Gravity & Fire by Bill Gourgey

Author:Bill Gourgey [Gourgey, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Jacked Arts via Indie Author Project
Published: 2017-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Fall of Aerome—La Caída

By the time Ipoh returned to the bunker, conditions in Aerome had deteriorated rapidly. Vèvè was approaching full intensity.

“Lieutenant!” Magigate called out, sounding relieved. “Well done! They called off the sweep. But you’re late. Where have you been?” He strode over to meet Ipoh. “Where are the others?” he asked, sensing that something was wrong.

“Lo siento,” Ipoh said quietly. He did not look the Captain or his comrades in the eyes. “Lo siento mucho.”

Seeing his distress, Em ran over and wrapped her arms around Ipoh. One by one, the others turned away from the wall of monitors they’d been watching to track Vèvè’s progress and gathered around.

“Ipoh, what is it?” Em asked, bending to better engage him. “What’s happened? Where are Mona and Jaime?”

Ipoh looked up and searched the faces of his friends. They saw, instantly, that Ipoh was crying, and that he had been injured. Trails of blood crusted along his cheeks and chin, and around his nostrils. His clothes were torn, his glasses shattered and bent.

Ipoh sniffled. “They’re gone,” he said hoarsely.

“What?” Magigate gasped.

The others cried out.

It was Em who settled them down.

When Ipoh finished his story, the room remained as solemn as a sanctuary. Only the hiss and chatter of the monitors could be heard, amplifying the knights’ silence.

“Mon cherie,” Trinidad whispered at last. “C’est na possible. My Mona.” She buried her face in her hands and tried to stifle a loud sob. Like a crack in a dam that gives way at last, the knights wept and cursed and grieved each in their own way. Magigate, too. Em stumbled into his arms and together, they wept.

If the loss of Tadeo had signaled the frailty of their plans, losing Mad Mona and Jaime Menos, their youngest, signified their hubris, mingling with all the sorrows of their world: how a planet could be raped and pillaged to the point where death seemed more merciful than life; how a species could turn on itself with the fury of self-annihilation, unleashing a plague so virulent that it infected everything in its wake, living or inert; how base emotions like greed, hate, and fear could so fully eclipse their counterparts; how far enlightenment could fall.

They wept long and hard. The planet itself seemed to join their grief as water began to seep through cracks in the ceilings and walls, splashing into shallow puddles that drained away to some lower chamber—one not carved by man. The intensity of their grief was influenced, too, by the sights and sounds playing out on the wall of monitors. Vèvè had reached its full potential. A maelstrom of biblical proportions raged through Aerome. Rain illuminated by EM pulses whipped through the air, sizzling and sparking like a torrent of hot fuses. What the winds did not carry into the sky, the deluge swept into the swollen banks of Aerome’s river and away toward the sea. Drones vanished, fuel depots exploded, warehouses collapsed, and Aerome shook. Even from their distant, underground location, the knights could feel the air tingling with Vèvè’s assault.

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