Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain (22 page)

“Wait. This isn’t supposed to be happening.”

“The future doesn’t always come out exactly how we think,” I said.

“What did you do? You sabotaged it somehow? But how—”

Snarg stopped playing dead. The guards blasted her with their useless weapons. She smashed them with brutal efficiency.

Buddy moved toward me. A slash of Zala’s mechanical claws severed his right leg at the hip joint. He hopped on his other leg until she kicked it out from under him.

“How is this possible?” he asked.

“It’s a bit complicated,” I replied. “Perhaps I’ll explain it to you some other time.”

The second tower caught fire. White-hot flames licked its sides as black smoke billowed forth.

Zala, Snarg, and I ran across the moving walkway as the machine continued to fall into chaos. The wires sizzled. The pipes belched steam. Fluids gushed. It continued to hum, and the hum grew into a fever pitch.

“What’s happening?” asked Zala. “And why is that humming so damned loud? It’s making my head itch.”

“Technically, you don’t have a head,” I said. “It’s your brain. Except your brain doesn’t itch. It’s a neurological reaction. The bad news is that it will get worse before it gets better. The good news is that your Venusian physiology will keep it from incapacitating you. It’ll be unpleasant, but you should be fine.”

Something exploded. The section of catwalk we’d just been walking on a few moments ago collapsed. It tumbled into the depths, smashing several other walkways on its way, sending scrambling maintenance bots into seething clouds of oblivion.

Another quake loosened the bolts on our own perch. It listed to one side. We edged our way onward as the walkway swayed.

“This was part of your plan?”

“Could be,” I said.

I plunged forward into a plume of black smoke and felt my way back. It was slow going, but even as everything fell apart around us, we managed to avoid getting caught in an explosion or thrown to our deaths. Only after we were back at the base of the steps leading back to the surface did I have to deal with Zala.

“Don’t you owe me an explanation, Emperor?” she asked.

“I’m not sure I do.”

“You removed my brain.”

“I had no choice. It was the only way I could convince the Council of Egos that I had fallen for their trick,” I said. “They had to believe they were manipulating me or else they never would have trusted me enough to turn on the machine. If you’re worried about your body, I can put you in a new one.”

“You can’t just promise to return me to normal and undo the profaning of my sacred warrior’s code. My body is not optional, to be discarded at your convenience.”

“I don’t think this is the right time to discuss this.”

The smoke and flames forced us upward. But halfway to the exit, she pushed her way in front of me and wouldn’t let me pass.

“You’re right,” I said. “What I did was unforgivable. But I’ve done worse things, so you’ll excuse me for not being exceptionally troubled by it. If you want to destroy me for it, then we’ll work out the details later. Right now, I can only tell you it was necessary for the larger plan.”

“That’s your explanation? There’s a larger plan that you failed to brief me on?”

“I believe I’ve mentioned I’m not very good at working with others,” I said. “I’m inconsiderate that way. It’s well established. As for the larger plan, I’ll admit that I’m mostly assuming that at this point.”

“You didn’t sabotage the machine?”

“I think I did,” I said, “but I can’t be positive at this moment. Although I doubt it would have worked in the first place. Using a quantum certainty generator against the entropic forces of the universe is like paving over the ocean. It’s both needlessly difficult and unimaginative.”

Snarg pounced on a squad of guard bots.

I sighed. “If we need to do this here, we’ll do it here. I’m deactivating your protection protocol, Zala.” I pushed a button on my exo’s arm. “There. You are now free to harm me. I won’t lift a finger to stop you. Kill me if you want to, but you’ll never get your body back that way. Or discover the answers to any of your questions. I suggest you do it quickly while the guards are entertaining Snarg.”

Zala drew her scimitar. “One stab.” She tapped my exo’s transparent head dome with the flat of the blade. “With one stab I will avenge my world and myself for all your crimes, Emperor.”

“Well, do it or let’s go.”

She raised the sword, and for a moment, I thought she just might follow through.

Zala returned the weapon to her sheath. “Don’t think this means I won’t kill you the next chance I get.”

“Wouldn’t expect it to.”

“You didn’t disable my protocol, did you?”

“I’m not stupid,” I said.

We reached the surface. The Shambhalans stood around us. Zala aimed her weapons at them.

“Stand down,” I said. “They’re no danger.”

The Illustrious Master bowed. “We are in possession of our own wills again, Emperor Mollusk. You truly are the greatest friend Shambhala has ever known. And we must apologize again for our actions, and apologize for the inadequate nature of that apology.”

I bowed. “And I apologize for the headache you must be feeling now. That’s feedback from the disabled implants. It should fade soon enough.”

“You are most gracious, Emperor Mollusk.”

“You’ll want to get your people out of the city,” I said. “This isn’t over yet.”

“As you wish.”

We exchanged bows, and the Shambhalans went one way while we went another. Toward the center of the city.

“The machine disabled the implants?” asked Zala. “Is that what it was made for?”

“Among other things.”

We made our way to the central temple. Security clones tried to stop us, but Zala and Snarg made short work of them. The stone beneath our feet trembled and quaked. But Shambhala endured as it had for centuries before.

We reached the temple, and I threw open the doors. The Council of Egos bobbed silently in their globes.

“They’re catatonic,” said Zala.

“Incapacitated,” I said. “The machine is using the Great Gynoecium’s sap to generate a psionic wave. They’re lost in their own private fantasies, I assume. On their way to ruling the universe, if only in their own minds.”

“So that’s why I have a splitting headache.”

“Sorry about that. Can’t be helped.”

“You’ve beaten them?”

I nodded.

“You’ve beaten them with their own machine?” she asked.

“In point of fact, it’s my machine. They only built it for me.”

The steady hum faded, but the effect on the Council of Egos would persist for another week or two.

“Then that’s it?” asked Zala.

“Not quite. If I’m right, there’s one final thing we’ll have to do.”

A roar shook Shambhala. Just across the courtyard, a combot smashed its way out of the building it’d been stored in. The enraged robot lumbered toward the molluskotrenic engine. And she was in no mood to go around anything that stood in her way.

I activated the beacon in my exo. My saucer drifted overhead, and cargo beamed us upward.

“We have to destroy the radioactive brain of Madame Curie.”

Once in the cockpit, I double-checked systems. My last encounter with Curie had been a disaster, and I wanted to avoid a replay of it.

Curie stomped her way toward the Eiffel Tower, drawn by the m-rays it emitted.

“If your machine incapacitated the Council, shouldn’t it have stopped her?”

“Madame Curie is a unique case. The radioactivity and preservative elixir must have changed her on a biochemical level. It hasn’t had the same effect. Instead, it seems to have triggered some hyperaggression coupled with a ravenous appetite.”

The torches in any building she passed flared out as she absorbed their heat.

Curie’s massive exoskeleton wasn’t built for speed. Her movements were slow and clumsy. But what she lacked in grace she made up for in sheer size and power.

The fifteen-ton glowing brain flashed as she unleashed a blast, disintegrating a wooden tower in her path. I hoped the Shambhalans had already activated that section of their city.

I flew overhead, and fired a few shots at her. She absorbed the power, growing stronger from it.

“I thought you were prepared for this fight,” said Zala.

“Preparations only go so far. I’ll need to do a few more calibrations.”

Curie telekinetically seized the saucer. The craft wobbled as its lights blinked on and off.

“She’s draining our power,” said Zala. “Again.”

I flicked a switch. A control panel sparked, but the saucer slipped free.

Curie growled curiously. Her brain glowed brighter as she increased the telekinetic pressure, but the saucer’s countermeasures kept us out of her grasp.

I tried several more volleys of various artillery and beam weaponry with no result, and her own blasts were easily skirted by the automated guidance systems. Bored, Curie turned her attentions back to the tower.

“Should I even ask what horrible thing happens if she reaches that?” asked Zala.

“What makes you think something horrible has to happen?”

“You really expect me not to?”

“The tower is an extremely efficient transmitter for the near limitless energy being generated by the molluskotrenic engine. I can only reason her absorptive appetites are drawing her to it. And while she seems capable of absorbing vast amounts of energy, I have to assume that she has limits. Eventually, she’ll reach critical mass.”

“She’ll explode.”

“Inevitably.”

“And let me guess. It could unleash enough to knock Terra out of orbit and send it hurtling into the sun. But not before it careens through the system, destabilizing the orbit of every other planet, sending them all drifting into deep space.”

“Do you have any idea how much force it would take to knock Terra out of orbit? Where do you get these ideas?

“No, the worst that would happen would be a fifty- or sixty-megaton blast. And Curie’s atomized brain fragments would pollute the atmosphere. But the real danger is if she damages the engine keeping the molluskotrenic field under control. There’s no telling how it might react once uncapped. I can only concentrate on so many simulations at a time.

“So in any outcome, it’s a global catastrophe. I’m just not sure if it’s merely millions or an extinction-level event.”

“Just turn off the engine.”

“I can’t turn it off.”

“What do you mean you can’t turn it off? Didn’t you give it an off switch? An override? Something?”

“Molluskotrenic energy doesn’t operate that way. I could show you the math, but you wouldn’t understand it.”

Curie roared as she stomped on dozens of smaller homes in her way.

I skimmed the saucer forward and landed in the streets of Shambhala, between Curie and the tower. The landing gear extended, locking into place as three sturdy legs. The sides separated and transformed into jointed limbs ending in mechanical hands.

“This is your plan? You’re going to engage this monster in hand-to-hand combat?”

“No, I’ll be too busy trying to find a way past her defenses. I’ll need you to pilot.”

“But I don’t know how.”

“It’s just a jumbo exoskeleton. Now plug in.”

“How—”

An interface jack extended from her right arm. I pointed to the slot in the controls.

“Are you even certain it’s compatible?” she asked.

“I designed it in the future. Remember? It’ll work.”

The tower before us toppled. Curie stepped from the dust kicked up in its destruction.

“Zala, I can’t be responsible for the deaths of millions. Not again. I know you’d like nothing more than to see me suffer another humiliating defeat. But is it worth millions, possibly billions, of Terran lives?”

Curie crushed a tower, and the dust kicked up swallowed her.

“Damn it, Emperor,” she said. “And damn you for your manipulative ways.”

The interface locked with a click. She was adjusting to the new sensory input, so she could be excused for not attempting to dodge the flare of radiation Curie hurled at us. The saucer’s shields held.

“Don’t let me down,” I said.

Zala banged her massive fists together. Curie stomped her legs like a sumo wrestler. She charged forward with unstoppable fury. Zala was too slow. Curie plowed into us, hoisted us up in the air, and hurled us aside. The cockpit stabilizer kept us from being tossed around, even as our battle robot came crashing down upon a Shambhalan granary.

Curie turned away from us and moved toward the tower.

I offered no comment as Zala struggled to right us.

“It would have been nice if I’d been given a chance to practice this,” she said.

“The saucer knows what it’s doing,” I said. “You just have to give it your warrior instincts.”

I could’ve pushed a button and had the saucer right itself. But she needed the practice.

“You don’t have to win the fight,” I added. “You just have to keep her busy until I find a way to stop her.”

She got the saucer to its feet. “And how long is that?”

“When I know, you’ll know.”

Zala ran at Curie. The two robots grappled, fighting for the advantage. They stumbled and weaved through the sacred city. A sacred meditation chamber and an ancient kung fu school were demolished.

My computer beeped.

“Hmmm. Interesting.”

“Tell me you’ve got your answer.” Zala grunted as she struggled with Curie.

“Just concentrate on your end,” I said. “I’m working on it.”

Curie’s brain flashed an intense green. The flash overwhelmed the saucer sensors, and in Zala’s moment of blindness, Curie knocked us off our feet again. As our sensors cleared, Curie stood over us, holding a crumbling edifice of stone over her head.

“Oh, glipft,” said Zala.

Curie smashed it down on us like an eighty-ton hammer. The damage was minimal, but while Zala struggled to free us from the rubble, Curie grabbed another Shambhalan tower and repeated the maneuver. She did it three more times, until the saucer was half under the rubble.

I pushed a button. The saucer powered down, playing deactivated.

Curie howled triumphantly and returned to her journey toward the tower. She’d reach it in seconds.

I reactivated the saucer. Zala struggled to free us. “She’s too powerful, Emperor.”

I glanced at the warnings of various damaged systems. The saucer was no match for Curie. If I’d had another week or two to study the data, another week to redesign, more time for Zala to train, we might have been able to overpower her. But we didn’t have that time.

Zala pulled us out of the rubble, but it was too late.

Curie had reached the tower. Just being near it drew bolts of crackling electricity to her. Her brain flared with the absorbed power. The saucer sensors started beeping.

Zala ran forward, but I took control. The saucer stopped moving.

“New plan,” I said.

Curie drew more power. The molluskotrenic engine pumped more into her, like a raging river pouring through a shattered dam. The warning readout on the saucer shattered, and a klaxon blared.

“Emperor…”

“I’ll need you to be quiet, Zala. If my calculations are off, this could go very wrong, very fast.”

The Eiffel Tower and Curie burned bright red. The engine poured out enough energy to power Terra for a thousand years, and still, Curie drank it in with no signs of satisfying her endless thirst. Her giant brain became a beacon of emerald doom.

“Now.”

I gave back Zala control, and with fearless Venusian abandon, she plowed into Curie. Curie put up a mild defense, but she had absorbed too much. She was dizzy with it, confused, disoriented. The atomic-brain version of drunk.

Her robotic body wasn’t quite as resilient as her brain. The seething amounts of raw power had damaged it. With one punch, Zala smashed in the cylindrical torso. She yanked off an arm and bashed Curie across the dome with it. The dome cracked.

Several dozen strikes later, the robot was in pieces. Curie’s immense brain slid out like an exposed prize, and Zala moved to step on it.

“I wouldn’t do that,” I said. “She’s primed for a seventy-megaton pop.”

Curie still drew power from the tower. There was no way to stop the process at this point. Curie’s brain continued to glow brighter as it popped and bubbled.

“What now?” asked Zala.

“Now we let nature run its course,” I replied as I took control of the saucer.

I picked up Curie’s brain. The reaction was so potent now, the saucer’s countermeasures were failing. She would drain our power within a minute. I soared up in the atmosphere, into space, as far as my dwindling reserves would allow. Then I hurled Curie away into orbit. Shrieking, she spun off into the distance.

I pushed a button, and the Eiffel Tower fired off a blast of all its excess power. The bright blue bolt met up with Curie, and the blackness of space lit up with a hell of an explosion. It was only too bad there was no sound to accompany it.

The blast wave washed over the saucer. We tumbled in the void, with the barest sparks left in our exoskeletons. With my last bit of energy, I activated the emergency beacon.

Zala’s voice crackled from her barely functional speaker. “What now?”

“Someone will find us. Eventually. Or our orbit will decay, and we’ll get back to Terra the old-fashioned way.”

“Given the number of enemies you’ve gathered over the years,” she said, “I think I’d be more concerned over who might find us here. If the wrong ship comes along—”

“It’s irrelevant,” I said.

“How can you say that, Emperor?”

“Because it is.”

I studied the small blue planet below. It was safe once again. For how long, I couldn’t say. But for now, it wasn’t at risk of blowing up or being conquered. And I found that was more than enough.