The last Unzapped Aicirtap was a fighter. Chose to think of it as a she, mostly because, so far, I’d only talked to Aicirtap females. She was all claws and fangs and fury, and if she’d been on my side I would have been excited, because the Creature didn’t look like it was on anyone’s side.
Had no idea of what to do. I could try to devolve the creature and the Aicirtap both, I could try to kill them both, or I could zap out of here and have the flyboys shoot it out of existence. None of these options seemed right, but I was going to run out of time, and the moment the Creature saw me, it might decide that the Aicirtap wasn’t nearly as interesting or tasty. Because it was clear that a creature like this probably considered the Aicirtap food. The Zapped’s reactions certainly said this was the case.
The Marine saying, “Kill ’em all and let God sort it out,” crept up and waved at me. Devolution seemed the best choice, but if I devolved the Aicirtap before the Creature, then the Aicirtap was toast. And I had no idea what hitting the Creature with the ray would do.
My finger was on the switch, to flip it from Devolve to Dust when my music changed. Bruce Springsteen’s “Brilliant Disguise” came on.
Took a deep breath, aimed, and fired.
CHAPTER 98
MY SHOT WAS PERFECT, hitting the Aicirtap right in the back of the head. As soon as the shot hit, the Creature let the Aicirtap drop to the floor. Then it headed for me.
Put my gun down.
The Creature looked sort of liquidy now. It turned into Wruck by the middle of the cargo bay. He smiled at me. “Thank you for not shooting me.”
“Great disguise, dude. You scared the crap out of all of us.”
“That was the idea. Jeff said that you were having problems. I told him I would take care of you. Transforming into the Aicirtap’s most terrifying predator seemed the right choice.”
“I do not want to visit their home world.”
“I’m sure.” He looked around and his expression was sad. “They killed their own people.”
“Only because they were alerted by the ships moving out of formation. That was a bad choice, I guess.”
“Per Paul, not yours. Everyone is having more difficulties with their last ships. I would like to request that the rest of you allow me, John Butler, and Cameron Maurer to complete the rest. It will go faster and, hopefully, with less bloodshed.”
“You do not need to ask me twice.” Jumped down. Naturally, because someone I’d like to impress was here, I slipped on Aicirtap blood and went down on my butt.
Two of them helped me up. Now that they weren’t scary, their hands weren’t razor-sharp pincers. They were just hands. I mean, hands that were pincers and all that jazz, but still, hands. And the Aicirtap were just people. People who looked like giant beetles, sure, but still, just people.
“Thank you,” one of the ones who helped me up said.
“You’re welcome.” Really, there wasn’t anything else to say.
Though, of course, as we moved through the ship, it was the usual comforting and sharing of the reality. For this ship, and presumably some of the others, the horror was compounded, though, as many realized they’d killed their own loved ones.
“The Z’porrah have a hell of a lot to answer for,” I said to Wruck, as we reached the command area.
“They do. I would consider them the Founding Members of the Mad Scientists Club.”
Snorted a laugh. “Dude, I can’t tell you how glad I am I didn’t hit you with the devolution ray.”
“I’m glad, too.” He sighed. “We Anciannas are also Founding Members. That’s the problem when you’re old and extremely evolved as a race—the urge to meddle is almost impossible to ignore.”
Thought about Algar, about all the Black Hole Universe People. And the superconciousnesses out there. Some wanted total free will, some wanted constant meddling. “It’s just like our religions. There’s really no one right answer.” Thought some more. “Unless it’s just the Golden Rule.” My music changed to ABBA’s “People Need Love.”
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Yes, I believe that is the one truth that actually matters.”
“Then let’s get this problem solved and start spreading that message to the rest of the galaxy. I’m sure some know it and live by it already, and I’m equally sure some have forgotten it.”
He chuckled. “I see you have some missionary in you, as well.”
“I get that from my dad.”
“What do you get from your mother?”
Laughed. “Probably everything else.”
We hit our Beaming Bling and landed on either side of Chuckie. “Glad you’re back okay,” he said to me. “I think most of the others need the same rescue,” he said to Wruck.
Wruck nodded. Grabbed his hand before he could touch the Bling. “John, make sure that you let the Beaming Bling show. Or one of the others is going to shoot you for sure.” Because I doubted that any of them other than possibly Gower and White were rolling with Algar’s Helpful Musical Hints.
“A wise idea.” He shifted but this time the Bling was obvious. Then he touched it and disappeared.
One by one the others came back, while Algar shared Smash Mouth’s full “Get The Picture?” album for my listening pleasure. Wruck was apparently just beaming from ship to ship now. Jeff was the last to return. “Wruck is with both Butler and Maurer, both of whom came over to help me.”
“How did they know where you were?” Hughes asked.
“They both said they saw the ship rocking.”
“Do I want to know?”
Jeff grinned at me. “We’ll exchange war stories later, baby. At any rate, the three of them are going to finish the last ships together. The androids are faster than all of us and they both feel that they can survive heavier injuries than the rest of us.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.” He looked at me and his brow furrowed. “Are you hurt, baby?”
“Huh? Oh. No. I slipped in Aicirtap blood. Long, embarrassing story I’ll tell you later.”
Jeff came over and kissed me. “As long as you walked away from it, it’ll be a great story and potentially one of my favorites.”
“Works for me. Where are the rest of the Ancients?” Didn’t see anyone else in the helicarrier.
The viewing screen lowered again. It showed a line of Anciannas floating in space between our ship and the now much smaller Aicirtap fleet. And these were Anciannas, in what was presumably their true form, all looking similar to how Wruck had when he’d killed LaRue. And yet, I could spot differences enough to know that they were each distinct beings. Huge, distinct beings, with their equally huge wings fully extended.
“Wow. If all the religious of our world could see this.”
“They can,” Walker said. “I’m beaming this back to Mister Joel Oliver.”
“Was that wise?” Jeff asked.
“Probably not,” Gower said. “But it was necessary.”
White nodded. “It’s time our worlds stopped clinging to the myths we’ve built up around our creations. Most of them seem sadly incorrect.”