Jack followed. They climbed into the flyer, the inside of which was much like the walker Jack had inspected in the field. After a moment, he noticed a distinct difference, though. This one was alive. The walls were warm to the touch, and when he reached out to touch it, the creature cooed.
“Hurry.”
“What? How do I do this?”
“Climb into the pilot’s cradle. It will adjust to you, and…”
“And what?”
“I’m not sure. If we’re lucky, you’ll figure it out. We must hurry, or we won’t make the rendezvous.”
Jack stepped to the front where the empty cradle hung open. If this was all an intricate trap, Jack could imagine easier ways for the interrogator to kill him.
He rolled up his sleeves and slowly lowered himself in. The inside was warm and humid, with a musky odor that wasn’t entirely unpleasant. It reminded Jack of reaching into an open wound. Then it quivered and cinched down tight, while insectoid arms gripped him around the midsection.
“This is disgusting.” His voice was muffled.
“Jack…”
“I don’t know what do.”
Something flashed, and Jack had blind spots like he’d just looked at the sun. He blinked his eyes and tried to clear them. There was another flash more intense than the first. “Something’s happening,” he said.
When the third flash struck, Jack experienced something strange. The strangest thing in his life. Even weirder than his stint with those mushrooms. He touched another creature’s mind and saw through its eyes.
“It’s working,” he thought he said. He wasn’t sure if he said it or thought it. Things had gotten messy.
“Can you get us airborne?” The interrogator’s voice had a weird echo.
“I think so,” he said, and then he made it happen. Jack felt the fin around the edge of himself spin up, the cycling sound filling the air, and the flyer climbed out of its stall. The attached hose tugged back for a moment, but its connector snapped away and he was free.
“Good. Now take us toward those towers, then head left and follow traffic until we reach the edge of the city.”
Jack was overwhelmed. He was flying. It all had to be dream. He was still lying on the floor of his prison cell, and none of this was real.
So he approached it as a dream, and he flew. He flew free, jetting through traffic and banking through the air. He darted between the other flyers, and flipped a quick barrel roll.
“Calm down, Jack. You’re going to attract attention if you keep this up.”
“Sorry,” he said, and he slid back into traffic like a good little boy. After a few minutes of travel, he reached the city’s end and slid back out of traffic and into open skies. Out into freedom.
If this was a dream, Jack never wanted to wake up.
Chapter 43:
Rendezvous
The interrogator directed Jack eastward and the small flyer sped over dense rainforest. Trees beneath them started orange, then turned green after a few kilometers and finally thinned out at the foot of the Virunga Mountains.
“Set down in that clearing,” the interrogator said, and Jack did.
The flyer neared the ground and its stubby legs extended, then bent under the weight as the vehicle kissed the Earth. Just as Jack began to wonder how to remove himself from the cradle, the vehicle released him. He was back in the real world. Back in his own body. The experience was disorienting beyond belief.
The night was dark and rain had just begun to fall. The feeling of standing there beneath the clouds, splashed by rain and caressed by the warm winds, was simply brilliant. Jack’s skin was caked with months worth of filth, and he wanted nothing more than to stand in the rain and feel clean again. Feel new again.
“I should kill you,” Jack said after a long silence.
“You still have the option.”
He considered reaching for his gun, but he had too many questions that needed answers. The interrogator might have been suicidal, but he hadn’t worn out his usefulness. Not yet. “Will you tell me what’s going on?”
“Where should I begin?” the alien asked.
Jack’s shoulders were soaking wet, and the water trickled down over the rest of him. “Is Kai your real name, or was that just a cover?”
“Real name. When did you figure it out?”
“Not until you handed me the gun. You called me Jack. So, I gather you’re not Finnish, but… how do look so human?”
“Our shape is similar. For the rest, I altered my outward appearance. I created a disguise in order to gain your trust.”
“Helluva disguise,” Jack said. “I bought it hook, line and sinker.” He listened to the melodic pitter-patter on the leaves all around him. Just that morning, he was sure he’d never hear that sound again, yet there he was.
“That can’t be everything you want to know.”
“Of course not,” Jack said. He took a tentative step out of the flyer and onto the wet soil, fearing it would disappear the moment he touched it. When he was confident it was real and not going anywhere, he took another step and then sat down among the plants. “I want to know how this all happened. How did we end up here?”
Kai walked over to him, and Jack motioned for him to sit down. “It’s a long story,” Kai said.
“Take your time. I’m a patient man.”
Kai pulled his mask off and shoved it in his jacket, then took a deep breath. “As you wish. It starts thirty-two of your years ago. My people, the Somari, had just come out of a century long war, and for the first time in our history, our people were united. It was the dawn of a new age of prosperity, fueled by the technological advances made during the war.”
“What sort of advances?”
Kai smiled. “Genetic engineering. Biotechnology. The ability to manufacture new bodies from whole cloth, and transfer minds from one to the next.”
“So you’re…”
“Enhanced. A biotech construct. This is my third body, counting the one in which I was born.”
“Okay. Now we come to the part of the story where something terrible happens.”
“Yes. The Nefrem happened. Their battle fleet appeared in orbit one day and laid siege to our planet. Just like that, we were embroiled in war again. We thought we could defeat them, but their forces were too numerous. Too powerful. It took them only thirteen days to conquer our world, and our Archon chose to destroy it rather than concede defeat. He would not allow them to devour us.”
“Devour you?”
“That’s how the Nefrem operate. I’ll spare you the details.”
“Thanks. So… how did you survive?”
“I was placed in a bottle and set adrift on the sea of stars.”
“And you ended up where?”
“Other Sinits like me… infiltrators… they discovered which star systems the Nefrem were targeting, and the Archon’s dying wish was that I be sent to warn them.”
“And?”
“Five years later, my capsule arrived in the Oikeya system. The code be praised, Jack… You simply can’t imagine all the many strange wonders of that system. It was so rich and full of life. Three whole living worlds! Three, each with a completely unique ecosystem and collection of intelligent species. And that was only the beginning. Out among the asteroids were gargantuan membranous sacks full of water. Islands in space, each of them alive and intelligent, and full of yet more creatures. Life, free of the shackles of gravity. And all of it brought together, interconnected by living space ships that fly as naturally as a fish swims through water.”
“Sounds too good to be true.”
“I know. I thought the same thing every moment I was among them. I was sure I had died and gone to… heaven? The Oikeyans had no concept of war or hatred. No struggle or strife. They lived in peaceful harmony with one another, and they were all so very naive.” He was quiet for a long pause. “When I told them the destroyers were coming, they laughed. They actually laughed.”