MAYHEM ON EARTH

Chapter 36: Emergence

Loi stood in the hallway and guarded the door to the countdown room. With him were about a dozen other guards. Over the past Earth-week, his boss, Ms. Tocarris of Kardusi, and the team working under her had completed their project. Today was the day of launching the result upon Earth. In less than an Earth-hour, humanity’s annihilation would begin.

The only obstacle to this goal of his employer, PVC, was a single Sartoogian boy who had somehow smuggled onto the ship and evaded sight. He was against the plan and even dared to fight it. Oddly, no one had been able to catch him thus far, and so the guards were wary at present of any last-minute sabotage.

Most of the crew had left the ship one-by-one for safety reasons on smaller ships, heading toward nearby PVC outposts. Further, all of Loi’s co-workers had been called back from their missions on Earth to act as guards for Ms. Tocarris and ensure that everything went smoothly.

In fact, humanity was practically done for already. No matter what the Sartoogian wanted to do, he was helpless against a dozen trained guards. The strange recent losses in power, destruction of equipment, and disappearances of their components were somewhat worrisome, but they were probably just some nuisances created to annoy them or impede progress…

In all honesty, Loi wasn’t too fond of the whole genocide plan, and he kind of wanted to see what the Sartoogian underdog had in mind, but his job came first. Cadonif would lose, and Loi wanted to be the one to defeat him and impress his employer.

Loi checked the time and looked back through the door, where Ms. Tocarris was doing her work. On a screen outside the door, a countdown timer was displayed. This is it.

All of a sudden, some guards started talking. Loi turned to see what the commotion was about. At the end of the hallway was the Sartoogian that he’d seen before. Stealing food over the past week had made him regain some weight. He was quivering but had a resolute face on.

Loi smiled. It was time for action. He ordered the guards to chase after him. The final battle began.

* * *

Things had changed drastically for Cadonif. Only a few months ago, he’d been living on Sartoog, where life was slow and dull, and physical labor and poverty were extreme. He’d been living a stressful by happy life with his family, focused on making money to support the orphanage he’d grown up in, but now, he was light-years away, fighting an organization that was intent on exterminating a species of intelligent life from the face of the planet Earth. He would’ve been astonished if he’d been told that this was his fate: he wasn’t courageous and the situation was surreal. Although there was no good reason for him to be fighting, he was. He should have given up and been arrested by now. What was left in his life worth fighting for, and why was he risking his life for it?

He was currently being chased by a group of guards with weapons, while he himself had nothing to defend with on him. He ran through the hallways, terrified for his life. What was he doing? The thought had run through him over and over for the past week.

Cadonif leaned right and narrowly dodged a dagger thrown at him. It was not his first time being threatened with weapons, but it was his first time against a group of competent, non-Sartoogian, trained guards.

He had to be especially careful because of their choice of weapons; they wielded daggers, swords, and other knives. Weapons weren’t as developed outside of Earth, where peace was more common. The blades were, however, coated in a paralyzing poison. This way, one could win against an enemy with a single scratch and the enemy wouldn’t be able to escape far. It was also useful in the unlikely event of war, where a common tactic would be to paralyze the enemy’s soldiers without killing them so that the opposing side would have to expend resources in keeping them alive. This was especially effective when the enemies’ escape route and resources were cut off such as during a siege. The Federation was either the largest seller or proprietary of all of the noteworthy poisons and monopolized the cure to them.

Cadonif zig-zagged and nimbly turned corners as often as possible to avoid getting hit by the projectiles. He was used to running and wasn’t carrying anything to slow him down.

One guard with a sword got fed up with being unable to reach him and unfurled his electric automatic crossbow. This wasn’t accurate when motion was involved, but the guard at least didn’t have to stop to pick up the fallen daggers from the floor. It shot charged darts that stunned victims. The expensive darts, although one-time-use, were more efficient to reload than arrows, and were also proprietary of UnIF.

“All this effort hunting and chasing a stupid Sartoogian like you?! I’m tired of this. Move aside, guys. I’m going to hurt that scrawny little punk.”

Before he could shoot, Cadonif opened an adjacent door to a small janitor’s closet. It had been packed full of random objects in advance; they fell out and spilled across the floor. The guards skidded to a stop, a few trampling and falling. Some of them cried in pain, verifying the presence of sharp objects in the pile. Cadonif winced. They carefully made their way through the junk and continued their pursuit, not letting a minor obstacle stop them.

Cadonif knew that it would only buy him a bit of time.

After a few minutes of chasing: “Hey, we never go this way,” one guard noted. “Does he want to make us lost or something?” The spaceship was massive, and there were places that no one went to.

This was advantageous to Cadonif, who, thanks to the common absence of cameras in standard spaceships throughout the UnIF planets, could work on something without being caught.

The guards noticed that, placed on the wall, was a large contraption consisting mostly of coiled wires. They didn’t have time to observe it and tried to continue past it.

At the end of the hallway, Cadonif stopped and pulled a lever that he’d placed. The lights dimmed as the electricity in the ship was rerouted.

The guards were surprised as they found their knives and other metal objects be swept out of their hands and attached to the wall, on the contraption.

This was what Cadonif had been building over the past few days. “It’s an electromagnet,” he told them. He thanked Geenud for ranting about its design recently. He’d remembered it and constructed a strong one.

With this, the guards were disarmed.

One guard attempted to pull his knife off the wall, but another stopped him. “Don’t touch it. Didn’t you hear him? It runs on electricity! And a lot of it to be that strong. Just look at the ship lose power.” They had to be cautious of electrocution. It was built by their enemy after all.

Cadonif smiled watching the guards’ look of surprise. Everyone underestimated him due to his background.

Cadonif turned and continued running. The guards looked at their weapons, tightly hugging the wall, and decided not to retrieve them.

“Forget the weapons. We can each defeat him bare-fisted, and we’re together. Don’t lose sight of him. When he’s done, our headache is over.”

And the chase continued. After yet another stunt, this one involving a barrel of slippery engine oil, the guards were annoyed and tired. Cadonif could keep going.

* * *

The tired guards eventually turned a corner, hoping their delay hadn’t lost their prey. At the end of the short hallway was Cadonif in a room. He was trapped there. There were no exits—it was a dead-end.

The guards chuckled and approached him slowly. The frightened young Sartoogian looked around the room, possibly searching for something to use to his advantage. The guards quickly surrounded him.

“You made us work ourselves mighty hard. Allow us to return the favor,” one said. He ran at Cadonif and tried to punch him. His arm swung and… passed right through him. “Wha—?!”

Another realized: “It’s a hologram!”

The other guards turned around to look at the door to the room, where the real Cadonif was standing, the light behind him creating a large shadow of him in the dim room, covering even the guards. He closed the door. The guards immediately ran to the door. It was locked from the outside. They banged the door with anger as Cadonif turned and ran away.

“He prerecorded the hologram, set up this trap, and lured us in here…” the first guard realized. He looked around and noticed there were no objects they could use to break open the door—even their weapons had been seized. “We didn’t think about his plan; we all just ran here, blinded by rage. That guy is amazing… It’s all up to Loi and Tocarris now, and if it isn’t a physical fight, I can’t say for certain Loi can stop him.”

* * *

Loi sneezed. Strange… This ship should be pretty well sanitized.

He was inside the countdown room, where Tocarris was preparing the final solution—the project that everyone on this ship had been working on—to be released. She was also recording the whole thing to show PVC. Loi was there to assist her, letting the other guards take care of the last impediment to the plan. Oddly, it had been twenty minutes since they’d left, and they still hadn’t returned. Their presence was unnecessary, so Loi ignored it.

Loi peered at the entrance door, thinking he’d heard his guard friends. He approached it. Though the voices seemed far away and faded, it was certainly them, and they sounded angry.

“Let us out!”

“I’m going to strangle you!”

What are those guys saying? Loi thought as he glanced around the hallways. Suddenly, he saw a door closing. Aha! You managed to make it all the way back here, huh? Loi approached the door and pulled out his weapon.

He pressed a button next to the door to open it. His eyes were watchful for motion as it slid open. Inside, it was dark. Loi clapped twice without stepping inside, and the lights turned on. He looked around and found that the room was devoid of people. What?! Then who opened…?

Suddenly, he heard a door close behind him. He ran over to find that the door to the countdown room was closed and locked. He banged on the door. Only Tocarris should have been in there. He’d been observant to make sure no one slipped in while he was away.

What’s going on with these doors!?

Then, he heard his guard mates yelling at a distance again. But Loi realized that they were saying the same things as before. He ran back to the room from before. Lying on the floor inside was an audio device. It was just a recording!

Loi clenched his teeth as he realized who the only person who could have done this was. And the fact that he recorded the other guards yelling like that meant only one thing: he’d defeated them.

* * *

Cadonif climbed through the air ducts—now a normal daily task for him. He’d taken care of the guards by leading and locking them into a room, and of Loi by locking him outside the countdown room, where the action was to take place. He’d done both of these by learning how to control the ship’s door system remotely from the computer server room.

Now that the obstacles were clear, he could activate the main part of his plan. He’d been scared to do this for the past week, but he was actually fighting and winning.

In his childhood on Sartoog, Cadonif had never used to talk to others outside his family. He was always shy. But here he was, risking his life facing this corporation. So great was his determination.

He’d spent days wondering what he was doing and why. His instincts urged him against it. So why was he trying so hard to save some evil people he’d never seen before? He’d pondered this question over the past week and he eventually found the answer. And finding it strengthened his resolve.

Eventually finding his destination, Cadonif pushed out the vent cover and emerged. He stood up and found himself in the countdown room.

Against a wall was a giant screen displaying the timer, which was now at ten minutes. There were also many electronics and controls beneath the screen. These were presumably to control the whole execution of the plan and record it. At the center of the room was standing Tocarris.

“So that’s how you’ve been traveling around. Crawling through grimy places is suitable for someone like you… my little rat!”

“Tocarris, I’ve come to stop you!”

“Very well. Show me what you’ve got!”