The Builder shimmered again, adding inches to its height. "Stay back." The rapid growth took away some from the humanness of its features.
"Take me to the ship's crew," Max ordered.
The Builder shifted suddenly, and the movement was too quick to be human. The humanoid figure seemed to
flow from one spot to the next. He stood in front of a closed door that Max hadn't seen in the darkness before. A softly glowing handplate gleamed to one side of the door.
"You must stay back," the Builder said. The creature knotted its hands into fists. "If you come any closer, we will be forced to harm you. That is not what we wish. We wish you to be our messenger."
"Take me to the ship's crew," Max repeated, more forcefully.
"That's impossible."
Turning, Max watched Michael step into the room, followed by Valenti, Isabel, Kyle, Liz, and Maria. All of them looked disheveled and worn, caked in dust.
Isabel stepped forward.
The Builder rippled again, flowing with predatory intent toward Isabel.
Michael held up his hands. Energy coiled around them. "Don't," Michael said. "I'll fry you where you stand."
The Builder moved back a step.
"What do you mean it's impossible to take me to the ship's crew?" Max asked.
"The ship's crew must be protected," the Builder said. Screeching hysteria filled the words.
"There is no ship's crew," Isabel said. "River Dog uncovered the truth and showed me. These things…" She looked at Max.
"They call themselves the Builder," Max said.
"The Builder has been hiding the crew's loss from themselves in order to keep from going mad." Isabel approached the door the Builder had been protecting.
"That door is broken," the Builder said. "We have not yet gotten it repaired. There has been no need."
Isabel waved her hand in front of the plate. The door irised open, all six steel plates retreating effortlessly into the bulkhead.
"No!" the Builder shouted, starting forward.
Michael shoved an energy bolt forward. The blue-white energy blast cut the Builder off at the knees in a series of electrical explosions.
Moving quickly, the Builder separated into halves, throwing their upper body away from their lower half, managing to save some of themselves. The upper half fell heavily to the dust- and debris-covered floor. Even as Max watched, more drones sped to the upper half of the Builders body, adding their masses to the hive organism. The Builder altered their body, growing legs again.
Isabel took Max by the elbow, pulling him into the next room. "Here," she said. "It's time that all of them know the truth again."
Max followed her into the room, listening to the Builder's voice shouting behind them. Liz and the others followed, but Valenti and Michael remained between them and the Builder.
A series of capsules in a wheel shape occupied the center of the room. The capsules looked like long test tubes. The incandescent light gleamed dully through the dust-covered surfaces.
"The crew," Isabel said, leading Max to one of the capsules, "didn't survive planetfall. The ship and the hibernation systems were heavily damaged." She wiped off one of the tubes, revealing the skeleton inside the tube. Though basically humanoid in appearance, the horns and four-fingered hands revealed the extraterrestrial origins of the dead.
"Then why didn't the Builder know this?" Max asked.
"There was an accident," an ancient voice stated.
Looking up, Max watched as another figure formed in the center of the room. More drones swirled together, creating another figure that stood up in the room. This one looked less human than the Builder, as if these drones could no longer quite fit together properly.
"The enemy ships were unmerciful in their attack," the drone-creature said, gazing down at the capsules that contained the dead aliens. "We tried to save them, but the damage to the systems was too severe. Our… loss… was too hurtful. We only wanted to die as our crew did. We went mad, but we could not allow ourselves to die, because that goes against our programming. We were going mad. So to save ourselves, we built another. One of us who did not know."
"Lies!" the Builder snarled. The first creature slithered into the room, staying back from Michael and making no threatening gestures.
"No," the second drone-creature said. "We tried to save them. We couldn't. The ship separated. We separated. When we landed, we decided to keep the truth of our loss to ourselves. So we told ourselves that the crew had survived and that we must protect them until help arrived. Separating from ourselves was a horrible experience, but we succeeded."
"No!" the Builder yelled, rippling over and over, changing shapes and features slightly as if losing control. "You killed them. You weren't good enough to save them. You were supposed to save them."
The second drone-creature faced their accuser. "We were not good enough. But we didn't want to accept our blame. We wanted only to be reunited with the One back on our planet. We give up so much when we are placed aboard these ships and help the crews."
"We should have died with them," the Builder said.
"No," the second drone-creature replied. "It is always our way to live."
"We can't live here," the Builder said. "This is not our home. We can't reunite with the One here. We are incomplete outside of the One."
The second drone-figure turned to Max. "We protected the ship from the Mesaliko people until the desert sands drank us down. During that time we remained separate from our others."
"A mind divided," Isabel said.
"We used the legends of the Mesaliko people to enforce our privacy," the second drone-figure said. "And we shut down the ship, freely entered stasis. We had thought the power would gradually dwindle and we no longer would exist, but that was allowable because we had no power over that. The thought of existence while trapped here was painful to us. Instead the ship's engines powering up not far away woke us."
"The Granilith," Max said, so they would all know.
"We sensed the ship," the second drone-figure said, "and we went on alert. We could not stop ourselves." The figure turned to face the Builder. "We would stop ourselves now. We would end our pain."
"No," the Builder said.
"Yes. We serve no purpose here."
"The distress beacon," the Builder said.
"Failed. If it still circles this planet, it is inoperative. There is no reason to chase the surrounding people from their homes. We're hurting others needlessly."
Soundlessly the Builder exploded into thousands of drones that immediately went on the offensive. "We can't live on our own. We choose not to live on our own."
Michael unleashed an energy bolt. The blue-white blast arced into the midst of the spreading drones that had been the Builder. Drones burst into electrical fireworks, chasing strings like failing Christmas lights.
Suddenly a powerful voice spoke in an alien tongue. The tone was downbeat, like a death knell. Words came in perfect cadence, one falling relentlessly after another.
"Go!" the second drone-figure shouted. "We have initiated the self-destruct sequence."
"I thought you couldn't do that," Isabel said.
"Only if we are invaded by hostile enemy troops. We see you as the enemy. You have served our purpose. Go. There is very little time remaining to make your escape."
Which "we"? Max wondered. The "we" that suddenly realized they weren't going home again, or the "we" that didn't want to be responsible for hurting anyone else? He had no way of knowing, so he ran.
Michael took the lead, throwing energy bolts at swarms of drones that tried to intercept them. Every time the energy hit the drones, the strings of explosions ripped across the rooms, leaving the way clear.