“Yes, called Gehenna,” his father answered.
“And it’s real?” she asked.
“Yes, it’s real,” his father said.
So it was real…
Jace remembered then what had happened and why there was so much pain when he tried to wake up fully. Gehenna had told him. Warned him. He was lucky to be alive.
Remember what we practiced, Jace, she’d said.
I have no idea--
You will. I’m going to show you. Sort of like muscle memory, but in your brain, she told him. You are special. You can access Precursor technology that no one else can.
What? Why? How?
The pounding at the door was intense now. Metal screeched as the Khul ripped the bars off of the windows. He wondered why they didn’t have tools like lasers or something to simply cut through. But then again in Aliens the creatures hadn’t needed tools or weapons. They, themselves, were both. That appeared to be the same here.
Too much to answer right now. Just trust me that it is true, Gehenna’s voice was strangely unhurried and calming though he knew that she was probably more keenly aware than he was how bad it would be if the Khul got inside.
Walter’s granddaughter let out a wail of fear. “Grampy, I’m scared! The monsters are going to get in!”
“It’s okay,” Walter lied as he curled a protective arm around her. “It’s going to be okay.”
Sami turned to him. “Jace, is there anything you can do?”
“Y-yeah,” he told her. “Yeah, there is. Metal Rain.”
“Metal--”
“I’m going to access a Precursor defense drone,” he repeated the words that Gehenna told him. “It should take out the Khul. All of them and their nearby ships. But I--I might uhm… bleed.”
“Bleed?” Sami’s eyes flickered over his face. She looked so concerned.
“Yeah, so I need you to keep everybody calm, okay?”
There will be screaming, too, Jace. You’re going to feel like your brain is being put in a blender, Gehenna warned. We haven’t fully connected yet and you haven’t fully… well, let’s just say that it’s going to be like trying to use the wrong current in a machine.
“I’m going… it’s going to be painful,” Jace told Sami as his mouth went dry. “Don’t let anybody touch me though or try to stop it. It’s the only way.”
Sami hesitated then gave a brief, jerky nod as she held George tighter against her chest. “I’ve got you.”
“Thanks,” he told her. He touched her arm that curled around George. “Really. For everything.”
She blinked. “I--”
“For everything,” he repeated, wanting her to know how much he’d appreciated her being friends with “weird” Jace Parker all these years when it had cost her socially. He hadn’t fit in anywhere, not in her world anymore than his other classmates, but she had still made a place for him.
Her eyes hardened then softened. “You don’t need to thank me. Your friendship is enough.”
He smiled.
Gehenna, let’s do this, he told the AI, fully committed to whatever would come next.
All right, I’m going to shut down your vision--
Wait? What?
