Dynamis | Chapter 9 - Human (Patreon)

Karl sat beside Noose while Kalki performed preliminary checks to make sure everything was running properly. Save for the obvious missing arm and a few systems that had malfunctioned during the crash landing, she reported it to be in decent shape. The legs had taken some damage, but were still functional. All of the weapons were functioning—although using them without linking in would be impossible—and most important of all, the thrusters were unharmed. If the worst came to be, and they did have to leave someone behind, Kalki’s DF could see the task through.

That was all well and fine, but Karl couldn’t fight off the discomfort he experienced around Kalki. Kalki’s disregard for her co-conductor’s death—whose name was still undisclosed—set him ill at ease. She’d dragged him out of the DF the same way one would with a trash bag. After the body had been moved to where it wouldn’t bother anyone, Kalki went straight back to Noose to perform a full diagnostic.

How can a person be so detached from their partner?

Conducting a DF wasn’t as simple as finding a member of the opposite sex and jumping in. If it was, many of the conductors wouldn’t be as young and sprightly as they were. The risks of permanent brain damage or injury were a constant concern, and coming face to face with the deaths of tens, sometimes hundreds or thousands of people was enough to drive some to suicide. And yet, Kalki seemed fine. More than fine, in fact.

Karl looked past the trees at the back of Sean. Professor Almezer, as well as the other members of Deadeye’s R&D, had made it a point that synchronization between the two conductors was paramount for a successful neurolink. Promising conductors would have their brain waves tested for compatibility. If they were lucky, they could conduct a DF alongside a person with similar wave structures. This meant that being in the cockpit with your partner was the closest one could be without being intimate. Sean and Kalki had both lost their partners, and yet they couldn’t be more different in how they expressed it.

“Hey.” Kalki’s voice caused him to flinch. She stood there, lips pulled into a straight line, her hands stained by crimson. “The last of the diagnostic testing is complete. We can leave at any time.”

The way she said that made it sound like that had been the plan all along. “Good.” He looked at Sean. “Hopefully it doesn’t come to that.”

“It has been an hour,” Kalki said.

“Yes, I’m aware,” he snapped, quickly turning his head to her, but never looking at her. He hadn’t intended on his words coming out like that, but there they were.

“We should assume that Stinger forces will not arrive. If we prolong the distress signal any longer, then we risk being overrun by Fiends.”

“Then turn it off. We can try again later.” Like you care if either of us dies, anyways. We’re a means to an end for you, aren’t we?

Kalki blinked. “If I shut it off, then I insist that we retreat from the site.”

“You heard what Sean said.” Karl rose to his feet, glared at her. He was eager to argue with the inhuman woman. “We both go, or neither of us do.”

Kalki narrowed her gaze. The mechanical eye clicked in its socket, looking past him while she kept her human eye tracked on him. “Refusal to do anything is as good as accepting your own death. Unless you are implying that strapping one of you to the wall will somehow suffice.”

“I’m not implying anything, but I’m not abandoning him either. He may be my senior, but we’re still partners in this.”

Kalki tilted her head to one side. “You each conducted a DF?”

“No, of course not,” Karl said after a pause. “I was shadowing Sean and his partner.”

“Ah.” She nodded. “Sean’s partner is absent, so I assume she perished during the mission.”

Karl balled his hands. “You must be very popular in Stinger.”

“I am.” She nodded again, and Karl wondered if she’d missed his sarcasm. The mechanical eye whirred, looked at his feet, then zipped up to look at his face. “You appear tense. Is there nothing I can do to alleviate that feeling?”

Karl curled his thumb over his forefinger and cracked the knuckle. “No. I don’t think so.”

They stared at each other for some time. An unreasonable part of Karl wished that she would leave. He and Sean could figure this out on their own, without her help. An optimistic voice told him that Deadeye would send reinforcements or a rescue team soon, anyway. Abandoning a Harmonic conductor would be foolish, right?

“Allow me to make the situation clear, in case you are somehow unaware.” Kalki descended from the large root she balanced precariously on, the foliage muffling her footsteps on the way down. She landed with a hop, shifting her weight to her left leg. “We are without supplies, without food and water. To make matters worse, we are confined to an island that was recently attacked by Fiends, and our only means of defense are a pair of energy pistols. Effectively, we will soon be defenseless.”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child,” Karl said slowly, quietly. He didn’t want Sean to overhear. That guy had enough on his mind. “I’m painfully aware of our situation. The Fiends could be upon us at any moment.” He looked past her at Noose. “The distress signal worries me.” Wide-gap interval or not, the Fiends would eventually catch wind of the signal and investigate. They used radio waves, after all. The fact that it’d been on for an hour made him uneasy.

“Then we should leave.” She grabbed his hand and he quickly shook it away. She narrowed her eyes. “It is a wonder you have gotten as far as you have.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you make for a poor mercenary.” She crossed her arms, pointed her chin down, and observed him with a sharp eye. Karl felt like he was being judged by a computer. “Self-preservation should be at the top of your list. Your survival instincts are lacking.”

“Then what? You would have me abandon Sean?”

Kalki nodded without hesitation. “Yes. It is a simple matter of arithmetic. One of us dies, or all three of us die.”

“How can you say that?” he hissed. “He has a life, a purpose. He’s—”

“A liability,” Kalki said. Karl blanched. “See how he fidgets with the gun?”

Karl turned his body sideways to look at Sean. Sean ran his free hand over his thigh, rubbed the back of his neck, sniffed. Tapping the gun against his leg, he peered into the barrel, tilted it, then let his arm rest.

“Do not feign ignorance,” Kalki said. “Anyone can see that he has considered killing himself.”

Karl swallowed against the dry lump in his throat. “He won’t,” he whispered.

“What makes you so sure?”

“I think he knows his partner wouldn’t approve.”

“Is that so?”

“Whether you like it or not”—he turned back to Kalki—“we’re not going anywhere. I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to pull us apart, convince one of us to betray the other.” He shook his head. “But that’s not going to happen.”

“You give me too much credit.” She shrugged. “But suit yourself. You can think about what I said when the Fiends feast on your innards.” She turned to leave, but stopped when the forest was momentarily covered in blue light. She and Karl looked in Sean’s direction just as something clicked somewhere in the bushes to Kalki’s left.

“Move!” Sean yelled, the squeal of his pistol filling the air. Karl squinted as a flash of blue outlined the foliage and the vague shape of a quadrupedal creature. Karl blinked twice as he staggered backward from the Fiend that had nearly fallen upon him and Kalki. Sean’s shot had pierced the creature from one side of its body to the other. Threads of black smoke slithered into the air while pink jelly slid out of the orifices. “There’s more of them! Run!”

Karl’s head spun in Sean’s direction. Sean vaulted over a log, shooting over his shoulder. A Fiend resembling the one he had shot moments ago came to a skittering halt. Two more Fiends stumbled over the corpse, then rushed back over to feast on their fallen brethren. Karl barely had time to acknowledge the silhouettes looming over the hill in the distance, their numbers easily in the hundreds.

“Come! Now!” Kalki cried, drawing her gun and leaping over the tendrils of large roots past Noose.

Karl leapt over with her, and moments later Sean landed beside him. The two men darted past the DF and into the thicket. Kalki led the way, batting away the branches and leaves which impeded them. He kept his forearms in front of him after the first few had struck him across the face. The world became a blur of darkness.

His heart hammered against his chest, and sweat trickled down the back of his neck. He looked over his shoulder. The hints of Sean were still there, his grunting and panting, the flash of his gun firing behind him every so often. The cries of the Fiends grew louder with each shot made, their clicking and scuttling sending chills down Karl’s spine.

“To the right!” Kalki cried.

Her silhouette shifted sharply to the right. Karl stopped on his heel, nearly pitching over. Sean skidded beside him, slipping on the leaves slicked with dew and falling on his side.

“Shit!” Sean hissed.

Karl grabbed him by his elbow, and hefted him to his feet. A Fiend cried shrilly from behind, and Sean fired into its open mouth. Karl gaped at the dozens of others revealed by the flash of blue. Fortunately, Sean’s shot had not only killed the one he aimed for, but the one behind it as well, spraying pink goo all over his wrist and forearm.

“Come on!” Karl yelled.

They were back on their feet, side to side, looking over their shoulders. Sean spun around, shot around his waist, missed. The Fiend slashed at Sean with its sickle-like appendage. Sean yelped and stumbled away from Karl. The Fiend leaped on top of him and Sean pressed the barrel of his weapon beneath its head. Karl dug his heels into the soil, then darted in Sean’s direction. The squeal of his gun suffused around them.

Two more Fiends appeared on Karl’s left bearing insect-like qualities. He shambled to his right, narrowly evading the first’s attack, and stamped his foot on its tarsus. A sickening crunch followed, and a well-placed shot from Sean sprayed its thick life force over his arms. A second shot followed, nailing the other Fiend in the head as it leapt toward Karl. Karl leaped over the body as it rolled toward him and crashed into a tree.

Sean was back on his feet, wheezing and groaning. He pressed his hand to his gut. Blood seeped out between his fingers.

“You’re hurt!” Karl said.

“We can worry about me later!” Sean urged Karl forward, and Karl helped him through a thicket of trees where they were met by a steep, grassy hill.

Karl had no idea if this was where Kalki had gone. Once she’d split off, he’d lost track of her. The darkness had made it difficult to see where they were going, and his mind was moving too fast, the forest was too dense. It was hard to keep track of anything. They started up the hill, crawling on their hands and feet when the incline became too much. A clearing greeted them at the top, Kalki standing at the lip closest to them.

“She made it after all.” Sean forced himself to stand, winced, then fell to his knees. His skin was pale as a sheet, and the droplets of sweat on his face looked cold to the touch. “Damn it. I think this is as far as I go.”

The Fiends were ascending the hill at a terrifying speed. They would be overwhelmed in no time.

“We have to go!” Kalki said, darting up to them. She grabbed Karl by the bend of his arm. “Leave him!”

“Shit, you don’t mince words,” Sean said, half-laughing. Then he shook his head. “She’s right, though. Get. Go on.” He spun the gun around his forefinger, then extended it, grip first, toward Karl. “Take it.”

Karl took the gun, checked the side. Eighty percent energy capacity remained. More than enough for his needs. He clicked the switch over to semi-automatic and stood between Sean and the Fiends.

“What the hell are you doing?” Sean said. “Get out of here, you dumbass!”

Karl had never seen so many Fiends in his life. They scuttled up the hill like ants, mindless with an insular purpose. He looked into the deep, dark pits of their beady eyes, devoid of color or emotion. Images of his late mother and brother flashed before his eyes.

He quickly gauged the speed at which each of them was advancing, then took aim.