Brain in a Jar by David Shaw

Author:David Shaw [Shaw, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inductance
Published: 2018-05-17T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

- Intimacy -

Nikaya gasped as my suspicions were confirmed. There was a hole in the tower, and the hall came to an abrupt end with nothing but open sky beyond. A few snowflakes flew past my shoulders as I first saw the warmer colors of the sun peeking out from around the edges of the opening. I slowed to a walk, feeling like I was looking through a portal into another world.

About twenty feet from the edge I set down Nikaya, and together she and one of my BIHUs continued cautiously toward the precipice. We were drawn to it; we had to see the outside. It had been so long for both of us. Already we could see other towers and the civilian city skyline below them in the distance. The city glowed and shimmered in the sunlight. Only a few dark, uninhabited hills dotted the distant horizon. Nikaya grabbed my hand, and I accepted its precious warmth as we took the final few steps toward the edge.

Nikaya’s free hand flew to cover her mouth. Together we looked out at the source of the noise and debris. An enormous cavern marred the tower’s side, a battle dwarfing the one in the armory raging in and around it. The entire surface was a latticework of torn metal, twisted halls, and shattered rooms, all writhing with motion like a beehive smashed into an anthill. It was difficult to make sense of, and we stood staring in disbelief.

Swarms of flying machines, some the size of buses, maneuvered through and unleashed clouds of projectiles at each other and into the thrashing battlefields of land-bound machines below them. These grounded machines fought viciously for control over the torn open halls and rooms and even leapt from high and overhanging parts of the hole in attempt to grab flying machines or land in contested areas below them. Hundreds of them fell like rain, most destroying themselves on impact.

I saw a dozen of the machines that had chased me and Nikaya earlier. The length of small trains, they squirmed across the mesh of rubble like maggots, or flung their bodies out of ragged holes, leaping to grab prey from the sky before arcing into another opening.

Then I saw the two largest machines I had ever seen, wormlike creatures wriggling through the air like limbless dragons covered in small holes, short appendages, and eyes. They moved with unbelievable agility and speed as they lashed out with bladed whip-like appendages and fired projectiles from tiny holes in their bodies or spewed purple flames.

I scanned the chaotic scene, trying to take it all in. This is a war, and undoubtedly the reason why I was able to beat Ward. The question now is how long this distraction will last.

I glanced at Nikaya and saw a fresh tear running down her cheek. I stared at it and her otherwise placid expression, wondering what lay beneath the surface. I knew very little about her, I realized. Nikaya and her relationship with

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