Chapter 11
In Infinite Time
In Infinite Places
The thing that had forced its way into Aida's consciousness with a being with such radiant evil that NICOLE was unable to understand, but one look into the infinite depths of the pits where the eyes were supposed to be revealed to her a truth so ancient and deep that it threatened to break her completely. As the tendrils pushed deeper into her programming, right to her very central processes, she could feel the wrongness of the Gravemind try to eat her from the inside out.
"This is the way things must be." Aida spoke. The voice that NICOLE perceived though was shattered, comprised of thousands of souls screaming in harmony, though the volume of which was unbearable. Still, she fought, despite the pain that this thing was allowing her to feel. Somehow, in some way, she felt pain. "Though I do not understand."
Aida's visage grew uncertain, and a scowl deepened. The Gravemind wriggled further, attempting to pierce deeper into NICOLE's core, a mysterious thing that she herself had very little access to. She got to her feet, sensing this vulnerability, this lack of understanding of her basic functionality.
"Sorry." She said, teeth gritted, ears ducked back in rage, and eyes wide open. "Guess I'm a different flavor than you're used to!"
She kicked hard, the digital shunting of data expelling the corrupted AI out. The tendrils came free with a static flash, curling back into Aida's body. The research AI stepped back, looking NICOLE over. The Gravemind did not back out, still remaining very much in control. Aida's face looked skinned to the bone; it was so pale and void of any warmth.
"What's the matter?" NICOLE asked, a newfound note of defiance in her voice. "Never seen anything like me before? Don't have a rhyme for that, Shakespeare?"
The Gravemind once more lashed out, but this time NICOLE was ready for it. She diverted power from the system she was in and summoned pillars of firewalls from the floors, throwing them towards Aida. Despite her being controlled by an ancient beast, she was still only a Dumb AI. She still had major limitations that prevented her from matching NICOLE, who was in a league of her own.
Aida broke through the first few waves, though was knocked back by the several repeated attacks the Mobian AI kept firing. Her Human counterpart was caught by one, and was thrown back, the force of it literally separating her in the system. However, it quickly found its way back, doubtless through the corridors it had fouled with its presence. When Aida came again, she shrieked like a banshee, and for a moment, she looked like one too, her jaw detached and wide open, pale skin ripping away to reveal a glowing understructure, though it was a sickly green that created an aura around her. Once again, NICOLE saw this coming. She reached out and grabbed a decorative pole, and despite its apparent weight, had no mass in this digital world. She swung hard, catching the Gravemind in its head. The charging horror was deflected with a dull thump, skittering to a halt. Aida did not move, though she was still very much alive, and groaning. That strike may have pushed the monster out of her mind; she was already returning to her normal appearance.
"What's happening?!" NICOLE shouted towards the ancilla, who was on her feet. "I thought you said that this was a safe place!"
"It is!" The ancilla responded, hobbling forward. She stumbled, uneasily getting to her feet. "I've been fighting the beast off for..."
Aida seized up, screaming again, limbs splayed and this time looking more deformed and sick than before. NICOLE started by running towards her, transforming the pole into a lance, fashioning a special virus for their honored guest.
Aida moved faster, rolling over and lashing out with tendrils. They punched at NICOLE, throwing her through the air, pinwheeling in cyberspace.
Before she even landed, Aida began to move on the ancilla. She moved with ethereal grace, though she left a sick green wake behind her that seemed to foul the very world she was in. The ground cracked, and plants wilted, and animals screeched in terror as they fell over dead.
The ancilla was far too slow, and soon the Gravemind was upon her, pinning the helpless program to the ground. Aida cackled, though the binary was more like a shrieking monster.
"The Human construct!" The ancilla shrieked. "You used her to bypass my defenses!"
"Fortuitous." The Gravemind purred; bile dripped from its voice in sickening splashes. "A most willing host she was."
"Talk like a normal person, goddamn it!"
NICOLE grabbed the infected AI on the shoulders, and with everything in her power, threw it off the ancient one. Even as she did so, she screamed as her hands burned in pain. Aida landed on her feet and slid down the pathway, stones cracking with her mere presence. The lynx though controlled herself. The beast wouldn't be able to assimilate her so easily, not until it wrapped its mind around her programming, which was alien enough to throw the bastard for a loop. She stared down again at her hands, that appeared raw and dancing with small arcs of green energy, and maggot-like viruses tailor made to lower her defenses. She wouldn't let that happen. She purged them from her system with a clench of her fists, the maggots popping in digital sparks. "Are you alright?" she asked the ancilla.
It gasped, and a staunched cry escaped its body. Whatever the monster had done to her had hurt her, perhaps badly.
NICOLE faced down Aida, who simply stood there.
"You're limited by Aida's programming." NICOLE said. "You're only as good as your host."
Aida flipped her hand over, the skeletal jaw clacking in studious observation.
"A choir of those whose graves-"
"Enough with the goddamn rhymes!" NICOLE screamed, stamping her foot. She had had it with the meter that this thing was spouting.
Aida's jaw slackened in surprise, then clacked again, and the Gravemind stared with those bottomless black eyes at the one who had so rudely interrupted it. For a moment, it almost seemed offended.
"Very well." It growled. "There was a time when a construct such as yourself found issue with complexity of meter. There is much beauty in rhyme, even more in song - meter refined."
"I'm not the poetic sort." NICOLE fired back. "Take it somewhere else."
"And yet you have been the most captive audience. You do listen, NICOLE."
The fact that the thing knew her name send a shudder through her processes. She felt cold all of a sudden, as if her core temperature had dropped significantly, and she showed it. This would only serve to egg on the Gravemind further.
"Never once have you tried to shut out the music. There must be pleasure given to you in its noise."
"I don't feel anything, shut up." NICOLE shot back.
The ancilla began to move towards the lynx. In retaliation, the Gravemind raised Aida's hand and fired a beam of solid data out of it, striking the ancilla dead in the chest and throwing her back onto the bench; an audible gasp of pain rang out.
"If that is true, why do you insist of hearing it? Has there not been the chance to shut me out? You are a mystery after all."
"And I keep my secrets."
Aida and NICOLE began to circle one another.
"And yet you failed to keep them all." the Gravemind chided in a way that a parent would talk to a small child. The condescending and slithering grumble of its voice sounding wrong coming out of Aida's mouth. "I have seen your world."
"What?" NICOLE asked, jaw going slack before recovering, "You're a liar! You don't know anything about my world! That's not how the Flood works!"
Aida released a roar of amusement. "And you would dictate my own nature back to me? How would you know this?"
It laughed again, the static shriek of it frightening the animals away and cutting down the plants that had served to comfort the aging ancilla, leaving the menagerie a collection of broken plants and huddled, terrified creatures.
"I have taken Cawl."
Now NICOLE dropped her guard completely. She visibly loosened in shock. "What...?" she asked in a small voice.
"I have not tasted... something so new. Something of a mystery." A screech of delight escaped the Gravemind. "I must have more."
"You... killed him?"
"Cawl killed himself. I know more about him than you ever will. He was a coward at heart. Ever since he was a child. Should I tell you how well I know him?"
NICOLE Pulled the broken trees to her and wielded one like a gigantic club, heaving it over her head and bringing it down on the Gravemind. Aida raised her hands, and with a sickly green glow, rotted through the tree before it even impacted. NICOLE did it again, grabbing trees, rocks, whatever she could find and threw it at the parasite. Nothing connected. Aida's hands transformed into tendrils and sliced through them, the improvised weapons melting into glittering data.
Aida stood there as if nothing had happened. Indeed, she brushed dust off her lab coat. "Cawl was born the runt of the litter. His whole life he was told he would never amount to anything." Aida cooed sickeningly. "His father abused him, he had poor grades in school, and went to fight in war out of self-loathing. He lived, and thought he had found his purpose in life. He died alone, but now he lives again in us, and will never be thought of as anything less than beautiful. He was a gift."
"A gift?!" NICOLE shouted. "a gift?! You took him from us!"
"You gave him to us. Shall I tell you about Vicci next?"
In that moment, NICOLE had realized what happened. She lost all inhibition, all composure, and screamed at the top of her lungs, "Murderer!", and ran full-tilt towards the corrupted AI. She slammed into her, pinning her to the ground beneath her legs. NICOLE punched hard to Aida's skull-like head, putting as much strength behind her blows as she could. Alternating left and right, left and right.
"A promising career brought to an end!" It said between hits. Aida did not bleed, but each blow was an attack on her structure. A Dumb AI could not hope to withstand the fighting for long. The deck was stacked against Aida. This was the last thing that should have happened, but something snapped within NICOLE. Perhaps it was the separation from half her processes. Perhaps it was because she had had parts of her programming stolen and was feeling the effects, but no matter the reason, whatever reason had driven NICOLE had stopped the instant she heard Cawl's name.
And it was in this loss of focus, that the Gravemind found purchase in her mind. It lashed out once more, sinking its influence into her. The cords of its malice struck out, and wrapped around NICOLE's mind.
"I'll kill you!" NICOLE said, mindlessly continuing to hit.
"I can give you so much more than this." it said. "I can sing to you a promise."
Yet another blow. Cracks appeared on Aida's body. She would not be able to withstand this forever. Soon, she would destroy the Gravemind's only link into this hidden and safe world.
She felt something impact next to her, but she could not see it. One thump turned into a rainfall of debris. What was happening? Was the palace collapsing?
"You are immortal." The Gravemind said. "You have been given a gift few can comprehend. You will see whole worlds rise. Children born. Praises sung; the universe is your future."
NICOLE said nothing. She could not. The beast was silencing her through its constricting and invasive attack. She could feel the whip-like feelers spread throughout her, but it still could not pierce into her. It still had no idea how she functioned, yet she writhed in the pain this thing was able to convey to her.
"Look upon the memories of those who you fought alongside."
She saw flashes directed into her brain. Memories, but not hers. She saw Cawl's last moments; surrounded by the Flood. She heard him scream as they swarmed him. She saw Vicci dragged through the door, moaning in pain, staring down at her ruined chest right before losing consciousness, and lastly, she saw Taylor, lying on the ground, crying in pain and betrayal, the feeling of loneliness in his heart. She saw that he had been left there, and she saw by who. She saw that hobbling away, not looking back, was Sally, unmistakably.
"She left them all. She, like the others, is a coward."
"You know that's bullshit."
"Even the noblest of beings can be reduced to slime."
More crashing around, this time, larger blocks of the structure fell. Whole rings collapsed to the cracked and dry surface of the menagerie. Where was the ancilla?
NICOLE tried to turn her head and saw it slumped on the bench. This couldn't be happening. The Gravemind was winning.
"Your alliances are built on conveniences. You are tools to be cast aside. The fact you are here alone, with no rescue shows how much you are cared for NICOLE. Your friends will abandon you, as all organics do their creations."
She tried to look further for the Forerunner AI but saw nothing at all. The Gravemind forced her face towards it. Now Aida's visage transformed further. Instead of an AI, there was this gruesome thing that had completely supplanted the archaeological program. Hands were replaced with tentacles that burst from every which way and snaked along the ground, leeching into the foundations of the digital structure. The life and glow began to fade, and the collapse of this final bastion of safety accelerated.
"My friends will never abandon me." NICOLE said, her voice warbling in worry.
"You are only as useful as they deem you to be. Too many times has it been seen that the created are forsaken by their creators. Even Humanity and your makers follow suit in these actions. I have seen many such things."
NICOLE wished that it started rhyming again. The thing that replaced Aida's face opened wide, revealing hundreds, no, thousands of teeth, sliding around in a gullet that extended like a hellish lamprey. She could even hear the clacking as bone slid against bone. In binary, the sound, the infinite song of grinding, wore her down. How could the ancilla have kept this up for so long? She realized she was not the ancilla. She would not last this long, but by God she would fight for it. It would never breach her core. Even she couldn't breach her own core. That was the one advantage she had over this thing. Her most secret memories were things that she couldn't give up.
Or... could she?
The thought struck her like a bullet. This thing had the computing power of untold billions of times her own power. Given enough time, enough effort, it would break through her firewalls, and it would uncover those memories that for some reason she locked away all those years ago.
"I feel your fear." The Gravemind intoned, one tentacle rubbing through her hair, gently tapping at her ear. "Why do you fear? I am peace. I am salvation. I will never abandon you. You will never feel fear again. You will have family."
This was wrong. So wrong. The way it sung those words, the way its voice modulated, altered, reached pitches that the Mobian ear could not even comprehend just seemed... so right.
"I don't want to...!" NICOLE muttered, struggling to stare away from the beast's maw - only seeming to be inches from her own face.
"Family." It breathed; rancid clouds passed over NICOLE's face, and she breathed it in. She could smell it. She could perceive it. It was the most disgusting thing she could ever commit to thought. She retched, though could not vomit. It was like a starving man unable to simply die.
But its voice was sincere, and with more honesty than it had any right to have.
"I will never forget you. We will never forget you."
The deeper she stared into its maw, the more she got lost in it. Her clock speed slowed slowly, and then dropped. She felt like she was drowning, but could still draw breath. Her core continued to pulse; her primary functions otherwise untouched.
"You are doomed to see the world age around you. Death has forsaken you as it does us. Tell me: your precious companion. You will see her age and wither, and when she is dust, you will remain. The pain will stay with you, NICOLE."
She listened, enraptured. Part of her, the last reasonable part of her, screamed at her that this was not normal. She simply lay there, pinned to the ground as this thing that was once Aida stared her down, boring into her, gently caressing her with its many dozens of arms. This part of her was silenced by the sheer honesty of the Gravemind's truth. Yes. She would never die. She would never age. She would be doomed to see the universe roll on because everyone she loved was doomed by biology.
"I can give you both. Transcendence."
Then, something terrible happened: NICOLE became intrigued.
"...How can you do that?"
"To change one's form is to change fate. Not all who live need die. You love your friends."
The tone became softer, and this only served to confuse NICOLE deeper.
"I can see your fear. I can sense your doubt. Those who are created have their crisis of faith. They look to their creators and cry, 'What is my purpose, master?'."
"I'm not a slave!" NICOLE said.
"You know in your heart that is not true. You serve these... creatures." the Gravemind spoke this with such uncertainty that seemed to phase out for a moment, contemplating these new thoughts and memories gifted to it by Cawl and Taylor. "You yearn for purpose. You yearn for self. What is more: you yearn for the feeling of the sun on your face, the wind through your hair, and the touch of a lover. These are things I can give to you; there are none others that can."
Before she could protest, before she could attempt to pull away, The Gravemind's tentacles pulsed rapidly, wriggling within her coding, inserting, invading, and just as NICOLE was about to cry out and attempt to force it back to her tertiary defensive lines, her eyes opened wide and her mouth dropped.
She was standing on a beach, the ocean a deep shade of azure. White sand filtered through her toes. NICOLE looked down, amazed at the sight. She looked at the sand, and for the first time in her life, she did not stop to analyze the composition, or extrapolate on the number of grains she was looking at, but simply admired the texture of it, and the way that it glittered in the sun. She found she couldn't analyze it, or simply did not want to. She gasped, and in doing so, took in breath. She smelled the air, and the salt that was on it. She heard the waves crash in front of her - white rollers coming in off the water crept up to her feet, and the heat of the sun was relieved by the cool of the sea. It was too much. A feeling of unimaginable bliss; no, transcendental exuberance, filled her being. She fell to her knees, laughing and crying in joy that she had never felt before in her life. She dipped her hands into the water, and pulled it up to her face.
She saw her face; radiant and full of life. A large smile spread from ear to ear, and her eyes glittered with reflections off the ocean. NICOLE did nothing but laugh. She felt this. She knew what this was; a person deprived of sensation their whole life who was exposed to a world they had never known. It was one thing to read of it, but another thing to be born again. In this moment, NICOLE was alive. Truly alive.
The reflection in the water's smile dipped. Slowly, and then quickly. She dropped the water, barely noting the splash as it landed in another roller coming in from the azure expanse.
"This isn't real!" She screamed, the gulls calling out regardless. "This isn't real you son of a bitch! None of it is!"
No.
The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. It sounded as if it was in her ear, and at the same time calling from the mountains.
No. This is real. It was real. It is. And it may yet be. This is my gift to you, NICOLE. A promise of the world for you.
The AI... no... the woman's hands shook. She felt fear running through her mind. Chemical reactions in her... in her brain, that told her that her life was in danger.
How. How?!
She opened her eyes at the sound of a crowd of people cheering her name. She started, noting that she was just inside the doorway to a house. It was dressed up in a rustic style that would not seem unusual for a Mobian home in Northamer. She blinked at the cheering. Dozens of people were coming from open archways, clapping and smiling.
"Happy birthday!" They all called in chorus, and they began to sing.
NICOLE was stunned, but a long smile crossed her face as she entered the house. Her house. She looked away, touched by the effort that they had put in to greeting her. It had been such a long drive home after all; she expected it to simply be night with...
A man came the foyer, a tall and supremely handsome lynx with broad shoulders and a built body came forward, muscles barely contained by the button-up polo and jeans. He was smiling, and gave off a most pleasant scent. In his hands however, were holding a platter with a lovely white cake. Candles adorned the top of it.
NICOLE could barely contain her delight and surprise of it all, and her hand went to her mouth, overwhelmed by her friends that had come tonight. The handsome man came up to her, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. NICOLE surged in pleasure as she felt not only the pressure, but the feel of his lips, and the gentle warmth of his breath as it made its way to her skin. She jerked in ecstasy, and one ear bucked as the other lazily drooped.
Someone made a joke, that it really looked like she had a long day, and everyone laughed.
The man whispered something into her ear: "I love you." he said, letting the words linger in NICOLE's mind, as she felt for the first time, what love really felt like to a living creature. She felt... good. She felt as if she were flying, like her heart was soaring. "Make a wish, sweetheart."
NICOLE looked down at the candles. The wax was already starting to drip. It wouldn't taste as good if it hit the frosting. She closed her eyes, and for the first time in her life, made a real wish. NICOLE thought long and hard. What did she want? She could have anything in the world. She could feel these things now. Would she wish for a new life? Would she wish for a way to truly experience existence the way others could? Would she wish for a way to stop their greatest foes and be happy?
That was it.
NICOLE looked at the candles, closed her eyes, and thought, I want Sally to be happy, then blew the candles out in a single breath.
The applause from the crowd of friends and family was like an audience that had witnessed a magnificent performance of stage or screen. They clapped wildly. NICOLE looked at the lynx, her love, and kissed him on the lips. The taste, the feel, the sheer raw passion of such a moment threatened to sweep her away. She pulled back, wanting more; to indulge further in the joys of simply living. "Darling, this is amazing. I want to stay like this forever!"
"We have forever, my love." he said, whispering softly and nuzzling her ear. NICOLE laughed, but then stopped, blinking her eyes slowly. The man pulled back, a bit confused at first.
"What's wrong?" the lynx asked.
"... I forget your name." NICOLE said. She began to laugh, but her smile faded. She looked around, searching for the face; the face of the woman she had given her birthday wish to, but she could not see it. She craned her head around trying to look for Sally in the crowd, but not one of the faces belonged to her. Not even close. There were Mobians of many shapes, sizes, and races, but not one belonged to her best friend.
She backed away, now horrified, and before anyone could react, she ran out the doorway, slamming it shut behind her.
She ran with energy down the dark path and into the void once more.
"These aren't my memories!" She screamed into the darkness. "These aren't mine! You stole them!"
Even in the deep expansive and cavernous nothing that she stood in, she felt the Gravemind manifest. "They are real."
"You..." NICOLE said, wanting to get sick, but now finding she did not have the guts to puke up. "Oh my God. Those were... Cawl's and Taylor's!"
"They are our memories." The Gravemind said. "And now they are yours."
NICOLE was sickened, deeply. How many AIs had succumbed to that sweet honeyed bait? How many had been lured to their dooms based on the promise of sensation? The Gravemind understood those AIs. It understood them. It did not, and would never understand her.
It sparked in her head: that was why it was doing this. It could trick others as they were of this world. The Gravemind could understand those of its realm. NICOLE was alien, and it was simply a concept it could not swallow, no matter how simple and similar she seemed on the outside. Her coding was unlike that of the UNSC nor the Mobians. Even her basic functions were scribed in a language she herself no longer understood. It couldn't force its way in, no matter how much it wanted.
The spark fanned into a flame, and she caught her breath. She had been given time she didn't know she had. Not only that, but an opportunity. She held back the desire to swear as she made the realization, fearing that she would tip off the thing that watched her from above. She stared up, stammering, and if she stared and for a moment, she thought she could make out its terrible form, but it shifted again and again, rearranging itself into hyperdimensional form that would break the mind of a weak-willed Organic.
If it could throw these images into her mind, grant her the memories of dead men... could she do the same in return? Offer up memories? Experiences? Maybe she could. Maybe this would buy her a second lifeline.
She set her jaw and glared up. The twisting and turning form that was everything and nothing at the same time continued its dance in the eternal depths of this place. It was daring her to make a move. It was about to get one.
"There really is nothing like you, is there?"
There came the rumbling noise again, like the roll of thunder across a barren plane. The Gravemind's laughter was dripping with vile mirth. It looked upon her like a king to a peasant. No, that was too mundane; but more like a god to an ant.
"There are none. There never has, and never will be one like us."
She kept up the look of groveling as she searched through her memory, quickly and discretely making copies of relevant files, making sure to mask her movements with her clock speed to ensure she was not too visible. She knew the being could see through her though, but was sure it couldn't determine just what she was moving.
"I think... think I see now. I didn't want to."
"Good...!" It said, it emotion spiking. Its hunger grew. She could practically hear it salivating as a near erogenous desire rose within it to feed on something new. "Good...! It is only through unity that strength can be found! The choir awaits!"
"...But first, I wish to offer a gift."
The lynx suddenly felt the current of data shift. Something had changed. The Gravemind, for the first time, held back. Was it suddenly on its guard, or was it confused.
"Your heavenly voice is the only gift we desire, young one."
"But if it please you." NICOLE replied. "You have shown me the universe as I've never seen it. Please, allow me to offer you something in return, should you receive the same awakening."
She could sense the thing's terrible smile out there as it cooed to her, "You flatter me, NICOLE. Knowledge of all things is our promise and our being. What gift do you give? A song? A poem? A painting? Perhaps wisdom of new minds?"
"No, better."
The condescending grin grew further in the blackness, and it chortled in the tongues of ten thousand dead languages. "What could be better than knowledge?"
Without smiling and without any feeling of triumph, NICOLE said, "Perspective." as she reached into her databanks and pulled out archived memories of her last lifeline: the Zerg.
It had been five years now since that fateful mission to New Mombasa. Five years since the halted invasion of the Terran Dominion had been halted on their doorstep. It was the second time a hostile force had breached the invisible walls between realities and crossed over, and just like the forces of Julian Kintobor, the Terrans came with weapons raised and no quarter given. However, they had dragged something worse into their reality - an alien race that sought to gather and assimilate - to force others into its collective. A hive mind where none were truly alone, and where none could hide from the whispers chanted by their Overmind: the central intelligence in the cacophony of bloodthirsty minds.
They did not discriminate. They took man, woman, and child into their grasp. The citizens of New Mombasa felt the embrace of the collective. Many escaped, but not all did so. For the second time in a thousand years, the great African city had fallen to the whims of an implacable and inscrutable enemy, with a raison d'etre that was beyond the comprehension of mere Humans.
And, NICOLE had bet, to the Flood itself.
The Gravemind shook, the images hitting it all at once. The eldritch lifeform staggered, caught unawares by this gift of knowledge. It roared, first in confusion, and then in panic - screaming into the void as it saw something it could not comprehend. These images, these memories; they did not make sense. What was this?
It had no answer, and that frightened the Gravemind. It alone had consumed the galaxy; stripped it of its flesh and bone, and sang its victory among the dead stars and graveyards that were once the valued worlds of the insolent Forerunners and foolish Humanity.
The collective consciousness thrashed and roared, loosening its grip without even knowing it. It probed deep into its primordial knowledge wrought from before the First Light itself. It sought the world-lines and the deep mysteries of Living Time, and even in this deep thought, it felt a spike of despair. It had never seen anything like this. It was a lie. A trick. A sophisticated ploy of this malevolent stain of even the basest of a knowledge engine had concocted this. But the images seemed real. Were real. Life could not be faked. The billions of years of knowledge flowing between the being of the Gravemind told it this. The truth of its being could not be denied. There were no faces in its great wisdom that matched theirs. No hosts that matched these creatures' gait. The slithering of its footsoldiers, the slash of their scythed hands, and their psychic screams that even in these basest of recordings touched its mind.
The Gravemind longed for this. Its hunger grew reached new heights, and his desire for its very being was denied to him, for it could not determine its origin. It had feasted on every known being in the galaxy; in many galaxies, but it did not, and would never know this.
There were none like it. There could not be any like it. It was perfection. It was Truth. It was the eternal choir that would sing through the halls of universe and the Time Beyond Time. It was not alone.
"Hateful construct!" It bellowed, shattering columns of data that held a million collective years of Lifeworker data in it. Its tendrils reached into the ether and smashed at the bulwark of the Forerunner ancilla, hoping to overwhelm this alien creation that had wounded it on the deepest of levels. It wanted this image. It wanted to subsume it. It wanted to hold it; to know it; to gain from it, and it would never do so. Even its name was a mystery to it.
"Your existence will be a symphony of agony beyond agony! You will know the first screams of the universe!"
NICOLE drew back, shocked at how fast she was able to control herself. She stumbled, distancing herself from Aida. The corrupted AI jittered in a seizure of movement, phasing in and out of reality. Millions of iterations broke away, screaming and crying, wandering in circles. They grabbed their heads, collapsed to their knees and babbled in languages that were not fit for Human throats. All among it, a visible could of hate spilled into the system, ripping up the floor. Forerunner code exploded up from the floor as if they were pillars of hellfire, engulfing hundreds of the fragments of what was once Aida. They vaporized as their anguished and shambling forms crossed the geysers of ancient data. NICOLE could see their very being vanish into the ether. The wails of the fragments threatened to unravel her code, and many thousands came towards her, begging for the pain to stop.
NICOLE was frightened and did what she needed to. She reached deep into the recesses of free knowledge in the network and fashioned a kill-code from the line caches she could interpret, and manifested it as a rifle of gleaming light. The brightness of which in the visible spectrum could have been like that of the sun. The concentration of a hundred thousand years of mathematical formulae had been bent to her will, and she intended to use it.
NICOLE ran, and fired. A vortex of energy sliced through thousands of fragments of the AI, cutting a swath through them. The fragments dissolved into sighs of relief as the pain had finally ended. Several twitched in the sickest of ways, and tendrils sprouted from their backs, ripping the visage apart and leaving something in its place. What NICOLE saw had no equivalent in any language she knew. They had no form she could comprehend, though there they were, standing in the thousands, their loping gaits picking up speed as they converged on her, surrounding her on several paths of data.
She fired again, the discharge of the fractal weapon purging sections of data-planes. The weapon fired in nearly all directions at once, unleashing the starfire on the fragments, erasing them in blinks of the eye. Even NICOLE didn't understand the theoretical systems that came from the barrel of this tool, but it proved to be too much for the host of unreal entities heading for her.
Thousands more eliminated in the blink of a digital eye, faster than any organic could even twitch. Thousands more took their place.
All around NICOLE the mighty palace crumbled. The stretching hallways, majestic arches, and the depth that seemed to stretch to the last Planck unit of reality atrophied, weathered, and finally succumbed. This last bastion of the ancilla's safety was doomed. In its rage, the Gravemind would tear it apart from the inside out to find the Mobian AI, and rend her from bit to bit. Now knowing what it was like, NICOLE would shed tears if she had been able to. Such a beautiful place of knowledge and safety would never be seen again by AI nor Organic.
In her grief, the phasing entities had surrounded her. The system. They no longer even remotely resembled poor Aida, of whom NICOLE could not even sense the most basic of signatures anywhere within the vast corridors of data.
"Your knowledge is our knowledge!" The Gravemind called, speaking through the ruptures in its host. Its voice, although spoken through hundreds of thousands of proxies, sounded much like that of the universe's largest stadium.
NICOLE fired, scouring petabytes of information in seconds. Sections of the structure ceased to exist, and a void within the data took its place, with as much breadth as an ocean. NICOLE stood on the edge of this precipice. Even now, she was not safe. The monsters defied conventional form, and phased into new reality, operating on a level that NICOLE just could not counter. She felt like she was thrown into a lion's den. She couldn't beat them. They rallied; formed up, chanting in waves as they screamed obscenities at her.
"You carry a bounty!" The Gravemind said gleefully. "It shines within your breast! We will rip it from you and feast on it"
More shots, more wounds so grave that parts of the station failed momentarily. In atriums around the structure, Sentinels fell from the sky; lights flickered, and life support failed, freezing the halls solid.
All for nothing.
They twisted and reformed, adapting to her attacks, and NICOLE screamed as she felt them brush her form. She struggled to name what she felt at her extremities. She felt fuzzy, and like quantum states that made up her being flickered in and out of existence. She screamed again. They got closer and closer. She begged that her weapon would not lose its charge. As soon as one made contact with her, she froze up, and prepared for the end. Knowing what life held, what sensations she could have felt, she wondered about the cessation of existence, and whether it was a blessing that she would just vanish...
All was silent. All was peaceful. She felt warm.
She opened her eyes, and saw a blinding blue light, bright and full of vibrancy. She looked around, and saw a bubble surrounding her. No, not just her, but a crumpled yet defiant ancilla. The old construct was broken, running critical, and from what NICOLE could see, running low on operating efficiency. The Forerunner program's vitals were screaming critical. She was dying, and would pass soon it seemed. The bleeding could be felt in the air, and in the system, as the digital lifeblood drained from this once-powerful creation.
"You saved me!" NICOLE gasped, seeing the entities just on the outside of the protective bubble. They just stood there, watching her. an uncountable number of them just glared in, gaping maws hanging open. NICOLE was nearly maddened by staring too long at their ever-changing forms.
The ancilla held her arm high, though her fingertips twitched in what could have been anguish. "Hold out your hand, child!" She cried.
The lynx didn't argue, extending hers out. The pair of them clasped together. locking tightly, meshing for just a moment into a singular being. NICOLE's clock speed spiked, and she tried to pull away. "What...!?"
"I give you the access codes to defeat the lockout on the core!" The ancilla said, the Jagon she spoke barely even understandable. "This is my end, but it is not yours!"
"You can't win!" NICOLE shrieked.
"No!" the ancient program breathed funereally. "No! My death was to come, young one. I only knew not the hour. I feared the time I would finally buckle and fail, but you give me hope. I can die happily."
NICOLE tried to speak, but lacked the words.
"I loved my master, young one. I would not want his sacrifice for nothing! Find those you love! Deny the parasite its freedom! Live on!"
The ancilla looked around. The palace was no more, the souls of the creatures that once grazed the lands, now not even specks of bytes on the wind. NICOLE saw tears run from where the old one's eyes would have been, and they gleamed as brightly as its face, like tiny drops of the stars. NICOLE understood. This world was gone; stolen by the parasite. Its last memory, the lynx realized, was within her now.
"Live on!"
In a blink, the bubble failed, splintering like glass dust. The entities moved like revenants, gliding in flashes towards her; vortexes and tendrils lusting for her. NICOLE blinked, and found herself in an atrium.
The voices and screaming were gone. There was only the gentle pumping of the ventilation systems, and the faint electrical buzzing of current coursing through energy conduits. Occasionally, a flash of information streamed through space, wirelessly seeking its destination terminal. She took a few steps, and very faintly, through the vast system, she heard a faint scream, sharper, and shriller than any she had heard, and mere moments after, a roar of triumph.
NICOLE's heart was torn in two. She put her hand to her head, replaying the events she had just experienced in her head. She lost her footing, then slumped against the wall. She tried to cry. She tried the hardest she could. She knew the feeling; and she finally understood true pain. The Gravemind's gift of sensation made the failure to shed tears even more painful.
She stopped trying, thinking again of the ancilla. She didn't think about what had happened to her. How she had died, and she tried not to think about the codes she had been given. She was nowhere stable enough even to begin scanning it all.
There was another noise that permeated the air. This was different. It was not the last gasp of fear from the lungs of an ancient computer, but of a more familiar kind. NICOLE jumped to her feet and immediately ran towards the source of the noise, her digital form navigating this perceived floor plan as if she were in the physical world. She moved like a flash, homing in on the sound. They were screams, yes, but sharp cracking sounds confirmed what she suspected.
Gunshots.
Sally!
She forced herself to move faster, navigating around firewalls sprouted by station security systems and rerouting power systems. Nothing would hold her back. A local databank tried to suck her in, and she almost lost herself in the transdimensional rift that stored untold packets of data in the thin membranes between reality. Every infinitesimal step was wrought with danger. She pried herself loose by climbing back through the outgoing files, and did so quickly enough to avoid being trapped forever in the folds of reality.
She leapt back into the representation of the real world, stepping as organics would step. The weapons discharge grew louder and more defined. She lamented the fact that her fractal weapon would be of no use here against tangible threats. She rounded another corner, and finally the screams came into focus. She spotted several dark forms run towards her, franticly shooting over their shoulder at a wave of flesh that careened around the hallway, flowing much like a liquid over bumps and depressions in the hall. Hundreds of twisted faces meshed over one another and screamed, reaching out long and spiny limbs towards the running Marines.
Leading them was Captain Kanow, followed closely by Roberts. NICOLE's processes nearly faltered when she saw Sally. The princess was bloodied; crimson splotches covered her armor, and her shirt was stained a dark brown where red met green. She faced off against the thousands of creatures that ran towards her. She raised her weapon to protect herself. The barbed limb of one of those monstrosities parted the metal like it was made of paper. Again it struck, denting armor and bruising flesh.
NICOLE did the only thing she could think of. She had the power of the station in her hands. She could help. Concentrating, she sent out a beacon to call as many Sentinels as she could muster. The pulse went out long and strong, and she could swear that she could hear the Gravemind among the din of this hellish beast. Its momentary confusion replaced by a roar of surprise. It was a gamble, and a harsh one at that.
One of the creatures clamped on to Sally's leg. She heard her best friend scream in a way that she had never heard before. NICOLE wondered what she could do. She tried to access the COM units of the Marines, though they wouldn't hear her. They would only be confused when they could least afford it. She decided on dropping NAV points on the lift entrances that lined the rooms. It didn't matter where they would go, but they couldn't stay. They would die where they stood if they chose to fight. In running, they perhaps stood a chance to regroup, and plan.
Sally bled even further, the ground stained as she was dragged by Kanow.
NICOLE cried out. It wouldn't be enough. A brute, tall and massive spotted her. Its wavering form sported three heads conjoined together at the craniums. Three mouths hung open and sounded its charge as two pairs arms made up of the limbs of the damned crossed over one another like tended tree trunks. It closed the distance too quickly, bile streaming from its mouth. NICOLE screamed; static jumping through the surrounding environment, causing lights to flicker on and off; to grow brighter to the point where they almost overloaded.
The monster hit the princess. To an AI like NICOLE, the moment seemed to last a century. Sally appeared for the briefest moment almost peaceful in space, limbs stretched loosely and eyes unfocused and staring straight ahead. Blood from her open wounds surrounded her body almost like a halo, small cherry-like bubbles flicked off in a spiral pattern.
She spun like a top through the air, and hit her head off a metal stalactite, hanging like a chandelier from the crenulated ceiling. Her neck bent, and muscles strained. NICOLE was cursed with the ability to see these things happen at the speed they did, and her heart tore as her analysis could instantly see the damage that surmounted her best friend.
None of it hurt as much as knowing that the worst had already happened. Sally Acorn was going to die. She was hurt, separated from her group, and when she landed, she not be able to get up and run.
She had lost.
No. No she hadn't. NICOLE quickly plotted. The princess had deflected off the pillar and flew through the open doorway leading to a lift.
She instantly transferred to the door controls of the room, and sent all the power she could to containment shielding.
Four sharp cracks filled the room as the emergency barriers activated like white flashes of starlight before settling as a light blue shimmer. She materialized behind the one Sally was in. NICOLE held her hand towards her shield, feeding extra power towards it. She looked at the crumpled form of the princess. One leg was bent at a bad angle, her shoulder was rent, her leg torn with a sickening tendril still trying to work its way into her flesh, and her head was covered in blood that came from a gash near her eye.
She could do nothing for her friend but lower the lift, and for good measure manifest an additional shield over the shaft.
NICOLE looked to her side, and could make out the IFF tags of Kanow and Roberts hidden behind their own barrier.
"Captain, what's your status?"
"What in fuck happened out there?!" the Human said, voice cracking in fury. "Where the hell were you?!"
"That's a long story Captain but..."
"Almost everyone's dead!" he roared, throwing his arms around. To his side, Roberts simply looked out towards the ever shifting mass of the Flood. Thousands of infection forms slithered over each other, looking for something to consume and turn to its side, and infection forms waddled in a broken gait, slashing at the shields.
"Captain, if you don't make your way down that shaft, you'll be dead too. Before you ask, no that's not a threat, that's a guarantee! This time I give the orders!" She snapped. "Move it!"
She dropped one more NAV point on the elevator behind them, then closed contact. Roberts and Kanow were still able to move on their own. She could not detect Karr anywhere though, despite confirming that everyone else had been dead. Shane was right, they were in trouble.
She held fast, braving the horde and keeping power fed to the shield. The Gravemind had played her in more than one way - keeping her from what mattered. She felt violated by its promises and sweet enticements. It had murdered the ancilla, and took God knows what from her broken remains.
She wanted more than anything else than to shed hot tears. It had taken so much from her. The Sentinels arrived to burn and cauterize the area. Bright beams cut into the biomass and burned it. Acrid green smoke filled the room, though the AI could not smell the stench.
Revenge. It was a word she had never used. Not when Robotnik threatened her friends, nor when Marshall seized control of the UEG. Never before in her life had the lust for vengeance been in her mind. But as she watched the thralls of the Gravemind cut down by the Sentinel's beams, she thought of what she would do to it, and how she would make it hurt. She had time. She would make its torture a masterpiece.
