They stood in a semi-circle at the water’s edge, Asimov still in the centre of the lake, hovered a few feet above the mirror-black water. Perhaps acting on raw instincts, the three of them attacked as one, Malcraft to his left shot up and away towards the cave ceiling, K-Rox watched as the energy blasts from his forward weapons speared in the direction of Asimov.
At the same time Jemima propelled herself forward at lightning speed her tail flicking out its deadly payload. K-Rox fired the last of the salamander’s antimatter projectiles as he leapt forwards. In a part of the brain that wasn’t entirely his, he was aware of the exact positions of the other two.
For a couple of hundred microseconds K-Rox thought they may have gained an advantage, the energy blast that Malcraft had set off had reached its target unleashing a blinding sun-bright white flash that momentarily revealed the darkest recesses of the cave.
K-Rox focused on Asimov, the energy hit seemed to make him grow, he raised his right hand in a blur and shot out an orange-yellow bolt of energy which hit Malcraft in mid-air. The resulting vapour cloud created a brief negative image in the dark, K-Rox thought that he could see Malcraft’s avatar inside the suit at the moment of his destruction.
Jemima was next, K-Rox didn’t even see the weapon that did it, she simply blew apart, every micrometre of her body trying to get away from all the other pieces. She managed to send him a thinCast at the moment of her very real death.
Sorry Kay, up to you now, whatever happens don’t trust all of us, just because we have the same DNA we -
Next it was his turn, he knew the game was up.
Oh well, this as good a time as any.
He sensed he didn’t have much time, he was still flying through the air, he had travelled less than thirty metres in the time it took Asimov to wipe out Malcraft and Jemima, there was nothing for it, he didn’t want to reset the game and go through all of this again.
It’s time.
The salamander’s detection systems were bleeping like crazy, his destruction was imminent. K-Rox sent the QSID codes through the Krusher9 uplink that would separate his mind on Mars, from his body on earth forever.
As he moved through the air in slow motion towards Asimov, K-Rox sent him a thinCast request, the pinged reply came back almost immediately.
Who are you?
K-Rox spoke the words that he had guessed . . . hoped would unlock the key to Asimov.
“You may call me many, for I am Legion.”
He was perceiving each microsecond in extreme detail, as the giant salamander inched through the air towards him K-Rox saw the face of Asimov change, at first it went dark, then his face became like a sun. Inside the hurtling exoskeleton K-Rox closed his eyes, the nails-on-slate voice of Asimov shook his head once more.
Why are you here?
“I’m here to take you home.”
Then.
Nothing.
Previous Chapters
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 56 - Face Of RedemptionAsimov's Ghost - Chapter 55 - Infernal Baptism
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 54 - Asimov's Inferno
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 53 - Hell Reborn
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 52 - A Chance At Paradise
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 51 - A Time For Death
Asimov's Ghost Summary and Chapter Links 41-50
Asimov's Ghost Summary and Chapter Links 31-40
Asimov's Ghost Summary And Chapter links 21-30
Original artwork by @fr3eze
Original words by Cryptogee