Chapter 7 Alien Blue
Alien Blue
Jace felt like he was in dark water. But whenever he came to the surface, towards the light, blinding pain would fill him and he would dive down again for the safety of the dark.
In those moments, he started to “surface” he would hear voices.
They were indistinct and blurry at first, but then the voices would sharpen and he would be able to identify the speaker and what they were saying.
The first time he surfaced, he heard his mother and father talking to one another about him.
“... is he? What happened?” his mother asked. Her normally calm voice, full of confidence and judgment, was uncertain and frightened.
“Sami says that Jace did it,” his father answered.
“Did what?” His mother’s voice was strained.
“Killed all of those Khul. Called that--that cylinder from the ship,” his father explained. “Same said he was talking to an AI.”
“Artificial intelligence?” His mother’s tone was filled with a mixture of awe and fear.
“Yes, called Gehenna,” his father answered.
“And it’s real?” she asked.
“Yes, it’s real,” his father said.
So it was real…
Jace remembered then what had happened and why there was so much pain when he tried to wake up fully. Gehenna had told him. Warned him. He was lucky to be alive.
Remember what we practiced, Jace, she’d said.
I have no idea--
You will. I’m going to show you. Sort of like muscle memory, but in your brain, she told him. You are special. You can access Precursor technology that no one else can.
What? Why? How?
The pounding at the door was intense now.
Metal screeched as the Khul ripped the bars off of the windows.
He wondered why they didn’t have tools like lasers or something to simply cut through.
But then again in Aliens the creatures hadn’t needed tools or weapons.
They, themselves, were both. That appeared to be the same here.
Too much to answer right now. Just trust me that it is true, Gehenna’s voice was strangely unhurried and calming though he knew that she was probably more keenly aware than he was how bad it would be if the Khul got inside.
Walter’s granddaughter let out a wail of fear. “Grampy, I’m scared! The monsters are going to get in!”
“It’s okay,” Walter lied as he curled a protective arm around her. “It’s going to be okay.”
Sami turned to him. “Jace, is there anything you can do?”
“Y-yeah,” he told her. “Yeah, there is. Metal Rain.”
“Metal--”
“I’m going to access a Precursor defense drone,” he repeated the words that Gehenna told him. “It should take out the Khul. All of them and their nearby ships. But I--I might uhm… bleed.”
“Bleed?” Sami’s eyes flickered over his face. She looked so concerned.
“Yeah, so I need you to keep everybody calm, okay?”
There will be screaming, too, Jace. You’re going to feel like your brain is being put in a blender, Gehenna warned. We haven’t fully connected yet and you haven’t fully… well, let’s just say that it’s going to be like trying to use the wrong current in a machine.
“I’m going… it’s going to be painful,” Jace told Sami as his mouth went dry. “Don’t let anybody touch me though or try to stop it. It’s the only way.”
Sami hesitated then gave a brief, jerky nod as she held George tighter against her chest. “I’ve got you.”
“Thanks,” he told her. He touched her arm that curled around George. “Really. For everything.”
She blinked. “I--”
“For everything,” he repeated, wanting her to know how much he’d appreciated her being friends with “weird” Jace Parker all these years when it had cost her socially. He hadn’t fit in anywhere, not in her world anymore than his other classmates, but she had still made a place for him.
Her eyes hardened then softened. “You don’t need to thank me. Your friendship is enough.”
He smiled.
Gehenna, let’s do this, he told the AI, fully committed to whatever would come next.
All right, I’m going to shut down your vision--
Wait? What?
You will see but not with your eyes.
Just as one of the Cetix’s rammed its head through the door his vision went black. It was complete and inky darkness for a moment. But then a light--softly green and glowing--appeared. So faint and far off.
You see me? Gehenna asked.
The--the green light? He asked. It reminds me of when my dad and I went to the ocean. We were out in the middle of pure liquid darkness. But we had a single green light on the mast.
Yes, the light. She sounded pleased to be described that way. Now, I need you to see past me.
See past you? I can hardly see you!
That was true. The green light looked to be miles away. He squinted and tried to see beyond the green light. With that effort he was suddenly moving. Gliding. Flying towards the green light.
Whoa!!!
He stopped moving just as suddenly as he’d begun.
No, Jace, don’t stop. You were doing great! Gehenna urged. Look for what’s behind me.
He was quite a bit nearer to her now. She wasn’t a pinprick of green fairy dust, but more a globe the size of a basketball. He tilted his head to the side and his whole perspective changed. It was then that he saw what looked like the scattering of sparks from a downed live electrical wire.
I see… something, he told her.
You’re going to connect with that. It’s the Osiris’ system. You connect and you’ll be able to activate Metal Rain, she said.
Osiris is--
The name of a ship, Jace. The ship I’m on.
But Osiris is a human name and--
Yes, as is Gehenna. It will all make sense later. Now, Gehenna instructed and he thought he faintly heard screams but then the void of silence and blackness other than the green light and the sparks returned fully, go to Osiris.
He tried to put one foot in front of the other in order to walk to the wild sparks that snapped and dazzled in the darkness. That was when he realized he had no feet. He had no body.
Of course, you don’t. This is pure mind, Jace. Well… sort of, Gehenna chuckled. All you need to do is imagine moving and you will.
Jace stared at the sparks. He did not move.
Don’t just look at them. Want to be near them. Want to connect, Gehenna said.
He remembered how he had wanted to see beyond the green light. He remembered thinking he needed to be closer and so he had moved. Now he imagined himself right by the sparks.
And he was there.
He reared back as the sparks zapped and buzzed all around him. And were their screams? And thumps? And the shattering of glass? And someone praying? And…
You’re imagining Osiris as a downed electric line, Gehenna mused. That’s actually good and bad. Bad because--
It’s going to electrocute me? Jace laughed uncertainly.
The sparks now were coming off a coiled snake of line. The line ran off into the darkness.
But it isn’t! Well… it is. This time. But you--you will be able to withstand it, Gehenna told him.
It’s just going to hurt like a son of a bitch? He clarified, remembering what she had said earlier.
Yes, unfortunately, but I’m going to do everything I can to shield you, she told him.
You’re probably really wishing I had just agreed to go to you and not taken this detour, he said.
Not at all. I mean, yes, in a way. I wish to keep you safe, but it is not in your nature to turn away from those that need your help, she assured him, sounding thoughtful. That is why you were the perfect choice to the pilot.
The pilot? Not, just a pilot? His eyebrows lifted.
Answers later, she said evasively and he had an idea that as many answers as she gave would only lead to more questions.
All of this certainly had. Now the reason that you are seeing the Osiris represented this way is because you sense that the Osiris is not connected as it should be so all that power has nowhere to go.
But if you connect to it, Jace, you’ll be able to direct where some of it goes.
To bring down Metal Rain? He guessed.
Exactly, she agreed, obviously pleased with him.
So… how do I connect with the Osiris?
You grab it! She said brightly.
I grab the downed electrical wire? He lifted an eyebrow.
Ah, yes, well, it sounds bad and unwise--
But you’re shielding me and…
He broke off as the screams he heard from the “real” world were deafening. He was being jostled.
Someone--Walter--was yelling, “We’ve got to get to the basement! They’re coming through!”
And someone else--Sami--responded, “He said not to touch him! He’s going to save us!”
“He’s going to die!” Walter screamed.
And I have to do this, Jace finished as those voices died away.
He didn’t hesitate. He snatched at the live wire.
He missed.
Goddamn! What the Hell? Jace growled.
Try again, Gehenna sounded so patient, but he knew that there was no time left.
He crouched down, inches from the edge of the moving, sparking length of wire. He took a breath, stretched out his hands on either side of the wire, and caught it between both palms.
Then he was screaming.
If he ever had imagined what it would be like to grab a live wire in his hand and be electrocuted endlessly and not die it wouldn’t have been half as painful as it actually was.
It felt like his blood boiled away and left blackened, smoking channels through his brain.
It seemed like his eyes were boiling and popping as the electricity cooked them. Everything hurt.
But the darkness was no longer dark any longer. Instead he was seeing the schematics for a massive spaceship. A ship as large as the one in The Thing that they found in the ice, but this one was so much bigger and it wasn’t saucer-shaped, but reminded him of a skyscraper, but laying on its side.
Go inside, Jace. Follow the paths to the place I marked. That’s Metal Rain. You can do this! Gehenna urged him.
He wasn’t sure how he did it, but he “followed” one of the golden lines in the ship--likely some kind of conduit--to a cylindrical shape that was softly glowing.
Wake it up, Jace! Gehenna told him.