Emergence: Chapter 59

Tors drudged through the sewer, clothes soaked and covered in shit; the stench was the worst he'd smelt. Emola followed, nose wrinkled. “Gross...” He muttered. Cane supported as she limped through the putrid pipes, waves of pain hitting her whenever she put pressure on her wounded leg. Pandora and Teriva had already gone ahead, leading the group.

“Why did you save us?” Pandora's voice echoed in the tunnel.

“I was hoping to help more of you.” Teriva replied, distracted by trying to remember the way through the sewers. “This is wrong. And the Xaosians are enslaving my people, I'm certain of it. They're using the Irinian Network to control people through their augmentations, so I disconnected mine from the Network.”

Kivina nodded. “You're right; that's exactly what they're doing.”

Teriva turned, her brow furrowing. “And what's your story? Shouldn't you be fighting with the rest of your people?”

Kivina shook her head. “No.” She took her helmet off and stared into Teriva's eyes. “The Xaosians do not fight of their accord; they are under command of...something else, through the use of Inducers wired into their brains. Mine broke in battle after we boarded the Narcsia Evacuation Ships,” Tors's head snapped round to stare in shock; he had no idea she'd actually fought the Empire forces before the Inducer broke.

“So, what's controlling them?” Cane asked.

Kivina sighed. “I'm not certain, but...I think it might be some sort of AI, an Artificial Intelligence. Whether it's acting for another party, or the programming's gone wrong, I have no idea, but...” She trailed off.

“We need to get off-planet.” Tors asserted. “We need to present this to New Orbus; this is bigger than just Xaosians now, they tried to fit us with Inducers too.”

Teriva nodded. “When I left New Orbus, there was no report about the Xaosian attack on the Narcsia Evac Ships, only of their attack on Raan-”

“Raan?” Cane's face fell, and he held a hand to mouth. “What happened?”

Teriva's eyes widened with the realisation that Cane was a Raanian, and her voice became smaller and less authoritative. “The Xaosians attacked, using a...superweapon of sorts. They threatened to destroy the world entirely-”

“Disa...” Cane muttered hopelessly, his mouth falling open and arms dropping uselessly to his sides.

Emola put a hand on his shoulder. “I'm so sorry Cane...”

“They might still be fine,” Pandora placed her hand on Cane's other shoulder, staring into his eyes, “Raan could have repelled them, fought back; we don't know what happened.”

“All you can do,” Teriva grabbed one of Cane's hands in her's and held it, “is hope. Because without that, the Xaosians will have taken everything from you but your life.”

Cane nodded silently, shrugging off the hands on his shoulders, and detaching his own hand from Teriva's grip. “Let's go.” His voice was almost a whisper, nearly drowned out by water dripping in the tunnels. “The sooner we get off this world, the sooner I find out.”

*

As they found the manhole leading to freedom, Tors figured they were lucky that Teriva knew the sewers beneath Irin's similarly-named capital, even without her link to the Irinian Network, the lack of which she claimed was like losing part of herself. Tors understood loss now; the creatures in the wind had shown him the meaning of despair. But they weren't at the front of his mind now; escaping this world was the main thing occupying his brain.

“Give us a leg-up!” Called Teriva, beckoning to Emola, who obglied, grunting as he supported her weight.

“You're heavier than you look.” He remarked as she fumbled for the release valve on the manhole.

“You really know how to talk to women, don't you?” She responded with more than a hint of sarcasm. “No, that's a fair observation; remember, Irinian's have metal fibres inserted into our skin at birth to protect us from the sandstorms. While the storms are nowhere near as frequent now, and we live in the domes anyway, it's just a tradition that gives us a chunk of dead weight to haul around.” There was a hiss and the valve released, the manhole springing open. Light poured through, and Tors averted his burning eyes from the blinding rays.

Teriva pulled herself up through the manhole and extended a hand down. “Let's go.”

Emola supported Tors, elevating him as Tors grabbed Teriva's hand. He grabbed onto the rim of the hole, and they both pulled him up, muscles straining as they did so. But he ignored the strain; freedom was near at last.