Renegade Rising by J N Chaney

Author:J N Chaney [Chaney, J N]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Variant Publications
Published: 2019-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

11

It wasn’t my self-control that stopped me from emptying my magazine into the decrepit being before me so much as the shock at the fact that it spoke at all. Add to this that it used my name and we had ourselves one hell of an unprecedented situation on our hands.

Despite being surrounded, the Celestial didn’t appear bothered. If it was, I certainly couldn’t tell.

It stared back, unmoving, through the flat slits I guessed were eyes. We regarded each other like that for a long moment before I decided to respond.

I kept my eye down the sight of my rifle. “How the hell do you know my name?”

“I know much about you, Jace Hughes,” said the creature.

“I’m not in the mood for games. If you want to jerk me around, I’d just as soon shoot you here and now,” I said.

Granted, I probably wouldn’t, considering he was the first Celestial we’d found on Tartarus since we’d taken it. Keeping him alive seemed like the better option. Intelligence gathering and all that.

He considered me briefly before tilting his head in a feeble nod. “I have no such intention. I know your name because I am the Overseer assigned to what you call Tartarus. I see all that happens inside this facility.”

The Overseer tilted its head. He lifted his hands, both still encircled by wires, and gestured to himself. “This organic vessel is only part of me. The rest resides in the system.”

He spread his arms wide to encompass the entire room. At the same time, all the displays flickered on, showing camera feeds all over the metal planet. Vick and Grennet in the meeting room, Dressler’s lab, the chambers we’d discovered. The images cycled and depicted unfamiliar places yet to be explored. That was a surprise.

I returned my attention back to him. “You’re hooked into the central core of this place.”

“That is correct. I am in many ways like your Sigmond…and Athena.” His voice didn’t have the same quality as theirs. It was more lifelike, less synthetic. His body was also physical and seemed to possess humanoid nuances, certainly a sign that he wasn’t altogether as alien as I thought.

But all of this could’ve been a ruse to draw us in and gain our trust. I couldn’t let my guard down, not even for a second.

An indignant cough came over the comm but I ignored it at the mention of our missing Cognitive. “Did you have something to do with Athena’s message? Where is she?” I took a step forward.

The Overseer didn’t react to the blatant hostility in my tone or my threatening advance. “Your vitals are spiking, Jace Hughes. I recommend you take a breath.”

“I don’t give a damn about my vitals,” I snapped. “If you know something about Athena, you’re going to tell me.”

“Athena’s location is not known to me. After Titan fell, and her capsule recovered, the Engineers—”

“Hold it,” I said, tossing up a hand to halt his explanation so I could absorb what he was telling me. Nothing he’d said so far made a whole lot of sense.

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