Nexus by Robert Boyczuk (best large ebook reader txt) 📕

The path twisted and turned, snaking around slight rises and squat, thick-boled trees. Overhead, the canopy was uninterrupted, limbs locking over them like the roof of a vault, allowing only a muted, bottle-green light to filter through. The brush grew denser. Tall bushes with teardrop-shaped leaves and thin, arcing branches crowded together on one side of the path, forming an impenetrable wall of brown and green. Yet the path remained unobstructed, as if the undergrowth understood it wasn’t to disturb the winding trail. Opposite the thicket, the growth was spartan, consisting mostly of clumps of small bushes with stubby, olive colored leaves, each sporting a orange streak, like a brush stroke, down its centre. The forest was silent except for the soft thud of their own footsteps.

Yilda moved at a double-time pace; Hebuiza staggered after in his strange awkward gait, trying to keep up, but was already flagging. Liis could understand: she was exhausted herself, her legs leaden and her head woolly. Her arm throbbed mercilessly now. She wondered where the small man got his reserves of energy.

Minutes passed, and Yilda disappeared around the bends ahead of them; soon, Liis only caught glimpses of him at a distance, through gaps in the forest. Finally, he was lost to sight all together. Hebuiza’s stride faltered; he stopped, swaying in the middle of the path.

He’s finished, Liis thought as she stepped up to him. She felt no pity. Gruffly, she said, “You’re blocking the-”

Hebuiza hissed at her, made a slicing motion in the air with his hand to cut her off. He swung his bolt gun around and aimed it at a clump of dense bush with scalloped leaves and dotted with dark pink and lavender blossoms. The leaves rustled.

Liis stepped past Hebuiza to get a better look.

Something black exploded from the bush, shot past her and towards Hebuiza; a high-pitched screech pierced the gloom, tore like sandpaper along her nerves. The Facilitator dropped his gun and released his own shriek, reeling backwards, arms flailing wildly to protect his face. The bird-for now Liis could see its expansive, shiny wings beating-banked sharply, narrowly missing him, and streaked off into the forest, making a strange, hollow whistling as it vanished into the gloom.

The Facilitator was on his knees, eyes down, his empty hands trembling uncontrollably. His shoulders heaved and he wheezed as if he were hyperventilating.

Liis heard the thump of footsteps. Yilda ran back around a sharp bend in the trail and pulled up abruptly, his eyes darting between them and the surrounding forest, his weapon swinging around in long, low, covering arcs.

“A bird,” Liis said, her heart still thumping double-time. “A fucking bird.” She looked with disgust at Hebuiza.

Yilda swore. He lowered his weapon, and, holding it in one hand, used his other to retrieve Hebuiza’s gun from where it had fallen. He shoved the weapon roughly to the other man’s chest, and held it there until Hebuiza numbly wrapped his arms around it like a child would clutch a stuffed toy.

“Get up,” Yilda said.

Hebuiza rose unsteadily, his eyes averted. He was still shaking.

“We need to stop,” Liis said, not out of compassion for the Facilitator, but because she, too, was exhausted.

“We don’t have time,” Yilda said coldly. “At most we only have a few hours before they’ll know we are here.” He placed his rifle on the ground and shrugged off his backpack. From one of its side pockets, he pulled out a small, cylindrical container. He popped off the lid with his thumb and spilled several blue capsules into his palm. “Here.” He held out his hand. “Stimulants.” When no one moved, Yilda shoved his hand right under Hebuiza’s nose. “Take it!”

Hebuiza lifted a shaking hand, managed to close his fingers on a capsule. His head swung in long arc from side to side. He placed the pill on his tongue, drew it into his mouth and swallowed.

“You too,” Yilda said, swinging his hand towards her.

Liis watched Hebuiza. Already his trembling had subsided. He blinked, looking around as if he had just woken, his shoulders straighter than they had been for days. He swung his weapon into the ready position, his eyes glittering, his head for once perfectly still. She wondered what kind of drug could work such dramatic changes in so short a time. Certainly nothing Bh’Haret had to offer. Hebuiza was rocking now with suppressed energy, his feet shifting restlessly. “I’m ready,” he said with urgency. “Let’s go!”

“Well?” Yilda said.

Reluctantly, Liis lifted a pill from Yilda’s palm, placed the capsule on her tongue. The muscles in her throat tightened. She swallowed, but her throat was dry: the capsule stuck and wouldn’t go down.

“Good.” Yilda snatched up his rifle and trotted off down the path, Hebuiza following eagerly.

Liis waited until they had passed around the bend then spat out the blue capsule. It glistened on the side of the path. She set out after the Facilitators, forcing her aching legs to move as if they were filled with the same kind of revitalizing energy that possessed Hebuiza’s.

They dropped down into a ravine, crossed a simple wood plank bridge over a stream and followed a switchback up the opposite side. Here the path branched, the right fork curving back towards the wall of the dome, the left fork leading towards the heart of the structure.

Yilda took the left.

Almost immediately, the foliage thinned and the path seemed to straighten. The forest dwindled quickly; spotty patches of luminescence overhead became an unobstructed view of the milky-white underside of the dome. Light seemed to emanate from its entire surface, creating an unreal, shadowless world.

Like walking through a dream, Liis thought. Or a nightmare.

Through the trees, a distant line of large white cylindrical structures was visible. They reminded Liis of fuel storage tanks-except they were more massive than anything she’d seen girding the airfields and spaceports of Bh’Haret. Each had to be close to four hundred meters in diameter and perhaps two hundred in height. They stood shoulder to shoulder, with no visible breaks between. Behind the cylinders was a dark background Liis had simply taken to be a discoloured part of the dome; but as the view cleared, she realised it was the steeply-pitched slope of a mountain. It thrust up in the exact centre of the dome, the unbroken line of cylinders ringing it like a fence. Liis craned her neck to follow the slope to the point at which its peak pierced the roof nearly two kilometers overhead.

Passing into an area of rolling fields of tall grasses, they descended into a broad, shallow valley. The cylinders were lost to sight. Gentle breezes bent the grass, making the surface seem to ripple and undulate like a sea. Ponds dotted the field, as did broad-leaved trees with thick, arching branches. The stones lining the sides of the path had disappeared, replaced by plants and long-stalked flowers. At first Liis thought the flowers were bending with the breeze; but when she looked back she realised they were leaning in towards the path as they passed. Ahead of Yilda, a plant with delicate blue and yellow petals and a long brown stalk, its base surrounded by a spray of white florets, lifted itself on spidery legs, and darted across the path and disappeared into the grass on the opposite side.

Yilda loped past, oblivious.

They crested a rise.

A few hundred meters away were the cylinders. Clinging to their lower portions were plain, squat buildings, composed of grey and brown material. Until this moment, the buildings had been hidden behind the last rise. But now Liis could see them clustered about the base of the cylinders in an unbroken circuit that extended fifty to a hundred meters into the surrounding fields. The path they were on led straight to the largest building visible: at four storeys it towered over the adjacent one-and two-storey structures, its roof surmounted by a low parapet behind which rose a peaked dome. On the side of the dome were two linked gold circles-the only ornamentation evident on any of the buildings.

Yilda picked up the pace and shortly they stepped from the dirt path onto a broad paved surface that led, like a grand avenue, to the buildings. In moments they stood at the juncture of that avenue with another one that skirted the buildings, disappearing in either direction around the gradual curve of cylinders. Yilda crossed this last stretch to stand in front of a portico with simple framing members and a plain lintel. Across the opening a translucent material had been drawn. Stepping closer, he poked the material with the tip of his rifle. It flexed, but did not part. He poked it harder, but the material gave less this time, as if the increased force had caused it to become more rigid.

Dropping to his knees, Yilda laid his rifle on the ground and swung his pack off his shoulders. He opened a side pocket and withdrew a clear, flat box. It held dozens of small silver discs, each a few centimeters in diameter. Flipping open the case, he picked one out. Placing it on the ground at the base of the opening, he pressed its top with his thumb. At the centre of the disc a tiny red light went on, then began to pulse, like a beating heart, growing brighter with each beat.

Yilda grabbed his pack with one hand, scooped up his rifle with the other. “Ten seconds to clear,” he said. “I suggest you follow me.” With that, he turned and jogged back into the field. Hebuiza followed quickly and Liis, glancing at the strobing dot, decided she’d best follow their example.

A dozen meters away from the door, Yilda dropped into a shallow ditch and lay flat. Hebuiza followed suit and, after a moment’s hesitation, Liis did too, grunting as she inadvertently jostled her arm.

The roar of the explosion slammed into her like a tidal wave. The ground shuddered and shrapnel whistled past her. Something ricocheted off her backpack. A cloud of dust roiled around them, choking off the light. For a few seconds, debris rained down, Liis feeling, more than hearing, fragments thudding into the soil. She buried her head under her good arm and prayed nothing sizeable would fall on her.

Someone tugged on her pack.

Liis raised her head; dirt trickled from her back. “Come on,” Yilda said. “We don’t have that much time before the building starts to repair itself.”

Liis struggled to her feet. Through the swirl of dust she could see a ragged hole had been torn in the wall, its outline shadowed by scorch marks. Yilda had already stepped through the opening, with Hebuiza on his heels. Spitting out the grit that had collected in her mouth, Liis pushed through the tall grasses, and crossed to the wrecked portal.

Inside was a murky, rubble strewn room.

Liis stood on a smooth floor. Dust and smoke still made a hash of the details. She took a few tentative steps forward and almost bumped into Hebuiza. “Where the hell are the lights?” she asked.

“They won’t activate for us.” It was Yilda’s voice, ahead of her. “Everything here is keyed on the Speakers’ bio-signatures. Lights, doors, windows.” An amber beam pierced the gloom, sliced past them causing Liis to blink. It settled on the opposite side of the room where a narrow stairwell, wide enough for only one person, descended into darkness.

“They’re this way.” Yilda’s voice had taken on a breathless quality; it quivered with anticipation. “Quickly!” He moved to the head of the stairs and Liis saw that it was the barrel of his rifle projecting a wide beam like a flashlight. “When we find them, don’t kill anyone unless you think they will escape,” he said, then turned and began