Valley of Fires: A Conquered Earth Novel (The Conquered Earth Series) (53 page)

The static in Holt’s head died. The light from the panels was replaced with the golden wavering light from the entities that had been inside them. Hundreds floated toward the column of energy in the center of the room, absorbing into it. They were retreating. Holt thought about firing at them, not that it would do much good, but Zoey’s pained scream grabbed his attention.

Zoey spasmed as something
pushed out of her body,
glowing with brilliant blue and white energy. An Assembly entity, and there was more than one. Two more pushed out, one after the other, and as they did, Zoey’s face scrunched in pain.

The entities floated toward the Nexus, and the little girl fell limp in the machine’s grasp. The woman next to her fell to the floor.

“Zoey!” Mira yelled, scrambling toward her. Max barked and ran too, recognizing the little girl. Holt pushed to his feet, his head still full of fog, but he didn’t care.

They skidded to a stop in front of her, Holt’s and Mira’s hands moving to the clips that held her hands and feet, and she fell like a rag doll into their arms. They lowered her to the floor, and she lay there limply. Smoke rose from her body, and her skin had a sickly gray-blue tint to it. She was hurt. Badly. Looking at her, Holt’s heart rose into his throat.

“She’s not breathing!” Mira shouted in a cracked voice.

Holt pulled the little girl to him, parted her jaw, clamped her nose, and breathed into her mouth. He pressed on her heart, finding the notch where the rib cage met in the middle of the chest. Then repeated. Again. Again. Again.

Zoey shuddered as her chest rose, filling with air as she took giant breaths, her body filling again with life. Holt sat back with relief.

“Oh, thank God,” Mira said, leaning in. “Zoey?”

The little girl said nothing. She just lay there, her body still smoking. She may have been alive, but she wasn’t conscious.

The black, metal floor shook as Ambassador stepped closer. It rumbled and then a beam of green energy shot from one of its diodes. Instantly, Zoey’s breathing calmed, but her eyes still didn’t open.

“Why won’t she wake up?” Mira asked to no one in particular. “Why won’t she—”

“Because she’s dying,” a voice said next to them. The woman lay crumpled against the machine now. She looked almost as bad as Zoey, but Holt could tell she was beautiful. In fact, looking at her, it occurred to him she looked exactly like Zoey, though many years from now. “And it’s my fault.”

“How?” Holt asked. “You were trying to help her.”

“Too late,” she only said. For a split second, Holt thought her eyes sparkled with slight golden light, but he couldn’t be sure.

“There has to be something we can do,” Mira said, almost begging.

“There is one thing,” the woman replied, looking toward the column of energy. “Get her there.”

“The Nexus…” Mira said with a note of awe.

“Yes,” the woman said. “But you have very little time.”

“Who
are
you?” Holt asked.

The woman looked back down at Zoey’s still form, as if the answer to the question was somehow connected to her. “My name … is Rose.”

The walls around them suddenly began to shift; the best way Holt could describe it was that they reformed themselves, growing and stretching, making new walls that completely sealed off the Nexus from where they were.

Holt’s eyes widened, realizing what was happening. So did Ambassador. The machine charged forward and slammed into the walls, but it didn’t make a dent. They kept closing. In seconds, the Nexus was sealed away. They’d have to find another way there.

More walls shifted, new openings appeared, and Holt saw strange, twisting hallways of the same black metal. In the shadows there, things rushed toward them. Plasma bolts flared to life and Holt leapt and covered Mira and Zoey. More flew their way, but Ambassador landed on top of them, its shield blocking the ordnance.

Holt could hear more walkers coming … and the distinctive whine of Seekers. This room was about to be very hazardous.

“You have to hurry,” Rose told them, her voice worried. “You have to get Zoey to the Nexus.”

“How?” Mira asked. More plasma bolts sparked against Ambassador’s shield.

Rose looked at the opposite wall. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

The same thing happened as before. The walls shifted and morphed, made a new opening, with a twisted hallway beyond.

“Through there,” she said, focusing. “Follow it to the main expanse, you’ll know it when you see it. From there, the Nexus will be visible. Do whatever you must to reach it. I’ll hold the opening as long as I can.”

More plasma sparked against Ambassador’s shield, and Holt could see it was weakening, beginning to flicker. In fact the machine in general seemed weaker somehow, its movements slower, its lights dinner.

Holt stared at Mira, and they silently reached an agreement.

“You’re coming with us,” Mira announced.

“No…”

Holt sprang to his feet, and pulled Rose up. “
Yes,
” he emphasized.

“You don’t understand,” she said almost pleadingly. The opening in the wall near them remained open. “I’ve made … mistakes.”

“Join the club,” he told her. “Think of it as an opportunity.”

“For what?”

“To make it right,” Holt said pointedly.

Rose stared at him a moment more … then made her choice. She bent down and picked Zoey up in her arms.

“I can—” Mira started, but Rose cut her off sternly.

“I
have
her. Follow me.”

They moved for the opening in the wall. All … except for Ambassador. The machine stood where it was, its flickering shield absorbing the impacts from dozens of plasma bolts. Holt could hear the whining Seekers buzzing toward them.

*   *   *

“AMBASSADOR!” MIRA YELLED, BUT
the machine stayed put, its eye just stared at her, bobbing up and down.

We will hinder them,
it projected, and there was a feeling of finality to it. It would hold the Assembly off as long as it could, until its shield failed and its hydraulics died and when that happened, Mira knew, it would not rise. It would go dark. Forever.

The truth was, they couldn’t outrun the walkers that were coming, much less the Seekers. As brutal as it was, they needed this sacrifice, and that only made the pain worse.

Her eyes welled, she stepped toward the machine. The emotion she felt surprised her, for this thing that was so inhuman, yet had been with her through everything, had supported her in more ways than she could name. She remembered that night under the aurora, the wavering bands of color. Ambassador … was a friend, and this was the last time she would ever feel its presence.

She lay her head on its armor, let everything she was feeling pass through to it.

Ambassador rumbled, low but soft, as it felt her emotions.
Never have we felt this. Except for you.

“I will
never
forget you,” Mira said, her voice breaking.

Good-bye, Guardian …

“Mira…” Holt’s hand gently touched her shoulder.

Mira lifted up, stared into Ambassador’s red, green, and blue eye one last time …

Then the machine turned and bounded toward the oncoming Mantises. She watched the plasma bolts spark into its shield, watched it flicker and die, but still the walker charged ahead.

It slammed into the first three, blowing them apart, and rushed into the rest of the attackers. More plasma fired, the Seekers swarmed it … then Holt was pulling her through the opening, and the walls morphed and sealed the room away, and Ambassador was gone.

Mira forced all the emotions away, made herself focus. She had to, for Zoey.

The five of them ran down the hall, Max leading the way, Zoey limp in Rose’s arms. The route twisted and turned, a strange tunnel that eventually spat them out into the Citadel’s main expanse … and it was breathtaking.

The scale of the interior was beyond massive. It was a world unto itself.

As she watched, strange black cases flew up and down a complicated rail system. Platforms too, bigger ones, loaded with walkers, moving them between one part of the Citadel and another.

She saw other things. Daises built along the walls and attached to various interior superstructures. Factories, warehouses, repair bays, landing platforms.

Thousands of gunships streaked through the air. An equal number of walkers marched like ants along every walkway and platform, and they were all firing their plasma cannons at one another. Explosions flared everywhere, and Mira could see pieces of the Citadel falling into the dark in burning scraps.

And in the middle of it all rose the Nexus. If what Ambassador had told her was true, that the Nexus was, in its own way, the creator of the Assembly, she wondered what it felt now, watching the violence all around it. Was it disappointed? Horrified? Did it even notice?

Rose kept moving, running onto a giant walkway that headed down to a factory platform. When they reached it, she could see hundreds of half-finished machines in various states of construction. They dashed through them, moving toward the edge of the dais where it ended close to the Nexus.

“That thing can save her?” Holt asked. Max was running next to Rose, whining and staring up at Zoey. “You’re sure?”

Rose hesitated. “It is where she needs to be.”

“What does
that
mean?” Mira asked now. “What is Zoey going to do?”

“Save all of us,” Rose simply said. “But she needs your help.”

Plasma fire sparked around them. Holt pushed Mira down against one of the incomplete walkers, and pulled Max close. Rose ducked down with Zoey behind a welding machine.

Holt rammed a new magazine into his Sig. “What do we got?”

Mira peered over the top and saw what she expected, stomping toward them on eight huge legs. “Spider.”

“Grand,” Holt intoned, then looked at her. “All I can do is distract it. Max and I will pull it away.”

“Holt—” Mira began with dread.

“Just
listen.
Max and I will pull it away, then you and…” Holt turned to Rose … and saw she was
gone.
She stood at the edge of the dais now, staring downward, Zoey in her arms.

Mira started to rise, but Holt shoved her back down as plasma blew holes in the dais around them.

“Rose!” Holt shouted.

The woman turned for one brief moment … then simply stepped off the edge and fell out of sight.

Max barked wildly.

“
Zoey!
” Mira yelled in horror. She struggled, trying to break free from Holt, oblivious to the plasma searing the air, the explosions rocking the distant walls.

The dais shook as the Spider stomped toward them. Mira heard the distinctive hiss of missiles launching, and felt Holt pulling her up. They dove for cover behind another incomplete Mantis shell, pulling Max down, as the ground where they just were exploded as the missiles impacted.

Mira could feel the heat from the blast, and the combined firepower being leveled at them was massive. She shut her eyes and buried her head in Holt’s arms. He held her tight as the world disintegrated.

Then there was a strange mechanical clicking. One of the huge platforms used to transport the walkers rose up from below, surrounded by a dozen blue and white Raptors.

Mira’s eyes widened in shock. She heard Holt suck in his breath.

“Son of a b—”

The cannons on the Raptors screamed to life, spraying their own plasma forward. Mira flinched … but none of it hit her. That’s because it wasn’t aimed at them …

The giant Spider behind the walker stumbled back, covered in plasma bolts from the gunships. Missiles fired next and explosions flared all over the machine. In just a few seconds, it buckled and collapsed into a flaming heap, destroyed.

The gunfire ceased, but the whining of engines remained.

Mira opened her eyes and saw the Raptors hovering around the platform. On one of them, balanced on the fuselage, were two figures. Rose and Zoey. Zoey stood in the center, her eyes glowing with golden energy, holding hands with Rose. She looked at Mira. Mira looked back.

“Hi, Mira…” Zoey said. Mira felt her emotions begin to ignite and spread.

Then the golden light in Zoey’s eyes faded and the little girl collapsed to the platform.

48.
LOVE

THROUGH THE PAIN,
Zoey was aware of only two things. A thick, electriclike oscillation in her mind, that slowed her thoughts and kept control of her body at a distance. She could barely move, and her insides felt … wrong. Like tiny parts of her had been scrambled up and put in the wrong places. She was badly hurt, but it was always going to be this way. She had made her bargain, and the time to finish it was here.

The second thing she noticed was some kind of furry creature. She could hear it whining, could feel its warm, wet tongue on her cheeks.

A small smile formed on her face. Zoey opened her eyes and saw the dog that had become her friend hovering over her protectively, staring down into her eyes.

“The Max…” Zoey breathed weakly.

Her vision was blurred, images seemed to twist and distort. It wasn’t something that would get better, she knew. The entities inside her were gone now, but they had done their damage. She could barely detect the Feelings, they were just a weak set of sensations now, and getting weaker by the moment, just like her. It made her sad, feeling them diminish and fade. They’d become a part of her, a friend in their own way, and through her experiences come to believe in her. They did what they could, and hopefully it would be enough.

The blurry sight of the two people who moved toward her gave her faith that it would.

Zoey couldn’t see their features anymore, but she knew them both. She could sense the same mixture of emotions coming from them: relief at finding her, guilt at not doing it sooner, anger and anguish at how hurt she was, and of course … love. They loved her and she loved them. It was why she needed them.

Mira and Holt swept the girl into their arms. Max barked and jumped back and forth.

“You found me…” Zoey heard herself whisper.