Credit: Jamie Tufrey

FIREWALL, SOL EMPATHIC GRID, 2234

I blaze across a sky the colour of hammered bronze. Snowball looks at me with one of his crazy smiles. His twin, Nero, is just behind, grim as ever. A klick ahead, at point, Raz is powering up the caterpillar.

The target appears beside her, a giant razor-spiked sphere black as hell's coal. It is adjusting rapidly to our phase shift. We still have a sliver. I skip. I'm with Raz now, on her periphery.

The twins skip in on her other flank.

Took your time. Her pupils dilate slightly; an eyebrow arches.
Snowball shrugs. Better late …

… than never, Nero finishes, as always.

The alien's shadow is cold, its form morphs, bleeding lethal barbed tendrils in slow motion.

I urge Raz on. Be fast

Of all the times to hassle me. .

Patterns of platinum quicken across its surface. The tendrils move with more purpose, towards us. The sliver narrows.
I state the obvious. It's catching up.

All right already. Raz groans and looks at the twins for moral support. They remain purse-lipped. OK, the cat's on nitro.

The gold shape on her wrist squirms into motion and floats free, multiple segments thrashing faster than our pico-senses can follow. It crosses the distance to the alien, squeezes between the tendrils and disappears.

Fall back. I catch Raz as she nulls out. The twins guard the retreat.

Something is not right. The butterfly doesn't emerge. I'm yelling now, with Raz over my shoulder. Phase up.

Not fast enough. The polymorph shifts and engulfs the twins, their white and black legs sticking out stupidly. I let Raz float free and ramp phase beyond what even I think is safe.

The alien skips at a precognitive speed.

I feel its presence around me. Alien programs unfold in a kaleidoscope of light as it slashes open my fi rewall. Frigid cold seeps in but there's no time to scream. I ramp to atto-phase and in a last, desperate sliver I transfer my higher motor routines to the inert caterpillar buried in the polymorph. It thrashes back to life, ravenously digesting the alien construct. The butterfl y emerges and
the ice retreats from my zombie form. The twins fl oat free as the
polymorph husk dissipates like smoke on a breeze.

That's why they call me Deus Zee.

RAPPORT ENVIRONMENT, SOL EMPATHIC GRID, 2234

Snowball looks down at me, his bleached hair a diamond halo.

Take it easy …
… just shut your eyes and relax for a while.

Nero yawns and stretches in a hammock between two of the island's palm trees. He is a shadow in contrast to his albino brother.

I hear waves lapping. The Sun and sand are warm on my skin. Time becomes languid as I feel the welcome slide into dormancy.
Where's Raz?
Out with …
… the sharks.

Vertigo takes hold and I spin down to the treacly state of normal time. Long neglected qualia shimmer somewhere on my periphery.