seven
WARM BREEZE on his face wakes him from a dreamless sleep. Atom opens his eyes.
An empty room greets him. Atom's hands push away the heavy knitted blanket atop him and he rolls out of bed. His body hits hard ground. Smooth stone stares at him an inch away from his face. Atom's head feels like cotton when he stands and tries to make sense of his surroundings. A high paneless window sits at the top of one wall. Through it, Atom sees only sky. It is the color blue.
Atom slaps at his face and limps through the only doorway in the room. It’s much bigger than any door Atom is familiar with. He steps into a hallway well-lit by more highly placed windows.
As he walks he notices the stone walls are intricately carved from floor to ceiling with a repeating pattern. Atom can't make sense of it. He passes a doorway and freezes. A courtyard opens up before him. Along the walls are plants with large white leaves. In the center of the yard is a large square pool of water. It twinkles at him from under a bright noon sun. From the edge of the pool, not four feet from where Atom stands, rises a man.
Or, not quite a man. A blue-scaled creature silently climbs from the pool using four long arms. A pair of legs unfolds from his torso and the creature grows even taller. He stares at Atom with pale blue lidless eyes on a small face framed by colorful frilly fins that cascade over both shoulders and down his back. A thick tail flops wetly on the stone around their feet.
The creature then opens his lipless mouth and speaks with a deep voice. Atom does not understand the words. He involuntarily takes a step back when the creature steps forward. But the thing does not touch Atom. Instead he reaches for something on a shelf beside the door.
He raises the black object to his face and when his scaly hands fall the thing is wearing sunglasses. A single sound jumps from the creature's throat. And then Atom hears a voice in his head.
The one brought by the Roamer, you are. He tells us you understand this form of communication, no?
"Uh... yes." Says Atom.
Then from now I will use it. Very good. Did you awake just now? Eaten yet, have you?
Atom shakes his head. "Not yet."
Also good. Hungry, I am. Together we eat. Follow.
The creature slips past Atom into the hallway. He smells like seawater when he passes. Atom is careful not to step on his trailing tail as he follows.
Name? Have one, you?
"Atom. I'm sorry, but where am I?"
Pleased to know you, Atom. I am Naressom. My home, this is. Well, second home. My other home is in the water. Too dangerous to be there now. Weather is unkind this season of year. You know how that is, I am sure. Bore you, will not. Here is meal room.
Naressom shows him into a room with a table and three walls. Where the fourth should be is an opening that at last allows Atom to see the outside world. He walks to the edge and feels dizzy at the sight of an enormous city. Sun-bleached stone buildings grow out of each other down the length of a massive mountainside, all the way to the surface of a green ocean. And rising from that ocean is a range of colossal volcanos. They too are draped in buildings.
Stepping away from the edge Atom turns to Naressom just in time to see him cleave a slimey wriggling sea creature in half with a large curved knife. After a few seconds, the wriggling stops. Naressom skins it and tosses its meat into an oiled pot. Atom watches it sizzle, and shakes himself into focus.
"Naressom, where is Robby?"
The Roamer? With my daughter, left to find suncloak for you.
"Right." Atom slumps into the nearest chair with his back to the outside world. He's startled from his thoughts when Naressom slams a tall metal canister in front of him.
Water. Drink, you.
The canister is silver with a painting of a white skeletal fish on one side. The water is cold and refreshing. Belatedly, Atom thanks him. Naresson gives him a strange look and spins the pot on the stove. The smell that fills the room is surprisingly appetizing. Once he's finished Naresson sets the table for three and slides a steaming plate of tantalizing meat in front of Atom.
The Roamer has deemed our food safe for you.
Atom nods and watches Naressom tear apart a chunk of meat with his talons and slide it into a mouth lined with sharp teeth. He follows the example and uses his hands to take a bite. The meat falls apart on his tongue, melting into buttery goodness. He gets so caught up in eating that he doesn't notice when someone else enters the room until they sit at the table and rumble a string of words at Atom.
Naressom addresses the newcomer in their language before introducing her as his daughter Keera.
Keera waves at him enthusiastically with both arms before removing blue tinted sunglasses and digging into her plate. She is easily a 1/4 of Naressom's size but eats with the appetite of someone twice her mass. Her hair stands in short translucent spikes across her blue head and down her back, which is the only physical difference between her and her father.
Once he finishes his meal Atom sits back in his chair and watches the two of them converse privately in their own language. Heat coats the back of his neck in sweat and he downs the rest of the water canister.
Eventually Robby's shadow appears in the doorway and Atom stands.
"Thank you for the meal, Naressom. It was delicious. But I must go speak to the Roamer."
Very well. We will speak more later, yes? The Roamer says to me that your kind is not yet a part of the web, not yet. Would like to learn about your world, I would.
Atom looks at the strange fish-man and his fish-daughter, seated at their smooth stone dinner table. He pictures their demise, only days away. They will have no warning for when the galaxy collapses and consumes their lives.
"We will talk later." He says, and meets Robby in the hallway.
Robby leads him out onto a shaded balcony and hands him a bundle of dark red material.
The sun here is too hot for you. You may choose to wear this instead of your suit. The swimmers wear these around the city during summer.
Atom unfurls the bundle and finds it to be a cloak made of hundreds of reflective red scales. Along the top of it is a hood and what looks to be a scaly faceplate. Atom runs his fingers over the material and looks out over the marvelous sun-bleached city.
"Where is the ship?" He asks, and Robby doesn't answer. He stands beside the railing with his back to the view and says nothing. Atom asks again. "Where is my ship?"
Our ship.
"It's mine until I complete my mission. Then it's yours. That was the deal. Now tell me where it is."
I won't.
"Tell me where it is."
No.
Atom rests a hand on the hilt of his knife and steps forward. "You will tell me where my ship is."
Robby doesn't step back. He faces Atom with a cold look and says, You can't hurt me.
"Why are we doing this? Why did you bring me here? We were so close— Why are you doing this?"
But Robby says nothing. He is a stone in the wind. Offering nothing.
"So what? I just have to sit back and wait while you enjoy a spontaneous vacation?"
Two days. We will leave in two days. Do be careful in direct sunlight, and with that he leaves Atom to stand alone on the balcony with a knife in one hand and a suncloak in the other.
The balcony ends in a set of stairs on one side. They lead to a narrow alleyway between two homes. Atom dons his cloak and melts into the city.
He loses himself in the foreign business of it all. Empties his thoughts of everything that isn't external stimuli. He replaces his thoughts with the day to day errands of these lifeforms, skittering up and down narrow stairways across the mountainside.
All of them wear brightly colored cloaks made of stiff scales, ranging in size and design. A few of them gurgle greetings at him, not recognizing him as an alien. He keeps walking and almost forgets himself. Almost forgets his duty. His destination. His and everyone's impending demise.
And how wonderful it would be to forget. To become someone—or something—new. To live in a city as grand as this, for there are no cities left on earth that could rival the majesty of this beautiful chaos. This massive architectural accomplishment, inhabited by thousands if not millions of living beings.
For a few hours he loses himself in the fantasy of being a part of this reality. He follows crowds and streams of pedestrians, sits on benches and watches families and friends and lovers stream by, dips into taverns and dances to mind numbing grungy music. He dances among strangers in the dark until the sun sets and their cloaks start to come off.
He sees the people as they are, in all their strange and colorful and scaley uniqueness. In the dying minutes of sunlight the city becomes more crowded than before. The night burns with life. Overflows with it. And his body, walking blindly in the middle of it, the only body still hidden beneath a shroud of woven thorns, remembers its place.
His body stops running in a dark alley between a bar and an art gallery. The ground is wet beneath him and smells like sea water. His bodily functions come to a near halt in that sightless airless lifeless crack in the city. All except for the steady pounding of his heart. Always beating. Always reminding him of his path in life.
The road of a killer.
A choir of nightbugs hums overhead. The sound coaxes him back to some semblance of cognizance. When finally he's ready to step back into the light of streetlamps and society he finds Robby waiting for him. Always silent. Always waiting.
For what? What does he want from Atom? Maybe the silence is the truth in itself. Maybe he wants nothing, expects nothing, because he knows that to be all Atom is capable of giving.
This is what he tells himself as he follows Robby back up the steep maze of steps to Naressom's home. He repeats it in his mind until he almost believes it. But he doesn't quite manage it. That treacherous, awful, buzzing heartbeat keeps him a breath from falling over the edge. It tells him what he doesn't want to hear. And Atom can do nothing to silence it.
-
GREEN-BLUE SKY over a clear-blue ocean. That is the view from the docks of Seine, the great oceanside city on planet Rhimmih. Over breakfast that morning, Naressom's daughter Keera had given Atom a brief rundown of the history of Seine. Now they sit with their legs dangling off one of the dozens of wooden docks at the base of the city, blanketed safely in their suncloaks, as Keera tries to explain the importance of this day.
The Skyrunners will come from across the Great Blue to trade. This happens every three years. The Merge, we call it. Very important to us Swimmers and them Skyrunners. And also very fun for everyone. No other party this fun for thousands of light years in any direction.
Atom doesn't argue with that. But there is one thing he still doesn't understand. "What are the Skyrunners?"
Keera looks at him with her brightly painted faceplate, decorated in images of large red feathers. They are... the sky masters? They have ships, but they swim above the clouds instead below the Great Blue.
In school I learned we used to fight. Big battles. Many deaths. But that was a long time ago, very long. Now we help each other. She turns back to scan the horizon. They look very cool. Cooler than you. Like them, you will. I think.
Atom tries to keep watch for these supposed "sky ships" but his gaze keeps drooping to the Great Blue. Its water is clear enough to see the bottom floor thousands of miles below. The underwater city—Gerruv—is just as large as Seine, if not bigger. And definitely more ancient. Its sits nestled at the base of a ring of active underwater volcanoes, one of which is currently erupting. Its magma oozes across an entire city block and Atom wonders if Naressom's other home is among the structures currently being destroyed. Keera doesn't mention it, so Atom doesn't ask.
As a sure sign of the festivities to come, the docks around them bustle with activity. Food stalls and trinket shops line the wider piers, while the thinner walkways are packed with families of Swimmers. The air hums with excitement.
The water too is crowded with swimming bodies. Several times now Atom's leg has been brushed by the stray tailfin of a passing Swimmer. Many of those who stay out of the water wear bright wings over the backs of their cloaks. Keera is among them, with her delicate orange cape made of translucent material she claims to have made herself.
Squeezing through the crowd, Naressom arrives with snacks clutched in all four of his hands. Keera whoops with glee and devours her skewer of candied sea root. Atom is slower to finish his share.
Glancing over his shoulder, he tries to spot Naressom's home near the top of the mountain. Robby had opted to stay home that day, claiming an aversion to crowds. Atom wonders if this is the truth or simply an excuse to avoid Atom after their argument. He's been distant ever since, and though Atom doesn't blame him for it, some small part of him hopes the former is true.
Around noontime the real festivities begin, as the entire city of Seine shifts seamlessly into one large performance. The buildings transform as long red streamers unfurl from rooftops and windows. Parades of dancers drip down from the top of the mountain, like blood running down cracked glass, all the way down to the docks where they shed their cloaks and leap into the water, looping around each other and tossing one another into the air to display intricate gymnastics, all while a choir of singers fill the shoreline with booming chants and wispy harmonies. By the end of it, Atom is thoroughly soaked and speechless.
An hour from sunset the water below the docks clears out and a hush falls over Seine as a single Swimmer drifts out into the deep. Her long trailing hair seems to glow white in the water, as well as her arms and tailfin.
As the first shadow crests the burning horizon she begins to sing, alone at first. Until the first airship is joined by a swarm of hundreds, completely filling the red-pink sky, and Atom realizes that others have joined the song, including Naressom. The city lifts the song onto its shoulders and as the ships draw nearer the first singer retreats back to shore and slips in among the crowd.
The Skyrunners land their red airships in neat columns on the Great Blue. Their ships are giant bulbous machines that seem to be built for storage rather than speed. Only when the very last ship lands do their doors open, releasing the Skyrunners.
A cheer goes up as the Skyrunners emerge from their ships on great flapping wings, and fly in waves toward the docks. They land wherever they can find an empty spot. Most drop directly onto rooftops.
One Skyrunner lands gracefully right in front of Atom and Atom watches in shock as a large incomprehensible creature walks past him to embrace Naressom. Atom inspects him further as the two strike up an intimate conversation.
The Skyrunner's body is tall and top-heavy, and covered in red scales that eerily resemble the scales on Atom's suncloak. His head is snake-like in shape except for the antennae that stick out of his wide forehead. The eyes below that forehead are large and multi colored and divided by slitted pupils. His shoulders are broad and adorned with metal armor. Long red strips of cloth drape from these shoulder pieces down to his knees. A tail, shorter and thinner than Naressom's, sticks out from between those ribbons. Protruding from his back are four large, leathery wings. His laughter, when he picks up Keera to give her a crushing hug, is like stone grinding against stone.
Atom, this is my good friend Looir, says Naressom.
"Nice to meet you." Atom says with half a smile, and then remembers his faceplate.
Looir watches Atom intently while Naressom speaks briefly into his ear. Then he steps close to Atom, towering nearly double his height until he crouches to eye level.
Friend to the Roamer? Rarely he brings otherworlders here. 'Ssom tells me your name is Atom. Will you party with us tonight?
"I... sure. Yeah. Why not?"
Looir grins with his wide mouth and pulls Atom into a hug that crushes his already-bruised ribs. From that moment the rest of the night is a blur. Atom drowns in the local food and drink and energy. Keera skitters off to play with a group of her classmates while Atom follows Naressom and Looir from venue to venue to dance all the sweat from his body three times over. Atom loses his voice yelling along to some band on the roof of someone's house. He pukes his heart out into a potted plant and Looir feeds him something that erases the nausea and allows him to stuff his stomach full with another three course meal. They swim in Naressom's pool under the stars and at some point Atom learns the texture of Looir's tongue.
Much later he is only dimly aware of Robby dropping him into bed and leaving him with a kiss to the forehead and a water canister in arm's reach, while the city of Seine gradually builds into a chorus of snores.
-
"Wake up."
Atom opens his eyes to a shadow sitting heavy on his chest. A silhouette in the dark room. Only that. But it takes the shape of a man, hostile. And the sight is all too familiar.
Gold eyes burn low and cold from the looming shadow just above his face, paralyzing him.
Atom breathes through his nose and wills the ghost of Maverick to leave. To grant him one terrorless night, free from the shadows of his past. He almost closes his eyes and slips back into sleep when the prick of sharp knife flares against his throat.
His eyes don't dare close now.
"Quite the wild party that was. I almost wish I could've enjoyed it, but I had to keep my eyes on you and wait for you to be alone. Lucky for me, your partner doesn't have to sleep, does he?"
Atom tries to get his eyes focused on the man seated on his chest. His mind runs wild at the implications of him being here. He wonders if this is all a hallucination brought on by something he ate during the party. If not, if this is real--
"I could kill you, right here, and this would all be over, Atom Belov. How does it feel?" Maverick whispers.
Atom decides to believe this isn't a dream.
Disregarding the source from which it comes, to hear another human voice here is strange. Even stranger for it to be Maverick's words. Maverick's body, warm against his own. Everything had been so cold when Atom saw him last, bleeding out from a severed artery, face colorless as the life drained from him. Now laying underneath his solid weight, it is hot and humid and Atom's skin is sticky with sweat. Maverick's breath too is warm on his face.
"It feels... wrong. I never imagined I would die so slowly. What are you waiting for?" He says, and wonders if Maverick can feel his heart pounding.
"Only to hear your voice for a minute longer. I never want to forget this. Righteous little Atom, brought to an end right at the gates of his precious little goal."
Just the same, Atom will never forget the color of Maverick's blood against the purple-gray-blue sand of Novo, and the sting of his own skin as frost tore into his bare flesh, and the resistance that pushed against his wrist as he twisted his knife free from the corpse, and how it later felt to scrub stubborn dried blood from that very blade.
He decides to ask the obvious question, "Didn't I kill you?"
"Oh, very nearly. If you saw me in the light I wouldn't make a very pretty sight. Most of my face is covered in dead flesh. Left a nice fat scar on my neck too, you did. I assure you that I would not have survived that encounter if you'd left your knife embedded in my throat. But here I am. And luck has nothing to do with it.
"You see, I underwent a bio-engineering experiment some odd months ago. The aim was to enhance my combat capabilities and bodily resilience. Paid for in full by Unity HQ. They wanted to create a new breed of agents, but they had to test the formula first.
"I had no choice in the matter. I had to sign the consent form, or lose my job. And so I was graced with... unique healing properties. When you so generously freed your knife from my body it allowed my cells to stitch back together before I could entirely bleed out. I woke a few hours later and have been tracking you since."
Atom's mind slides over the memory of that fight, examining, recalling every minute detail. If this is true, if Maverick holds extraordinary combat capabilities, why did he fall?
It doesn't make sense. If he had wanted to kill Atom, he would've been more than capable of it. It shouldn't have been so easy for Atom to gain the upper hand. To so sacrificially slit Maverick's throat. Which means— Maverick hadn't been trying to kill him. Which had been his hunch from the very moment before his blade sunk into meat.
But this new information brings him only more questions, not answers.
"Will you kill me this time?" Atom asks the shadow perched on his chest. "Do you have it in you?"
"You are so impatient. First, I have a question. I've wanted to hear your answer for a very long time. What are you hoping to accomplish with this mission of yours? Tell me the truth and you might live. Don't be afraid. I have no reason to lie."
"... The truth?"
"Is it so ugly a word?"
"I've already told you. I possess a device that will begin the collapse of the galaxy. This is my mission."
"Yes, but why?"
"The collapse will bring the bring the people of Earth together. The remaining people will band together, and spend the rest of their days in peace. It will cure humanity of its bloodlust."
Maverick sighs. "Let me put it this way: What do you, personally, stand to gain?"
"Nothing. Everything. I will not survive the process. I won't gain anything. Not fame. Not money. My only reward will be death. I'm doing this for world peace. From the start, that's all I wanted. A better world. A united world."
"Are those your words? Or the words of your leader?"
"Does it matter?"
"Extremely so."
"The Commander... They're his words. But I believe them. I wouldn't be here if I didn't."
Maverick hums. "Don't slip now, little Atom. Stick to the truth."
"What about you? Do you not believe humanity can become united? Do you truly think it's too late for us?"
"If we can be saved, this isn't the way to do it."
"Then what is? Maverick—"
"I don't presume to know. But you won't find out by silencing every voice that may offer a solution."
"If you stop me now, nothing will change. Humanity will destroy itself with its warfare. There isn't much time life. Something extreme has to be done. And I'm willing to do it."
"Alright, let's assume that you succeed. The galaxy implodes, wiping out Earth in a matter of years. Who's to say the Elite, the ones who play God, the military leaders - the very people you despise - won't just hop on a ship to the next galaxy? And live on, wreaking havoc on the rest of the universe while everyone else perishes because they deemed it so?"
"But... The Commander controls space travel. And he's the one who gave me this mission. He wouldn't let that happen."
"Atom, why would your Commander be creating super soldiers if there wouldn't be a need for them very soon? This war is far from over."
"You could be lying about that. Back there, you could have called for more backup, and they revived you somehow—"
"Try me. See it for yourself." Maverick slides off of his chest and presses his knife into Atom's hands. He backs up to the center of the room and throws his arms to either side. His hair, longer now, sticks out in a rigid mane around his head. His teeth shine in the dim light. Atom sits up, and stares.
Maverick stares back. "Well? What are you waiting for? Don't you have it in you?"
There are no other weapons in sight. It would be so easy. One smooth arc to the center of his ribs, into his heart. The blood would be hot between his fingers. He wouldn't need light to land his target. Muscle memory would see it through. He didn't even have to think about it. It would be over in a single breath. Then he could go back to sleep, forever free from this ghost.
"Are you afraid?" Maverick asks.
"That's not it."
But his body does not move, and the knife in his hands goes slack. It barely makes a sound when he tosses it to the ground between them. Slowly, Maverick lowers his arms. A full minute passes, maybe more. The nightbugs outside sing their gentle song. The air feels different. Bluer, softer, with the approaching dawn. And something else. Something bigger. Something with no name. A warm breeze brushes the cooling sweat on Atom's skin and he shivers.
It's Maverick who breaks the silence. "You are a pawn, in a very dangerous game. You and me both." He says, and crouches to pick up the knife. Light slips along the edge of the blade as it disappears into a sheath on Maverick's hip. "And we can't walk away from the playing field, not after all our training, our wiring, our crimes. But what we can do is choose a different target." He edges closer step by step, until he stands a breath away. Atom could easily touch him if he raised his hands but they stay where they are, loosely cupped in his lap.
"Now, what will you do?"
With no weapons between them, Atom looks up at Maverick. The nearness of his body is no longer a threat but a stark reminder that he is alive. They both are. Atom's beating heart screams it. This close, Atom can see that Maverick is shirtless, and wearing only a thin pair of pants. Half of his face is still shrouded in shadow. Hints of dead skin creep into the muted light, across his chin and cheek and chest, and most heavily around his neck.
"I still can't give you the device. The bomb, it's— In my leg. I have a mechanical leg and the bomb was built right into it."
"Show me." Maverick takes a step back to give Atom some space. Hesitantly, Atom reaches for the clasp on his pants. Maverick doesn't rush him, only silently stands by while Atom peels out of the fabric and exposes his legs. One flesh, one entirely metal starting from the mid-thigh. Crouching down, Maverick places a hand on it. Naturally, Atom doesn't feel the point of contact.
"They didn't want you walking away from this."
"No."
"How does it work? What's the trigger?"
Atom looks at Maverick's hand on his metal skin. His heart rate kicks at the sight. How cold it must feel against Maverick's palm. The disconnect of seeing the contact and not feeling it is dizzying. Reality is a crescendo in his ears. Blood rushing. The two of them breathing, in close proximity, in harmony. An insatiable desire rises from within Atom to simply feel Maverick's pulse, to know the speed and rhythm of it. To compare it to his own.
Pulling his legs away from Maverick's sight and touch, Atom rises and walks to his spacesuit laying in the corner of the room.
"The trigger is a separate device. It goes into the knee joint. I'm supposed to plug it in once I'm in position."
Digging out the backup activation drive from his backpack, Atom turns back to Maverick. Being only half the length of his palm and wide as a single finger, it doesn't look like much. But its only purpose was to run a simple code. His body is well equipped to take care of the rest.
"I plug it in, press the button, and boom."
"It sounds so easy when you say it like that."
Atom steps forward and extends his hand.
"I can't give you the bomb, but I can give you this."
Maverick looks at it, and back at Atom's face. Gold eyes glinting in the low light.
"The bomb won't go off without it?"
"No." Atom lies.
For a second, skin touches skin as Maverick takes the drive from Atom. Words are too much. And too little. Too likely to be lies. Too likely to be truth. Atom doesn't know what would be worse, so he says nothing.
Maverick slips the drive into a pocket on the front of his pants and zips it away. Atom forces his eyes back to Maverick's face, and keeps his face carefully neutral. That, at least, is something he's good at.
"Now that you have chosen life, what will you do with it?" Maverick asks.
Atom's mind turns up blank. "I don't know. Find some place to live, I guess. It turns out there are a few inhabitable planets around. I can't go back to Earth."
Maverick shrugs. "Maybe not. But what was it you said at the end of our last meeting? 'A dead man is the most dangerous man, for he has nothing to lose'? Commander Solarius will never see me coming."
"You think killing him will fix everything?"
"It isn't so simple. I won't pretend like it is. But if one of us is to take a chance on the fate of humanity, I'd prefer to take the route with less casualties."
Outside the sole window in the room, the sky glows pale blue.
"So this is it? You're really going to walk out of here and let me live? After everything I've done? After I tried to kill you?"
"I want to believe that your heart is in the right place. You have the ability to do good in the world." Patting the pocket containing the drive, Maverick graces him with the ghost of a trace of a smile. "You already have."
With that, he turns to leave, but pauses in the doorway. Silhouette framed by shadow, he turns, and tosses something at Atom. A long-range radio.
"It's set to my frequency. If... you ever have a need for it."
An empty room greets him. Atom's hands push away the heavy knitted blanket atop him and he rolls out of bed. His body hits hard ground. Smooth stone stares at him an inch away from his face. Atom's head feels like cotton when he stands and tries to make sense of his surroundings. A high paneless window sits at the top of one wall. Through it, Atom sees only sky. It is the color blue.
Atom slaps at his face and limps through the only doorway in the room. It’s much bigger than any door Atom is familiar with. He steps into a hallway well-lit by more highly placed windows.
As he walks he notices the stone walls are intricately carved from floor to ceiling with a repeating pattern. Atom can't make sense of it. He passes a doorway and freezes. A courtyard opens up before him. Along the walls are plants with large white leaves. In the center of the yard is a large square pool of water. It twinkles at him from under a bright noon sun. From the edge of the pool, not four feet from where Atom stands, rises a man.
Or, not quite a man. A blue-scaled creature silently climbs from the pool using four long arms. A pair of legs unfolds from his torso and the creature grows even taller. He stares at Atom with pale blue lidless eyes on a small face framed by colorful frilly fins that cascade over both shoulders and down his back. A thick tail flops wetly on the stone around their feet.
The creature then opens his lipless mouth and speaks with a deep voice. Atom does not understand the words. He involuntarily takes a step back when the creature steps forward. But the thing does not touch Atom. Instead he reaches for something on a shelf beside the door.
He raises the black object to his face and when his scaly hands fall the thing is wearing sunglasses. A single sound jumps from the creature's throat. And then Atom hears a voice in his head.
The one brought by the Roamer, you are. He tells us you understand this form of communication, no?
"Uh... yes." Says Atom.
Then from now I will use it. Very good. Did you awake just now? Eaten yet, have you?
Atom shakes his head. "Not yet."
Also good. Hungry, I am. Together we eat. Follow.
The creature slips past Atom into the hallway. He smells like seawater when he passes. Atom is careful not to step on his trailing tail as he follows.
Name? Have one, you?
"Atom. I'm sorry, but where am I?"
Pleased to know you, Atom. I am Naressom. My home, this is. Well, second home. My other home is in the water. Too dangerous to be there now. Weather is unkind this season of year. You know how that is, I am sure. Bore you, will not. Here is meal room.
Naressom shows him into a room with a table and three walls. Where the fourth should be is an opening that at last allows Atom to see the outside world. He walks to the edge and feels dizzy at the sight of an enormous city. Sun-bleached stone buildings grow out of each other down the length of a massive mountainside, all the way to the surface of a green ocean. And rising from that ocean is a range of colossal volcanos. They too are draped in buildings.
Stepping away from the edge Atom turns to Naressom just in time to see him cleave a slimey wriggling sea creature in half with a large curved knife. After a few seconds, the wriggling stops. Naressom skins it and tosses its meat into an oiled pot. Atom watches it sizzle, and shakes himself into focus.
"Naressom, where is Robby?"
The Roamer? With my daughter, left to find suncloak for you.
"Right." Atom slumps into the nearest chair with his back to the outside world. He's startled from his thoughts when Naressom slams a tall metal canister in front of him.
Water. Drink, you.
The canister is silver with a painting of a white skeletal fish on one side. The water is cold and refreshing. Belatedly, Atom thanks him. Naresson gives him a strange look and spins the pot on the stove. The smell that fills the room is surprisingly appetizing. Once he's finished Naresson sets the table for three and slides a steaming plate of tantalizing meat in front of Atom.
The Roamer has deemed our food safe for you.
Atom nods and watches Naressom tear apart a chunk of meat with his talons and slide it into a mouth lined with sharp teeth. He follows the example and uses his hands to take a bite. The meat falls apart on his tongue, melting into buttery goodness. He gets so caught up in eating that he doesn't notice when someone else enters the room until they sit at the table and rumble a string of words at Atom.
Naressom addresses the newcomer in their language before introducing her as his daughter Keera.
Keera waves at him enthusiastically with both arms before removing blue tinted sunglasses and digging into her plate. She is easily a 1/4 of Naressom's size but eats with the appetite of someone twice her mass. Her hair stands in short translucent spikes across her blue head and down her back, which is the only physical difference between her and her father.
Once he finishes his meal Atom sits back in his chair and watches the two of them converse privately in their own language. Heat coats the back of his neck in sweat and he downs the rest of the water canister.
Eventually Robby's shadow appears in the doorway and Atom stands.
"Thank you for the meal, Naressom. It was delicious. But I must go speak to the Roamer."
Very well. We will speak more later, yes? The Roamer says to me that your kind is not yet a part of the web, not yet. Would like to learn about your world, I would.
Atom looks at the strange fish-man and his fish-daughter, seated at their smooth stone dinner table. He pictures their demise, only days away. They will have no warning for when the galaxy collapses and consumes their lives.
"We will talk later." He says, and meets Robby in the hallway.
Robby leads him out onto a shaded balcony and hands him a bundle of dark red material.
The sun here is too hot for you. You may choose to wear this instead of your suit. The swimmers wear these around the city during summer.
Atom unfurls the bundle and finds it to be a cloak made of hundreds of reflective red scales. Along the top of it is a hood and what looks to be a scaly faceplate. Atom runs his fingers over the material and looks out over the marvelous sun-bleached city.
"Where is the ship?" He asks, and Robby doesn't answer. He stands beside the railing with his back to the view and says nothing. Atom asks again. "Where is my ship?"
Our ship.
"It's mine until I complete my mission. Then it's yours. That was the deal. Now tell me where it is."
I won't.
"Tell me where it is."
No.
Atom rests a hand on the hilt of his knife and steps forward. "You will tell me where my ship is."
Robby doesn't step back. He faces Atom with a cold look and says, You can't hurt me.
"Why are we doing this? Why did you bring me here? We were so close— Why are you doing this?"
But Robby says nothing. He is a stone in the wind. Offering nothing.
"So what? I just have to sit back and wait while you enjoy a spontaneous vacation?"
Two days. We will leave in two days. Do be careful in direct sunlight, and with that he leaves Atom to stand alone on the balcony with a knife in one hand and a suncloak in the other.
The balcony ends in a set of stairs on one side. They lead to a narrow alleyway between two homes. Atom dons his cloak and melts into the city.
He loses himself in the foreign business of it all. Empties his thoughts of everything that isn't external stimuli. He replaces his thoughts with the day to day errands of these lifeforms, skittering up and down narrow stairways across the mountainside.
All of them wear brightly colored cloaks made of stiff scales, ranging in size and design. A few of them gurgle greetings at him, not recognizing him as an alien. He keeps walking and almost forgets himself. Almost forgets his duty. His destination. His and everyone's impending demise.
And how wonderful it would be to forget. To become someone—or something—new. To live in a city as grand as this, for there are no cities left on earth that could rival the majesty of this beautiful chaos. This massive architectural accomplishment, inhabited by thousands if not millions of living beings.
For a few hours he loses himself in the fantasy of being a part of this reality. He follows crowds and streams of pedestrians, sits on benches and watches families and friends and lovers stream by, dips into taverns and dances to mind numbing grungy music. He dances among strangers in the dark until the sun sets and their cloaks start to come off.
He sees the people as they are, in all their strange and colorful and scaley uniqueness. In the dying minutes of sunlight the city becomes more crowded than before. The night burns with life. Overflows with it. And his body, walking blindly in the middle of it, the only body still hidden beneath a shroud of woven thorns, remembers its place.
His body stops running in a dark alley between a bar and an art gallery. The ground is wet beneath him and smells like sea water. His bodily functions come to a near halt in that sightless airless lifeless crack in the city. All except for the steady pounding of his heart. Always beating. Always reminding him of his path in life.
The road of a killer.
A choir of nightbugs hums overhead. The sound coaxes him back to some semblance of cognizance. When finally he's ready to step back into the light of streetlamps and society he finds Robby waiting for him. Always silent. Always waiting.
For what? What does he want from Atom? Maybe the silence is the truth in itself. Maybe he wants nothing, expects nothing, because he knows that to be all Atom is capable of giving.
This is what he tells himself as he follows Robby back up the steep maze of steps to Naressom's home. He repeats it in his mind until he almost believes it. But he doesn't quite manage it. That treacherous, awful, buzzing heartbeat keeps him a breath from falling over the edge. It tells him what he doesn't want to hear. And Atom can do nothing to silence it.
-
GREEN-BLUE SKY over a clear-blue ocean. That is the view from the docks of Seine, the great oceanside city on planet Rhimmih. Over breakfast that morning, Naressom's daughter Keera had given Atom a brief rundown of the history of Seine. Now they sit with their legs dangling off one of the dozens of wooden docks at the base of the city, blanketed safely in their suncloaks, as Keera tries to explain the importance of this day.
The Skyrunners will come from across the Great Blue to trade. This happens every three years. The Merge, we call it. Very important to us Swimmers and them Skyrunners. And also very fun for everyone. No other party this fun for thousands of light years in any direction.
Atom doesn't argue with that. But there is one thing he still doesn't understand. "What are the Skyrunners?"
Keera looks at him with her brightly painted faceplate, decorated in images of large red feathers. They are... the sky masters? They have ships, but they swim above the clouds instead below the Great Blue.
In school I learned we used to fight. Big battles. Many deaths. But that was a long time ago, very long. Now we help each other. She turns back to scan the horizon. They look very cool. Cooler than you. Like them, you will. I think.
Atom tries to keep watch for these supposed "sky ships" but his gaze keeps drooping to the Great Blue. Its water is clear enough to see the bottom floor thousands of miles below. The underwater city—Gerruv—is just as large as Seine, if not bigger. And definitely more ancient. Its sits nestled at the base of a ring of active underwater volcanoes, one of which is currently erupting. Its magma oozes across an entire city block and Atom wonders if Naressom's other home is among the structures currently being destroyed. Keera doesn't mention it, so Atom doesn't ask.
As a sure sign of the festivities to come, the docks around them bustle with activity. Food stalls and trinket shops line the wider piers, while the thinner walkways are packed with families of Swimmers. The air hums with excitement.
The water too is crowded with swimming bodies. Several times now Atom's leg has been brushed by the stray tailfin of a passing Swimmer. Many of those who stay out of the water wear bright wings over the backs of their cloaks. Keera is among them, with her delicate orange cape made of translucent material she claims to have made herself.
Squeezing through the crowd, Naressom arrives with snacks clutched in all four of his hands. Keera whoops with glee and devours her skewer of candied sea root. Atom is slower to finish his share.
Glancing over his shoulder, he tries to spot Naressom's home near the top of the mountain. Robby had opted to stay home that day, claiming an aversion to crowds. Atom wonders if this is the truth or simply an excuse to avoid Atom after their argument. He's been distant ever since, and though Atom doesn't blame him for it, some small part of him hopes the former is true.
Around noontime the real festivities begin, as the entire city of Seine shifts seamlessly into one large performance. The buildings transform as long red streamers unfurl from rooftops and windows. Parades of dancers drip down from the top of the mountain, like blood running down cracked glass, all the way down to the docks where they shed their cloaks and leap into the water, looping around each other and tossing one another into the air to display intricate gymnastics, all while a choir of singers fill the shoreline with booming chants and wispy harmonies. By the end of it, Atom is thoroughly soaked and speechless.
An hour from sunset the water below the docks clears out and a hush falls over Seine as a single Swimmer drifts out into the deep. Her long trailing hair seems to glow white in the water, as well as her arms and tailfin.
As the first shadow crests the burning horizon she begins to sing, alone at first. Until the first airship is joined by a swarm of hundreds, completely filling the red-pink sky, and Atom realizes that others have joined the song, including Naressom. The city lifts the song onto its shoulders and as the ships draw nearer the first singer retreats back to shore and slips in among the crowd.
The Skyrunners land their red airships in neat columns on the Great Blue. Their ships are giant bulbous machines that seem to be built for storage rather than speed. Only when the very last ship lands do their doors open, releasing the Skyrunners.
A cheer goes up as the Skyrunners emerge from their ships on great flapping wings, and fly in waves toward the docks. They land wherever they can find an empty spot. Most drop directly onto rooftops.
One Skyrunner lands gracefully right in front of Atom and Atom watches in shock as a large incomprehensible creature walks past him to embrace Naressom. Atom inspects him further as the two strike up an intimate conversation.
The Skyrunner's body is tall and top-heavy, and covered in red scales that eerily resemble the scales on Atom's suncloak. His head is snake-like in shape except for the antennae that stick out of his wide forehead. The eyes below that forehead are large and multi colored and divided by slitted pupils. His shoulders are broad and adorned with metal armor. Long red strips of cloth drape from these shoulder pieces down to his knees. A tail, shorter and thinner than Naressom's, sticks out from between those ribbons. Protruding from his back are four large, leathery wings. His laughter, when he picks up Keera to give her a crushing hug, is like stone grinding against stone.
Atom, this is my good friend Looir, says Naressom.
"Nice to meet you." Atom says with half a smile, and then remembers his faceplate.
Looir watches Atom intently while Naressom speaks briefly into his ear. Then he steps close to Atom, towering nearly double his height until he crouches to eye level.
Friend to the Roamer? Rarely he brings otherworlders here. 'Ssom tells me your name is Atom. Will you party with us tonight?
"I... sure. Yeah. Why not?"
Looir grins with his wide mouth and pulls Atom into a hug that crushes his already-bruised ribs. From that moment the rest of the night is a blur. Atom drowns in the local food and drink and energy. Keera skitters off to play with a group of her classmates while Atom follows Naressom and Looir from venue to venue to dance all the sweat from his body three times over. Atom loses his voice yelling along to some band on the roof of someone's house. He pukes his heart out into a potted plant and Looir feeds him something that erases the nausea and allows him to stuff his stomach full with another three course meal. They swim in Naressom's pool under the stars and at some point Atom learns the texture of Looir's tongue.
Much later he is only dimly aware of Robby dropping him into bed and leaving him with a kiss to the forehead and a water canister in arm's reach, while the city of Seine gradually builds into a chorus of snores.
-
"Wake up."
Atom opens his eyes to a shadow sitting heavy on his chest. A silhouette in the dark room. Only that. But it takes the shape of a man, hostile. And the sight is all too familiar.
Gold eyes burn low and cold from the looming shadow just above his face, paralyzing him.
Atom breathes through his nose and wills the ghost of Maverick to leave. To grant him one terrorless night, free from the shadows of his past. He almost closes his eyes and slips back into sleep when the prick of sharp knife flares against his throat.
His eyes don't dare close now.
"Quite the wild party that was. I almost wish I could've enjoyed it, but I had to keep my eyes on you and wait for you to be alone. Lucky for me, your partner doesn't have to sleep, does he?"
Atom tries to get his eyes focused on the man seated on his chest. His mind runs wild at the implications of him being here. He wonders if this is all a hallucination brought on by something he ate during the party. If not, if this is real--
"I could kill you, right here, and this would all be over, Atom Belov. How does it feel?" Maverick whispers.
Atom decides to believe this isn't a dream.
Disregarding the source from which it comes, to hear another human voice here is strange. Even stranger for it to be Maverick's words. Maverick's body, warm against his own. Everything had been so cold when Atom saw him last, bleeding out from a severed artery, face colorless as the life drained from him. Now laying underneath his solid weight, it is hot and humid and Atom's skin is sticky with sweat. Maverick's breath too is warm on his face.
"It feels... wrong. I never imagined I would die so slowly. What are you waiting for?" He says, and wonders if Maverick can feel his heart pounding.
"Only to hear your voice for a minute longer. I never want to forget this. Righteous little Atom, brought to an end right at the gates of his precious little goal."
Just the same, Atom will never forget the color of Maverick's blood against the purple-gray-blue sand of Novo, and the sting of his own skin as frost tore into his bare flesh, and the resistance that pushed against his wrist as he twisted his knife free from the corpse, and how it later felt to scrub stubborn dried blood from that very blade.
He decides to ask the obvious question, "Didn't I kill you?"
"Oh, very nearly. If you saw me in the light I wouldn't make a very pretty sight. Most of my face is covered in dead flesh. Left a nice fat scar on my neck too, you did. I assure you that I would not have survived that encounter if you'd left your knife embedded in my throat. But here I am. And luck has nothing to do with it.
"You see, I underwent a bio-engineering experiment some odd months ago. The aim was to enhance my combat capabilities and bodily resilience. Paid for in full by Unity HQ. They wanted to create a new breed of agents, but they had to test the formula first.
"I had no choice in the matter. I had to sign the consent form, or lose my job. And so I was graced with... unique healing properties. When you so generously freed your knife from my body it allowed my cells to stitch back together before I could entirely bleed out. I woke a few hours later and have been tracking you since."
Atom's mind slides over the memory of that fight, examining, recalling every minute detail. If this is true, if Maverick holds extraordinary combat capabilities, why did he fall?
It doesn't make sense. If he had wanted to kill Atom, he would've been more than capable of it. It shouldn't have been so easy for Atom to gain the upper hand. To so sacrificially slit Maverick's throat. Which means— Maverick hadn't been trying to kill him. Which had been his hunch from the very moment before his blade sunk into meat.
But this new information brings him only more questions, not answers.
"Will you kill me this time?" Atom asks the shadow perched on his chest. "Do you have it in you?"
"You are so impatient. First, I have a question. I've wanted to hear your answer for a very long time. What are you hoping to accomplish with this mission of yours? Tell me the truth and you might live. Don't be afraid. I have no reason to lie."
"... The truth?"
"Is it so ugly a word?"
"I've already told you. I possess a device that will begin the collapse of the galaxy. This is my mission."
"Yes, but why?"
"The collapse will bring the bring the people of Earth together. The remaining people will band together, and spend the rest of their days in peace. It will cure humanity of its bloodlust."
Maverick sighs. "Let me put it this way: What do you, personally, stand to gain?"
"Nothing. Everything. I will not survive the process. I won't gain anything. Not fame. Not money. My only reward will be death. I'm doing this for world peace. From the start, that's all I wanted. A better world. A united world."
"Are those your words? Or the words of your leader?"
"Does it matter?"
"Extremely so."
"The Commander... They're his words. But I believe them. I wouldn't be here if I didn't."
Maverick hums. "Don't slip now, little Atom. Stick to the truth."
"What about you? Do you not believe humanity can become united? Do you truly think it's too late for us?"
"If we can be saved, this isn't the way to do it."
"Then what is? Maverick—"
"I don't presume to know. But you won't find out by silencing every voice that may offer a solution."
"If you stop me now, nothing will change. Humanity will destroy itself with its warfare. There isn't much time life. Something extreme has to be done. And I'm willing to do it."
"Alright, let's assume that you succeed. The galaxy implodes, wiping out Earth in a matter of years. Who's to say the Elite, the ones who play God, the military leaders - the very people you despise - won't just hop on a ship to the next galaxy? And live on, wreaking havoc on the rest of the universe while everyone else perishes because they deemed it so?"
"But... The Commander controls space travel. And he's the one who gave me this mission. He wouldn't let that happen."
"Atom, why would your Commander be creating super soldiers if there wouldn't be a need for them very soon? This war is far from over."
"You could be lying about that. Back there, you could have called for more backup, and they revived you somehow—"
"Try me. See it for yourself." Maverick slides off of his chest and presses his knife into Atom's hands. He backs up to the center of the room and throws his arms to either side. His hair, longer now, sticks out in a rigid mane around his head. His teeth shine in the dim light. Atom sits up, and stares.
Maverick stares back. "Well? What are you waiting for? Don't you have it in you?"
There are no other weapons in sight. It would be so easy. One smooth arc to the center of his ribs, into his heart. The blood would be hot between his fingers. He wouldn't need light to land his target. Muscle memory would see it through. He didn't even have to think about it. It would be over in a single breath. Then he could go back to sleep, forever free from this ghost.
"Are you afraid?" Maverick asks.
"That's not it."
But his body does not move, and the knife in his hands goes slack. It barely makes a sound when he tosses it to the ground between them. Slowly, Maverick lowers his arms. A full minute passes, maybe more. The nightbugs outside sing their gentle song. The air feels different. Bluer, softer, with the approaching dawn. And something else. Something bigger. Something with no name. A warm breeze brushes the cooling sweat on Atom's skin and he shivers.
It's Maverick who breaks the silence. "You are a pawn, in a very dangerous game. You and me both." He says, and crouches to pick up the knife. Light slips along the edge of the blade as it disappears into a sheath on Maverick's hip. "And we can't walk away from the playing field, not after all our training, our wiring, our crimes. But what we can do is choose a different target." He edges closer step by step, until he stands a breath away. Atom could easily touch him if he raised his hands but they stay where they are, loosely cupped in his lap.
"Now, what will you do?"
With no weapons between them, Atom looks up at Maverick. The nearness of his body is no longer a threat but a stark reminder that he is alive. They both are. Atom's beating heart screams it. This close, Atom can see that Maverick is shirtless, and wearing only a thin pair of pants. Half of his face is still shrouded in shadow. Hints of dead skin creep into the muted light, across his chin and cheek and chest, and most heavily around his neck.
"I still can't give you the device. The bomb, it's— In my leg. I have a mechanical leg and the bomb was built right into it."
"Show me." Maverick takes a step back to give Atom some space. Hesitantly, Atom reaches for the clasp on his pants. Maverick doesn't rush him, only silently stands by while Atom peels out of the fabric and exposes his legs. One flesh, one entirely metal starting from the mid-thigh. Crouching down, Maverick places a hand on it. Naturally, Atom doesn't feel the point of contact.
"They didn't want you walking away from this."
"No."
"How does it work? What's the trigger?"
Atom looks at Maverick's hand on his metal skin. His heart rate kicks at the sight. How cold it must feel against Maverick's palm. The disconnect of seeing the contact and not feeling it is dizzying. Reality is a crescendo in his ears. Blood rushing. The two of them breathing, in close proximity, in harmony. An insatiable desire rises from within Atom to simply feel Maverick's pulse, to know the speed and rhythm of it. To compare it to his own.
Pulling his legs away from Maverick's sight and touch, Atom rises and walks to his spacesuit laying in the corner of the room.
"The trigger is a separate device. It goes into the knee joint. I'm supposed to plug it in once I'm in position."
Digging out the backup activation drive from his backpack, Atom turns back to Maverick. Being only half the length of his palm and wide as a single finger, it doesn't look like much. But its only purpose was to run a simple code. His body is well equipped to take care of the rest.
"I plug it in, press the button, and boom."
"It sounds so easy when you say it like that."
Atom steps forward and extends his hand.
"I can't give you the bomb, but I can give you this."
Maverick looks at it, and back at Atom's face. Gold eyes glinting in the low light.
"The bomb won't go off without it?"
"No." Atom lies.
For a second, skin touches skin as Maverick takes the drive from Atom. Words are too much. And too little. Too likely to be lies. Too likely to be truth. Atom doesn't know what would be worse, so he says nothing.
Maverick slips the drive into a pocket on the front of his pants and zips it away. Atom forces his eyes back to Maverick's face, and keeps his face carefully neutral. That, at least, is something he's good at.
"Now that you have chosen life, what will you do with it?" Maverick asks.
Atom's mind turns up blank. "I don't know. Find some place to live, I guess. It turns out there are a few inhabitable planets around. I can't go back to Earth."
Maverick shrugs. "Maybe not. But what was it you said at the end of our last meeting? 'A dead man is the most dangerous man, for he has nothing to lose'? Commander Solarius will never see me coming."
"You think killing him will fix everything?"
"It isn't so simple. I won't pretend like it is. But if one of us is to take a chance on the fate of humanity, I'd prefer to take the route with less casualties."
Outside the sole window in the room, the sky glows pale blue.
"So this is it? You're really going to walk out of here and let me live? After everything I've done? After I tried to kill you?"
"I want to believe that your heart is in the right place. You have the ability to do good in the world." Patting the pocket containing the drive, Maverick graces him with the ghost of a trace of a smile. "You already have."
With that, he turns to leave, but pauses in the doorway. Silhouette framed by shadow, he turns, and tosses something at Atom. A long-range radio.
"It's set to my frequency. If... you ever have a need for it."