Mane-of-Night And The Wayward Child - Chapter 15

Las Vegas Boulevard North...

I give the Yafornian no reason at all to feel threatened as I approach, but neither do I show any weakness, my pace unchanged, unfaltering, whether I'm crossing unbroken road surface, or stepping over yawning rifts, supported by my telekinetic abilities. My... adversary, on the other hand, doesn't appear capable of weakness, standing almost twice my height, and I currently have no idea how much of his power is his own, the gift of the Var, the masters of his distant ancestors, and how much comes from the armour he wears.

I stop just out of reach, and look up at him, exhibiting neither fear nor aggression. The stage is his; all I need to do is give him his cue...

"You know who I am", I begin.

"You are Mane-of-Night, Lady of Mystalorn", the giant replies - he sounds intelligent enough, and nothing like the driven warrior I'd expected. "You were involved in freeing Yafornis from the scourge of the Dracbrood. You helped to turn back the rise of the dead. You were a vital part of our defence against the alien power that tried to manipulate us. For these things, I am in debt to you..."

He bows, but it's a hollow gesture. "...but that changes nothing", he continues. "I have my duty, and a task that must be completed. There is unauthorised product on this world, and I am the authorised recovery agent. Mardul of Yafornis, Operative Zero - it is my duty to recover the product, and ensure that it is properly disposed of."

I'm outraged that Mariella is being viewed as merely "product", fit only to be "disposed of", but I hold back my anger. There has to be a way to talk some sense into this man, make his realise that there are times when fulfilling Talona's desires isn't the right thing to do, or the only thing. "We are not talking about a malfunctioning Shadowpet, or a sub-standard copy", I tell him. "What you call 'unauthorised product', I call the last refuge of a living mind, a beautiful spark of life that someone tried to extinguish, but The Grand Tichandryx chose to overstep the bounds of his agreement with Lady Talona to save that spark..."

"I have my orders", Mardul responds flatly. "I have been given this chance to prove myself of value to my world, my city, my mistress, and I shall not fail."

"Let me speak to Talona", I ask him. "Surely, she will understand..."

"I am not authorised to open communications channels", Mardul interrupts, flexing the huge fingers of his armour, but not quite curling them into fists. "I have been granted full autonomy on this mission. I do not need to clear any of my actions with either The Lady, nor The Shadowpets Corporation. A communications link is unnecessary."

He sounds almost robotic, but he is a living being. Despite his considerable psionic shielding, I can detect a living mind - one that doesn't seem to be entirely intact. He feels... distanced from the rest of the universe, for some reason, as though life as the rest of us know it is somehow out of reach for him...

"But you do have a link to your home-world", I observe. "A... tether, for want of a better word. A filament of magic, passing through a narrow dimensional aperture..."

"Any attempt to interfere with Recovery Agent equipment will be counted as an act of aggression", warns Mardul, bending down to bring his face closer to mine. "Stand aside, or I will be forced to place you on the Red List..."

I had hoped to use the "tether" to make telepathic contact with Talona, but with those words, Mardul changes the field of play, and the range of options open to me. The tether reminds me of a "sport" some on Earth indulge in - they find a high place, attach themselves to strong, elastic cords, and jump, allowing themselves to be catapulted back upwards as the cord reaches the limit of its extension - can I perhaps "stretch" the tether enough to send Mardul hurtling back to his universe of origin...?

"No matter what I do, this planet will still resist", I advise him. "Is this entire world going on your 'Red List', too?"

"I have been granted full autonomy", declares the giant, coldly. "I require no outside clearance."

"Well, I can't let you do that", I respond, sliding my thumbs closer to the activation pads of my energy whips. "These people are entirely innocent."

"They are Tall Ones", snarls Mardul. "They are never innocent!"

That statement tells me all I need to know. The diminutive people of Shadow City have had a long and bloody history of mutual hatred between them and their larger "Tall One" neighbours, but for Mardul, the hatred is more than just an expression of that ages-old antipathy. For him, it's personal - this duty that has been assigned to him has given him a chance for good, old-fashioned revenge.

Mardul stands up straight, fists down near his waist, knuckles touching, his gaze directed over my head and down the Boulevard. "As a gesture of respect for your actions in defence of my people, I will give you one one-hundredth of the time it takes this planet to complete one axial rotation to bring me the unauthorised product. Once my mission is completed, I will have no reason to remain."

One one-hundredth of an axial rotation - about fifteen minutes, standard measure. A lot can happen in that time - including, I hope, Talona coming to her senses. She has to be watching, and for that reason, I stand my ground, gazing up into Mardul's unflinching face - neither of us is going to give way to force, and I'm praying that reason will prevail...

The flow-regulation platform, seventy-one miles above the North Pacific...

An incredible maze of technological marvels revealed itself as Durash Fortain led the way from the landing pad down into the heart of the massive machine girdling the vast column of sun-bright energy connecting the "Earth" to the stars, but Bert took in none of it, the whole of his attention locked on the arrogant artist. All the hooded man's woes, the entire fabrication that was his existence, he owed to the tinkering and vanity of an uncaring alien being, and even though it went against everything Bert believed in, all that the false existence he was just beginning to rediscover had been built around, the urge to murder was becoming increasingly difficult to resist.

Fortain had said that he intended to end the threat of the entities he called "bio-probes", and that promise was the only thing keeping the alien alive.

"Yes... yes, this looks like the place", said Fortain as the group entered a chamber that appeared to be some kind of control room.

The man Lee Croxley referred to every now and then as "The Traveller" went over to one of the instrument panels, and passed that strange, over-sized compass of his over the buttons and display screens. "Close, but not quite", he said to Fortain. "Phase constriction attunement - you'll be looking for the master array, if you're going for the same effect that we got before."

"Not entirely", Fortain responded, in thoughtful tones, as he studied another console, "but you may be on to something. A direct interface with the master array should grant me access to the necessary systems..."

The Traveller seemed to know too much about all this incredible machinery, and Lee Croxley seemed far too comfortable in the stranger's company for either of them to be trusted, and that left the girl, Irinati. She seemed curiously unmoved by events as they unfolded, and the only thing that came close to engaging her attention was Bert himself...

The girl's concern was welcome, but Bert couldn't let sentiment cloud his thoughts. When the world was safe, when Fortain was no longer a threat, maybe there would be time for Irinati to help him find some modicum of peace.

Fortain and The Traveller led the way through more winding passages, around and through great slabs and blocks of unearthly machinery, devices perhaps thousands of years ahead of human comprehension, yet there was something about them that gave an impression of great age. It did not stretch credibility that much to consider that the origins of the huge humming engines of mystery might stretch back to a time before civilisation, maybe before even the moment when mankind first stood up straight.

The passages eventually led into a great gallery, with a forest of great cylindrical columns. These were more than sufficient to support the ceiling of the chamber, but that was not their sole function, as became clear when they were seen to be moving, sliding up and down and rotating slowly in their near form-fitting slots. Now and again, the dull, brassy surface of one or several of the columns would become briefly transparent, revealing a core of seething, dazzling energy...

Irinati mumbled something about "convergence", and reached out towards one of the transparent sections, but Fortain slapped her hand away. "Touch nothing, child", he spat, angrily. "The outer casing shifts in and out of phase - your hand will go right through into the energy stream."

"I... I didn't mean any harm", the girl replied, meekly. "I... I..."

"To do any damage, you'd have to be made of anti-matter, or super-dense grey star material, to even make this mechanism notice you", the banelorn told her, with something of a sneer. "You'd just become a fleeting impurity in the energy feed - and I'd prefer you made yourself useful, keeping our friends Gilbert and Croxley out of my way. This body doesn't allow me the luxury of eyes in the back of my head."

Irinati retreated, and Bert felt it was only proper to return the girl's previous gentle gesture of support, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. The mysterious young woman appeared to draw some peace of mind, and maybe a little confidence, from that fleeting physical contact, but not enough of either to impose herself upon the situation as Fortain and The Traveller set to work, darting back and forth between the pillars, adjusting one or more of the circular controls that appeared under their hands as they touched the surfaces of the massive columns.

"You said 'convergence', earlier", Bert whispered to her, allowing himself to be distracted just once. "Wh-what did you mean?"

"All things, all events, come to be as a result of convergence, or divergence", the girl answered, sounding much more in command of her faculties. "I'm sensitive to them - quite how, I'm not certain - and this place is a great crossroads of living convergence. It's... hypnotic..."

"And do you see that in people, too?", asked the hooded man. "Do you perhaps see those things, those events, that converge to make a person who they are?"

"We are all born of convergence, two coming together to make another", Irinati said, smiling - but the smile quickly faded as she remembered exactly who was hearing her words. "Oh - I forgot... I-I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay", Bert told her. "I'm a convergence, all right, but in a different way - Fortain's creativity, the bio-probes... this place. I would never have existed were it not for all that coming together."

Bert threw his hood back, and grasped Irinati by the shoulders. "And then I caused convergence", he said to her, with a hint of triumph. "Those who needed help, shelter - I did that, myself, not because of Fortain!"

The man with half a face looked across at the orchestrator of the world's enslavement, and instead of utter hate, Bert felt something most curious - the artist seemed to be in exactly the right place, precisely where the past and future determined he should be... and a single word escaped from his half-sealed lips. "Convergence..."

"You see it". murmured Irinati, her gaze also centred upon Fortain. "Beautiful... but not yet complete..."

"An interesting approach", The Traveller remarked at that precise moment, as he peeped around his column, and his eyes met those of the banelorn. "Are you sure you need that much power...?"

"One can never have too much power", Fortain replied, with a smirk, and Bert could feel the threads of convergence drawing closer together, the point at which those threads would become one edging closer to the alien artist...

Las Vegas Boulevard North...

Four minutes to go, and events are starting to slip out of control. The sky is growing dark, and turbulent, like a great storm brewing at many times normal speed - and Mardul doesn't like it. "What is this?", he growls, taking half a step towards me. "An attempt to use the planet to attack me...?"

"I have no idea what this is", I respond, with total honesty, standing my ground. ***Traveller? What's happening? Something is interfering with the atmosphere...***

The flow-regulation platform, seventy-one miles above the North Pacific...

The Traveller glanced around his column at Fortain, an accusatory gaze directed at the banelorn's back. The explorer had had his doubts for some time, and he had already directly questioned the artist's actions, but the telepathic query from Mane-of-Night struck like a bolt of lightning, fusing all those fragments of distrust into a whole.

"Fortain, what are you doing?"

"Making good on my promise", replied the banelorn, not looking up from his work for a moment. "I will free the people of this world from the bio-probes. Unfortunately, the most effective way to achieve that goal is to disable the energy-stream's focus-lock..."

The Traveller knew immediately what that meant, and he went to confront Fortain - but the Omnisensor, in passive mode in his pocket, bleeped urgently as he approached the banelorn, and The Traveller stopped in mid-stride, then edged back a step. "...the mechanism that ensures that the dimensional aperture through which the stream passes remains centred on the crater", Fortain continued, without pause. "Without it, the aperture will remain fixed while the planet rotates, and the energy-stream will slice the planet in half. A rather crude solution, I'm sure you'll agree, but if the planet is destroyed, all suffering will cease. I said I'd save the population from the bio-probes, but I didn't say how."

Irinati tried pulled away from Bert, but the main with the ruined face held her back. Lee started towards Fortain, but The Traveller warned him not to go any closer. "He's shielded", said the adventurer. "Some kind of active defence field..."

"The fellow who created it called it 'the Medusa Shield'", said Fortain, looking away from the controls just long enough to direct an arrogant leer towards The Traveller. "No living thing can penetrate it, and survive. I'm sorry, dear fellow, but I'm not about to let others take advantage of all my hard work - if I can't have this world, then no-one will."

"But you'll die too...", murmured a horrified Irinati.

"Of course not, my dear", chuckled the alien artist. "I have a space-craft - which you were all kind enough to bring me. If you'll all so accommodating as to step back, and let me get on with what needs to be done, I'd be happy to give you a ride to the nearest inhabited world..."

"But if you had this 'shield', then how did the bio-probes manage to capture you?"

The question came from Bert, but Fortain didn't realise that as he answered. "Because the shield works by irreparably fusing the neurons in the brain, melting them into a solid, inactive mass", he declared gleefully. "Bio-probes don't have brains as we know them, and so they're... unaffected..."

Fortain's triumphant words tailed off. He looked up, an expression of abject horror on his narrow face. "Oh damn..."

Those were the last words Durash Fortain was able to utter before Bert came charging through the invisible shield, locking his arms around the banelorn's waist. Together, they slammed against the control column, and after a moment's struggle, both tumbled through a transparent section of the pillar, and fell into the blazing torrent of energy within. Banelorn and bio-probe smeared against the surface of the energy stream, and then both were gone, utterly destroyed.

"No!", gasped Irinati. "No..."

That expression of sheer desperation, the sound of a gentle soul confronted by the stark reality of death, pierced The Traveller through the heart, but he knew this was not the time to try and comfort her, or allow Lee to provide her with a shoulder to cry on. "Mister Croxley, I'm going to need you!", shouted the explorer. "Fortain may be gone, but we still have to stop what he set in motion, and I will need another pair of hands!"

"I... I don't understand any of this!", Lee shouted back. "This isn't throwing together a web-page, or installing a graphics card!"

"Understanding isn't necessary", The Traveller replied, directing Lee to the controls Fortain had been working with. "Just do exactly as I tell you..."

"Don't worry", said Irinati, wiping tears from her face. "I can help - I can see what's needed."

"Convergence?", queried Lee, and the girl nodded vigorously.

Lee looked to The Traveller, and received a confident grin in return. Suddenly feeling as though he could never put a foot wrong, Lee took his place at Fortain's column, and with Irinati beside him, the young man set to work to save his world....

Las Vegas Boulevard North...

Two minutes...

The clouds, low, almost black, with flickers of fire dancing behind them, are rapidly filling the sky now. I haven't received a response from The Traveller, beyond a wordless acknowledgement and a brief flash of anxiety, but I have to believe he can deal with this without my help, for I already have more than enough demanding my complete attention...

"You have no intention of giving me the product", mutters Mardul. "You are playing this game to keep me here, so that your allies, the artificial entities, can carry out an attack against me, using this world's environment..."

"I have no allies here", I inform him. "If you were to ask them, the bio-probes would inform you I am as much their enemy as you are - together, we have destroyed thousands of them. Your conflict with them threatens this whole world, and its people - the former is of great concern to the bio-probes, and the latter are effectively helpless. Only by promising to end this have I been able to convince the bio-probes to withdraw."

"And you trust them?"

"In all honesty, no", I reply, "but so far, they have proved true to their word."

Mardul gestures towards the sky. "So, how do you explain this?"

"I can't", I tell him.

"Perhaps they do not trust you", growls the giant. "Is it too outlandish to suggest that this might be their way of ensuring that they win, no matter which of us prevails?"

"That is a possibility", I grant him. "So let's not give them reason to unleash this 'weapon' - we retire from the field, in peace, denying them a victory by denying them a battle."

"And the product?"

"I will deliver her into the custody of Lady Talona in person", I respond. "I will be present at all times to ensure Mariella's well-being. If necessary, I will work with the Shadowpet Corporation to arrange for her mind to be transferred into a body that does not have any copyright issues..."

"I am not authorised to make such decisions", interrupts Mardul. Damn it - that was my best shot; all the concessions I was prepared to make - and abide by - in the hope that, just maybe, I could get this giant to exhibit some trace of independence, or compassion. I had everything to lose, and that's just what I've lost, and in Mardul's eyes, I now appear weak, powerless...

Unless...

There's the "best shot", and then there's the "desperate shot" - in American Football, they call it a "Hail Mary". "Then there is no point in talking with you any further", I declare, turning my back on him. "If you have no authority, there is no longer any reason for me to waste my time with you."

The sky shudders with thunder overhead as I start to walk away, rattling any windows that are still intact in their frames. They call it a "Hail Mary" in that prayers are said for its success - and maybe only the gods can intervene to prevent catastrophe. The gods, or maybe one man, called The Traveller...

The North Pacific...

"There's too much power in the system", muttered The Traveller. "I can't shut it down...!"

Lee Croxley took his eyes of his control panel for a split-second, and saw the adventurer, eyes clsoed, his forehead pressed against the column in frustration - and then the young man felt Irinati's hand on his, shifting it further up and further to the right. "Divergence", she told him, firmly.

The Traveller heard this, and at once his spirits soared again. "I can't shut it down, but I can bleed energy out of the circuit, redirect it...!"

"Wha-what are you doing?", spluttered Croxley, even though he knew he didn't stand a chance of understanding.

"What I thought Fortain was going to do", exclaimed The Traveller. "Recreate the distortion wave that originally broke his control over the Zeta-men! Last time, it was an accidental side-effect, but now that I have access to the control matrix from this whole system, I can fine-tune it, refine it - make it self-perpetuating...!"

"You can zap the bio-probes?"

"I can 'zap' the bio-probes", the adventurer cried out. "Zap them clean off the planet - turn the energy-stream into one massive bug-zapper...!"

Las Vegas...

The conditions were getting so bad that Brenner was about to order the helicopter to set down when, all of a sudden, the storm-clouds started to part, welcome rays of sunshine pouring through, down onto the battle-ravaged streets. Far below, on the Boulevard, he could see two tiny shapes, the smaller of the two moving away from the larger...

"Hey, look at the bio-probes!", exclaimed Mariella da Silva. "They're moving...!"

The Air Force Captain wondered if this was a sign that Mane-of-Night's plan had failed, and she was retreating to allow the battle between the bio-probes and the armoured giant to continue - but the artificial entities were not advancing... they were rising into the air. Singly, then in clumps, the individuals and clumps joining up into larger masses the size of airliners, and bigger - in seconds, their total volume was great enough to block out the sun, casting much of northern Las Vegas into darkness...

This is a Class: Critical Order. All bio-probes - commence evacuation immediately. All systems under attack, data... d-d-d-d-data pathwaaaaaays c-c-c-compro... compromised. Abandoning analysis...

***I hope this makes life a little easier for you, My Lady. Compliments of Durash Fortain - may he rot in The Soul-Wastes...***

The Traveller's voice is a welcome visitor to my head, bringing my attention to developments that most definitely play in my favour. The "storm" breaks before it's properly begun, releasing the afternoon sun from its prison of unnaturally dark cloud, only for it to disappear back behind a cloak of blackness as something rises to take the place of the cloud-bank. My eyes take a moment to adjust, my mind a few more to assimilate it all and come to terms with what's happening - the bio-probes are taking to the air, combining into a single colossal sphere, growing bigger and bigger as it rises into the sky...

"They are leaving", says Mardul, calling out to me from back down the Boulevard. "I have been monitoring their data-channels since I arrived, and it appears that a self-sustaining dampening field is now spreading across the planet. This world has suddenly become poison to them..."

I hear heavy footsteps behind me, picking up speed: "...and now, that means that you are all that stands between me and the completion of my mission...!"

I power up both my energy whips. All right then - we fight.

...to be concluded...

Posted at 15:57 on 19.11.2009


~ o O o ~


Previously...
Mane-of-Night And The Wayward Child - Chapter 15 - 19.11.2009
Mane-of-Night And The Wayward Child - Chapter 14 - 17.11.2009
Interlude: Another Mosaic Of Soon-To-Be... - 15.11.2009
Mane-of-Night And The Wayward Child - Chapter 13 - 12.11.2009
Mane-of-Night And The Wayward Child - Chapter 12 - 10.11.2009