Chapter 40
Alice
Alice she was on her knees. Because she had fallen over. She had fallen over because she had heard every single word exchanged between that woman and John Doe.
Every single word.
Alice had a hand locked over her mouth, and she was trying to breathe into it, the sound of her breath a blustering, horrible gasp.
It couldn’t be true. That woman had to be lying.
A live feed? Showing stasis pods with Old Ones inside?
It had to be a lie.
The woman had to be lying.
And yet the mere possibility of it was one that made Alice shudder. Her arms buckled out from underneath her, and she slammed against the floor with a violent thud.
But why would the woman have lied? She would have had no idea that Alice would’ve been listening in through Helper, and from her emotional reaction to the way John Doe had treated her, it did not seem like an act.
As Alice lay there on the ground, her energy ran wild within her. She had lost connection with Helper; the shock of the situation curling through her own energy and making it frantic and chaotic.
She could barely keep control of her hood, let alone regain control of her friend.
Instead she lay there, face first against the floor, her hands pressed into it, her body shaking.
It couldn’t be true.
Her people? Could they be out there? Could there be more like her?
Again Alice felt it.
Someone trying to hack right into her hood.
And they succeeded. It fell right from her head. But before it could pull from her shoulders in the frantic wind, Alice grabbed out a hand and caught it.
She could hardly keep control of her fingers though, let alone tug the hood back in towards her body and fix it over her face.
She was falling apart.
If Helper had been by her side, he would have told her not to let it affect her.
But how could she not let this affect her?
Alice was the last of her kind. Or was she?
It was a horrible question to consider. All of those years she had spent alone. . . .
Alice almost lost grip of her hood, and as a powerful gust of wind caught hold of it, it actually tugged her along the hull.
She was in danger of being ripped right off it, the more she lost control of her emotions, the more she lost control of the energy within. And as it peaked and surged, it created chaos through her form. Soon she would lose the rigidity and weight that pinned her to the hull. And when that happened, Alice would be pulled from it. She would either slam into the spire, or be sent tumbling towards the security and turrets behind the weather field.
It was at that point that she was at her lowest.
Holding onto her hood, being buffeted around, her body convulsing under her as the energy within convulsed in turn.
It was also the point that she remembered his words.
Helper’s.
When Alice found something worth fighting for, her strategy would change. It was only logical.
When Alice found something worth fighting for, she would no longer care about showing her power.
Because she would have a goal in mind.
It was only logical.
Despite the fact he was not by her side, his words and the memory of them managed to still her almost as well as if her little electronic friend had bounced up onto her shoulder.
‘Move in,’ she heard someone say.
It was John Doe.
She still managed to pick up the sound of his voice, even past the din of the wind and the sounds of the other security forces setting up the perimeter.
She had seconds, didn’t she?
And now she was a sitting target.
Not for long.
Because Alice had something worth fighting for.
She heard footfall, she felt it too.
Close. Fast. Coming right at her.
Alice yanked her hood down. Using all her strength, she overcame the chaos within, and she fixed it over her head. She pushed herself up, just as someone reached down to grab her.
In a split second she turned to see his face.
Though his helmet was set to opaque, she knew that she was staring right into his eyes.
Time seemed to still for a moment.
Then it sped up with a snap.
Alice pushed herself backward, rolling, leaning into her hands, and tucking into an easy, quick, and strong somersault. Despite the winds, she landed perfectly, several meters from his side, planting a hand into the hull to steady herself.
She snapped her head up to stare at him just as he pelted forward, his arms pumping by his sides.
He too was unaffected by the wind. The sophistication of his armor would also block out the effects of the radiation emanating from the spire.
He pushed himself towards her again, incredibly quick on his feet.
Though Alice had already snapped herself up to her own feet, she had not yet gained full control of the chaotic energy inside her, and her usual strength and agility had not returned.
John lunged at her.
She twisted to the side, turning on her foot, but as she did, her broken shoes finally gave way.
She stumbled.
He brought his arms wide and wrapped them right around her.
It was a powerful, full-bodied move, and she could feel him anchor his boots into the hull, trying to lock her into place.
Then he brought up a hand, trying to pull at her hood.
It wasn’t going to happen.
She brought her arm up, somehow pushing against his grip, and she thrust her elbow back into his armor.
Nothing but her skin and bone connected with the extremely hard exterior of his armor. But the move was a powerful one, and it jolted him off.
She could hear him stumbling, and she darted forward, tucking into a roll, changing direction, and snapping up to face him in a swift move.
He circled around her, hands wide, fingers splayed.
He did not have a gun in his hand, and maybe John Doe was just as smart as she was starting to give him credit for, because if he had pulled a gun out this close to the energy spire, it would have created a fatal chain reaction.
He lunged at her again, but she dropped to her feet, twisted around, and angled a kick at his legs.
He leapt right over her move, landing easily by her side, and darting towards her once more.
He was quick. Incredibly fast. Much faster than Alice had expected. And she just managed to dodge his grab as she twisted to the side.
He didn’t bother to say that he was here to help. Neither did he bother to say that if only she trusted him, he would do what he could for her.
Just silence. Maybe his audio feed wasn’t powerful enough to push through the interference the spire was generating behind him. Or maybe he had finally given up.
He circled around her again, arms stiff by his sides, but pose one of poise and readiness.
Her senses and power and strength and agility were starting to return to her.
And then she heard it. And she felt it.
He was contacting someone through his armor. Making some kind of call, some kind of request.
No doubt to the troops behind, maybe to that woman who still had hold of Helper.
No doubt John Doe had a plan.
One Alice wasn’t going to let him put into action.
It was her turn to fling herself towards him. She brought her arm up, directing a blow at his chest. He changed direction just before her blow could strike, and he dodged back.
But Alice followed him.
He shifted back again, she followed again.
And then he shifted back one final time. As he did, it brought Alice just outside of the protective field of the spire.
And that would be when the impediment field locked her into place.
In an instant, quicker than anything Alice could process, it snapped all around her.
Light shot out from behind each of the three barriers, forming a sphere all around.
As the impediment field locked her in place, her eyes drew wide with surprise.
John Doe finally stopped moving.
But Alice did not.
She curled her hands into fists, curling her toes at the same time, directing the energy through her body, strengthening it, getting ready to move.
‘Increase the field,’ John suddenly snapped, his voice echoing out clearly.
And the field increased.
It began to pull and tug at Alice, and as it did it lengthened her arms out, yanking at her legs until she was pulled off the floor, and she hung there, a good meter above it, her body stuck as if she was halfway through a star jump.
John Doe backed off towards one of the barriers, still keeping his eyes locked on Alice, never turning his helmet away from her. That woman ran up to his side, Helper still held in her hand.
She stared up at Alice, and Alice stared down at her.
When you have something worth fighting for, your strategy will change. It is only logical.
Helper’s words still rang through her mind.
Something worth fighting for.
She had it.
So it was time to change strategies.
Alice did something she had told herself she never would.
If there was one thing far more dangerous than any other that Alice could do in this entire galaxy, even the whole universe, it was to reveal her true power.
As long as she kept it hidden, no one would know what she was.
She no longer had that luxury.
‘You’re trapped now, don’t move against the impediment field; it is turned up too high, it will hurt you,’ John said clearly. But as he spoke to Alice, he also mumbled towards the woman to concentrate on removing her hood.
Alice would not let that happen.
She closed her eyes.
It was time to reveal exactly what an Old One could do.
In a second she pushed the energy out. The real power within. Channels appeared along her skin, the same channels that the robot soldier had tried to crack through when it had locked its grip around Alice’s throat.
Except this time they were intentional.
They lit up white and blue, energy cascading through them. And as they did, Alice snapped her arms closed around herself, breaking through the impediment field, and landing on the hull with a resounding clang.
Everybody turned towards her.
She didn’t need to be possessed of incredible senses to register the shock upon that woman’s face or the sudden desperate change in John’s stance.
Alice did not pause. She stood up, reached a hand out, and called Helper.
In an instant it shot from the woman’s grasp, and she stumbled forward from the force of it. John leaned down and locked an arm around her middle, stopping the woman from falling over.
But it was too late to catch Helper.
He shot towards Alice faster than any bullet from a plasma round.
He landed in her hand, her shoulder shifting forward from the force of the impact.
Then she brought him down, opened up her palm, sent a surge of energy into him, and let him fly free once more.
‘There’s been a change of plan, Helper,’ she said aloud.
‘Change of plan,’ Helper chirped from her side, ‘it is only logical.’
It was only logical.
She was going to blast her way out of here. Even if she had to display every last one of her Old One powers, she was going to do it.
As she stared at John Doe, for a moment Alice didn’t move.
She wanted him to pull back his armor, wanted him to set his helmet to transparent so she could see his face.
Just like he had been trying to tug back her hood since they had met, right now Alice wanted to look into his eyes.
And she could do that, couldn’t she? If she got close enough, she could override the armor, tell it to switch the helmet off.
She took a step forward.
And that was when she saw it.
The light starting to stream down from above.
It was almost as if time slowed down for her again.
Her senses flared, her intuition screaming at her.
Somebody was about to transport her.
They had a lock. Within half a second the beam would reach her.
Alice had one option and one option only.
To do the one thing that she had promised Helper she would not do under any circumstances. Release herself to the engine core, use what energy she had to alter its protocols. To create a complete shield. One of the most advanced technologies the Old Ones had possessed.
So Alice did it.
She let go of everything. She spread her arms wide, her fingers dropping open.
The channels over her skin erupted with energy. It flowed down into the hull, light white and blue lines shifting over it as they dodged this way and that, searching out the device they would empower.
Just as the transport beam locked onto her, snatching onto her form, that terrible light starting to break down her particles, the shield erupted into place.
And it was an eruption. It was a sight and sound Alice had never before experienced.
It was amazing. The sound of the shield practically ripped through the air. And it cut through the transport beam instantly.
But it took everything she had.
For a bare second Alice’s eyes opened wide as she stared out at the thick crackling blue field in front of her. She saw the enormity, she appreciated how incredible and strong it was.
And then she fell.
She crumpled on the hull. Unconscious.