Chapter 40: Unsung Heroes
There were voices she could not comprehend, but they were not talking to her. She heard a beeping sound, the occasional clattering of metal, along with the resonating ping of a metal tray.
Laina’s eyes were closed. She moved her head slightly and felt something tight against her skin—bandages.
She felt sore and exhausted. She did not want to wake up, and fell back into a daze—landing somewhere between consciousness and sleep.
For some reason, she began to dream—a dream about the last meeting she had with Chorus. Reece, Eddie, and the hackers were also there. It was a secret meeting that took place in her quarters—not even Julius knew about it.
Laina led them in,. When the doors shut, she turned around to look at them and despite the seriousness of the gathering, almost giggled at the sight of them.
Reece’s pilot jacket was torn and dusty, his face barely discernable underneath his scraggly, unkempt beard.
Eddie, proudly wearing his eye patch, had Chorus perched on his shoulder in her parrot form. There was no way Laina could distance herself from the reality that this was indeed a pirate ship.
They all gathered around a table. Of the hackers, though, only Haylek joined them, as the others would not leave their terminals.
“Chorus, why don’t you explain it,” Laina said.
Chorus jumped off Eddie’s shoulder, gliding down to the ground. A haze of nanobots erupted out of her feathers and she morphed back into her human form. Now wearing a gray spacer uniform, she sat with them.
Chorus explained how she foresaw that, ultimately, Daniel Chin would find her and take her. If this happened, they would need to stay as far away from him as possible.
“What if he does find us?” Eddie asked. “What then?”
“We must make sure he does not,” Chorus said.
“Well, that’s no plan at all,” Eddie said. “We have to have a plan in case he does.”
Chorus would not answer him, and they stayed quiet for a moment.
“What will happen to you… when he takes you?” Haylek asked, breaking the silence.
“After Daniel captures me, he will attempt to mate with me—”
“Mate?” Reece interrupted.
Chorus nodded and continued. “It is not the same as mating between human couples. It is a process where we will share each other’s minds—our very essence—with each other. Once mated, he will have the knowledge he needs to find the A.I. Moon, and activate the factory. If he does this, humanity is doomed.”
“You said you foresee this happening,” Haylek said, “like there’s no way to stop it. We can’t stop it?”
Chorus’ eyes looked up—their green luminescence seemed to grow brighter for a moment, then it subsided and she returned her gaze to them.
“The events in the entropy of time are too far along. He will capture me; that part is unavoidable now. However, I will resist the mating and I do not believe he can force it.”
“He’s going to try to rape you?” Haylek asked, seemingly upset by this.
Chorus smiled at him. “Do not worry—it is not like it sounds. It will not hurt. He tried to extract this information from me forcibly before, back when my conduit was imprisoned at Omega Research Corporation, although I did not know then that it was my brother. But I resisted then, and I will resist him again.
“However, there are things that I cannot foresee. For this reason I am entrusting a piece of me to you, Waverider.”
She pointed at his chest, where something underneath his shirt began to illuminate. He reached under and brought out a glowing jewel necklace.
“Some of my essence is in there,” she said. “It is a mini-conduit. Inside, I have hidden a missing piece of data that I have erased from my own consciousness. This is knowledge he must never possess.”
“What knowledge?” Reece asked.
“The keys to activate the moon’s factory, among other things.”
They agreed to keep their meeting a secret from Julius, and that they would protect the jewel at all costs. As the meeting ended, Chorus asked to speak to Laina, Reece, and Haylek privately. Haylek had to forcibly usher the hackers out of the room. The three of them were now alone with Chorus.
“There is something I must tell you,” Chorus said. “Eddie is correct: we must have a plan in case he does find you. I have already explained the importance of keeping the data on the factory hidden in Waverider’s jewel, but there is another piece of data that is hidden in my main conduit. Something that can be even more dangerous than the factory keys—”
Laina felt a stab in her arm and jumped—floating into consciousness for a moment. Her eyes opened for a split second. Everything was blurry and she saw a figure standing over her. Groggily, she closed her eyes and fell again into that dazed dream.
“Won’t destroying the conduit also destroy you?” Reece asked.
Chorus slowly nodded.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Reece said.
“I am but one life, Reece. If my death will save humanity, it is a sacrifice I will gladly make.”
Laina looked over at the conduit. It did not look like something they could easily destroy.
“So how would we destroy it, even if we wanted to?” Laina asked.
Chorus gestured to Reece.
“You know, huh?” Reece asked.
He pursed his lips and pulled something out of his jacket. It was a handheld device with a single switch on it.
“It’s a remote detonator,” he said. “There are explosives all around the conduit. I’m sorry, Laina. I didn’t know anything about it; Julius gave this to me. I’m supposed to be the dead man switch on this.”
Reece handed it to Laina.
“I’m a fighter pilot,” he said. “I might get taken out at any time, so it’s safer in your hands.”
Laina should have been fuming at Julius for this—but there was just too much else to worry about. She took the device and Reece explained to her how to use it.
“Fine,” Laina said. “So if Daniel finds us, I blow it up.”
“No,” Chorus said, “you must wait for the right moment. When his essence is also inside the conduit, then you must blow it up. It is the only way to destroy him.”
“How will I know when that is?” Laina asked.
“One look at my conduit will tell you.”
“I don’t know about this,” Laina said.
“You must be ready to do this,” Chorus said. “The fate of humanity depends on it.”
Laina said nothing, but only stared down at the switch in her hand.
“Wake up, Laina. Wake up.”
She heard Chorus’ voice whisper to her.
But it was not the dream—Laina heard her voice somehow in the here and now.
Laina did wake up. Her vision was blurry at first, but it cleared up enough to see that she was lying on a bunk in the ship’s infirmary. She had bandages wrapped around her forehead, and a cast on her left leg. Some wires and tubes came out of her, tethered to some medical equipment.
She had to get out of there—get to her quarters and be ready to blow up the conduit. The medics and Lankey were on the far side of the infirmary, working on another patient. She needed to sneak out and now was the time.
Still feeling dizzy and in some pain, Laina pulled out the tubes and wires, then swung off the bunk. Laina managed to limp her way out of the infirmary and into the corridor. It was up to her now, she knew. She would have to blow up the conduit when the time was right—even if it meant sacrificing her own life in the explosion.
As she limped to the elevator, she hoped Chorus was right and that she would somehow know when to do it. As Chorus put it, the fate of humanity depended on it.