The Ballad of Omega Brown:
Omega and the Mark of Doom
by Tom Vaine
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Table of Contents parts: 1, 2, 3 |
part 2
Consciousness returned by degrees. At first, Omega was aware of dim discomfort, a feeling like a distant siren getting closer. Eventually, he noticed his headset beeping and opened his eyes to a blinking display. Static played across the readouts from inside his helmet, the images occasionally flickering out altogether. That gadget still worked, more or less, but the news it gave him was grim. His flight suit and body armour were heavily compromised.
In particular, his right shoulder was spectacularly broken. His emergency systems, or at least the ones that still functioned, were doing what they could to support and stabilize the area, but soon Omega would need much more than a field dressing and drugs.
The world outside his helmet was little better. It looked nothing like the last place he remembered; a landslide of concrete and metal lay around him, and the fleeting light he saw above filtered down through the cracks in the stone structure. The walls were close to him, and the fracture in the rock ripped downwards on one side. A collapse in the foundation seemed most likely. The ceiling extended well above him, and though it felt a little like a narrow mountain crevasse, it actually amounted to something like an access tunnel.
“Hoonra?” There was no answer. What a mess. Was she down there with him, smashed beneath a pile of concrete? Omega’s scanners could detect nothing beneath the rockslide. And of course they wouldn’t, Omega thought, because Hoonra wasn’t there. Of course, it was his luck to be stuck, injured and alone. Of course, Hoonra had avoided the worst of it. Their entire trip had been a waste; it was only natural it should end like this.
Omega pulled himself from the debris. If he ever ended up finding her again, he and Hoonra would be having a long talk about her contract and whether or not she might be better off staying with her own people on Karackas. Slowly, feeling his way and scanning with his helmet as he went, Omega moved further down the tunnel.
He wasn’t sure how far he’d travelled by the time he saw light ahead of him. Twice in that place he’d been sure he’d heard something flitting off in the dark above him, but his helmet had detected nothing. Closer up, he could see that it wasn’t an exit at all, but more like a rockfall. The outer wall had fallen completely away, as had much of the stonework beneath it. This section of the inner foundations was exposed to the Cirellan desert. Omega could already feel the heat and wind, but there was something else. A sound. He could hear laser fire.
Omega peered down the slope, then swore and stepped back. Below him, four Hive Drones had created a small outpost on-top of the rubble left by the rockslide. As he watched, the tripod-like robots continued firing on a group of humanoids ascending the broken terrain. It took Omega a moment to place them. They were Shifters, like the thing that had nearly killed him on Tellaria. They were changing themselves as they attacked, the foremost amongst them turning their bodies to angled shields as the ones behind piled in.
By the time they’d reached the Drones, the foremost Shifters had fallen, pushed aside by the ferocity of their kin. These now threw themselves upon the Drones, drowning the noise of robotic weaponry beneath the violence of their own flesh. It was a massacre, Drones and Shifters alike tearing each other to pieces.
After a few moments, only one Shifter remained. It took two or three stumbling steps past Omega’s sight, and he realized the wall breach had exposed lower levels of the foundation as well. He could hear the Shifter tumble, its injuries winning at last.
Drones should not be in Syndicate space. That, and the fact that the last time he’d seen one he’d been given the mark on his hand, had to be more than a coincidence. Of course, none of that even began to suggest a reason for the Shifters. Omega needed to find Hoonra, but there was an opportunity here he couldn’t pass up. Omega, began picking his way down the slope.
* * *
Two more Drones walked past Hoonra. After finding a chasm wide enough to pass deeper into the foundation, she had begun timing their movements. There were dozens down here, and it didn’t take her long to realize they were performing a patrol. As the two beneath disappeared, she began to let herself down from the stone slab she’d climbed. This was the trick; trailing the Drones close enough to hear and follow without revealing herself. Twice now she’d been nearly caught, and was still a little shocked to think that the machines had overlooked what must obviously have been her shoulder sticking out past a bent support post.
These Drones seemed particularly talkative, and tracking was easy. It set Hoonra on edge. Something rankled about their single-mindedness which she couldn’t place. Perhaps they had been this oblivious last time as well, but she wasn’t convinced. They’d certainly been more deadly, but they’d also been expecting a fight. The things had an utterly alien intelligence; nobody really knew what controlled them. Hoonra didn’t like her position hiding amongst them, but if she wanted to find Omega, she had no other choice.
Hoonra hadn’t any idea what the tripod shaped robots discussed, but she heard when their voices started to echo. There was a chamber ahead, and Hoonra caught up with them just as the last one entered it. She crept forward, peering inside.
The place was cavernous. Drones, maybe twenty or thirty, milled about performing various excavation tasks. They were digging some kind of structure out from the rocks. The light from the hanging bulbs revealed an alien-looking latticework in the shape of a pyramid, intricately detailed ebony-coloured metalwork flowing together to form the topmost point. Tunnels led downwards into the structure, but Hoonra couldn’t see what lay beyond them
There was movement from behind, the sound of metal prods scratching against stone. She hadn’t forgotten her count; the Drones had changed their schedule. Did they suspect her? Rather than waiting to find out, Hoonra looked for cover. There was nothing near her now, no way to hide in the entrance. She dashed forward. She could be silent when she wanted, or nearly so, but the sight of a sword-carrying lizard woman pelting through the cave was bound to be noticed quickly.
After three running strides, Hoonra threw herself behind a jutting ledge, lying flat. Rocks scraped together as she hit the ground, and she could immediately detect the Drones warbling in louder tones.
It wouldn’t be long now. Hoonra hadn’t seen any enemies in the direction she’d run, but when she glanced back over the ledge, she saw that the Drones who had been behind her fanned out. They’d detected something, and when they caught her, they’d pull her apart. Certainly, if those three couldn’t manage it, their replacements would.
Hoonra reached out and snatched a stone. She threw it up in a wide arc, hoping she’d remember the orientation of the chamber. She didn’t breathe again until she heard the stone clang against the metal structure before clattering down the far side.
The room buzzed immediately. Drones abandoned their jobs and rushed to investigate, even the ones who had been nearly upon her. The chaos was what she needed, but it wouldn’t last. She looked back to the pyramid. It was closer now, the patterns more visible. From her vantage point, Hoonra could just see the outline of a sign that looked strikingly like her scar. So, this was where they had taken Omega, or where they had planned to take him after the attack.
Hoonra sprang and was down to the nearest entrance before any of the Drones noticed. She pulled her sword from her back. The tunnel was tight for her size, and she would need to move quickly if this had any chance of working at all.
“I am coming, Omega,” she whispered and went in.
* * *
After he had clambered down the rubble pile as best he could, Omega found a smaller space behind it, a cave far beneath the city. At the back of this cave, a doorway and a section of decorative wall had been exposed. The entire structure was impossible to see, but he could make out a kind of black metal which had been detailed and shaped into a doorway. It was covered in designs he didn’t understand. It looked to Omega as if a building had been purposefully folded into the city’s stonework, an elaborate but effective way to hide something that shouldn’t be distributed.
No sooner had he entered than he was struck by a feeling of giddiness. Omega rushed into the darkness before he stopped and realized what he was doing. His scar itched terribly. Something pulled at it, at him. He should not be here. Every ounce of his intuition told him he was in danger. His shoulder too, which had been useless during his scramble down the hill, was in much worse shape now, despite his trying to protect it. Above all of this, Omega was certain that if Hoonra was still all right, there was almost no chance she would be somewhere ahead of him.
No way forward, no way back. Omega had lived the majority of his life weighing risk against reward. There was always another option, but here he found none.
For the first time since his childhood, Omega felt utterly helpless. In the midst of this fear, one idea began to take hold. Hoonra shouldn’t have forced them to help those scientists. If they’d have just left the solar system, like he wanted, none of this would have happened. And now she wasn’t even there, hadn’t even been able to spot the trap laid out for them. Some bodyguard. All that talk about honour and protection, and she was gone when he needed her most. Hoonra had gotten him into this, and he was going to have to do the work of fixing her mess. Cautiously, scanning with all of the sensors he had left, Omega moved further into darkness.
The hallway was not as long as it had seemed. Though the walls rebuffed all of his attempts at scanning, he could soon see faint light emanating from farther ahead. This came from a not too distant doorway which opened into a wide room with vaulted ceilings. Dim light suffused the air from an unknown source. Omega switched off his helmet.
It was a temple or reliquary of some kind. Omega could think of no other words to describe it. There were rows of stands equally distanced throughout the vast space. Many still held objects, but most had fallen into piles between the pillars. Towards the center of the room, Omega could see an obelisk made from the same faintly shining obsidian substance as the walls and pillars. The itch in Omega’s hand started again.
The walls were not unadorned as he had thought. Instead, there were panels set into the stone; these seemed to be the source of the room’s dim light. As he neared the panel closest to the door, the light grew a little brighter. It was a plaque, he could see, and it seemed to respond to his presence. He could make out some small images, which, as he looked more closely, began to move.
* * *
The inside of the pyramid was a maze. Matte black paneling covered the walls of the rooms and hallways and strange light emanated from a source Hoonra couldn’t identify. She had felt odd as she entered, a moment like vertigo washing across her as she passed the entrance. When the moment passed, she could see no reason for it and wondered if she was being held somehow or scanned, but nothing else hindered her. The script she had seen carved into the outer walls continued throughout the whole structure. The symbols made no sense, but Hoonra felt they should, as if they were ready to tell her something if only she could see it. She dared not stop for a closer look.
Thus far, she’d met no resistance, a fact which troubled her. She found herself walking through room after empty room, and the purpose of these was as alien as the script on the walls. They were filled with weird consoles and strange displays. Ultimately, Hoonra’s only real sense of direction came from two things. First, from her scar, which had become steadily more irritated since she had entered. Second from the descent itself. Hoonra felt very much that she was travelling down into the gut of something huge and sleeping. She was no longer sure if it would be Omega she found in its center.
At last, Hoonra passed the doorway at the bottom of yet another ramp and stopped. The half-light was brighter here, greenish, the room bigger than she had thought possible at the center of this place. It was a giant silo with doorways and catwalks all leading to a teardrop-shaped crystal chamber on a pillar in the middle. Hoonra could see there was something inside. Her scar ached. Steeling herself, she crossed.
The bottom of the chamber was open, the catwalks all meeting in a ring around its base. There was a seat there with restraints, but Hoonra thought it looked more like a throne. It was surrounded by more bizarre looking machinery, all of which led up into a pod suspended above the seat. Despite how strange it seemed, Hoonra was sure she’d seen that pod before. The last time, she’d been told it was an incubator. “No,” she whispered, “surely not.”
“Yes, Hoonra, I’m afraid so, though I am glad to see you remember me.”
Hoonra spun, sword raised. Behind her stood a human child. She was dressed plainly in a long white dress which fell nearly to her feet. She regarded Hoonra with a patronizing smile, and mismatched black and white eyes.
“How did you get here?” Hoonra kept her blade up as she spoke, sidestepping back towards the catwalk she’d come from.
“Oh, I belong here. This place was made for me. For us, actually.”
Hoonra ignored the offered bait and asked, “Where is Omega?” She continued sidestepping, stopping when she felt herself brushing close to a pillar. She’d counted the pillars when she’d gained the platform. There shouldn’t be anything beside her. She hadn’t lost track.
“Is there something in your way, dear-heart?” The girl gave a look of feigned concern.
Hoonra glanced to the side and saw nothing. It was impossible; she’d felt an object with the side of her tail. Unnerved, she looked again.
The electrical blast that buckled her knee came out of nowhere. Hoonra cried out in shock, clutching her leg as she looked frantically for the source of the attack.
“Disoriented, Hoonra? This should help.” The girl waved her hand as if brushing away smoke. Instantly, Hoonra felt the sense of vertigo again, her vision blurring. Sounds flooded her ears, but Hoonra felt they’d been there for some time, that she was just now noticing something she’d heard in the background all along. The whirring and winding of tiny gears. Metallic prods clacking against the catwalks. Drone-speak filling the air.
As her vision cleared, Hoonra could see she was surrounded by Drones, the one closest to her still holding its shock prod ready. Behind her, the chamber and catwalks were packed with them. Far too late, Hoonra understood the shape of the trap she’d walked into.
“I want you to know, whatever else, that I’m glad you’re here, Hoonra. We have quite a bit to discuss.”
* * *
Copyright © 2022 by Tom Vaine
