Genesis - the Battle Within (Pillars of Creation Book 1) (34 page)

Genesis awoke with a start; he couldn’t feel anything but the extreme cold. He tried to force his eyes open, with no luck. Horrified, he realised he could move nothing, he was frozen solid, in stasis!

His mind tried to race but somehow couldn’t, his head only throbbed and pain etched through his skull making it nearly impossible to cognate.
Slath
he thought desperately,
oh this is bad
, he could barely stay awake and he didn’t even think he was breathing.
How in Sacred had this happened and how am I aware of anything if I’m not breathing?
he thought.

It took a few seconds before he could calm himself enough from the suffocating imprisonment and immobility to start piecing things together. Give him a battle where he was outnumbered or trapped, but not this … it was something he could barely stand.

Even his induced coma for his infusion hadn’t been this bad.

He began scanning through his plight, desperate to get out of his tomb. Pushing through the pain stabbing at his mind, he
made
himself think.

Antipatros had obviously frozen him after all. Genesis was furious, and he used the anger to keep him awake and aware
.

Antipatros had stepped way out of line on this, he thought darkly, breaking many laws.
He knew, dimly, that he had to take some responsibility too … he shouldn’t have let the admiral bait him
.
Antipatros had gained the justification he needed for freezing him, and his outburst would gain him little favour with his religious superiors when they found out.

His mission seemed like eons ago. The memory of it spun through his mind crazily and he wondered why he’d made such a young man’s mistake, allowing himself to be pushed into attacking the admiral and his men.

Slath!
He cursed himself again. He hoped the marines were okay.

He felt a wave of frustration as he went to move again, but couldn’t. He needed answers and it was too damn hard to think in this cold. And now, with no way of defending himself, Antipatros would surely alert the Immortals to his shortcomings – he was trapped within his own mind and body and was probably already being transferred into custody …
Slath! Slath! Slath!
he thought.

Worse, without Me’lina to help, he was on his own. He had no way to get to the bottom of these events without her, or escaping his frozen prison. He was well and truly stuck, his fate in others’ hands.
Where are you Me’lina? And what have you done to incur these judgements?

But these were just more questions to which he had no answers. With a massive struggle Genesis cleared his mind and began to meditate, as this seemed the only option left for him. He pushed passed the layers of cold as Zeal and Osiris had shown him, and beyond all external distractions, eventually pulling free from his internal regrets and the icy stabbing pain.

Zeal hovered at the edge of his thoughts, as always, threatening his stability, but eventually even thoughts of him washed away and he went far within his mind; his surroundings became distant and he lifted himself from care.

He directed his meditation into the most recent events, looking at the details as they floated up seemingly haphazardly. He watched as the hard truths of the events leading up to his imprisonment snapped into place, logic and stability replacing uncertainty as he stared at events with fresh eyes, able to analyse it in tiny detail.

He began by examining the events surrounding Me’lina. Images flashed beneath his icy eyelids, and within seconds he formed the most likely scenario for her disappearance – the indicators pointed towards one thing.

Right before the Tel’nagara had appeared Me’lina had been operating fine, right up until … the injection … so whatever it was, it must’ve affected her too. 

But how am I operating if Me’lina has left me? I should be dead. How is this poss—

Genesis lost his train of thought as a sudden pinch of cold ran along his spine.
No, I’m definitely alive; else I wouldn’t be thinking at all … or feeling pain.
He refocused and a new thought emerged.

Me’lina must still be operating or my rejuvenation and suit’s functions couldn’t possibly be working.
This thought sparked memories of Me’lina’s painful cries as they had been blasted out of the Skink’s ship—

Yes, after the blast, when I awoke, she briefly spoke with me again.

Genesis thought about it for a few seconds, and with a shock realised something he’d missed initially. His ion shield hadn’t once deployed in combat … or when he was tussling with the security teams. 

So what did this mean?
She could speak at times, but wasn’t operating some of my suit’s lesser functions …? That’s absurd.

Dwelling again just on the facts, he shifted his meditation several times to look at the problem from different angles, but was unable to close in on what he needed. He could tell his meditation was wavering, stalling, he didn’t have much time to retrieve the clues he needed. He redoubled his efforts, concentrating hard.

From what he could tell, she must’ve still been with him …
somewhere.
But for unknown reasons she was no longer able to control all, or much, of his suit
.

His nanos, which were normally controlled by his own abilities, had still seemed to be working fine –
he’d been able to hand over Katana and manipulate his pistols; but there was something else, something was missing, he was getting only half the picture. Genesis began to focus with all his Rieft talent. He felt the power surge through his entire body as all the facts tumbled around. Through the mist of the Rieft he could clearly see just one thing, piercing the veil.

Something was very different …
within him!

A voice shattered what was left of his struggling meditation; Genesis almost dropped the Rieft he’d been wielding so heavily – a mistake that could cost an Immortal dearly. He struggled, fumbled and at the last second managed to bounce the power out of him rather than guide it. The voice started again, realising it had shocked Genesis at a bad time.

“I’ll tell you what’s different,” the voice stated.

Me’lina?

“Correct, I’m fully operational and in your primitive tongue, I am back! But technically I was always here; I just needed some time to …. re-adjust. Oh and adjust I have, it just took me a lot longer than anticipated.”

Genesis noted disconcertingly that her voice sounded different, a little distant, but more …
human?

Re-adjust? Re-adjust what? What the hell’s going on Me’lina? What happened to you? Where the hell have you been?

“Well precisely that,”
Me’lina chirped elusively
.

What
? Genesis felt himself growing impatient with her game.

“I mean precisely that,
hell
.”

I don’t understand Me’lina, what do you mean … hell? Explain yourself.

“You don’t know what hell means?” She asked with a note of humour.

You know damn well what I mean Me’lina, what do you mean by hell? And besides even that, what the hell is with you? You seem different.

Ignoring the second question, Me’lina replied aloofly, “Well, according to recent events, it looks as though all
hell
– or human’s primitive definition of opening the gates of terror upon you – has been unleashed, Genesis. That’s where I’ve been.”

Me’lina continued before Genesis could berate her semantic game.

“From certain data I’ve recently acquired and referenced with Sacred Texts and documentations, I’ve uncovered an imminent plot of attack on both the SED and Terithian controlled sectors of space. So again, that’s what I mean by hell.” Her voice still held a hint of sarcasm.

Genesis struggled to restrain his thoughts.
What are you talking about Me’lina? Attack? Attack from what? And where exactly did you obtain this data?

Aloof again, Me’lina replied, “Well, I guess when phrased like that Genesis, an attack from you … or I guess more correctly us.”

Genesis felt a sickening feeling as he responded.
Oh-no, Me’lina you do have something wrong, a virus or something don’t you? You did infiltrate the SINAI! You’ve become a heretic like Antipatros said and you’ve lost your damned electronic mind.

“Well actually much is wrong with me Genesis, thank you for asking, but let’s not get into that right now, I’ve been arguing with
Aspire
all this past week about that point.”

The past week? How long have I been in this state?

“You’ve been in suspended animation for the past twenty-one days fifteen hours, twenty-two minutes and … thirty-seven seconds.”

His mind turned icier than the cold could have ever made it; he could barely summon the right words to portray his shock.

You’re saying I’ve been frozen here for over three damned weeks!? That son-of-a-bitch!!! He froze me for three weeks, for three whole weeks I’ve just been sitting in here like an icypop!!! …
Genesis tried to give himself a second to calm down but found he couldn’t.
That scraken, farkstarker, son-of-a-bitch! I’m going to kill him, I’m going to freaking kill the mangy Jackal arrogant croak milker. What blasted idiotic, fu—

Me’lina’s voice became scarily precise, tearing all argument Genesis was formulating from his mind.

“That will be unnecessary Genesis, I have already terminated Admiral Herodes Antipatros and the entire crew of
Aspire
. His treachery is at an end.”

After the initial shock, his mind reeled with revulsion. Me’lina’s voice was clinical, sharp beyond normal. Anything human dropped.

“Population count for
Aspire
, not including yourself is now at exactly zero, human life has been exterminated;
Aspire
has been cleansed.”

Genesis didn’t know how to respond to this revelation of her corruption.
No …
he thought to himself, and unwittingly to her as well,
surely she couldn’t have
… but Me’lina never lied, he knew that from experience. His mind started to go numb as he thought about the large populace aboard
Aspire
. With difficulty, many seconds later, he responded.

Me’lina tell me you’re lying! Are you sure you say this right, because I think you just said that—

“Yes, that I killed Antipatros and the entire crew. It’s been a busy three weeks Genesis, much needed to be done.” Genesis blurted in horror,
You are a heretic! You stupid bitch, we are dead, how could you—
Genesis felt a rapid jolt as Me’lina zapped him with his own sensors within his suit.

Shit … ouch, that bloody hu—

Her voice regained human aspects again
,
“You felt that Genesis didn’t you?”

Yes, of course I slathen fel—

“The only reason you felt that is because I’m bringing you out of animation. If it wasn’t for me you would be dead already, along with many others, more than just those aboard
Aspire
. I haven’t lost – what you call – my mind, I am perfectly aware of my actions.”

Genesis paused while his anger abated and he considered why she would be driven to such acts of heresy. He knew that only if in direct danger, or if detecting threats against the SED or Way of the Sacred, could she bypass her programming to kill another human being. Or beings in this case.

Genesis started to see the picture she was trying to explain. But he was still sickened at the thought of a whole ship being wiped out on his behalf. He needed clarification if he was going to continue working with Me’lina on this. His voice lost malice, but maintained a demanding bite as he searched her out.

What in the nine realms are you talking about Me’lina, please I beg you, explain yourself and remember I will have you terminated if I find your actions to be … unjust. So I warn you, go slow, for I’m almost certain I’m hallucinating this psychotic episode of yours.

Me’lina didn’t sound fazed by the threat. “I will explain as much and as best I can to make you understand. I will start from Antipatros and work back, this is the best way I calculate for you to construct meaning, and it’s not like you have anywhere else to go, as of right at this moment, is it?

“After you attacked his men, Antipatros indeed had you frozen as you said. But instead of heading back to Earth to give you over to the Elders, I watched as he foolishly decided to investigate the portal, and the newly found planet. Obviously he had another interest in this planet, other than the mission.

“I’m not precisely sure what happened as it is beyond my programming to calculate his actions and events beyond what I saw. But only two of the four companies that went down to the planet came back up … and those remaining squads that returned to
Aspire
, were badly injured and seemingly suffering from a form of sickness. Something I have never before detected in Earth’s history had inflicted the men. As expected, Antipatros was not interested in
Aspire’s
warnings about this sickness; he was focused only on what they had retrieved from the planet for him.