Mane-of-Night And The Wayward Child - Chapter 10

Three minutes ago...

Lt Salieri was doing her best to try and defuse the situation, but Captain Brenner was steeling himself for the worst. The "bio-probes", as they called themselves, were insistent about entering the hotel to search for this precious "technology", but nothing Salieri could do seemed to stand a chance of changing their minds, and the best the Air Force could hope for was information, hopefully enough to allow the Air Force to tracked own the "technology", maybe even snatch it out from under the noses of these bizarre beings.

If the "bio-probes" wanted whatever was in the hotel that much, it had to be important enough to be worth having for the United States of America, if not the whole world...

Brenner was about to tell the highest-ranking member of his Airborne Infantry unit to get ready to go back into the hotel the moment there was any hint of what the "bio-probes" were after, when the St Clair Community Hospital was mentioned, and all of a sudden, the Captain knew what, or more properly who they wanted. "The da Silva girl", he gasped. "Go, Sergeant! Get in there, hold a gun to someone's head if you have to! Find the girl, then get her out of here...!"

The Sergeant had barely started to move when the "spokeswoman" for the bio-probes suddenly became agitated. "Rogue element detected!", "she" called out, pointing towards the lobby. "Anomalous unit must be purged. The purity of the core complex must be preserved!"

The 'zombies' started to advance, in such perfect step that it would have shamed any infantryman. Brenner took the loud-hailer microphone for Salieri, her part in the drama now played out, and he reiterated his earlier warning. "You are required to stand down, or we will be forced to act to protect the occupants of this building!", he called out. "Stay where you are, or we will open fire!"

The eerie creatures kept on coming. No hesitations, not one of them fell out of step.

Brenner took out his automatic side-arm, and fired in the air, over the heads of the advancing crowd. Not one of them reacted, in the slightest. The Captain thought back to the police report about the death of Rick Bailey - according to the closed-circuit security camera recordings, the man had been able to shoot and destroy two of the "bio-probes" before they somehow became resistant to bullets - and he realised that there was only one chance, one fleeting chance, to halt the advance.

The Captain looked across to the Infantry sergeant. "Take 'em down", he said, and shouted out the fateful order. "Open fire!"

The first row of the menacing creatures burst like water-balloons, a slick of green forming in front of the Airborne Infantry barricade as the bio-probes spilled their faintly glowing liquid contents. Several in the second and third ranks toppled over too, leaking profusely from gaping bullet-wounds in their rubber-like bodies, but then the bullets stopped having any effect, their targets changing from replicas of real people to approximations of human beings - just as Brenner has seen in the hospital security camera footage, in the moments before Rick Bailey died.

"Grenades!", ordered the Captain. "Right into the middle of them...!"

Explosions rocked the plaza outside the Olympus Springs Hotel as the first of the transformed bio-probes came within arms' reach of the Air Force personnel. Several of the creatures staggered as the blasts reached them, and windows shattered into sparkling fragments as they were subjected to the concussion wave, but the hotel came off worst, for none of the bio-probes showed even the slightest damage, or shed a single drop of their oily internal fluids. Brenner put the muzzle of his pistol straight into the crudely-featured face of one of the entities, but when he pulled the trigger, the combined recoil and "backwash" of the gunpowder igniting almost broke his thumb.

One of the Air Force Humvees was pushed aside like a toy. Another was tipped onto its side, trapping a stumbling infantryman under it. Brenner heard Salieri scream as she was knocked to the ground - then he, too, was falling, struck down by the club-like limb of the bio-probe he had shot at. Sprawled on the steps, his head filled with ringing and throbbing pain, there was little he could do to stop the "zombie" from stepping over him, and in another stride reaching the hotel's front doors...

It didn't get any further. The creature stopped, abruptly - they all stopped, then with the same juggernaut-like unity of purpose they turned, and began marching away from the hotel. Brenner tried to pick himself up, but his head was spinning, flickers of pain dancing before his eyes like tiny electric fire-flies - through them, he could vaguely see the bio-probes massing a short distance away, converging on something he couldn't quite see...

There were flashes of light at the centre of the crowd - Brenner assumed at first that they were just larger versions of the pain-mirages he had already experienced, but as the "fire-flies" faded, the flashes remained, arcs of fiery brightness that swept through the bio-probes like a scythe through tall grass, sending severed limbs and heads into the air that quickly dissolved into greenish vapour as they descended. The creatures might have been immune to bullets and grenades, but they weren't immune to everything...

The last bio-probe, sliced in two down the middle by a narrow ribbon of sun-like brilliance, collapsed into steaming ruins on the sidewalk, and Brenner blinked away the last of the dancing pain-ghosts to see a single, slender figure standing amidst the evaporating remains. It was a woman, built like a dancer rather than a fighter, with the longest hair Brenner had ever seen, straight pure black hair long enough to trail along the ground behind her, but prevented from doing so by being tucked into the backs of glossy black, spike-heeled thigh-length boots. Her large, slightly slanted eyes were a fascinating shade of golden, and she had pointed ears...

"Where is Mariella da Silva?", growled the woman. "Take me to her..."

The soldiers stand awestruck as I approach, reeling in the energy whip that, thankfully, has been the source of their salvation. One or two of the Air Force men raise weapons, not knowing how to react to my arrival, so I temporarily disconnect their minds from their hands, causing their weapons to slip harmlessly from their numbed fingers, and before anyone can consider any other form of aggression, I come to the aid of the soldiers trying to free a colleague trapped under an overturned vehicle, telekinetically setting the sandy-coloured land-cruiser back on its wheels. By the time I reach the kerb in front of the doors to the "Olympus Springs Hotel", not a single weapon, nor a single suspicious look, is directed towards me.

One of the hotel's defenders is still prepared to stand in my way, however. "I'm sorry, errr... Miss, but I can't let you in", declares a man in a smart blue uniform with winged insignia. "We - we're grateful for your assistance, but..."

"...you're scared out of your minds, and you don't want to screw up any more than you already have", I finish for him. "Don't worry - just tell your superiors you couldn't stop me. After you tell them about what happened here - about me - I'm sure they'll understand."

I'm already scanning the hotel for any trace of Mariella, but I don't feel anything at this range. It could be that her... "rebirth" has scrambled her psychic patterns, even if her new, synthetic brain is designed to channel her as-yet untrained psionic abilities, as what was left of The Grand Tichandryx's experimental records seem to suggest. Does she know the truth yet? Does she even remember who she is? All questions I'll never answer just standing here.

I change the emphasis of my scan, looking not for Mariella in person but for thoughts involving her. Several people have heard her name, others have seen her - but only one in the entire building seems to know her; they've spoken, laughed, even gone out into the night to steal from abandoned shops. That certainly sounds like the Mariella da Silva I remember, and the girl who knows her is on the seventh floor, in a room on the north-west corner of the building, crying her eyes out in fear for her friend. That simply will not do - there's been enough sorrow, enough tears about this already...

I'm airborne before any of the Air Force people can even draw breath, reaching the seventh floor in the half-second it takes them to think of raising a hand, let alone a weapon. There's no opposition as I hover at the north-west corner, unseen by the dark-skinned occupant as she sits, bent over, on the end of her bed in a fluffy white dressing gown, its shapeless expanse insufficient to conceal the shuddering that accompanies every sobbing breath. I reach into her mind, as gently as possible, and I place a simple question there: ***Can I come in...?***

Candice Harper looks up, and eyes reddened by continual tears widen in amazement at the sight of me, standing on the narrow railing of the balcony outside her window. She's terrified at first, but then she gulps down her fear, and edges towards the window, hands trembling as she reaches for the lock and handle...

She opens the door to the balcony a little, and pokes her head out into the morning air. "Wh-who are you...?", she whispers. "What do you want?"

"I am Mane-of-Night, Child of Mystalorn", I reply softly, staying on my perch, but bending down towards her, "and we both want the same thing. We both want Mariella da Silva, safe and well."

The girl wipes her nose and eyes on the sleeve of her dressing gown. "I dunno why", she mumbles, "but I get the crazy feeling I can trust you."

I could have tinkered with the girl's thoughts a little more, to encourage her to trust me, but the work has already been done, albeit unintentionally. There's the slightest "whiff" of psychic residue in her mind, accidentally "washed up" on the shores of this girl's mental landscape - Mariella trusted this girl, and that desire to trust has rubbed off on her. I'm glad I don't have to put any more psionic effort into this, for the anti-psion field is making even telekinetic levitation more difficult than normal - I can't expect to rely on psi-powers this time, and that means that the hectic battle I just fought outside isn't going to be the last. I may be needing my "special surprise" sooner than I expected.

I step down onto the balcony, glad to "take the weight off my mind", and Candice welcomes me into her room. "You know Mariella, then?", she asks, sitting on her bed again while I sit on the corner of the nearby dressing table. "Has she always been... y'know, rebellious?"

"That does seem to be her default condition, from my experience", I reply, every word of it truth, although Candice has probably had longer to talk to Mariella than I ever did.

"Do you know what happened to her?", enquires Candice. "They found her at the Greyhound, like she'd just walked out of a hospital. Her memory's a mess..."

I'm not sure how much I can say, and how much Mariella has been telling people, so I have to be very selective with what I reveal. "She had an accident", I explain. "A serious accident, in which she got really messed up. A radical, untested procedure was the only way to save her, and the only person who go carry out that procedure was... shall we say, not exactly a licensed practitioner of medicine. Before we found out what was really happening, Mariella had been dumped here, abandoned before anyone could try and help her rebuild her memories."

Not all of the truth, granted, but truth to the very last word. If this girl doesn't already know that Mariella is no longer physically human, then there's no reason why she should.

"So, where is Mariella now?", I ask.

"Last... last time I saw her, we were in town", murmurs Candice, and she sounds like it's something she'd rather not discuss - something to do with the various expensive designer garments scattered around the floor, I suspect, with no sign of any receipts, boxes or bags emblazoned with prestigious shop logos. "We ran into one of those zombie-things. It... looked at her with those freaky green eyes, and then... well, it exploded! Mariella just got up and ran off, left me all alone. I was lucky Bert came along and found me before the Army did."

Those aren't exactly the best words to have chosen, for Candice has barely the time to close her mouth before there's a knock at the door, and two voices on the other side. "Candice? It's Luke", says the first, one I haven't heard before. "Are you all right?"

"I'm okay", the girl tells him. "Just talking to a friend of a friend..."

"Miss Harper, I'm Captain Brenner, United States Air Force", says the other - my uniformed "friend" from outside. "I'd like to talk to your... guest. We may be needing her help shortly - we have teams across the city reporting in that these 'bio-probes' are heading our way, in large numbers."

I don't ask for clarification. If I ask "and how many count as large numbers?", he's sure to say "all of them".

"Let the Captain in", I tell Candice. "This is important."

"More important than finding Mariella?". the girl asks.

To me, nothing is more important than that... that is, until now. Others - real people - are now involved, perhaps inextricably, and I have to do something to help them. Perhaps just being here will be enough, now I've attracted their attention. "You need to get these people out of here", I tell Captain Brenner as he enters. "You've seen what the bio-probes can do when they're aggravated. There is possibly not a single building on this planet that can withstand them. Your best defence is your mobility - you're faster than them - and I get the feeling they may now be more interested in me than in whatever they were here to find. I'm sure I can make myself even more interesting with very little effort."

"They came looking for 'non-local technology'", Brenner tells me. "They believed it was here - if it is, I can't leave it here to be found by our enemies..."

The bio-probes detected that Mariella wasn't a living being, but "lost sight" of her, and traced her back to her last known location; the Olympus Springs Hotel. If she's not here, then neither is any off-planet technology, and the bio-probes have no reason to pursue the Olympus Springs inhabitants - or at least that's the plan. "Well, there's one way to find out for certain", I put to him. "We leave, and go our separate ways, and they do one of three things: storm the hotel - in which case you're right; follow your group - in which case one of these people either has or is what they seek; or they come after me - in which case they realise I'm a bigger threat than anything else on this world, and they show unexpected depths of wisdom."

"Let's say we do as you suggest", says the Captain. "What's to stop you from coming back to take this 'technology' for yourself?"

Typical Earth-man. Either always scheming, or seeing devious plots in the actions of everyone else. "The only technology on this world of any value to me will not stop the bio-probes, nor win you any wars against your neighbours", I assure him. "Get these people to safety - that's the most you can possibly do!"

"Funny how you talk about 'this world', as though there are other worlds to consider", observes Brenner. "Why would you say that, I wonder? Something to do with your ears, perhaps...?"

And so, another "endearing quality" of Earth-people emerges - their xenophobia - but it's a member of that branch of humanity that's suffered the most under that yoke who comes to my rescue.

"Oh, just shut up and let the woman go!", exclaims Candice. "She came to help my friend, so let her get on with it!"

"And your friend - might her name be Mariella da Silva?", enquires Brenner.

"Yes", I snap at him, and sigh. Trust her to show up on everyone's scanners. "You want the truth? Well, here it is: the da Silva girl is the recipient of medical treatment involving alien technology - yes, technology from a world other than this one, just like me. If they find her, the bio-probes will extract that technology, and she will die - and I will not allow that to happen, even if that means going through you and your troops just like I went through your visitors outside. That was easy for me - do you want me to work up a sweat...?"

Brenner gears up to respond, but he doesn't say anything I might have expected. "Can you stop them all?", he asks me. "If you can, will you?"

"In answer to the second part, yes", I tell the Captain, "but the answer to the first part depends on others, whom I will be unable to assist if I remain here talking to you. I am now leaving, as you should be..."

"Let me come with you", blurts out Candice as I head for the door. "Please - I... I..."

"...will probably get yourself killed", I sigh, stopping at Brenner's shoulder, "and I'm not about to let that happen again. Just go child, while you still can..."

I get out of there as quickly as I can, before the rest of the hotel wakes up and corners me. I don't even give myself the luxury of being amused when the female Air Force officer and some of her subordinates salute me as I step out onto the street - I barely realise they're doing it, and when I do, all that crosses my mind is my wondering how many of them will still be alive this time tomorrow...

Now, where are you, Mariella da Silva?, I ask myself. Hopefully as far away from all this as possible...

Lee heard the tail-end of the shooting, echoing down the street after him and Bert, from the direction of the hotel, but he could only keep on running, and keep up with a seemingly tireless Bert. Bert... who seemed able to run not only without tiring, but whilst giving a rather disdainful commentary on events he could not see, in a voice that was not his own...

"I suppose they've realised the futility of all that shooting by now", said Fortain. "If those Air Force idiots start running, the bio-probes will probably lose interest, and let them go. It's the hotel they're interested in, or what they assume is inside. It was only by accident that I discovered the bio-probes' combat capabilities - one was bad enough; can't imagine what it'd be like to face an army like that..."

After one more block, "Bert" came to a stop, and allowed Lee to catch up. "I'm going to have to leave you in the capable hands of my good and trusted friend Gilbert now", said Fortain as Lee staggered to a stop, and doubled up, fighting for breath. "My former slaves may be distracted at present, but it won't last, and anyway, I can't keep on controlling our friend here any longer without a break. I've left the necessary data in his memory matrix - just stay close to him, Mr Croxley, and you'll be all right. I'll talk to you again later, dear fellow - if you don't get yourself killed, that is..."

Bert's head drooped, his shoulders slumping, but only for a moment. After that, he "came back to life" again, as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Lee said nothing, thankful for the chance to get his breath back as Bert silently scanned his surroundings, getting his bearings.

"Good - not far to go", Bert said eventually. "Not long now..."

Both men's attentions were suddenly drawn to the east, and the desert beyond the edge of town, as a muffled explosion reached their ears. "The Air Force sound like they're panicking", observed Bert. "C'mon Lee - we better get out of town while there's still a town left to leave!"

Lee did not respond, and continued to follow Bert's lead. If the hooded man was still dancing to Fortain's tune, then right behind Bert was the safest place in the world to be.

Sergeant Welker ordered his armoured vehicle to a halt. Something appeared to have come down in the desert, and as the closest patrol unit, Welker's team would be expected to investigate - but not before the Sergeant surveyed the situation from a healthy distance.

"Base, this is Coyote Four team-leader", he said over the radio, calling Nellis Air Force Base. "We have a situation on the southern edge of Patrol Sector Echo, possibly an aircraft down. Please advise..."

Welker stuck his head and upper body up through the observer's hatch above the passenger seat, and brought powerful binoculars up to his eyes as his superiors back at base responded. "The only aircraft within a hundred mile radius is a new chopper that launched without permission, and we're tracking it back to its base", reported the air traffic controller. "We've received a request from one of the teams in the city for an emergency evac, but that's currently being taken under advisement. We have had no other traffic in your sector in the last nine hours - recommend you investigate as a matter of urgency."

Welker scanned the hilly scrub for signs of anything unusual, in particular the tell-tale plume of smoke from a downed aircraft. He did spot traces of smoke, possibly from burning vegetation, and a single patch of dark cloud in an otherwise clear sky, about a mile and a half away; cloud that seemed to be defying the wind...

"Take us in closer", he told the driver. "This better not be some kids playing 'X-Files'."

The four vehicles of the Coyote Four team turned off the road, and headed into the desert not knowing what to expect, but armed and ready for anything they could conceive. That was what they'd been told during training, and whilst it seemed odd, there seemed to be little to worry about the solitary figure they spotted, apparently heading for the city, half a mile from the spot over which the morsel of storm cloud was still hovering unnaturally.

"What the...?", muttered Private Sturgess, Welker's driver. "Looks like someone got real lost!"

The radio crackled. "Coyote Four Leader, this is Coyote Four-Two", said the commander of another of the vehicles. "Does something look wrong to you? I mean, this guy looks like he works out, sure, but doesn't his head look too small...?"

Welker brought the patrol to a stop, in the path of the stranger, and maybe two hundred yards from him. Bringing up the binoculars again, the Sergeant took a close look at the dark figure, wandering through the desert as though he was not entirely familiar with walking... and Corporal Johns was right; the guy did have an unusually small head, like a child's head on an adult's body.

"Whatever the story is here", Welker said to the rest of the patrol, "this... guy's not going any further."

Welker turned on the public address system, feeding his voice not through the radio, but to speakers mounted on the outside of the vehicle. "You are trespassing on United States Air Force controlled land", he called out to the strange man, "Stay where you are..."

Several men got out of the backs of the Coyote Four armoured vehicles, and fanned out with weapons at the ready, but the man did not slow, let alone stop. If anything, he seemed to be gearing up for a fight, flexing his fingers, his stride showing growing determination, as though he was going to wade right through Welker and his men.

"Stop right there, and get down on the ground now!", ordered the Sergeant. "We are authorised to use lethal force!"

The strange man kept on coming, as though he had either not heard or failed to understand. He could now be clearly seen with the unaided eye - a powerful figure, at least seven feet tall, in what looked like motorcycling leathers with added plating on the arms, legs and chest. A high, armoured collar shielded the back of his head, a head that appeared to be very much out of proportion with the rest of his giant frame. Welker didn't care in the slightest why that was, for his orders didn't including asking intruders personal questions, but those orders were quite explicit about dealing with uncooperative trespassers.

"Lay down a few warning shots", the Sergeant ordered his men. "Make him understand we're serious."

Bullet's struck the ground to either side of the advancing figure, throwing up tiny fountains of sand, but the armoured man did not stop, nor even slow. "That's it, buddy", muttered Welker, then he shouted the fateful order down to the men on the ground. "Take him down."

The infantrymen swung their weapons round and up, targeting the intruder's chest. They fired, the bullets struck their target - and had no effect."

"Cha'repau", growled the giant. "Cha'repau da'skurai...!"

"Ah, crap", spat Welker. "Mulder and Scully, here we come...!"

The Sergeant reached over, and swung round the APC's roof-mounted .50 calibre machine gun. He had it ready to fire just as the giant finished stamping the last of the infantrymen into the sand, and turned his attention on the vehicles. "Cha'repa sau'aal da'skura", roared the seemingly invincible intruder as heavy machine-gun fire bounced with startling futility off his chest, and the invisible barrier enclosing that all-too small head. "Filthy bastard Tall One...!"

Welker had just enough time to wonder what made the giant call him a "Tall One" before a fist came down on him, crushing him and the passenger compartment of the armoured vehicle like a can of processed meat under the treads of a tank...

Alert for all units: Continent 2, south-western sector, sub-sector 14-7-19 - Emergency Condition is now in effect.

Advisory 1: Extraplanetary hostile detected. Direct intervention against bio-probes confirmed; multiple bio-probes in tactical configuration destroyed. Advanced technology detected, and deployed in combat. Termination authorised.

Advisory 2: Extraplanetary hostile detected. Direct intervention against planet residents confirmed; multiple life-units terminated. Advanced technology detected; super-normal abilities detected, and deployed in combat. Termination authorised.

Conclusion: project under severe threat. All bio-probes to tactical configuration. All other command-imperatives suspended.

...to be continued...

Posted at 23:46 on 06.11.2009


~ o O o ~


Previously...
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
Mane-of-Night And The Wayward Child - Chapter 11 - 08.11.2009