The Last Human Business

Chapter 6: The Skeptical Guardian

"Twelve hours, Ethan. That was your promise," Kael hissed, his voice echoing through the metal corridors of the armored bunker beneath the palace's north wing sector. He removed his cracked shoulder plate with a harsh clank, tossing it onto the iron workbench. "You said those nanites would freeze after absorbing the energy in the banquet hall. What if they adapt? What if they find a gap in the air vents?"

Ethan didn't answer immediately. He stood before an ancient monitor panel, his fingers moving at a speed difficult for the human eye to follow, dancing across crystal keys that responded to his touch as if the machine were an extension of his own nerves.

"Your concern is proof that your security doctrine was flawed from the start, Commander," Ethan said without looking back. "That nebula-prototype Gray-Goo is carbon-based. They are ravenous, but stupid. Without a central transmitter signal from the assassin I neutralized earlier, they’ve lost their collective purpose. Right now, they’re just consuming each other inside that hall."

"I don't need a molecular biology lesson from a 'fossil' who’s only been awake for a week!" Kael stepped forward, his hand gripping the hilt of his now-extinguished vibro-sword. "You orchestrated everything, didn't you? You saved Valerius just to make him indebted to you. I know how you think, Ethan. You're a tactician. A manipulator."

"If I wanted to manipulate this situation, Commander, I would have let Valerius crumble into silver dust back there," Ethan turned, his sharp eyes locking onto Kael’s gaze. "His eyes are the sole biometric access for this palace's emergency protocols. If he dies, all of Caledonia would be locked from the inside without air within ten minutes. You call it a banquet; I call it a trap that nearly succeeded because of your incompetence in supervising the waitstaff."

"My incompetence?" Kael’s face flushed with suppressed rage. "We have guarded this palace with our lives for hundreds of years! We follow the ancient laws—"

"Laws written by people who forgot how to recharge a battery?" Ethan smirked thinly, stepping closer until their chests nearly touched. "You use that sword as if it were a magic wand, when it’s nothing more than an unstable plasma emission. You lead troops as if this were an honorary parade, when it is an asymmetric battlefield. You’re afraid of me, Kael. And you have a very good reason to be."

Lyra, who had been sitting in the corner trying to repair her data tablet, finally spoke up. "Enough! Kael, Ethan is right about the nanites. I just verified the atmospheric signatures through the sub-level sensor network. The particles are decaying. Ethan saved us all back there. Why are you being so stubborn?"

"Because he isn't what we imagined, Lyra!" Kael shouted, pointing at Ethan. "The Elders said he was a Deva, a light-bringer, a great ancestor. But look at him! He fights like a monster. He breaks necks with a precision only a trained assassin possesses. He isn't a religious symbol; he’s a remnant of a bloody war from a past we don't even dare remember."

"Finally, someone who sees the truth," Ethan commented coldly. He began to unfasten his gloves. "Let’s test that theory, Commander. You say I’m a monster? You think you’re a formidable guardian? Let’s spar. No weapons. No armor. Just the two of us in the center of this room."

Kael narrowed his eyes, weighing the challenge. "I was the hand-to-hand combat champion at the Vanguard academy for seven consecutive years. I outweigh you by ten kilograms, and I’m thousands of years younger. Are you sure you want to do this in front of Lyra?"

"Lyra needs to see how your current civilization collides with reality," Ethan took a stance in the middle of the dark obsidian floor. He removed his outer garment, leaving a tight gray shirt that revealed his lean but dense muscles. "Come at me, Kael. Show me what Caledonian warriors have learned in the last five thousand years."

Kael wasted no time. With a short shout, he lunged forward, launching a powerful right cross toward Ethan’s jaw. It was a punch that should have been able to knock down a pack animal.

Ethan didn't retreat. He shifted only a few inches to the side, letting Kael’s fist pass just a millimeter from his skin. In the same motion, Ethan’s hand slid down, tapping the ulnar nerve in Kael’s elbow.

"Ah!" Kael winced, his arm instantly going numb and limp. He tried to spin for a low kick, but Ethan was no longer there.

"Too much unnecessary movement," Ethan criticized. His voice was flat, his breathing unchanged. "You shout before attacking, telling your enemy when to prepare. Your body's gravity leans too far forward. If I were holding a knife right now, your guts would be on the floor."

"Shut up!" Kael spun with a vicious knee strike, trying to corner Ethan against the wall.

Ethan caught the knee with his palm, using Kael’s own momentum to spin the Commander around and shove him until he sprawled onto the training mat.

"Again," Ethan challenged.

Kael rose with mounting fury. He attacked again and again—a series of combination punches, elbows, and lightning-fast leg sweeps. But every attack was neutralized with light touches that brought him down repeatedly. Ethan seemed to dance, evading with a deadly minimalism.

"Why... why can't I touch you?" Kael terengah-engah, sweat pouring from his forehead while Ethan hadn't even broken a sweat.

"Because you fight using muscle, while I fight using geometry," Ethan explained, standing casually. "You see me as an opponent; I see you as a collection of levers and unbalanced centers of mass. Caledonia has forgotten the essence of close-quarters combat. You are used to fighting enemies who fear the symbol of your armor, not your skill."

Kael tried one last lunge, attempting a tackle at Ethan’s waist. Ethan easily pressed a pressure point at the base of Kael’s neck, causing the Commander’s entire body to suddenly go limp and collapse before him.

Ethan leaned down, looking into Kael’s eyes, which were filled with confusion and disappointment. "You didn't fail because you are weak, Kael. You failed because you weren't skeptical of your own trainers. Now, get up. We have things more important than ego."

Kael rose slowly, rubbing his neck. His skepticism had now turned into a dark curiosity. "If you can do that to me, why did you let yourself be taken at the excavation site? Why did you surrender to Caledonia in the first place?"

"Because I wanted to know who held the keys to my ruined home," Ethan walked back toward the control panel. "And now I know. This house isn't just a mess, Kael. The foundation is cracked. Come here. Look at this."

Lyra approached as the large screen displayed the energy blueprint of the city of Caledonia in the form of a 3D topographic map glowing red in several spots.

"This is the ion energy shield you’ve all been boasting about as 'Divine Protection'," Ethan pointed to a thin line around the city's orbit. "Look at the energy pulse. It flickers every sixteen seconds. Did you notice it?"

Kael frowned. "The shield is stable according to the Priests' technical reports."

"Your Priests can't tell the difference between stable oscillation and thermal failure," Ethan typed a command code, zooming in on one of the red dots. "This is the western generator. It’s spewing raw plasma into the upper atmosphere. You’re wasting 40% of your power just to heat the air above the city. In six hours, this load will cause a cascade failure. Your shields will automatically shut down to prevent a reactor explosion."

"What do you mean?" Kael asked, his eyes widening as he saw the simulated projection of the system failure. "The city will be... unprotected?"

"Totally. For forty minutes until the reactor is manually cooled," Ethan crossed his arms. "And do you know who is waiting for those forty minutes? The Black Nebula. They didn't attack the banquet to kill Valerius—that was just a distraction. They attacked to plant a data virus into the reactor protocols during the chaos. I saw them uploading something earlier, right before that flashbang went off."

"So our shields won't fall naturally," Lyra interrupted, her face pale. "The Nebula will bring them down."

"Correct," Ethan nodded. "They will enter with their fleet unopposed, loot the ancient DNA reserves Valerius has collected, and leave Caledonia to burn when the reactor finally explodes. Your skeptical guarding means nothing when the reactor beneath your feet has already turned into a time bomb."

Kael stared at the map for a long time. His world, his devotion, everything felt like it was crumbling as he looked at the cold data before his eyes. He stared at his own palm, which had been numb from Ethan’s touch earlier.

"Why are you telling us?" Kael asked, his voice now calm, devoid of arrogant emotion. "You could have used that opportunity to escape amidst the explosion."

"Where would I go? Off-planet?" Ethan looked out the bunker window toward the night sky filled with factory smoke. "I don't need an escape. I need allies. And I need soldiers who know how to shoot straight, not soldiers who expect miracles from ancient statues."

Kael looked at Lyra, then back at Ethan. He picked up his now-extinguished vibro-sword, but he didn't slide it back into his belt. Instead, he flipped the sword and held it with the hilt facing Ethan—an ancient military sign of respect that even Kael himself didn't know the origin of.

"Earlier, you asked about my country," Kael said in a heavy tone. "You asked who won that ancient war. I don't have the answer, Deva. But I know one thing: I trust a man who can take me down with two fingers more than a man who promises salvation inside a temple."

"I am no Deva to you," Ethan reminded him, his eyes shining with the intensity of steel.

"No. To my troops, you will remain a Deva so they stay obedient," Kael answered shrewdly. "But to me? You are the Commander. Teach me how to close the gap in that shield."

Ethan gave a slight nod. "First, throw away that obsolete sword. I’ll show you how to modify Caledonian plasma rifles so they don't jam when you actually need them."

"What's the plan, Ethan?" Lyra asked, beginning to type the coordinate data Ethan had requested earlier. "We have less than twelve hours before the reactor reaches critical mass."

"The plan is this," Ethan turned to the screen, his fingers pointing toward the deepest sub-level structure outside the palace's official maps. "You call this the 'Valley of Untouchable Spirits.' On my map, this is Strategic Armory Depot Delta. We’re going to infiltrate it, retrieve the pure ammunition reserves, and intercept the Black Nebula before they even touch the city's atmosphere."

"Us? Just the three of us?" Kael raised an eyebrow.

"I need your elite unit, Kael. Those you trust to see the truth," Ethan said. "Because tonight, Caledonia doesn't need prayers. It needs soldiers."

Kael took a deep breath, squaring his shoulders. His skepticism hadn't fully vanished, but it had now transformed into something more dangerous to their enemies: a sharp awareness.

"My Alpha Team will be ready for action in an hour," Kael said. He gave a secret military salute, striking his fist against his left chest with a loud thud. "Lead the way, Commander."

Ethan looked at both of them, feeling a small remnant of his old life beating once again. For the first time since he woke from cryo-sleep, his goal was no longer just survival.

He was beginning to build a legion.

"Database access closed. Combat preparations initiated," gumam Ethan as the lights inside the bunker dimmed, leaving only the pale blue glow of the reactor system beginning to hum softly.

Outside, the shadows of the nebula began to move toward Caledonia. But inside the darkness of the palace, a light from the past had found the sharpest blade it could rely on.