On Galaxy's Edge: Ascendance (15 page)

The screams lasted for hours, but weren’t heard by anyone else. Just the two aliens that remained in the room with the human, one of them silent, the other asking the occasional question.

****

Nero slowly walked along, listening to the man next to him, but watching the sky above. It was rare to have such a clear night, and he could see the many constellations of stars above him. There was the Yeb, and to the north of that, there was the Barrel. The Cre was west of that.

“... they do respect you,” Jerad was saying. “But the Nostra are getting to them. They’re worried.”

His attention brought back to their discussion, Nero looked away from the stars, and towards Jerad instead. They were outside their base in the mountains, walking over the rocks and sand that surrounded the area. Occasionally they would pass a small animal that bolted away from them, soon lost in the darkness. Otherwise, there was no sign of life whatsoever, except for a very faint glow on the distant horizon.

“They shouldn’t be, Jerad. The Nostra are aggressive, but they’re not as big as they used to be. They have their informants, I’m sure, and I have some of my own. I keep telling you guys they’re no real threat.”

“Yes, I believe you Nero. And so do Tal and Nate. But the men, well, they just hear about the ones that go missing, and then they get your assurances that they shouldn’t worry. It doesn’t bring back the ones that go missing, Nero.”

They came up to a large boulder, and by mutual assent turned around to head back to the mouth of the cave. “Okay, Jerad. I’ll do something about it. We’ll see if we can’t send them a message, okay?”

Jerad nodded his approval, and both of them carried on to the cave in silence, each savouring the rare moment of peace and tranquillity.

When they did finally get back to the cave, Nero left Jerad to have dinner with the men, heading to his shuttle himself. He had found his thoughts returning to Ami repeatedly since spending the night with her, and earlier had finally decided to call her. Somewhat to his surprise, she had answered, and had sounded pleased to hear from him to boot. They had promptly arranged to see each other again, with Ami suggesting they visit the ‘theatre.’ Not wanting to reveal his roots, Nero had agreed without having a clue what it was.

Climbing up the boarding ramp of the shuttle, Nero went over to the flight controls and punched in the city as the destination. It didn’t take long to get there, and soon enough Nero found himself landing on the Scraper that Ami had directed him to.

It was unlike any other Scraper Nero had seen. Instead of having a simple flat roof, this Scraper had what looked like giant, multi-hued wings reaching up and over the building. They were made of some sort of semi-transparent material, flexible enough that they moved slightly in the strong gusts of winds. Where these wings swept down to join the building, there was a grand entrance, with a curving staircase made of some sort of grey-white material that Nero wasn’t familiar with. In all, the effect made him feel a bit out of place.

With the engines off, he descended the boarding ramp, and headed towards the entrance. Walking between some of the other ships parked on the roof, Nero couldn’t fail to note the craftsmanship of the vehicles. Though most of them were of a similar size to Nero’s own - after all, Nero had borrowed his from a Scraper resident - some were much larger, and looked as if they were designed for flying long distances in space. The sparkling-clean hulls suggested they weren’t used for that purpose, though, and they were so finely designed it looked a shame to subject many of the ships to the dirtiness of space travel.

Once Nero had descended the grand, curving staircase, he emerged into a large foyer. Hanging from the ceiling were great lighting units, each a few metres across, which illuminated the room. Compared to the scale of many Scraper buildings, however, the foyer had quite an intimate air, with a few separate areas dividing the space up. To Nero’s right, as he stood taking in his surroundings, was a restaurant, and to the left was a bar.

It was to this that Nero headed, having seen what looked like Ami’s back, once more perched on a bar stool. The bar itself was pretty crowded, and Nero had to squeeze his way between the guests dressed in their finery, mumbling an apology here and a ‘pardon me’ there.

“I’m feeling a little under-dressed,” he said when he was finally stood behind Ami. She turned to look up at Nero, a welcoming smile on her face.

“You know, it’s customary to turn up to these events a good hour beforehand as well. Looks like you’re getting it all wrong today,” she said, the sly look in her eyes taking any sting out of her comment.

“Yeah, well, I like to do things differently. Makes life a bit more interesting, wouldn’t you say?”

“Quite,” she replied, turning around to order Nero a drink.

There wasn’t much time for him to savour the drink - a pink concoction that immediately sent his head spinning - before a loud pinging sound filled the foyer. Initially it sounded to Nero as if his morning wake-up alarm was going off, but it looked like the people around him heard the sound too. He gave Ami a quizzical look, to be met by a small laugh.

“The show is about to start, Nero. Never been to the theatre before?”

“Something like that,” he replied, swiftly getting up to avoid the conversation going down that route. He held out his arm for Ami, who graciously accepted it. He was still none-the-wiser as to what the event was, though.

The crowd of people seemed to know where they were going, however, so Nero was able to be swept along with the crowd. They were led through the foyer, passing through a gigantic set of carved metal doors, held open by attendants, and entered a second, smaller, foyer. In this room, just visible over the heads of the other guests, were ten doors. The group of people divided as people made their way to the different doors. Nero gave Ami a glance.

“We’re on level seven, Nero,” she answered, in response to his unasked question. Turning back to the doors, one on the right of the room had a large, glowing ‘7’ above the door. They headed that way. Once the crowd had slowly moved out of the way, they were greeted by a projected screen of orange light covering the doorway. The people in front of them passed through with no issues, however, so Nero didn’t hesitate when it was their turn.

“It checks for registered guests,” Ami explained, guessing at Nero’s uncertainty. “I registered myself plus one.”

“Sure, I knew that,” Nero replied, glancing at Ami. She laughed in response. “Of course you did.”

The corridor they were in circled downwards, taking them down for what felt like a few levels in the building, finally opening up onto one of the more astonishing sights Nero had seen. In front of them was a gigantic circular chamber, at least ten stories in height. Around the outside were rows and rows of seating, all looking out into this chamber, and already nearly filled with the other guests. Filling the chamber were swirling multi-coloured lights and small figures, hovering in the air with seemingly nothing supporting them. Looking closer, it struck Nero that they must have been holographic projections filling the chamber.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Ami said as they walked forward, along the level to find their seats. “I couldn’t find any words to describe it the first time I went to the theatre.”

“No...” Nero muttered, struggling to find a coherent response himself.

“Wait until you see the show itself. This, this is nothing in comparison.”

Nero looked Ami in the eyes, seeing the excitement there. It was a strange world he was in at the moment, he reflected. Nothing like the rest of his life, nothing like what he grew up with.

“Are you okay?” Ami asked, apparently seeing something in his eyes.

“Fine. Are these our seats?” Nero asked, Ami having paused beside a couple of vacant chairs. She glanced at them, nodding, and they both sat down, looking out at the flowing streams of light before them. The humanoid figures hovering in the chamber appeared as if they were riding the streams of light, controlling them somehow. The effect was strange, and a bit magical, even if it was all artificial.

“What is it you do, Nero?” Ami asked, a strange look still on her face. Nero glanced at her, carefully looking into her eyes.

“Why do you ask?” He returned his gaze to the chamber in front of them.

“I’ve never met anyone like you before, Nero. You’ve never been to the theatre before. You have these augs. You’re... different.”

“Different. You could say that.”

“You mentioned you were in the trade business when I met you, but, my brother has interests in that arena, and he’d never heard of you.”

“Checking up on me, were you?” Nero asked, a slight grin coming to his lips. “I probably trade different things to your brother. What does he do?”

“He runs a robotics factory, and trades metals, electronics, that sort of thing. When there’s no trouble, of course,” she said, tailing off.

“Trouble?”

“You must know how it is. The, er, the Nostra. They always want a share of things. My brother sometimes struggles to run things with them... interfering. You aren’t troubled by them?”

“Sometimes. But I often avoid their notice, as it were,”

“Right, because you trade in a different area.”

“Right.”

“So you’re not going to tell me what it is you do?”

“I think it’s best you don’t know, Ami.” He gave her a significant glance. “But maybe I can help your brother. Sort things out for him, you know.”

Ami gave Nero a piercing look in return, before directing her attention back to the chamber. The ambient lighting was beginning to dim, with most of the patrons now having found their seats. “He would certainly appreciate any help, Nero. I would too. If you can.”

“I’ll look into it.”

With the production starting, they sat in silence, their attention now focused on the chamber, on the streams of light that were now retreating to the sides. It made the chamber look like it was a giant tube lined by light. Nero felt inside a pocket, in search of a small transparent packet he’d placed there. Finding it, he dug out it out. Inside were a small number of red pills.

Nero took one out and placed it in his mouth, before offering the packet to Ami. She looked down, a questioning look on her face.

“Try it,” Nero whispered. “You’ll like it.”

She reached into the packet, and retrieved a red pill for herself, giving it the once-over before placing it in her mouth. Nero put the packet away, and returned his attention to the show in front of him. He settled back, ready to enjoy himself.

CHAPTER SEVEN

NOSTRA

The midday sun blazed down on the desert, reflecting back up from the pale sand to intensify the heat even more. There was nothing living down there, except for a few small creatures that managed to escape the harshness of the sun. Above the ground, an old shuttle flew a few metres above the surface. It was going slow enough, and low enough, to avoid too much notice. The occupants didn’t know what sort of defences might be set up, and they weren’t taking any chances.

The ship itself was nothing remarkable, with a battered exterior that looked as if it had seen many decades of use. The ion engines at the back were emitting some sort of vapour that suggested they hadn’t been maintained well, if at all. It was still flying at over seven hundred miles an hour, though, so the four hundred mile journey hadn’t taken very long. The ship was now approaching where the occupants expected their destination to be, however, and had slowed down to only a couple of hundred miles an hour.

At last, the ship’s pilot saw the mountain range up ahead. This was it, the alien thought as the ship approached. It was a large mountain range, stretching off into the distance both left and right. Glancing at the holodisplays around the cockpit, the pilot couldn’t see any signs of danger. No weapons were locked on to them, and there was no sign of any surveillance. “Perhaps they’re not as advanced as we thought,” it muttered.

Once the ship was near the mountains, the pilot banked to the left and flew parallel to the mountain range. The mountains were remarkably featureless, with almost nothing growing on the slopes. It was just sand, interspersed with a few sand-coloured rocks. After a few minutes of flying alongside the mountains, the pilot noticed what appeared to be a small hollow in the side of one of them, some distance up the slope. Angling the ship towards this area, the hollow turned out to be a gaping hole in the side of the rock. “Ah,” the pilot said. “There you are.”

Slowing down, the pilot directed the ship near to the cave’s entrance, and carefully brought it down onto the sand and rocks nearby. The ship’s computer fine-tuned the maneuver, preventing the ship from landing awkwardly on any of the rocks and boulders strewn about the area.

The pilot cut the engines, and opened the boarding ramp, allowing the hot desert air to flood into the cabin. It turned around to face the twenty vacso aliens it had brought with it.

“We’re here,” it announced, a gleeful smile spreading across its alien features.

****

Nero slept peacefully for once, his mind not clouded by thoughts of the past. He was dreaming of Ami, and of the new life he seemed to have found. For some reason, thoughts of Talyah kept invading his dreams, but these were quickly forgotten. He had become practised at selectively forgetting things. He’d been doing it long enough.

The sound of an alarm slowly invaded his thoughts. Not wanting to wake up, he dismissed it as an errant dream. It persisted, however, and only seemed to be getting louder. Then, slowly getting throw his sleep-deprived brain, he realised the alarm was familiar. It sounded a bit like... suddenly Nero was awake, and alert, as he realised what the alarm was. It was the proximity alarm. People were approaching the cave, people the security system didn’t recognise.

He leapt off of the couch, and not taking the time to put on his jacket, ran out of the rec area into the largest part of the cave. Already, most of his guys in the cave - about fifteen of them - were there, picking up weapons from the racks on the sides of the cavern. Momentarily pleased with the success of the drills he’d forced them to practise, Nero picked up a laser rifle himself, and moved towards the entrance.

Before they’d even moved into the cavern where the shuttles were kept, they heard the whine of laser rifles being fired. “Shit,” Nero muttered under his breath.

“Who went out there?” he demanded of his men, in a whispered voice.

“No one did. There’s no one out there,” one of them replied, with some of the others nodding in agreement.

“Then what...?” Nero breathed, continuing to listen to the sounds of laser fire coming from the other cave. The reasoning became clear soon enough. A huge explosion rocked the cave, causing a few rocks to dislodge from the ceiling, raining down onto the cave floor. A bright flash - blue and orange - lit up the tunnel leading to the outer cave, heat rushing in to the inner cave briefly.

“The ships!” one of Nero’s guys yelled.

“Shouldn't we stop them?” came Nate’s cocksure voice from behind Nero.

“I’ve no idea how many are out there, Nate. We have to wait ‘till they’re in the tunnel, concentrate our fire.” Nero continued to listen to the sounds of the weapons. In a detached moment, he reflected on how well built the shuttles were, to protect the fuel cells for this long. Then, sure enough, the sound of a second explosion rocked the cave, as the second shuttle exploded in a flash of blue. Nero looked away as the hot air rushed into the cave again.

“Okay, get ready,” Nero said, thankful that the third and last shuttle wasn’t currently in the cave. They waited, listening intently for the sounds of footsteps. Nothing came. There were no sounds at all, no hint that anyone was even in the other cave.

“What’s taking th--” one of the men started to ask, and was abruptly cut off as the blue flash of a laser lit up his chest, the high-intensity energy piercing through him in an instant. He fell backwards, a slightly startled expression left on his face.

Before anyone could respond, a barrage of laser fire erupted out of the tunnel. It came from everywhere, spurting into the cave like a beautiful river of death. Nero’s men dived away, most managing to avoid the deadly light. The ones nearest the tunnel aimed their own guns and returned fire, hoping that they’d hit a target. The odd grunt emerging from the tunnel suggested at least some of them had hit the mark.

Nero glanced at his men, noting at least three bodies already collapsed on the floor. He continued firing, aiming roughly at where the blue flashes of light originated from. Then the attack stopped. The tunnel went back to its pitch black state, once more silent.

“Did we get them?” one of Nero’s men asked, a hopeful note in his voice.

“No...” Nero answered, surprised at the retreat. Then it clicked. “Back!” he yelled, turning on his heel and running away from the tunnel entrance. The others followed, and not a moment too soon. A faint clinking sound followed them, coming from the mouth of the tunnel, and then there was a blinding flash of white and orange light as the whole cave seemed to explode. Nero was thrown forward on a wave of scorching heat, hard enough that the stabilization augs built into his hands activated to stop him crashing into the floor too forcefully.

He jumped back up in time to make out a number of humanoid figures running out of the smoke-filled tunnel mouth, though the explosion had knocked out the lighting in the cave, making it difficult to see. Glancing at the rest of his guys, none looked to be back on their feet, or even able to stand back up yet. The force of the explosion had obviously been even greater than Nero had realised, his augmentations having shielded him from the worst of the effects. He turned to face the intruders, their outlines picked out in his holoscreen display. There were nine of them. And Nero had lost his laser rifle in the blast.

“Come on then,” Nero whispered. “I’ve been meaning to try out these augs.” He crouched in the darkness, and slowly approached the nearest vacso.

Before he could get very close, the alien spotted him. Evidently it had a night-vision system of some kind. Nero dived to the right as the alien raised its weapon, narrowly avoiding the blue beam of light that hit the ground near where he had been half a second before. Carrying on his momentum, Nero rolled and leapt up to the alien’s left, and before the alien could bring around its rifle, Nero extended the carbon blade from his arm, quickly and cleanly slicing open the alien’s throat. Nero felt the warm liquid touch his arm, the sensors relaying the feeling to his nervous system.

Running to the next alien, Nero jumped high, his augmented legs bringing him high above the alien, and came down right in front of it, the blade in his arm slicing deeply into the being’s shoulder. It fell away, backwards, as Nero spun to face the alien bringing its weapon up to point at Nero’s side. He kicked out, the metal leg moving with such force that it knocked the alien’s head clean off, leaving just some bloody strands of tissue flapping from the stump.

The other intruders had noticed the display by now, and were running over to where Nero stood, raising their weapons as they did so. Their weapons were all highlighted in flashing red in his holodisplay, in case he hadn’t noticed the danger. Just before they fired, Nero ran forward, his legs giving him an unnatural burst of speed, and ploughed into two of the remaining aliens, holding out his arms as he did so, and letting the glistening blades slice open their two necks as he passed. To those watching he looked like a bloody angel of death.

He kept running, not turning around until he’d reached the far side of the cave. The four remaining aliens had only just turned to face the direction in which Nero had disappeared, and it looked like they’d lost sight of him. Good. He moved slowly around the side of the cave, keeping an eye on the aliens in the darkness, and watched them move over to check on the two other aliens now lying on the floor, in pools of their own blood.

A groan came from halfway across the cave. Nero glanced at the source of the noise, to see one of his men stirring. “Shit,” he breathed, looking back at the remaining aliens. They had heard the sound as well, and they were all now looking at the man lying on the ground.

Nero moved, running forward again. Four at once would be difficult, but it should be possible, he hoped. But before he neared them, he noticed a large table. It had nothing on it, but it did give him an idea. Stopping beside the table, he picked it up, his arm augmentations helping to lift the heavy piece of metal. He turned to face the aliens, who were approaching the man on the ground, and took a few steps towards them.

Grunting slightly with the effort, Nero hurled the table towards the group of aliens. It went sailing through the air, covering the distance to hit three of the aliens. Two of them, nearest to Nero, were knocked to the ground, whilst the third was pinned under the table where it came to rest. Nero heard a crunch even from this distance.

Before the table even hit he was running again, and quickly managed to dispatch the alien remaining on its feet with a swift punch to the face. He felt the alien’s face collapse inward as his fist mashed up its head, thick blood spurting out from where he made contact. The two aliens on the ground were just as easy to kill, each dispatched with a simple heel stomp in the head. That left just the alien trapped under the table. Nero walked over, breathing only slightly heavier than normal.

By this time, most of his guys who had survived were coming around, and starting to stand up. It was still dark, but there was just enough light around for them to make out some details. They could see the forms of bodies littered around, but couldn’t make out who they were. And over there, there was someone standing up, their eyes faintly illuminated by a holodisplay. Nero.

Nate was the first up and standing next to Nero, who was stood over the alien under the table. Nate glanced down, to see that the alien was still alive, and conscious, but trapped under the weight of the table. “What happened man?” he asked, glancing around the cave, even though he couldn’t see much.

“Hmm?” Nero queried. “Oh, the explosion knocked you guys out. I had to deal with them.”

“Deal with them?”

“Yeah, there were nine of them. They came in after they threw the grenade,” Nero said, looking at Nate.

“So you just...?”

“Dealt with them. It wasn’t too hard man. Though maybe you could take a nap afterwards, next time... Might make it a little easier for me.”

Nate grinned. “Well, I’ll consider it. Looks like you managed to handle it reasonably well without me, though,” he said, glancing down at the alien under the table.

“I haven’t decided what to do with this guy yet,” Nero said, answering Nate’s unasked question. “I think we’ll leave him here for a while. Can you find some lighting for us?”

“Sure,” Nate replied, going off in search of some portable lighting. Nero turned to see how the rest of his men were doing. Four of them had been hit by the initial barrage of laser fire, and it looked like another three had been killed by the grenade. Their bodies were severely broken and burnt, and it was obvious that none of them were still alive. Of the rest, it looked as if most had just been knocked unconscious by the blast. Many were already back on their feet, though a couple were still on the ground. Conscious, but not standing up yet.

“Zea,” Nero said, spotting one of them, who had more medical training than anyone else. “Take a look at these guys,” Nero said, indicating those still lying on the ground.

“Certainly boss,” the middle-aged man replied, having just stood up himself.

With the adrenaline that had coursed through his body dissipating, the reality of what had happened was starting to hit home for Nero. He’d lost at least seven of his men, two of his shuttles, and this base was certainly compromised now. He thought back to what Jerad had been talking about the other day, about dealing with the Nostra.

He turned back to the alien under the table. It still hadn’t said a word yet. “Let’s get the formalities out of the way, shall we?” Nero asked the alien, staring into its piercing eyes. He leaned over and picked up the table, placing it back down on its feet next to the alien. “You’re Nostra, I presume?”

The alien didn’t say anything, but the anger in its eyes was answer enough for Nero. “I’ll take that as a yes. I take it you won’t talk?” Again, the alien didn’t respond. It just stared into Nero’s eyes. At that moment, Nate came back with a couple of portable light towers. He placed them on the ground and switched them on, producing a clean white light that illuminated the mess of the cave.