Chapter 11 The Pilot #2
His mother lifted her weapon even as she was turning to run. But she knew she wasn’t going to get out of there in time. She got off a single shot but it went wide. Then one of the coils launched itself towards her stomach.
Drilling in… Jace shuddered.
His mother’s scream had chills racing up and down Jace’s spine. Where had it drilled into him? He knew it had.
That scar… at the base of my spine… that… that’s it, isn’t it, Gehenna?
It was a small hollowed out spot that he only knew about because the military doctors had thought maybe something about his spine was causing the headaches.
To him it had just been a birthmark, nothing unique or interesting, and that they were barking up the wrong tree.
But, of course, they knew what had happened to him in the womb while he’d been kept in the dark.
Yes, Gehenna’s voice was soft. Guilty. I had chosen Dr. Rancic. I had gotten the doors to open. I thought that I was in control. The Osiris was asleep, but then… then it woke up.
When YOU opened the doors? Jace asked.
Yes, Gehenna answered and said nothing more.
But why did you… why did you do that? Jace asked, but then he thought of the cell and thought he knew. She had been trapped. She needed a Pilot to get her out of there. Dr. Rancic had been her shot to get out of prison.
I had no idea that the Osiris would do what it did! I should have realized that my crude access was never going to be enough... She broke off.
Why did Osiris go after me and not my mom?
Your mother didn’t have to shoot it. It would have let Dr. Rancic go, Gehenna continued in a rushed voice, not answering him. You… you were a much better choice. So much better than anyone else.
He blinked. So… you wanted it to connect with me--
No! I would never have done that! Not to a baby! The Osiris chose, she said. It was going to--to remove you from your mother.
Another vision. Blood blooming on his mother’s shirt.
She went down onto her knees. She grabbed the coil and placed the gun against the coil again, but this time Osiris wasn’t having that.
Another coil knocked his mother’s hand away.
The gun went flying. She let out another gasping scream and grabbed the coil with both hands, trying to pull it out.
Her mouth opened in another scream, but this time silent.
More blood flowed over her pregnant belly.
Her eyes sought out the gun, but it had slid far out of reach.
The coil attached to his mother--attached to him--started to pull them into the pool.
Other coils were rising up out of the pool.
Their ends, which all had barbs on them were coming towards her.
His mother saw them coming and she dug the heels of her shoes into the floor and tried to pull away from the pool.
But her shoes slid on the slick surface.
There was a squeal as she was dragged into the pool.
Her heels, her ankles, her calves. All into the electric blue water.
His mother scrabbled with her fingertips against the floor, but it was no use.
He felt her strain, giving everything she had to keep them out of the pool.
But it wasn’t going to work.
Her thighs were in. Her waist was under. She let out a yell just as her hands readed the end of the floor. The other coils with the barbed tips rose up above his mother. They were ready to strike. They were going to cut into her to get him. The barbs whirred.
And then they stopped and fell to the ground like dead things. His mother gasped. She was floating in the tank. Gasping. Panting. It was only then that soldiers stormed into the Core.
I got back control. Just at the last minute, Gehenna whispered.
The vision ended. All he could see were coils and the flash of light and darkness. Then he twisted his head around farther and looked down. He saw that they were over the pool.
It was all my fault, Jace, Gehenna whispered. I knew how special your mother was. I had no idea how special you were… are. I think that the Osiris played me all along.
How so? Jace asked, still stunned at what he had seen and she had said.
She let out a bitter laugh. I think it only let me believe I was opening the doors for Dr. Rancic when it was really opening the doors for you.
My crude attempt to make Dr. Rancic into the Pilot was…
well, like I said, when you were there it cut off my control.
We both needed one another for a time. It needed a power source and I needed… well, cooperation.
Jace blinked. He suddenly could understand what had happened. It waited until Mom was alone.
Yes, and when you were viable outside of the womb, Gehenna sighed.
Jace’s mind flashed to the way the It had to act because it knew she wouldn’t bring a baby into the ship.
Yes, I think it did just that, she agreed.
He wondered at the cold, precision of the Osiris’ thoughts. Was it thinking now? It must be.
So is the Osiris an AI, too, like you? he asked.
No, not like me. Nothing is quite like me, she said the last almost sadly. But it is very smart. Clearly, it can strategize.
Yeah, he agreed. But you were able to stop it. In the end, you stopped it.
Yes, but the cost was high. You’ve been paying for it all your life, she told him. It had begun the process but not completed it.
Jace thought of his migraines, the auras, the tinnitus, the weakness, the months in hospital, the drugs, the lack of a life, the lack of a future.
But now I do have a future...
He should be furious with her. He was… and wasn’t.
Because yes, she had taken a normal life from him.
But he thought about what he had been able to do against the Khul.
If he had been normal, he likely wouldn’t have worked at the Con-Ve.
He wouldn’t have been there today to save Walter and all those other people.
He wouldn’t have had the ability to do it.
No one can do what you’ve done, Jace, or what you’re going to do, Gehenna said.
The Osiris chose you. I don’t believe now that Dr. Rancic would have been…
accepted as a Pilot. There have been countless others that have entered the Osiris and it didn’t react to them.
But it did to you. I don’t say this to try and escape my responsibility for what happened to you--
If I connect, I can help people, right? He interrupted her.
Yes, more people than you can imagine, Gehenna’s voice grew excited. She tamped down on that. Once you truly understand what the Khul do, you’ll see how necessary it is that they be stopped. I tried to help once, well, it doesn’t matter. You’re the one that will do it. With Khoth’s help.
Khoth?
Jace hadn’t heard from the Thaf’ell Commander in some time. He heard the clank of his boots and Khoth’s legs came into view.
He’s special too, but in a different way. At least according to the Exarch, she murmured. But now… now the choice is before you. Will you become the Pilot?
Jace saw the coils in the pool starting to stir.
It’s either die or connect, right? Not much of a choice, he pointed out to her dryly.
No, and you--you probably hate me, Gehenna said uncertainly. But we’ll be connected for life, too.
You should know how I’m feeling, he told her.
I’m not looking. I don’t want to know, she admitted, sounding small and uncertain.
I’m not sure how I feel, Gehenna, he confessed.
I used to think I wanted a normal life, but now, seeing all of this…
maybe I wouldn’t change much. Not for himself anyway.
But for others like his mom and Dr. Rancic, he wouldn’t have had them hurt.
Yet that was in the past. That was unchangeable.
Only the future was in flux. I want to be the Pilot.
Good, because it’s clear the Osiris wants that, too.
Khoth’s voice rose up, “Gehenna, the system appears to be activating.”
Jace drew in a deep breath, What’s it going to do to me?
A lot of very technical things, Gehenna said. You’ll be made stronger, faster, and, of course, you’ll be completely connected to the Osiris and… well, so much will change, Jace. Now, prepare to get wet.
The coils lowered him tenderly into the pool of electric blue water.
Except it wasn’t water. It was thicker than water.
Almost like a gel. The things that held him, that were carrying him--tentacles, except made of chitin or metal or I don’t know--released him fully into the pool.
They were still above him, like those hanging bead curtains so he really couldn’t see what they were attached to.
He floated on the surface. He imagined himself as a raft left in a pool after the kids had gone inside to have lunch, just floating aimlessly. He couldn’t move at all.
“This will complete the connection?” Khoth asked. The Thaf’ell paused and then said, “His body will be transformed? How? In what way?” Another pause, and Jace realized that he was hearing only half of a conversation.
Forgive me, Jace. I did not mean to exclude you, Gehenna said. I have so little energy, but we’ll both be better soon.
Jace wanted to say something to Khoth. He wasn’t sure what, but something, anything, to hear his own voice. He hardly felt real. But his mouth didn’t even open. That was actually a good thing, because then he began to sink.
Jace didn’t panic until his face sank underneath the gel’s surface. But then one of the coils from the pool was coming up and covering his mouth and nose. The gel was blasted out and air started to flow.
Not going to drown, that’s good! He mentally laughed. It was slightly hysterical.
And that was when he felt something stirring all along his spine from the base of his skull, every two inches, to the very bottom of his spine. He thought of the whirring barbs he had witnessed before just as he saw shreds of his clothes float upwards past him.
Will there be pain? Jace asked. He was already hurting. He was always hurting, but to have those barbs drilling into him and him unable to move...
No, it will inject a numbing agent, Gehenna said. I’ve explained pain to it. And it’s been watching and observing the humans.
That’s good--ah!
Needles sank into his back. Heat spread throughout the skin around those pricks then he felt nothing at all. Crimson swirled upwards through the blue.
Blood. My blood. But I don’t feel anything at all, he murmured. It’s drilling into me.
His eyelids were getting heavy. The liquid was not bothering his eyes. But he wanted to close them. He wanted to sleep. He let his eyelids fall shut. Darkness again reached for him.
Yes, Jace, you should sleep, Gehenna murmured, sounding sleepy herself. And when you wake, everything will be different. Everything will be as it should be.