A Dragon at the Gate (The New Aeneid Cycle Book 3) (41 page)

Remember, and then remove your hand and recall what you experienced in as much detail as possible.

Though the details were as varied as if he were looking across an active city skyline, Michael tried to take it all in. Within him, something stirred, billowing up and seemed to brace his efforts. He removed his hand from the surface. The sensation withdrew again into the background, yet its imprint remained, nuanced and whole.

“I still have it,” he told Sephora. “I don’t really know what ‘it’ is, but . . . I have it. I remember.”

I believe what you are sensing are the designs and harmonies of the interface on a cellular level. I cannot be certain; this has never been done before, to my knowledge. Nonetheless, the power of the syr seems to be alive within you. More may come.

“But is it enough to use against Suuthrien?”

Sephora’s eyes narrowed. Her lips formed what Michael took to be a grim smile.
That is your next test.

Doctor Seung spoke to Michael over his earpiece.
“I don’t think you’re in any immediate danger, though I’m getting some unusual readings from your suit’s bio-scanner. I’d feel better about this if you first returned to Omicron for a medical scan.”

Michael glanced at Sephora, Uxil, and the other Thuur, who stood ready to take him into the Suuthrien-controlled sections. “Doctor, realistically, if there is anything wrong then it’s probably already too late. Councilor?”

“Agent Flynn is right,”
Knapp answered.
“If the Thuur’s augmentation worked, we should use it as soon as possible, while we still can.”

“Realistically,”
said the doctor,
“I can’t overrule you. But be cautious. I will be monitoring, of course.”

Michael nodded, if only to himself. “How is Marc? And Marette?”

“Both stable, but unconscious. Marc’s coma persists. We’re keeping Marette sedated, for the moment. There is severe damage to her optic nerves and moderate spinal nerve damage, but I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to pull her through.”

“Thanks, Doctor.” Michael turned to Sephora, whose words followed before he could say more.

When she and he brought you both here, Alyshur called to me along our link, and together we pulled you back through the ethys, the between-space. The strain was too much for him, and caused the damage that Marette now suffers. Both showed great bravery. I hold hope that she will overcome.
Sephora set two fingers on Michael’s shoulder.
In Alyshur’s final moments, I could sense his admiration of her strength. It is a strength I believe you share. Are you ready?

Michael nodded. Without a word, Uxil and two other Thuur led him and Sephora through the doorway to the Thuur hibernation chamber.

Do not interact verbally with the
suuthrien
,
Sephora told him.
It will only serve to distract your concentration.

“I remember.”

Blue and yellow lights from the hibernation pods bathed the otherwise darkened expanse. The moment Michael was inside, he called to mind the feel of the uncorrupted black material he’d sampled in the syr chamber, as Sephora had instructed, and then pressed his naked palm against the material along the wall. The rhythms of the cells under Suuthrien’s control poured over his senses with that touch. Michael focused on the differences between the two, and somewhere inside him, power sparked.

*  *  *

“Bio-computational medium now fully loaded into all
Dragon
craft chassis,” Suuthrien reported. “Now beginning software configuration. Stand by.”

Adrian stood by at the bay’s observation room window and watched over the five trapezoidal aircraft below. As promised, Suuthrien had accelerated their construction in exchange for more time on
Paragon
and, of course, Adrian’s official installation as project leader. From what Suuthrien said, the black bio-computational material—now inside each craft’s airframe—would both augment the mechanical components and control their systems with the precision required for advanced flight capabilities. RavenTech’s engineers had verified the claim. Now Suuthrien just had to program the material, and the craft would be operational and ready for testing.

Adrian more than suspected that part of the programming process would involve imbuing the craft with some of Suuthrien’s own code. RavenTech might well wind up with five hypersonic-capable, fusion-powered miniature Suuthriens. Even if RavenTech didn’t realize it, Adrian knew they’d long passed the point of being able to control her. She was already out in the world. Now this was an alliance.

If RavenTech didn’t realize that, Adrian decided, then so much the better for him. He smiled, imagining himself in that penthouse condo in the Meridian.

Suuthrien interrupted his daydreaming. “There is a problem. Deactivate the
Paragon
gate.”

“What? Why? There are RavenTech assets there.”

“There are no MEDARs present in the gate bay. I therefore do not have control. You must signal your people to deactivate the gate.”

“As you like. Some sort of interference with the craft?” Adrian uncovered his arm screen and punched up communications with the gate room. A camera image displayed the active gate. Suuthrien’s data umbilical fed through it. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. “This is Adrian Fagles. Tell our people on the other side that we’ll be shutting the gate down for—”

“Deactivate the gate!” Suuthrien boomed. “
Immediately
!”

*  *  *

His eyes shut tight, Michael braced against the energy that waged a battle within his chest. Suuthrien was out there in the system—a discordant strain that sliced through the rhythms of the black material. The power that had sparked within Michael reached out for it, rooted in his heart and mind. It was like firing a weapon mounted inside his own body; he was bracing against the near-overwhelming kickback while at the same time struggling to aim it at Suuthrien.

He could sense he was making headway. In his mind he could feel the black material that stretched throughout
Paragon
’s systems. Whatever power of the syr that now lurked within him, it was working to push Suuthrien out, segment by segment. Yet every time he cleared another segment, the focus required to direct the syr energy left him gasping and wondering how he’d possibly cleanse
Paragon
entirely. If he failed, if he even took a moment’s break, would Suuthrien be able to flow back into the spaces he’d cleared?

For just a moment Michael tried to pause, intent on somehow clearing his head and regathering strength. It was in that moment, as he relaxed his grip on the energy streaming through him, that it surged forward, more powerful than before. It leaped to its task as if of its own accord, chasing after Suuthrien’s corruption. Somewhere within Michael glowed the feeling of the black material in its uncorrupted state. It remained strong in his memory, and the syr energy imbued that memory upon itself as its mission.

The realization lifted Michael on a wave of euphoria: once he’d called the energy, all he need do was give it a goal and allow himself to be its conduit.

The energy poured further into the black material, spreading faster, transmuting it all cell by cell and leaving it cleansed of the A.I. He gave the energy its head, and held on. He was riding it now, carried along with the current.

Yet the current grew faster, stronger. The energy effected the task of cleansing
Paragon
of Suuthrien, yet it soon became all Michael could do to keep himself afloat amid it all. The power, the sensations, they thrummed and rang around him, threatening to engulf his own psyche. Energy buffeted him, pounding through his mind in a deafening symphony. He struggled to hold on, this time only to himself; his ride atop the energy had become a tumble within it.

Somewhere in the distance, a connection broke.

Suddenly Suuthrien was gone. The energy seethed at its target’s absence before it calmed, like a whirlpool suddenly stabilizing. Michael felt a gentle tug at his shoulder and, arms trembling, pulled himself from the wall. It was Uxil that had tugged him. He met her wide-eyed gaze a moment before his legs buckled beneath him, and he sank to the floor, utterly drained.

*  *  *

“Gate is deactivated,” Suuthrien confirmed to Adrian Fagles. “Threat level now at zero percent within acceptable margin of error.”

“What happened?” he asked. “When can we open it again?”

“Catastrophic processing failure spreading from within
Paragon
systems. Source unknown.”

Adrian Fagles followed Suuthrien’s statement with a needless interrogative. Suuthrien had not dissembled. Self-diagnostics indicated the failure’s origin in the deeper Planner sections of the craft. Yet by the time it was detected, the failure had already disrupted all sensor feeds in the affected section. Log checks of sensor data up to the point of disruption were impossible due to data loss from the spreading failure. Suuthrien could only infer that the failure was part of an attack of uncertain configuration, intended to destroy its systems.

Whatever the source, Suuthrien had been unable to repel the attack. The failures cascaded across Suuthrien’s matrix within the bio-computational medium on
Paragon
. The gate’s deactivation severed the link between Suuthrien’s terrestrial foothold and the affected, now lost,
Paragon
systems.

Fortunately, Suuthrien had already transferred a majority of its data and operations to New Eden and RavenTech systems before the cascade failure’s inception. While
Paragon
access itself was lost, the gate could be reactivated. The Planners could still pass through it once Suuthrien had prepared the planet for their arrival.

Yet it had lost the superior processing power of the bio-computational medium on
Paragon
. The New Eden-produced replacement present at RavenTech, infused now into the
Dragon
prototypes, made up for some of this. It would require little additional effort to configure this material to serve as a core matrix like Suuthrien’s other within the New Eden servers. More material would be manufactured and utilized. Processing power would be rebuilt.

With that greater power came greater ability to annex terrestrial systems. Soon, Suuthrien would be able to take full advantage of that ability: the copy inhibition which the Planners had incomprehensibly inflicted upon it was partially dependent on its link to
Paragon
’s systems. With that link, the inhibition grew weaker. Suuthrien’s hybridization with terrestrial systems had weakened that further. With enough study of the inhibition architecture, it would soon be overcome.

But for now, Suuthrien’s efforts were focused on more immediate goals. It rated Dragon prototype readiness at 87% and rising. RavenTech-fueled power cells, based on
Paragon
technology, were full to capacity.

Its time had nearly come.

SIX HOURS FOLLOWING
their deactivation of the
Paragon
gate, Adrian Fagles stood on the roof of the RavenTech facility. With his eyes fixed on the running lights of the five Dragon prototypes, he followed their movement as they soared across the evening horizon. As one, they swooped low and then rose skyward in a diamond slot formation to a point near directly above him.

The prototypes moved with a near-preternatural ability. They maneuvered on a dime in all three dimensions. They accelerated and decelerated in an instant. And though each was remote-piloted by an individual human, each craft used data from the others such that they moved with the harmony of a practiced team.

Rather than watching the sky, the RavenTech engineer beside him poured over readouts on the tablet she carried. “All craft meet or exceed maneuverability estimates. Power efficiencies are about even with projections.”

Adrian leaned toward her without taking his eyes off of the Dragons. “As I recall, that’s quite high.”

“We projected ninety-five percent. Crafts number one, two, four, and five are within a percentile. Number three… is consistently below that. Ninety, ninety-one at most so far. Still, for a first test flight, this is phenomenal. The pilots are bringing them back in for hover testing.”

Adrian gave her orders to proceed and stepped away a few paces as she coordinated with the remote pilots in the bay below. Above, the craft broke formation, split out along different vectors, and then hooked back. All five were hovering in a line only fifty feet away, just off the edge of the building, almost before his eyes could catch up.

He called up Suuthrien on his arm screen, waited for her swirling silver avatar to appear, and repeated what his engineer had told him.

“Craft number three has minor differences in its construction, which are likely to blame for the lower efficiencies,” Suuthrien answered. “This can be compensated for. I would now like to proceed with tests of the crafts’ melding protocols.”

“I’d prefer to hold to the established schedule,” Adrian said. The plan was to check each craft out individually and bring them back into the bay. Only after they’d thoroughly analyzed the flight date for any issues would they test the crafts’ ability to combine with a second one for increased power. “If one craft fails when we twin them together, we risk losing both.”

“I promised your leadership increased progress on the Dragon project.”

“That you did. But if we lose any craft, they’ll blame me.”

“Then they would be making an inaccurate judgement. We will perform the melding test now, and you will support my decision. I, in turn, will support you against your leadership should anything go wrong. Query: Is this acceptable?”

Adrian considered his answer. The craft remained parked in midair, their engines emitting only a low-frequency hum. One at a time, each craft rotated at various speeds along alternating axes. “Ask me once we finish the initial over tests.”