Major.”
Gunny cradled his shoulder—but the crack in the side of his helmet worried Lea more. His words came out sloshed, a sure indication of a head injury.
“Can you move?” she asked.
“Ain’t staying here.”
Lea smiled and helped him up.
Gunny limped as she led him away. Lea deliberately avoided looking into the extraction tanks as they hobbled past, but couldn’t help but notice the activity on the virtual display. The misty image faded in and out, hostage to power surges as the chamber warped itself. Between those flickers, Lea caught several glimpses of the readings there. Harmonious just a moment ago, they had since devolved into an interference pattern. Respiration and circulation jumped off the chart, while the EEG spiked so hard it threatened to overload the console. Waves of neural energy tore through one another, spreading outward until they consigned themselves to oblivion.
The display dissolved into random pixels, then shorted out altogether.
“Come on, Gunny,” she began to say, when the shaking ground subsided a little. It made both of them freeze in their steps, while the chamber shuddered and groaned—the sounds of a sinking ship slipping below the waves.
Then Gunny’s voice, an echo of itself.
“Major—”
Lea looked up at him first. His eyes were riveted on the extraction tanks, his face drained of all color. Lea followed his stare toward the tank with the young woman inside. Thrashing in her glass coffin, she tore against the fiber links that entangled her. The strands she ripped free floated about her extremities, their insistent pulse fading to a dull glow as data spilled out of her tissues. Her face, a mask of agony, twisted into unspeakable expressions, her jaw agape in a soundless scream. In a final, violent spasm, she threw her head back so hard that it seemed to snap her neck, bringing an instant close to her life and her struggles.
She began breaking down.
The effect was subtle at first—just the body going limp, as a few nervous impulses fired off at random. But then the woman curled inward, her spine bending into the shape of a scythe, while her hands twitched without direction. Blood started to seep into the accelerating solution, expanding across the tank in a crimson cloud. The skin across her back had split wide open, exposing the vertebrae beneath.
“Jesus,” Lea whispered, unable to look away.
The woman’s torso decomposed rapidly. What remained of her skeleton turned into jelly, the body collapsing under its own weight. Skin and muscle peeled away in sheets, dissolving into a bizarre biological tapestry—one that spread across all the other tanks, as those bodies were also reduced to nothingness.
With the base elements of life suspended there, Lea couldn’t help but remember the first time she had seen a bionucleic matrix—and in that moment, she understood the logic of that comparison. The Inru had never given up their core ambition. They had simply changed their approach.
This is the next phase, she thought. This is their new Ascension.
Tiernan’s heart hammered against the inside of his body armor, a burst of caged adrenaline trying to find a way out. He turned a hard stare at the merc lying on the floor next to him, while the urgency of Lea’s order tumbled around inside his head. She had made it clear that the prisoners were his priority, even though his first instinct was to grab his rifle and head straight to the lower chamber. He made several abortive starts in that direction, his indecision—and anger—building each time he went back and forth.
What’s it going to be? The men or the mission?
Tiernan already knew what Lea’s answer would be. It only infuriated him more.
“Dammit,” he muttered, and went back to the prisoners.
The merc Lea had doped was still in and out of it, riding the fringes of a stim haze. Or that’s what he wants me to think, the lieutenant decided, and tested out his theory by giving him a potent kick
Gunny cradled his shoulder—but the crack in the side of his helmet worried Lea more. His words came out sloshed, a sure indication of a head injury.
“Can you move?” she asked.
“Ain’t staying here.”
Lea smiled and helped him up.
Gunny limped as she led him away. Lea deliberately avoided looking into the extraction tanks as they hobbled past, but couldn’t help but notice the activity on the virtual display. The misty image faded in and out, hostage to power surges as the chamber warped itself. Between those flickers, Lea caught several glimpses of the readings there. Harmonious just a moment ago, they had since devolved into an interference pattern. Respiration and circulation jumped off the chart, while the EEG spiked so hard it threatened to overload the console. Waves of neural energy tore through one another, spreading outward until they consigned themselves to oblivion.
The display dissolved into random pixels, then shorted out altogether.
“Come on, Gunny,” she began to say, when the shaking ground subsided a little. It made both of them freeze in their steps, while the chamber shuddered and groaned—the sounds of a sinking ship slipping below the waves.
Then Gunny’s voice, an echo of itself.
“Major—”
Lea looked up at him first. His eyes were riveted on the extraction tanks, his face drained of all color. Lea followed his stare toward the tank with the young woman inside. Thrashing in her glass coffin, she tore against the fiber links that entangled her. The strands she ripped free floated about her extremities, their insistent pulse fading to a dull glow as data spilled out of her tissues. Her face, a mask of agony, twisted into unspeakable expressions, her jaw agape in a soundless scream. In a final, violent spasm, she threw her head back so hard that it seemed to snap her neck, bringing an instant close to her life and her struggles.
She began breaking down.
The effect was subtle at first—just the body going limp, as a few nervous impulses fired off at random. But then the woman curled inward, her spine bending into the shape of a scythe, while her hands twitched without direction. Blood started to seep into the accelerating solution, expanding across the tank in a crimson cloud. The skin across her back had split wide open, exposing the vertebrae beneath.
“Jesus,” Lea whispered, unable to look away.
The woman’s torso decomposed rapidly. What remained of her skeleton turned into jelly, the body collapsing under its own weight. Skin and muscle peeled away in sheets, dissolving into a bizarre biological tapestry—one that spread across all the other tanks, as those bodies were also reduced to nothingness.
With the base elements of life suspended there, Lea couldn’t help but remember the first time she had seen a bionucleic matrix—and in that moment, she understood the logic of that comparison. The Inru had never given up their core ambition. They had simply changed their approach.
This is the next phase, she thought. This is their new Ascension.
Tiernan’s heart hammered against the inside of his body armor, a burst of caged adrenaline trying to find a way out. He turned a hard stare at the merc lying on the floor next to him, while the urgency of Lea’s order tumbled around inside his head. She had made it clear that the prisoners were his priority, even though his first instinct was to grab his rifle and head straight to the lower chamber. He made several abortive starts in that direction, his indecision—and anger—building each time he went back and forth.
What’s it going to be? The men or the mission?
Tiernan already knew what Lea’s answer would be. It only infuriated him more.
“Dammit,” he muttered, and went back to the prisoners.
The merc Lea had doped was still in and out of it, riding the fringes of a stim haze. Or that’s what he wants me to think, the lieutenant decided, and tested out his theory by giving him a potent kick
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