Chapter 72: Last Thought

The Wau and the monster hurl themselves at one another: the tentacles clasp the metal giant without managing to tear it apart; the maw skids across the hyperchalque. The Wau pounds so hard on the organic carapace that the vibrations are deafening; he seeks within the core of its ovoid structure the cerebral mass in order to crush it between his fingers, the thing diverts its thought into its reflex neural clusters in its joints and continues a clumsy assault, and the Wau at last hurls it against a wall.

He strikes with his fists, with his feet, again and again, until it is nothing but a carpet of bloody flesh-and even then, the flesh attempts to reconstitute itself, the cells groping for one another to rebuild that cathedral of horror, but it is exhausted.

The Wau turns toward Tohil. His armor is red, dripping with blood. Favour exclaims:

-”The other five are coming straight here! Onto the command deck!”

The Wau seems stunned from the clash, but he points with his index finger toward the exit and all the sailors rush to it. Tohil casts a look of gratitude, and the Wau replies to him psychically: “Admiral, we must save what we can. Enter Drift as soon as there are no more intruders on board.”

The impacts thunder, giving the impression of a missile battery charging the ship-which, moreover, alters its course. The scream of the security doors. Crushing the terminals, five new creatures, identical.

The Wau throws himself at the nearest one. The Wau Art. It collapses, screaming. Another-he seizes its maw and opens it so wide that he tears its body in two. The third arrives behind him; he seizes it and hurls it against a wall. The Wau Art upon the fourth, upon the fifth. In barely a few seconds the creatures writhe on the floor. Heaps of flesh striving to reconstitute themselves into a body while the resonant attack continues its path, cell by cell, bursting them.

The Wau is covered with blood and intestines, joints, flesh ... he wipes clean his mask, though his analysis visor sees clearly through the meat.

Good Lord, Aloysius ... you really did succeed in making your secret weapon. But we had agreed it would have a flaw. Where is the flaw, Sam? Has the Aleph subdued you? Why are these things so deadly? Why such zeal in your work of death?

An audible signal. The Wau clears the radar terminal of viscera and notes that Lodovico’s ships are dispatching three more units. Right there, onto the deck.

The Wau takes two steps back, crouches ready to leap, and waits.

Three new impacts. Once again ... the rumble of hell; this time, the security doors have given out, and the air of the deck empties with a howl, carrying away viscera and torn-out terminals. The three intruders smash through the ceiling.

Three humanoids. Two meters fifty, solid black visors, armor of gold, for two of them. The third, farther back, has a silver eye painted upon his visor.

Thus the Aleph has realized his dream. The Anti-Waus. They are replicated to perfection in physical appearance. The Aleph must have taken Alpha Empty Eyes. And for the one with the silver eye? Just so-this one takes a step backward. He observes.

The Anti-Waus advance. They are fast and strong. They strike so hard they could halt an Endymion in full charge. It is a sharp and powerful fight, yet ridiculous-hyperchalque against hyperchalque, the only thing that will eventually shatter is the Endymion, or perhaps the planet beneath.

The Wau slaps flat-handed upon the visor of one of them to subdue its control AIs. But his own AIs, scarcely reconstituted during the return voyage of the Halcyon, are surprisingly weak. He resists. Well then, so be it: the Wau concentrates and subjugates his two adversaries by thought. They are Alpha Empty Eyes, boosted with the spinal fluid of the Owls of Booz: they could dominate anyone in the universe-but not the Wau. Pointing his index finger at them, he makes them kneel, then faint. Their AIs stimulate them to awaken, so he locks their entire psyche into a mental box that will open of its own accord as soon as someone speaks to them.