’t have to. I know the man I married, and I know my son. Gavin, you’ve tried so hard your entire life not to be your father. But, baby, we can’t help who we are. You were always going to run off and do great things.” She took a deep breath, holding it in for a moment before releasing it. “We each have our role to play in this, don’t we?”
She let go of my hand and stood up for a moment, looking across the room at my father. He caught her watching him and gave her one of his corny winks.
I saw her attention go from my father to ARi, who was also looking at me from across the room. “Do you love her, Gavin?”
Again, I immediately glared back at Tanya.
Tanya just smiled. “You know, Gavin, for a smart guy, you’re kind of an idiot sometimes.”
Looking back at my mother, I realized that nobody had told her anything and that I had just told her everything. I looked back across the room at ARi.
I sighed. “Yeah, Mom, I think I do.”
A smile tugged at the edge of her mouth. “I’m happy for you, Gavin.”
“I’ll do as you ask,” she said, taking another quick breath and finding her resolve. “But not until I know that everyone is okay. Deal?”
“Deal,” I said as I stood up and gave my mom a hug.
I walked over to the other side of the room to join ARi. The group was standing around three mechanical drakes. They were circling Roslyn, flaring their fin blades as Roz demonstrated some of their capabilities. “I’m afraid this is all I’m going to be able to make for a little while.”
“They’re amazing, Roz. Under different circumstances, I would love to have ARi spawn Bishop. I think he would get a kick out of this.”
“Lilly would too,” Yumi cut in. “I hope she’s all right.”
ARi put her hand on Yumi’s shoulder. “I’m sure she’s doing okay, Yumi. The appendix said that water drakes live a really long time.”
“I know. I just wish the stupid bond thing would work across distances.”
All at once, Rosalind and ARi’s attention snapped toward the end of the corridor. The Marines had the doors open to the cafeteria while they resupplied and reinforced the barrier. Through the open doors, we saw multiple beams of red energy hit the wall from deep in the tunnel.
The two kobolds that had been guarding the entrance dove for cover, nearly getting hit.
Colonel Dimitri called the defenders to the barrier.
Yumi immediately respawned her shield drones. They zipped over everyone’s heads as they formed an energy shield across the width of the corridor. To my left, I heard the sounds of tables crashing. Tim and Kyle were already flipping tables to rebuild the makeshift cover that everybody had been using.
Charlie and Red were helping to move the children into the large pantry that only an hour ago had been filled with the sick and wounded. As they closed the door, Roslyn raised her hand and encased that room in a thick stone wall.
I grabbed my helmet back out of my inventory along with my spear, and I saw Desmond waiting by the doors, looking at me for instructions. “Desmond!” I pointed out into the corridor. “Shield wall!”
The kobolds formed into quick ranks and marched out the doors. They moved around the marines at the barrier, forming tight rows behind Yumi’s energy shield.
I let go of ARi’s hand for just a moment and moved over toward my mother on the other side of the room. I hadn’t made it more than ten steps before I heard her scream. I turned to look behind me as five of the six-legged spider constructs fell from the ceiling behind ARi and the professor. My dad turned on his feet, pulling his sidearm and emptying the magazine into the nearest construct.
The wraiths, phased out of the shadows and the wall, and fell on them, driving their daggers and darts into the bladed monsters.
Two of the wraiths were already cut down, bleeding out on the floor, and the sound and fury of the room became thick. Everything became muffled, the loudest sound—my own heartbeat—as I dove for ARi.
But I was too late.
One of the constructs had already climbed ARi’s side and driven its razor-sharp appendages in deep. I didn’t even see where she came from, as Hannah ran to ARi and ripped the construct off her. The alien machine pulled her to the ground in a tangle of limbs and whirling blades.
Tim’s kopesh swung inches from Hannah’s body, glowing in a bright orange streak as it split the construct in two.
Both Hannah and ARi now lay crumpled on the floor as blood pooled. My hearing and my senses had almost returned by the time I reached ARi, and I could hear Tanya’s screams as she ran to her sister.
Hannah was shaking, her mouth full of blood. “No,” she gurgled, choking on her words and pointing to ARi.
Tim knelt down next to Tanya, grabbing her by each of her shoulders. “Tanya, you have to save ARi!”
“I can’t save them both,” Tanya sobbed, shaking her head.
Kyle had run over to Yumi, whose attention had been on the corridor. He frantically pointed at ARi and Hannah.
They both looked back at me, and I nodded, knowing exactly what they intended to do.
“Do it, Yumi! Do it now!” I screamed as Yumi’s shield drones turned their field off and immediately screamed back into the cafeteria.
Tim forcefully pulled Tanya away from her sister as the drones formed a sphere around Hannah. “Damn it, Tanya! Heal ARi or we’re all dead!”
She looked at her sister floating in the timeless, gravity-defying sphere of energy and then back to Yumi.
“Tanya, I have her! Help ARi,” Yumi pleaded.
Tanya turned to ARi and the professor, who was also now kneeling, trying to hold his hands over her wounds. She just crawled and pulled herself over, placing shaking hands over her; I felt ARi flinch as she bore down on the pain.
When she stopped, ARi was weak and still hurt, but she wasn’t bleeding anymore.
“She’s not going to be able to move on her own,” Tanya said, trying to catch her breath.
Four kobolds ran up with their shields. “We will take the ward architect,” Charlie said. He gently placed ARi on the makeshift stretcher.
Rosalind’s projection suddenly appeared in front of us. She froze for a moment as she looked down at her sister. “Gavin, the timer for the cradle chamber will end in about 45 minutes.”
“I’m only going to be able to hold the sphere together for another 43,” Yumi said.
“Son, it’s time for you to go.” I heard my dad step up behind me, and he reached out to hand me my helmet. I must have dropped it at some point during the commotion.
“What about my sister? That’s not enough time. I still won’t have enough energy reserves to help her,” Tanya said as she wiped the blood from her nose.
“You’re going to take her with you,” Roslyn said.
I looked back at Ros. “Will that work?”
“I think so, Gavin. The Ascendancy mechanics clearly state that champions will be spawned at a hundred percent of their health and stamina. And when she comes back, she’ll come back just as you guys did, with your improved attributes and abilities.”
I looked up to Tim and Kyle and found them nodding in agreement, and then back down to Tanya, who was just looking at me with pleading eyes.
“Roslyn, can you take out the bipedal constructs in the tunnel? Without Yumi’s shields, those things will carve right through us.”
“Oh, I’m about to bring the pain!” she said as she pulled her hood up. “Nobody touches my sister…” Her projection disappeared and reappeared at the end of the corridor.
I looked back at my father, who was now holding my mother. “Go, son.”
Erica and Maddie formed up with their remaining wraiths around Charlie, Red, and the other kobolds who were carrying ARi.
Maddie had tears freely falling from her face. “I’m so sorry, Ward. I couldn’t protect you.”
ARi strained, her voice barely louder than a whisper as she reached for Maddie’s hand. “Not your fault.”
I raised my hand, feeling the energy tear from me. I spawned in two high-level wraiths and two more high-level Praetorian blade guards to reinforce them. I pulled on my helmet and took my spear from my inventory.
“Stay behind me. I don’t want anything even getting close to her! Do you understand?”
The cohorts immediately tapped their chests.
We poured out of the cafeteria as the survivors of the Roslyn Research Facility watched us go.
As my family watched me go..
The columns of kobolds pushed forward, spearing and tearing the six-legged spider constructs to pieces.
At the end of the corridor, I watched Rosalind step into the opening of the tunnel. Red energy beams converged on her. She raised her arms out in front of her, and seconds later snapped them together — the beams at the back of the tunnel stopped.
She stood there in front of the tunnel entrance as the rows of marching kobolds marched right through her projection and into the tunnel. As soon as all of us were in, I watched as the tunnel leading into the corridor was filled with solid stone behind us.
Rosalind’s projection appeared next to ARi and placed her hand on her chest. As the kobolds carefully carried her, Tim was helping Tanya, who was barely able to move on her own, with Yumi and Kyle taking up the rear. Yumi concentrated, moving the sphere with Hannah inside.
“I’m afraid that’s all I got, Gavin,” Roslyn said. I’m tapped out and you guys are going to have to fight the rest of the way through.
“It’s okay, Ros. We never would have made it this far without you.”
Standing in the front of the column, I saw Desmond raise one of his bronze blades. “Forward! His voice boomed through the tunnel. Forward brothers, And kill every last one of them!
The entire column surged forward, as the kobolds roared into battle. But as we pushed forward, the fighting took its toll.
We passed both broken constructs and the dead.
When we finally made our way to the vault doors at the front of the cradle chamber, we had made it with only minutes to spare.
“Gavin, I think we’ve destroyed all of the constructs that were down here. I backfilled the tunnels they dug but it’s not going to take them very long to regroup.” Roslyn said.
As the cradle chamber powered down, one of the wraiths pulled the release inside the wall, allowing Tim and Kyle to pry the vault door open.
Minutes later, we were inside, and Yumi carefully set Hannah down in an empty cradle.
I looked up at Tanya. “I know you want to see her, but we don’t have time.”
“Get in your cradle! All of you,” I said as I helped the kobolds get ARi into hers.
“Roslyn, thank you for everything!” ARi said from inside. Her voice was still gravelly and strained.
“You’re welcome, Sis. Come back safe, okay?”
Her projection faded, and I heard the sound of the vault door slamming shut as Tim and Kyle forced it closed.
I looked down at what was left of my cohorts. The fight had been brutal and we had taken losses, but that was something I was going to have to deal with later. I looked at Maddie and Erica, and then over to Red and Charlie.
It was at that point I realized that Desmond didn’t make it, and my heart broke.
I took a deep breath, brought up my interface, and pulled them all into stasis without any of the fanfare.
Tim, Yumi, and Kyle had already made their way into their own cradles, and I looked over at Tanya one last time. “She’s going to be fine. Trust me.”
She nodded hesitantly and lay down in her cradle. All of the cradle doors began to rotate, and we felt them start to rise away from the platform.
My heart ached as I thought about everything. It all happened so fast, and I can’t help but feel like we just abandoned them. Before I could reflect on it any further, I felt myself start to fall through the void.