Earthfall: Retribution (13 page)

‘You too,’ Stirling replied. ‘I hoped that the transmission we picked up might have had something to do with you. I take it that the Faslane facility survived the invasion.’

‘Yes, but we weren’t fully prepared,’ Mason replied. ‘I only have a fraction of the men we were supposed to be assigned. We’ve only recently been able to begin surface operations – we had to wait for Shaw to finish his work on these things.’ He tapped the implant on the side of his head.

‘Daniel’s with you?’ Stirling said, looking confused for a moment. ‘How’s that possible?’

‘What do you mean?’ Mason asked with a frown.

‘He was in London on the day of the invasion,’ Stirling said. ‘How on earth did he get to you?’

‘He walked,’ Mason said. ‘It took him weeks.’

Stirling looked as if he was going to say something else for a moment, but then he glanced over at the children who were huddled around Sam.

‘I take it you know that’s his son,’ Stirling said.

‘Yes, Daniel never really spoke about his family,’ Mason said. ‘I’d always assumed they’d been taken in the invasion. I had no idea his son was one of the implant recipients.’

‘He’s a lot more than just that,’ Stirling said, raising an eyebrow.

‘Yes, I’ve seen his arm,’ Mason said. ‘When he told me it happened while you were taking control of the London Mothership, I found it rather hard to believe. I don’t know how you did it, Iain, but this could be a pivotal moment in driving back the Voidborn. If you’ve worked out a way to take control of a Mothership and we combine your men with mine, we could start to turn the tide.’

‘It’s rather more complicated than that,’ Stirling said, looking slightly uncomfortable all of a sudden. ‘What exactly did Sam tell you?’

‘He told me you had an army,’ Mason said, frowning.

‘That was something of an exaggeration,’ Stirling replied.

‘What do you mean?’ Mason asked.

‘That’s our army,’ Stirling said, nodding towards the group of children who were gathered in the shadow of the hulking Voidborn machines.

‘You’re joking,’ Mason said, looking shocked. ‘Then how did you . . .’ He glanced up at the colossal vessel hanging in the air far above them.

‘Honestly,’ Stirling replied, ‘I have no idea. Besides which, it’s not entirely accurate to say that
we
control the Mothership. Sam’s the only one who it actually responds to. We didn’t assault the Mothership – we were captured and, during the ensuing confrontation with the Voidborn consciousness inside the ship, something happened that profoundly altered it. Now it obeys the boy’s instructions without question.’

‘How is that possible?’ Mason said, looking over at the grinning boy surrounded by his friends.

‘I think you should probably ask Daniel that,’ Stirling said. ‘He implanted the boy with some form of experimental nanites when his Voidborn implant started to expand uncontrollably. I’ve never seen anything like them before. He never told me how he developed them, but they saved the boy’s life. Ever since then the Mothership has been entirely under his command. The former Voidborn that controls it calls him Illuminate, whatever that means.’

Mason shook his head slightly, looking over at Sam. ‘I wish I could ask Shaw what he did to the boy that makes him so special,’ he said. ‘He left Faslane several weeks ago. I’ve not seen him since.’

‘Why would he do that?’ Stirling asked with a frown.

‘We had a disagreement on tactics,’ Mason said. ‘You need to know what’s happened in Edinburgh.’

‘Yes, I was hoping you could give me more information about these new creatures,’ Stirling said.

‘He calls them Vore,’ Mason said, glancing at Sam. ‘Which is as appropriate a name as any. They’re a plague, Iain, and I need your help to stop them.’

Sam collapsed into one of the armchairs in the common room, profoundly glad to be back in what he now considered his home. He’d spent the last few hours filling everyone in on the details of his escape from the Vore, meeting Mag and then being rescued by Mason’s men. Sam waved to Jay as he entered the room and his friend sat down in the seat opposite him, glancing at the soldiers who were sitting around checking their gear in silence at the other end of the room.

‘Not exactly chatty, are they?’ Jay said, jerking his head towards the new arrivals. ‘Don’t think I’ve seen one of them crack a smile yet.’

‘I know what you mean,’ Sam said. ‘They’re pretty good at the whole stone-faced warrior thing, aren’t they?’

‘You sure we can trust them?’

‘Yeah,’ Sam said with a nod, ‘suppose so. Though it wasn’t like I had a lot of say in the matter, actually. I might have just managed to survive our first encounter with the Vore, but I wouldn’t have made it through the second if it hadn’t been for them.’

‘Man, those things were grim,’ Jay said. ‘I don’t want to think about what would happen if they made it to London.’

‘Yeah,’ Sam replied, ‘we’ve got to find a way of making sure that doesn’t happen.’

‘Hey, guys,’ Rachel said as she sat down on the arm of Sam’s chair. ‘Why the serious faces? Thought we were supposed to be celebrating.’

‘We were just talking about what the Voidborn did in Edinburgh,’ Sam said.

‘And how we make sure they can’t do the same thing here,’ Jay added.

‘Yeah, I still can’t believe that they were the city’s Sleepers,’ Rachel said. ‘I thought my nightmares were bad enough already, but this . . .’ She trailed off, shaking her head.

‘Yep,’ Sam said, ‘the only advantage we really have is that they’re nocturnal. Maybe if we move the Mothership over Edinburgh temporarily we can use the forces on board to find the nests and destroy them.’

‘Whatever happens, hundred of thousands of people are dead,’ Rachel said.

‘Didn’t you say that you found a whole bunch of Voidborn that had been ripped to pieces just before you met your latest girlfriend?’ Jay said.

‘Mag isn’t my girlfriend,’ Sam said, rolling his eyes.

‘You want to be careful,’ Rachel said with a grin. ‘You’ll make Goldenboobs jealous.’

‘Please don’t call the Servant that,’ Sam said with a sigh. ‘If it hadn’t been for Mag, I would never have made it out of Edinburgh. Now you mention it, though, there’s something that’s been bothering me about what I found up at the castle.’

‘Yeah?’ Jay said. ‘What’s that?’

‘How did the Vore turn on the Voidborn?’ Sam said, frowning slightly. ‘Why create a weapon that’s as dangerous to you as it is to your enemies?’

‘Maybe they just lost control of them,’ Jay said. ‘You didn’t see any other dead Voidborn, did you? Could’ve just been an accident.’

‘Yeah,’ Rachel said, ‘never stopped us from developing biological weapons before the Voidborn arrived, did it? I doubt the Voidborn really care about losing a few Hunters and Grendels if it means they can wipe out an entire city.’

‘I suppose,’ Sam said with a sigh. ‘I just hope that they didn’t do it because of what happened here. If this was revenge for London . . .’

‘This isn’t on us,’ Jay said. ‘We just have to find a way to make sure they can never do it again.’

Sam glanced over at the door as Stirling and Mason walked into the room.

‘Sam,’ Stirling said, ‘Mason has asked if we would give him a tour of the compound. He’s keen to see the Voidborn drilling rig. He also asked if we would show him the Mothership. I said I thought that wouldn’t be a problem.’

‘I have to admit I’ve always been curious,’ Mason said. ‘I’ve spent most of my time avoiding the Voidborn – I wouldn’t mind the opportunity to see some of their technology up close without getting vaporised.’

‘You OK with this?’ Sam asked Stirling.

‘Yes, but it’s your choice, Sam,’ Stirling said. ‘It’s your ship, after all.’

Sam had never thought of the Mothership as belonging to him, but he supposed that it must seem a bit like that to the others.

‘OK, let’s give you the guided tour,’ Sam said, standing up. ‘You two coming?’

‘Nah, I’m good,’ Jay said. ‘I told Jack I’d go out on patrol with him. I’ll catch you later.’

‘I’ll come,’ Rachel said. ‘Been a while since I’ve been up there.’

They spent the next hour or so giving Mason a tour of their own hastily constructed facilities and the bizarre Voidborn structure that loomed over the compound, which contained the dormant Voidborn tunnelling machine. Then they walked back over to the Grendel that was keeping watch over Mason’s helicopter.

‘I need a drop-ship to transport us up to the Mothership,’ Sam said to the enormous creature. A moment later a golden cloud materialised in front of the Grendel, seeming to just appear from thin air. A second or two later the swarm of nanites coalesced into the familiar form of the Servant.

‘So that’s what the Voidborn look like,’ Mason said quietly to Stirling.

‘Yes and no,’ Stirling replied. ‘That’s the form the Voidborn chose to appear to us in when we first encountered it, when it was still hostile. The only difference was the colour.’

‘Fascinating,’ Mason said, staring at the Servant as she told Sam that the drop-ship he had requested was on its way and would be there shortly. ‘And you’re sure that the Voidborn couldn’t somehow take control back from the boy.’

‘Honestly, I have no idea,’ Stirling replied. ‘I strongly suspect that they would have done, if it was that easy to take it back.’

‘That . . . or the loss of one Mothership is inconsequential to them,’ Mason replied.

‘Yes, that possibility had occurred to me too,’ Stirling said.

Above them there was a deep throbbing roar as the drop-ship that Sam had requested landed next to the helicopter, its sleek alien lines making the human machine look awkward and ungainly. The hatch in the side of the drop-ship slid open and Sam followed Rachel up the boarding ramp.

‘After you,’ Stirling said.

‘Never thought I’d be climbing into one of these things voluntarily,’ Mason said with a grim smile as he walked inside.

Sam looked up at the giant crystalline structure at the heart of the Mothership, watching it pulse with the yellow waves of energy that powered the massive vessel. He had been here many times over the past few months, but even now his memory took him back to the first time he had seen it. Then it had pulsed with sickly green light and he had been on his way to his first true encounter with the Voidborn consciousness.

‘What’s the source of all this power?’ Mason asked.

‘The source of the ship’s power is the gravity differential of the event horizon of a singularity trapped inside an artificial pocket dimension that is linked to the power distribution system via a quantum tunnel,’ the Servant replied.

‘Sounds dangerous,’ Mason said, staring up at the crackling nimbus of energy that surrounded the massive black crystal at the very top of the power column.

‘On the contrary,’ Stirling said, ‘it’s actually remarkably safe, clean and efficient. I just wish I had the faintest idea how it works.’

‘Seeing as it’s the only thing keeping us airborne, I’m just glad that it does work,’ Sam said to Rachel as the Servant led them to the top of the spiralling ramp that ran round the crystal. Like much of the Voidborn technology, the intricacies of the Mothership’s design were still a mystery to them. The Servant seemed to understand the basics, but since she had lost her connection to the Voidborn she had lost access to any detailed explanation of why the Mothership worked the way it did or where the Voidborn may have originated. Sam was reasonably sure that it was all tied up somehow with his newfound status as Illuminate, whatever that meant.