Emergence: Chapter 35

Ilisa was nearly bent double, having been carrying Strom over her shoulder for nearly an hour whilst following the near-silent Ha'kuun. The Orban walked with long strides, as befitted its much longer limbs, meaning Ilisa could barely keep up. She'd asked him to slow down twice, but he simply ignored her, or simply didn't hear her.

As she walked through the endless cave, the damp and dripping walls began to be replaced with walls covered in wires, some hanging loose, some buried inside the stone. She wasn't sure if the constant drip-drip-drip was more or less annoying than its whirring replacement. Her feet ached in her military-grade boots, and her knees and spine threatened to buckle under Strom's weight. Her arm wobbled as she held onto him, and she could feel beads of sweat running down her forehead and back, but she persevered; he was all she had left. She hadn't even noticed the darkness until her mind drifted to her nightmares, where she was alone, with no-one around to comfort her. It was the same in the ancient Orban caves, or, at least, she assumed that Ha'kuun wouldn't comfort her.

“How much further?” Her voice was strained and quiet.

Ha'kuun turned to her and stared, mouth not moving, as he answered. “Not far now.” He seemed to notice her struggle. “Let us help.”

He raised an arm and opened his hand, spreading its fingers wide. Ilisa felt Strom move, before he was lifted away from her. She opened her mouth to object, and outstretched her hand to try and grab him, but Strom simply floated in front of her. She looked in shock at Ha'kuun. “How are you doing that?”

“We could just as easily ask “how can you not?”.” Ha'kuun moved his hand, moving Strom through the air as he did so. “Now hurry up; we don't know how long he has.”

Ilisa composed herself, and hurried along after the fast-striding Orban.

The tunnels seemed to go on for miles, but she doubted that they actually did. The wires became more present the further she walked, until it seemed that the walls were more wire than stone. Ha'kuun followed them round, occasionally stroking one as he went by, as if he thought he could coerce the wires to tell him the way, although Ilisa assumed that he already knew. She hoped he already knew.

Strom hovered in front of Ha'kuun still, and Ilisa was surprised at how well she was taking this; theoretically, she should be freaking out right now, rather than just being slightly worried that the Orban might drop him. Evidently, she had more tolerance than she'd first thought. Or maybe, there was just not much left that would surprise her; the fact the Orbans were still alive was a pretty big one.

“So, how are you guys still alive?” She asked. “Your world is pretty dead.”

“As we said,” Ha'kuun spoke stiffly, “the Adjeti back-up project saved our lives. An underground bunker, with the ability to transfer minds between an original body and a clone. We were the first experiments, ready to have our minds transferred when the World-Burner shut off the power and destroyed our world. Our minds remained in the computer data-banks for hundreds of years as our original bodies died.” He then looked directly at her. “But then you crashed here, and you must have knocked something into place, because it suddenly started to work.”

Ilisa nodded. “Wow. Even after centuries, this tech still works?”

Ha'kuun nodded, not wishing to discuss this further. Ilisa cursed beneath her breath; Ha'kuun's on/off moods were beginning to piss her off. She could bear it for now, she told herself, at least until Strom was sorted.

They rounded the corner, and their destination was revealed; a gaping cave, with machinary embedded into the cave walls. Numerous computer panels and screens lined the walls with three pairs of cylinders. The cylinders were filled with a pale blue liquid and each pair was linked together by an array of cables. Out of the three pairs, two were in use; Orbans were still inside them, a dead body in one, the clone in another, while the cables hissed and glowed; the transferring of the mind was happening now.

Ha'kuun dropped Strom on the floor, and the thud of him hitting the floor sounded painful. Just as she was about to yell at the Orban, she remembered that Strom probably couldn't feel pain anymore, and that his body wouldn't be his for much longer. Ha'kuun was fiddling with various dials and buttons. Personally, Ilisa didn't know why he didn't just use his telekinesis to do it, but she didn't know how it works. Maybe she'd ask one of the other Orbans, they couldn't be much less bearable than Ha'kuun.

He stopped his fiddling and walked over to the empty pair of cylinders. “Put him in.” Ha'kuun commanded, opening one of them. Ilisa wanted to tut at him; Strom was bloody heavy, and Ha'kuun had fancy mind powers. “Take his clothes off. They could interfere with the cloning process.”

While Ilisa found this unlikely, due to cloning just being about DNA, she did so anyway; she wasn't certain if the cloning was here used accelerated versions of what scientists theorised on Irin. She picked him up, and carefully placed him in the tube. “Hold him.” Ha'kuun demanded, before strapping him into the machines, keeping him standing up straight. He then attached nodules to Strom head, closed the door, and flicked a switch. The liquid inside the cylinders began to bubble and fizz as something began to grow in the empty cylinder in the pair.

Ilisa felt her stomach knot; she really hoped that this would work.