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

Liis was dumbstruck. Not because of what Yilda had said, but because she suddenly understood why Upatal had led her to the platform, then jumped off as it began to rise._ She knew Yilda would come to the hatchery to destroy the fetuses. She’s been playing me all along. And now she’s offered me up as a gift. A sacrificial lamb_.

“You’re still stalling.” Yilda hefted his rifle. “And now I’m becoming very angry.”

Liis stiffened. Behind Yilda, the dark ‘O’ of a doorway formed in the distant wall, then quickly faded, leaving no trace. But in that brief moment it had been open, a lone figure had slipped through.

“Fleeing is no longer an option,” Yilda said, misinterpreting her gaze. “you’d be dead before you took a step. And you’ve nowhere left to go.” He placed the muzzle of his rifle on Liis’ left kneecap. “My patience is exhausted. If you don’t answer right now, I will shatter your patella. An extremely painful injury. Or so I gathered from the one of the erstwhile Speakers.”

“They’re below.” Liis said. “Hiding in the incubation cells.” Far off, a small figure darted from the cover of one the distant incubators to the next. Liis fought the urge to stare in that direction.

“Plausible. Not terribly intelligent, really. But plausible. That doesn’t explain what you’re doing up here.”

Behind Yilda, the figure moved between ranks of incubators, closing. Liis was fairly certain it was Upatal. “I wanted to go,” Liis said, forcing herself to lock eyes with Yilda. “I made them show me how to work the platform.”

“Why?” Yilda furrowed his brow in mock concentration. “Why would you want to do that? You’re not much brighter than they are. Why leave a cozy hiding place?”

“Hebuiza told me there was a cure. I wanted to look around. I thought I might…I mean I was hoping to find a med machine or something….”

“Stupid woman,” Yilda said, the contempt unmistakable in his voice. “You’ve already been cured. Those capsules I gave you and Hebuiza-they were more than stimulants. They disabled the Trojan. I was afraid I might still need your assistance. But apparently I was wrong.”

A hard knot formed in Liis’ stomach. Cured. She thought about the little blue capsule lying on forest path._ I had it on my tongue-and I spat it out_. Liis stared at Yilda, at the rifle he aimed at her. He had the antidote….

In the periphery of her vision, the figure moved closer again, startling Liis. This time, however, she got a good look. It was Upatal. Liis suddenly realised she was staring at the place where Upatal had hidden. Yilda frowned, started to turn.

“All this,” Liis said. “For revenge.”

“Revenge?” Yilda turned back to her; he seemed genuinely puzzled.

“Hebuiza told me. You want to get back at your brother. To disrupt Nexus.”

At the mention of his brother, Yilda’s face darkened. “As much as I despise my twin, revenge was never my motive.” He spat out the word twin. “But if he chooses to believe I’ve done this merely for revenge, let him. He always was an imbecile.” Yilda regained his composure; he smiled at her. “After all, he let me escape, didn’t he?”

“Then why kill the Speakers? Why destroy the fetuses?” Upatal was no more than fifty meters away now, hesitating, it seemed, to risk the next open space.

“I’m not destroying the fetuses. I’m modifying their developmental programming. I’ll need them to rebuild my empire.”

Liis’ mind reeled. “B…but you’re trapped here,” she said, her voice shaking. “You’re trapped on this dead rock. Just like the Speakers.” Her words rang hollowly in her own ears.

Yilda smirked. “There’s no rush now. It’ll be decades before a Nexus ship arrives. And I’ve made arrangements for my departure long before then. I have a ship standing by, waiting for my orders, once I’ve disabled the orbitals.”

He’s planned this from the start, Liis thought. Even the blue pills Yilda had proffered them-he must have had those long before The Viracosa left Bh’Haret. Liis felt the blood drain from her face. Yilda stood before her, a small, bow-legged, dissipate-looking man she wouldn’t have given a second glance to on a city street. When she spoke, her voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper. “‘A convenient plague’. That’s what Hebuiza called it back on Bh’Haret.” There wasn’t a shred of emotion on Yilda’s face. Nothing but his galling implacability. “Not convenient for Nexus,” she continued. “Convenient for you. It provided you with a group of people desperate enough to help you get here.”

Yilda’s lips crooked up in a sly, self-congratulatory smile, the figures of his carved teeth showing.

Liis felt sick. “Nexus didn’t seed Bh’Haret with the plague.” She felt like she teetered on the brink of an abyss. “You did.”

Yilda bowed from the waist. “A nice touch, don’t you think?” His mocking smile broadened. “My witless brother is blamed for the plague. An outrage that will work in my favour when I begin negotiating with the worlds in the Left Leg Cluster that are now cut off from Nexus. The new order I offer will seem that much more benign when set against this calculated disregard for life demonstrated by Nexus.”

Liis’ first reaction was a flash of rage; almost immediately it was replaced by a self-loathing so intense she thought she was going to vomit. I helped him. He killed everyone on Bh’Haret, and I helped him. A tremor began in her arms, spread to her chest and legs. Only it wasn’t fear that caused her to tremble; it was shame and guilt.

“I’m tired of this chit-chat,” Yilda said.

Liis watched his finger tighten on the trigger. Shutting her eyes, she waited for the barely audible pop of his weapon, realizing a split second later that she would be dead before the sound reached her ears. Like everything else that had happened, there would be no warning.

“Then again, you may still be of use.”

Yilda hadn’t fired. Liis opened her eyes.

In the last few moments, she’d forgotten about everything except the raw knot of shame and anger in her stomach. Now she could see the snout of Upatal’s bolt gun poking above an incubator in the last ring.

Yilda sighed. “If the Speakers feel this same absurd affection for you, then perhaps I can use you as bait. Imagine them, coming across poor, incapacitated Liis, and stopping to help.” He reached in the pocket of his shorts and pulled out the clear, flat box of silver discs: the explosives he’d used on the first door. “I designed these microgrenades so they could be detonated either by timers or proximity triggers keyed on the Speakers’ bio-signatures. A few planted on you and-well you can figure out the rest for yourself.” He rattled the small discs inside their case and stuffed them back in his pocket. “Sadly, you will die when your friends get close to you. But at least your death will serve a useful purpose.”

Liis felt like laughing at the absurdity of Yilda’s statement. She watched Upatal step out from the cover of the incubator and creep forward, advancing towards them, the bolt gun at the ready. You’re too late, Yilda, she thought. I’m already being used. As Upatal’s decoy.

“What are you smiling at?”

Upatal had stopped, raised the bolt gun to her shoulder.

Yilda turned to follow Liis’ gaze.

The report from the gun made Liis jump; the muzzle flash momentarily blinded her.

When her vision cleared, Yilda stood before her, swaying slightly, his eyes agog, his mouth open in astonishment. Upatal’s shot had hit him squarely in the side of the head. Wisps of smoke rose from his temple; the flesh there was torn and seared, his ear blackened and shrivelled. Yilda’s rifle slipped from his hands and clattered to the floor. Stumbling forward, he butted into Liis, his head lolling against her breast, his hands clutching at the fabric of Liis’ tee-shirt, closing on fistfuls of material.

Upatal stood perfectly still, the bolt gun levelled. Her lips were drawn tight, her eyes narrowed. Hatred animated her features. With a flick of her head, she indicated Liis should push the Facilitator away.

Liis looked down at Yilda. His eyes were closed; all traces of pain had been erased from his face. He looked as if he were concentrating. But that was impossible. The bolt gun fired a tight array of charged capacitance darts; aside from the physical damage they inflicted, they should have made a hash out of the electrical impulses in his brain when they discharged. Hebuiza said something about a nanoskin, Liis remembered. Could that have saved him? She stared closely at the shrivelled mess that had been the left side of his face. Oddly, there was little blood. A piece of blackened skin hung down like a crisped sheet of paper. Underneath, something shone. A transparent layer, like a thin plastic film, formed a barrier. Several darts from the bolt gun were embedded in the material. One of the darts wiggled, fell out. Two others began moving.

Yilda’s eyes snapped open; instantly he released his grip on Liis’ tee-shirt and seized her by the arms, spinning her around. Pain flashed up the nerves in Liis’ broken arm, short-circuiting her vision. She screamed in agony.

Yilda’s moist breath rasped against the back of her neck. He held Liis in front of him as his shield, fingers like steel pinioning her arms behind her back. Upatal had the bolt gun trained on them, but didn’t fire.

Yilda began backing towards the lip of the trench where his rifle lay.

A ruby light flickered in front of Liis’ nose; specks of dust in the air sparkled like miniature stars as they ignited.

The crushing grip on her arms relinquished. Liis stumbled forward a step, turned in time to see Yilda vault across the low bench and make an impossibly long leap across the trench. Lines of red light cut the air around him. He threw himself behind an incubator at the same instant Liis heard a discharge from the bolt gun. The round punched a fist-sized hole through the incubator’s side; fluid sluiced through the opening and slopped onto the floor.

To Liis’ right, the male Speaker stepped out into the open, Liis’ laser pistol in his fist. From opposite sides, the Speakers began to work their way towards the incubator where Yilda had taken cover.

Something small flashed through the air toward the male Speaker. Liis dove behind one of the little benches.

The concussion from the explosion caught her mid-leap, knocking the breath from her lungs. She landed hard, felt herself bounce, her body a loose and disjointed thing that tumbled haplessly into the trench. For countless seconds the room revolved above her, the overhead lights burning fervidly in her eyes. She felt battered beyond redemption. Her ears rang with a disconcerting violence and her head throbbed severely. She no longer had any sensation in her broken arm. From the shoulder down, it was numb and lifeless. She tried to move her fingers, but they didn’t respond.

A second explosion followed, and Liis squeezed her eyes shut. But the trench protected her; other than an abbreviated shock wave that shuddered through the floor, she felt only a mild rush of air before bits of smoking debris pattered down around her like raindrops. She wondered