Chapter 14 Nature
Nature
“Stop the gas, get oxygen in there and open these goddamned doors!” Jace ordered the Osiris.
Again, there was the simple response, Yes.
Immediately, the gas that had been pouring out of the vents into the corridor was flushed out and oxygen was pumped in.
The doors did not open until all of the gas was gone, Khoth noted, then they whooshed to the sides and Jace surged through them without thought.
Khoth and Gehenna hesitated in the Core chamber’s doorway.
They watched safely from there as Jace dropped down to his knees between his parents.
Worried they are going to put you in a cell, too? Gehenna asked over his suit’s interface. I don’t recommend it. I’ve rather spent too long in one as it is.
“Do you know why you were in a cell?” Khoth asked softly to the squid-like head.
That’s… unclear, Gehenna answered, but he didn’t believe her. But, regardless, Jace and I have things to do.
“Involving the Osiris? And the Khul?” Khoth asked her.
Yes. They cannot be allowed to continue on this path, Gehenna answered.
Thinking on what he had read in his sister’s journal, Gehenna might also have come from Thausia.
She might be an experiment or something that this splinter cell of Alteath had created to help destroy the Khul.
The Osiris was one method of attack. Maybe Gehenna was another.
He couldn’t quite understand if part of being the Pilot required Jace to be connected to her and the Osiris or if she had just interfered at the wrong moment and become wrapped up in all of this.
Like her error with the security protocols.
“What do you want, Gehenna? What are your plans for Jace exactly?” Khoth asked.
My first action will be to ensure that there is no damage to Jace, she said.
“No further damage, you mean,” he corrected her dryly.
Her tentacles softly clacked together as he made her flinch. Yes, quite. The process to become a Pilot should have happened all at once, but it was… stopped and restarted with Jace.
Khoth felt a touch of alarm. Jace appeared perfect. But he had been transformed hugely in just a sub-cycle of this planet. It would leave a mark. He carefully studied Jace as he interacted with his parents. The Parkers were already recovering. They were both sitting up and reaching for their son.
“Mom? Dad? Are you okay? Can you talk?” Jace asked them as they touched his face and shoulders.
They see the changes in him.
“Jace, oh, Jace!” Diane wrapped her arms around Jace’s neck and clutched him to her. “Are you all right?”
“Mom, it’s okay. I’m okay. Are you okay?” Jace asked as his mother held him and his father petted his hair.
“We’re fine,” Jack said. “But you--you, Jace--you’re--you’re--”
“Big!” Jace laughed with a touch of hysteria in his tone. “I’m big as you, Dad.”
“I think a little bigger,” Jack laughed as he squeezed Jace’s bicep with appreciation. “I can’t believe… what’s happened to you?”
“I’m the Pilot. It’s so wild. I can’t tell you how wild it is,” Jace told them both.
Diane drew back and cupped her son’s face. “Jace, we have things to tell you about that room. About--”
“Mom, I know. I know. All about Dr. Rancic and what you--you did to save her and to protect me,” Jace assured her and he touched her stomach. “I know. There’s so much I have to tell you guys.”
“Does it explain the giant squid?” Jack asked as he caught sight of Gehenna.
Gehenna’s tentacles clacked again and she retreated slightly as if hiding. Though how could one hide when one was a 10-foot squid?
“Oh, yeah. That’s Gehenna. She’s an AI in my head… and that’s a cleaning bot she’s inhabiting,” Jace answered. “It’s a really long story, which is surprising because I didn’t know any of this until this afternoon.”
“That… that explanation makes me have more questions than answers,” Jack laughed softly after a long moment of both parents just staring at Jace.
“Wait until I tell you about the Osiris giving me sass.” Jace gave a weak smile.
Diane and Jack hugged their son fiercely again.
Khoth saw Jace’s eyes close. He was smiling and holding onto his parents just as hard.
Khoth felt strange watching such an intimate act between the three of them.
It should be private. But humans were not like Thaf’ell.
They expressed their affections freely. But still, he wanted to at least give them the illusion that it was just the three of them.
The e-pad that Diane had been holding earlier with his own mother on it was on the ground.
The soldiers--over a dozen of them--were groggily getting to their feet, their weapons seemingly forgotten for the moment.
He took that inattention to grab the e-pad and retreat back into the Core, away from everyone.
Jace would explain everything to his parents and, hopefully, there would be no confrontation.
Or at least not an armed one. Besides, he had to report to the Alliance what had all occurred.
As he brought the e-pad up to his face, he saw that the connection was still live.
His mother’s face was pale and filled with worry.
When she saw him, she let out a breath, which showed just how much she had been affected by what she’d heard.
He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
He heard Diane and Jace talking so earnestly to one another in the corridor and he wondered what it would be like to speak with such emotion to his own mother. To be so honest, too.
“Was anyone injured?” his mother asked.
“No, Jace Parker got control of the Osiris.”
“Jace got control of the Osiris?” his mother repeated carefully. “A human caused the Osiris to act?”
“More than that.”
Khoth’s gaze went to the screen that still had the single YES then slid to Gehenna. She was still in the doorway, peeking out at Jace and his family. The soldiers were eyeing her with unease, but their weapons were aimed towards the deck.
“What more?” His mother lifted her chin.
“The security protocols were triggered accidentally. Jace was able to order the Osiris to turn them off,” Khoth said, knowing this would just inflame his mother’s interest.
At least in part. I believe Osiris intended to keep the doors shut to keep Gehenna inside.
“Khoth…”
The use of his first name had his head snapping to attention. He had more than inflamed her. “M-mother?”
She gave a faint smile. “What have you gotten into, Khoth?”
“I think something… extraordinary,” Khoth answered her.
“Report then. I would hear it all,” she ordered.
And he did. He knew he surprised her. He wasn’t sure if he disappointed her. But he had intrigued her. At the end, her gaze was distant. He waited for her judgment. Was she going to tell him that exile was to be his punishment? He had chosen Jace over the Alliance. The one over the many.
“Perhaps Daesah and Dr. Lafrei was right. What you have told me is indeed quite… extraordinary,” his mother said.
Her eyes focused on him. “We must have Jace Parker, the Osiris and Gehenna. They must be fully in Alliance hands. Earth is too distant to protect. They need to be fully in Alliance space.”
This did not surprise Khoth. Jace was far too valuable to leave in human hands. How long between another Hive--a dozen Hives--were encircling Earth? The Khul could be--would have to be--contacting others of their kind to come.
And we have nothing but a wounded Colossus ship and a barely functioning Exarch.
But the Khul would not be the only obstacle they faced in getting Jace, the Osiris and Gehenna to Haseon.
“The humans will, undoubtedly, object,” Khoth told her.
“But will Jace?” she asked.
He frowned. “I am not following you, Mother.”
“He’s shown a willingness to work against his own species to do what must be done,” she answered. “He is highly motivated by Xi, as are all humans, of course, but… his empathy can be directed.”
“Directed how? And to what?” Khoth replied stiffly, already feeling uneasy at his mother’s description of Jace this way.
“If the Osiris is truly meant to destroy the Khul and Jace is it’s Pilot then we need to make Jace understand why he needs to make that happen,” she said. “The Khul’s ships are still on the ground, yes? Full with their human cargo?”
He had not understood her until then. “You want me to show Jace what the Khul do?”
“Show him what he would be fighting against. Show him that whatever petty desires the humans might have don’t trump that,” she explained.
He could well imagine Jace’s reaction to the suffering that would be in those ships.
His mind flashed to Daesah. The larvae had been dark under her skin, separating it from the fat, muscle and bone beneath.
They had curled in her brain. They had nested in her eyes.
Blood had flowed from every opening in her body.
A body that was softening. The suffering that had been written on her face was only exceeded by the gratefulness that he was there to make it all end.
Then his stomach curdled at the thought of exposing Jace to that.
After all the young man had been through, he did not need to see that, did he?
“If I am right about him, I believe that he could not only be a great asset to the Alliance, but also against the humans also,” she said.
“Against them?” His eyebrows lifted.
“You do not approve of this plan, my son?” she asked.
He looked into her eyes. “You seek to use what is admirable about Jace against him, his family and his species.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “You find him admirable?”
“He is not like us. But that does not mean there is nothing there to admire,” Khoth responded simply. “I am surprised that you understand him so well that you thought up this plan.”
“Perhaps it is because I know you better than you know yourself,” she answered after a moment. His eyes widened. He had no idea what she meant by that. “We will be sending ships and personnel to Earth, Khoth. Make sure that Jace is ready to accompany us.”