As soon as the door closed, Seruya said, "Get out."
"I am not able to."
Of course not. So her trust had been betrayed after all. "You know I will force you."
"You must try to understand. This place is protected by a field of energy that drives away my kind. I can only be here clothed in your flesh. You cannot eject me, because there is nowhere for me to go."
"How convenient for you."
"I would be able to scout this location much more quickly were I free to move around. I had intended to explain this before entry, but circumstances made that impossible. As soon as we leave, or manage to disable the field, I will vacate your body."
Seruya felt Sage's presence as a constant, inaccessible awareness. It felt like a violation, and having agreed to it initially didn't make it any better, but she could endure it a while longer.
She slowly scanned her new surroundings, so unlike anything she had seen before. She stood in a short corridor with white walls and a grey floor that felt cold to her feet, with a single door leading further into the structure. A bright part of the ceiling lit the space. "Since you're going to be here, guide me. How do I open that door?"
"There is a knob on the wall to the right. Pushing it should open the door."
She followed the instructions and the door slid sideways to disappear into the wall. Light spilling out from the corridor revealed only vague shapes, but as soon as she stepped through, glowing rectangles in the ceiling blinked to life. She stood at a crossroads of three corridors. The two to either side featured doors on one side, spaced regularly apart, and terminated at corners leading further into the building. Ahead, the third corridor led to another intersection, but a section of the wall to the right had been cut down to chest height, creating a separate, square space that contained many small doors and things she had no words for.
Nothing she saw existed in her world, and the sour, dry air added to her sense of displacement. She couldn't begin to grasp how this place had been created, or what purpose all these things served. Her reflexes and experience were useless. She wouldn't even know how to detect a threat, let alone deal with it.
"I suggest you go into the enclosed area ahead. We may be able to access information there."
Somewhere inside, she would find the way out of this place. As much as she detested relying on the spirit, she would use it to learn everything she could. A Sharyukin was nothing if not adaptable. She approached the low wall.
A stool sat behind it. Bones lay scattered on the seat and the floor around it, along with a skull and a shiny round object. The confirmation that someone had been here before sparked a sense of relief and reassurance, that she hadn't accidentally passed into some demonic underworld. "This one will be of little help."
"Perhaps. Do you see the small square object lying among the bones?"
She'd assumed it was debris. "What of it?"
"It is a device that contains information. Its placement on the floor suggests this individual held it in their hand when they died, which might mean they wanted it to be found."
She picked it up and held it up to her eye. A black square the size of her thumbnail, as thin as a flake of flint. "This contains information?"
"Additional devices are needed to access it. If you turn to your right, you will see a desk. Towards the―"
"What's a desk?" she snapped. "Speak plainly!"
"A horizontal surface used for work. Do you see the hand-shaped objects on top? Just below the one on the right, there is a small opening that should fit the device."
"What will happen if I put it in?"
"I am not sure. You may hear a voice, or see an image. Nothing may happen, since this place is very old."
Sage wasn't as useful as it claimed to be. Still, she had no other ideas. She found the opening and inserted the device.
A sigh echoed through the space. Seruya found a wall to put her back to and drew her weapons. No one was present to have made that sound. She glared around, expecting an attack.
"There is no immediate danger. As I explained, the information on the device is recorded in the form of a voice. It is like a memory kept outside your head. I suggest we listen."
"I don't quite know where to begin," said a deep voice. Exhaustion and resignation weighed heavy on its tone, and Seruya could barely penetrate the slurring accent. "I suppose I might introduce myself. Hiam Antipin, Director of Biotech Weapons Research, Human Enhancement Division. I had a not-insignificant part in the mess we made for ourselves. I assume you're aware of what I'm talking about, or maybe you're hearing this hundreds of years later and it's all ancient history." He sighed again. "I dearly hope not. In any case, the reason for this recording is that I won't be leaving here, and I want to leave behind something of a record for the benefit of anyone that might make it this far. If you're here, it means you've made it past the Marauders outside, which means you have substantial motivation. Either that, or they've all died, but I can't believe that. Not for a moment. Those things are a nightmare, and I can't help but believe that you're here because of them, because you're trying to exterminate them and you're having a difficult time. The good news is, you came to the right place. Sadly, there isn't a grand secret I can tell you that will solve your problem."
Seruya blinked furiously, trying to understand. Half these words she'd never heard before.
A sloshing sound filled a pause in the man's words, followed by a wet cough and a pained grunt. "All right. A brief history lecture. Once upon a time, there existed two schools of thought in regards to biological weapons. One held that microscopic entities held the most promise. Too small to see, and hard for the enemy to identify even when engaged. Diseases, bacteria, all such unpleasantness. The other concerned itself with enhancing the capabilities of the human body. The theory was to multiply the strength, agility and intelligence of a human being, while retaining an independent mind that could analyze situations and make appropriate decisions, even if circumstances developed beyond the scope of the initial assignment.
"I suspect I sound biased." A loose chuckle. "That's because I am. The human enhancement program was mine. The Ascension program. The microscopic technology program was headed by someone else. I'll discuss it further shortly. What we did was collect a group of the local primitives and place them in a controlled environment. We needed healthy specimens to work with. We took the strongest, healthiest young adults, and we changed them. Although I'm tempted, I'll restrain myself and leave out the technical details, since I'm a bit too drunk to do twenty-three years of research any justice.
"Now, depending on your moral standard, you may think that this was uh, cruel. That we didn't have the right. And you'd be right to think that. Those people were perfectly happy where they were, in their rainforest. Which we were cutting down a few thousand acres at a time." He paused. "What to say? What can I say? Nothing. I did it. And I understand now. But I won't regret having done it. If not for my work, those things out there would strip the world bare in less than a hundred years. Not to mention... I never would've..." The voice trailed off, and paused in favor of a slurping noise. "The technology failed in one specific way. We hadn't intended for any of the traits we were enhancing to be hereditary. As it turned out, nearly all of them were. Inconsistently so, and it was entirely possible for an Ascended to have unenhanced children. But even these unenhanced children could produce Ascended offspring.
A rattling belch. "So then. I promised I'd address the other school of thought, so here you are. Microscopic entities. As long as their research was limited to bacteria and viruses, their progress was glacial. But then they employed a breakthrough in robotics, and that's when they became dangerous. They staged endless experiments, including with my subjects. Some truly terrible work. But in the end, they developed an entirely new concept: a core of microscopic automatons, with the unique ability to take organic matter and modify its form and function. The core collected material and used it to construct an entirely new being around itself. The resulting creature was essentially part robot, but one couldn't tell by looking at them.
"Perfect obedience. Astounding strength and speed, and powerful natural weaponry. Camouflage in the form of environmentally adaptive skin. Not something to be thrust into open battle, but in urban or forest environments, they were lethal. In numbers, they were unstoppable. But the most unpleasant aspect of the project was the creature's primary mode of reproduction. The intention was to create something that could sustain operations in the long term, even in the face of heavy losses. So they endowed them with the ability to repurpose living beings. Mechanical spores enter the host body and start rewriting its biology. They make a cocoon inside, and a new creature grows. The host dies at some point, of course, but not before being compelled to find a quiet spot for the cocoon to finish developing. And the spores are in constant communication, so each time a host is successfully infected, a Marauder comes to protect the cocoon.
"What makes them truly terrifying is the problem they were never able to address: if left alone with standing orders long enough, the Marauders start to reinterpret those orders. For instance, say they are instructed to take a structure from the enemy and keep it secure. After completing the initial objective, they will expand their numbers, and venture beyond the established perimeter to seek out incoming threats and eliminate them. The more of them there are, the further afield they go, and their definition of 'enemy' starts to erode. The only major field test had to be terminated with the help of four entire infantry divisions and substantial air support, because the Marauders threatened to overrun the entire test range with no signs of slowing down."
He coughed. "In the meantime, of course, our expansion into space took over all the headlines. Not that any of them mentioned exactly how we were doing that. Vague references to copied alien technology." The man snorted, and his voice turned low and bitter. "Forget whatever you think you know. An alien ship did crash in the Hope Desert, but everything else has been an evil lie. The ship's technology was useless to us. As far as we could tell, it was incomplete. Some critical element was missing, and we never figured out what it was. It should have been on the ship, unless its absence caused the ship to crash in the first place. But then, how did it get as far as it did?" Another sloshing sound, followed by a noisy swallow. "Regardless. The ship was useless to us. So were the two dead aliens inside. But... Its cargo..." He sighed. "The ship carried dozens of pods of unknown function. Experiments showed they reacted strongly to radiation by generating massive amounts of energy, seemingly without requiring replenishment of any kind. The PRISM core was born as a result, and they are what powers our proud space fleet, as well as this facility.
"Then the aliens came. And contrary to what I'm sure you've been told, they tried to talk to us. In our heads. The first humans they encountered were told the entire story." He gave a disbelieving laugh. "I'm sure you know what our answer to that was; you probably have one in your own head. Our great leaders found out the truth of what we had done: the pods were cocoons. Alien cocoons sit at the core of every FTL-capable ship we've built. And what did they do? What was their response to realizing the accidental atrocity we'd perpetrated? They made us all deaf! Implants for every citizen! The aliens use telepathy to control our minds, and we must protect ourselves!" The man drank again, swallowing several times until he sputtered and coughed. He gave a long groan that trailed off into a deep sigh. The slur in his voice deepened: "As I'm sure you've realized by now, that was the true reason why the aliens invaded. Can anyone blame them? And rather than surrender our precious, fledgling space empire, rather than compromise all those countless interests in space travel, our leaders chose to fight. And that is why I'm now sitting here, by myself, one of the last humans left on Nadir. Safe inside my... anti-alien-mind-control shield. And with no way out.
"So now we get to the point of this little presentation. When the aliens were approaching Nadir and it was decided we ought to pack up and try our luck elsewhere, some of us were faced with the reality of not being able to take everything with us. Our research, our subjects. Our work. The man in charge of the microscopic research division didn't care for the idea. He believed his work was so groundbreaking, it had to be preserved at any cost. And he was quite serious. So he activated all the Marauders he had left, and he gave them one simple order: secure this facility against all access. And he did this knowing that one day soon, these things would forget what he told them and start killing everything they found.
"I had my subjects. The Ascended. I had to decide what to do. Orders came down to terminate them, but I couldn't. You must understand that these were people. None of them had ever asked to be experimented on. They couldn't begin to understand what we'd done to them." He laughed, or sobbed. "They liked us. They liked me. I taught them our language. I taught them math and basic science. Someone taught them how to fight in groups. They were excited for all of it." He moaned. "Have mercy, what have I done?"
A deep, shuddering breath. "I gave them weapons. Fighting knives, the only thing that was left behind. I told them a story, about the Marauders. I told them they had to kill the monsters, any way they could, at every opportunity, or they'd spread out and destroy the world. The Marauders needed an enemy. As long as they were kept engaged, there was a chance they would stay within the limitations of their initial assignment. I knew the Ascended could fight them. We'd tested it. I sent them out. And they were... They were glorious. They cut their way out. Didn't lose even one. I watched her go, leading the way. She never looked back." The man gave a strangled sob, then stayed silent for a long time.
"In regards to killing the Marauders. They have no specific vulnerabilities. Their hides are resistant to heat, cold, acid, kinetic force, and no doubt anything else you can think of. They bleed very little, and heal quickly. The automaton core is the key. As the creature develops, the automatons merge together into a more complex entity that can meet the needs of the growing organism. They surrender their flexibility to achieve greater functionality. It was a necessary step in the creature's development, but it means the core is vulnerable to catastrophic damage. It lies buried deep inside the body, in the center of the torso. It's well protected, but a high-powered projectile can reach it. So can a laser beam. A large enough explosion can be effective, but bear in mind that the core must be sufficiently damaged, else it will recover over time.
"Other than the Ascended, I don't think anyone can fight them in the jungle. They're much too fast, and too hard to see. They can even lower their body temperature to be invisible in the infrared spectrum. Assuming the Ascended remain, they are your best hope. If they are all gone, then I think it might be too late. If you represent a nation with an army, use every resource at your disposal to fight them. Infantry should operate in large, tight formations close enough to provide overwhelming mutual support. Saturation bombing can be a viable option, but it's imprecise. You must be sure to destroy every last one."
He gave a rough sigh. "There is one other option. As I said before, there was some experimentation with the Ascended. One such experiment involved treating specimens with automatons designed to form a link between the human brain and the Marauders. Utilizing the brain's functionality as part of the communication process would allow the controlling individual to issue complex instructions nearly instantly, and with a high degree of accuracy. The intention was for one Ascended to command a legion of Marauders in the field, without the risk of them losing focus. The experiment did not go well. Two subjects died. A third completed the operation, but went insane shortly after and had to be terminated. It seemed the strain of communicating with so many individual units was too much.
"I complained and had the experiment stopped, but the technology remains. If you have no other option, you could allow an Ascended to undergo the treatment. Assuming they survive, and assuming they can stand the pressure, they should be able to command the Marauders to stand down. But you must understand that this isn't likely to work. It never has. There is also the fact that you will be granting enormous power to a single individual. If they manage to take control and learn to command these things, they could become a terrible threat. Consider this a last resort, only marginally preferable to the Marauders roaming free.
"Such is my tale. I wish you good luck. Sadly, there is little else I can offer you. Rest assured that most of us paid for our sins." A pause. "I'm sorry. Lilith... I'm sorry. I should have opened my eyes sooner. I hope you live well. I love you."
Silence.