by Isaac Hooke
From a large stalactite in the center of the room, Veil leaped down. Her black robe fanned out majestically around her until she struck the ground.
“I challenge you, one on one, to a duel,” Veil said. “Leave my men alone.”
“You actually care about your men?” Rhea side. “I find that hard to believe. I’ll accept, on one condition. When you say one on one, you have to mean it: I expect you to drop those spare robots you have connected to your body.”
Veil studied her for a moment, then sloughed her cloak entirely.
The cyborg’s arms and legs fell off, along with the lower half of her torso. Those parts sprouted limbs, and individual robots, humanoid in shape, stepped off to one side. They promptly ducked behind nearby stalagmites and out of the firing line of the Wardenites.
The smaller humanoid that Veil had been reduced to stood straight, and she spread her arms as if to indicate she wasn’t hiding anything. “Satisfied?”
Veil was about the same size as Rhea now. The cyborg looked identical to the smaller robots that had formerly composed her, save for the fully animated woman’s face glued onto her metal skull. And though that face was beautiful by itself, taken as a whole it was grotesque, and definitely unsettling.
Veil appeared unarmed, but Rhea knew her enemy was harboring a weapon somewhere.
“Don’t do it,” Will transmitted. “She’s lying. She’s not going to grant you anything close to a fair fight.”
If there’s a chance I can end this faster, I have to try, Rhea returned over a mental channel. Chop off the head of the snake… besides, if she betrays me, it’s open season, and you can fire at will. Shoot her in the back, even.
“Maybe I’ll do that anyway,” Will said.
No, Rhea transmitted. Wait until she betrays me.
Rhea approached, well aware of the pistols and rifles among the hidden Black Hands tracking her. Veil stepped forward, so that the two would meet at the middle.
When they were four meters apart, a blade jumped from Veil’s wrist. It was coated in plasma. Some kind of later variant of the X2-59. Longer. Deadlier.
She leaped at Rhea and attacked.
Veil moved so fast that all Rhea could do was defend at first.
Rhea backed away beneath that flurry of blows, parrying as fast as she was able. She couldn’t go on the offense. Didn’t have time. But even if there were openings for an attack, she was too far away from Veil, thanks to the length of that sword, for the edges of her Ban’Shar to even get close enough for a hit.
She brought both disks forward to deflect against the latest attack, and as the blow deflected, she pointed her index fingers forward. The disks transformed into blades, and she slammed her hands together, combining the plasma blades into a single, long sword that rivaled Veil’s.
The enemy cyborg stepped back. “Impressive.”
Veil came at her with renewed strength, the blows coming fast and furious. Rhea instinctively blocked them with sword forms she didn’t even know were in her repertoire, forms buried deep in her muscle memory.
Rhea parried one particularly powerful blow and then issued a rapid riposte, catching Veil off guard. The cyborg twisted, trying to avoid the blade, but the Ban’Shar partially cut into her side. Only a glancing blow, but Rhea had drawn “first blood.”
Veil slapped away Rhea’s weapon with her own and immediately stepped back. “You have some skill; I grant you that. Though I suppose that’s not surprising, considering what you were.” She paused, cocked her head, and added: “Do it.”
Rhea spotted motion at the periphery of her vision, above. At the same time, Veil thrust and Rhea was forced to parry. She sidestepped, backing away quickly from Veil. She separated her palms and squeezed them into fists, transforming the Ban’Shar back into disks as she raised them over her head.
Plasma fire shot down from above and she deflected it back toward the source. A lucky redirect on her part, because a moment later a humanoid form dropped to the cave floor. It was a cyborg of some kind, with a human face glued to a robot body, just like Veil. A plasma rifle lay abandoned beside it, and a gooey cavity carved into its torso was sizzling. It didn’t get up.
Will was right, it had been a trap. Deceived by her foe yet again.
How could I be so naive?
But she knew how. She still trusted people. She only had memories leading back a few months at this point, to her birth outside Rust Town. It was in her nature to be naive.
“I’m roasting her ass,” Will announced.
Plasma fire from the Wardenites came in and Veil ducked behind a stalagmite. Rhea dove behind another rock as the Black Hands also opened fire. She pressed her back against it and protected her sides with the Ban’Shar.
She heard a rolling sound and knew what was coming.
She flicked one of her Ban’Shar upward as one the robots that had once been part of Veil vaulted over the stalagmite that shielded Rhea. It tried to impale her with those finger spikes, but the ends disintegrated as they slammed into her protective disk, leaving behind molten tips.
The Wardenites took out the robot before it hit the ground.
Rhea had only just lowered her Ban’Shar to protect against the incoming fire when she heard that rolling sound yet again—from the overlapping timbres, multiple robots approached. The energy bolts from the Black Hands were keeping her well pinned, and she didn’t dare risk raising them to defend against the robots, not even for a moment.
She made a split-second decision to rush Veil in that moment.
She left her cover, surprising the three incoming robots before they could leap. She swung her Ban’Shar back and forth, deflecting the Black Hands’ bombardment, and weaved between the robots. They lifted their hands, trying to deploy those spikes, but she sliced through them in rapid succession with her Ban’Shar.
In moments she rounded the stalagmite where Veil was taking cover, but the cyborg was ready, and stabbed upward with the plasma-coated blade, sliding it between her Ban’Shar disks.
Rhea was forced to twist her body to avoid it; Veil altered her swing subtly and severed one of Rhea’s hands. The Ban’Shar on it deactivated immediately, leaving her with only one.
Rhea was forced to retreat as Veil pressed the attack. Rhea had to constantly shift the weapon to deflect the attacks from Black Hands, while dodging Veil’s blows. Veil zigzagged randomly as she moved, so that even though she was in the open, the Wardenites couldn’t hit her. Rhea copied that tactic, and it helped her evade the shots from the Black Hands.
She turned away from Veil and ran toward a group of Black Hands who were hiding behind a nearby stalagmite. She leaped over it, swinging her remaining Ban’Shar down to protect herself, and then when she landed, she transformed it into a blade and sliced through all four of them with a single swing.
Then she ducked behind the stalagmite as more fire came in, and transformed the sword back into a shield. She peered past, searching for Veil.
The cyborg had been forced to take cover behind another nearby stalagmite, thanks to the Wardenites.
Rhea was about to rush her again when she noticed a sharp stalactite hanging down directly above Veil. Without thinking, she curled her weapon arm back and then rapidly extended it outward, toward the upper part of the stalactite. Via the remote interface, at the same time she loosened the buckle that held the weapon to her hand, and the disk flew off.
The motion drew Veil’s gaze, and she glanced toward the weapon in shock, raising her sword to defend. But it wasn’t meant for her, of course: the plasma disk smashed into the stalactite, cutting right thought it. The large piece plunged directly toward Veil.
The cyborg vaulted out of the way.
Rhea had already leaped onto the floor to scoop up her own severed hand; she doffed the Ban’Shar knuckles and slipped them onto her good hand, activating the weapon as a blade. She moved faster than she ever had, causing smoke to billow from her strained servomotors, and raised the plasma sword in time to meet Veil
, who was only just landing after her leap to avoid the stalactite.
The enemy cyborg brought her gaze forward, but by then it was too late: Rhea’s blade was already plunging into Veil’s torso. Rhea lifted the sword at the same time, cutting a swathe through that body, damaging circuits and power supply lines throughout.
Veil slumped on the blade.
Rhea deactivated it and let Veil drop to the floor. She dragged her enemy behind the closest stalagmite.
She was forced to turn on the Ban’Shar in shield mode to protect herself when plasma fire came in from the side.
“Your master is dead,” Rhea shouted. “Run away now, and we might spare you.”
The shooting subsided on both sides. The Black Hands didn’t do anything for many seconds—Rhea was under the impression they were having some mental communication—and then they began to retreat beneath the still shining floodlights.
A Wardenite shot one of them in the back, but Rhea yelled: “Let them go!”
No one fired again.
Her eyes drifted to the broken stalactite. She didn’t know she could do that. Interesting.
She returned her attention to the unconscious Veil, and quickly removed the X2-59 equivalent the cyborg had strapped to her wrist and tossed it aside.
Veil’s eyes opened. Rhea started and prepared to deploy her Ban’Shar if necessary.
But Veil didn’t try to attack. Instead, the cyborg woman stared at her desperately.
“You’ve damaged my backup power cells,” Veil said. Her voice distorted, as if her vocal generators were close to failure. “I have only a few minutes to live without them. Quickly, hook me up to your power source.”
Rhea didn’t move.
“Quickly, you bitch!” Veil said.
Rhea merely blinked nonchalantly.
Her greatest enemy stared at her in astonishment. “You’re not going to help me…” Before Rhea could answer, she laughed. The distortion in her voice made it sound hideous. “Killing me won’t stop them from hunting you. The hit has already been ordered. I am just one bounty hunter. I have other hunters who work for me, true, but there are hundreds of independents out there.”
“Who ordered the hit on me?” Rhea said.
“Don’t you know?” Veil said. “Surely you must suspect.”
“I have my list,” Rhea agreed. “And it’s a short one.”
Veil smiled sickeningly. “The bounty on your head was posted by the leader of the free world. President of the United Settlements, and esteemed member of the Earth’s High Council. Khrusos.” She coughed, and a mixture of oil and blood spurted from her lips and oozed across her cheeks. “Give me your power supply, and I will help you.”
“Help me, how?” Rhea asked.
“Connect me to your power supply…” Veil insisted.
Rhea shook her head. “Not until you clarify.”
Veil hesitated. Then: “Proceed deeper into the cave. Within, you’ll find my gift to you. A little something you can use to repay Khrusos.”
“What?” Rhea asked.
Veil coughed again, spewing more oil and blood. Her sickening smile deepened, revealing teeth bloodstained with the effluence. “I’m not entirely sure… I’ve never been inside. No Earthling… has. But you…”
Veil’s mouth stopped moving and her eyes glazed over.
Rhea felt a moment of panic.
Not yet! I still have more questions!
She quickly opened up her own chest panel and removed the power transference cord. She plugged it into a corresponding port in Veil’s side. Nothing happened.
“Come on!” She slammed a fist into Veil’s lacerated chest. Still nothing.
Horatio came up behind her. “It’s too late.”
Rhea slouched in defeat. She knew Horatio was right. Still, for the disappointment she felt, she also experienced relief, sheer and utter. It was over now. Veil would never hunt her again. Unfortunately, there would be other hunters…
Rhea sat up straight and removed the power cord. She closed her chest panel and gazed at the cyborg. “I almost feel sorry for her.”
“This is what you wanted, isn’t it?” Will said, appearing on her other side.
“It is,” Rhea said. “But killing someone seems like such a crude solution to a problem.”
“In this case, it was the only solution,” Will stated.
“Was it?” Rhea asked. “It sounded like she was ready to reconcile there, at the end.”
Will snorted. “Yeah, right. As soon as you plugged her in, she would have cut off your head and dug out your power cells to take as her own.”
“Maybe,” Rhea said. “Still, I would’ve liked to have wrung a little bit more out of her.”
“She told you what you already suspected about Khrusos,” Will said.
Rhea exhaled at the name. Khrusos. The man who had set the bounty on her head. The President of the United Settlements. “Yes, she did. But I still don’t know why she called me ‘Dagger.’”
Will frowned. “Did she? I don’t remember that.”
“It was indirect” Rhea clarified. “She said she was soon going to be known as the ‘Defeater of the Dagger.’”
Will inclined his head. “Oh, yeah.”
She glanced at the others, who loomed behind him. “How are the men?”
“They’re all here,” Will answered. “Miles took a hit to the arm, but we’ve patched him up.”
She glanced at Miles and saw the white bandage he wore over his bicep. “You okay?”
He nodded. “Just a flesh wound.”
Rhea gazed toward the far side of the cavern, and the tunnel that awaited, leading away into the darkness.
“You’re not really considering proceeding deeper into the cave, are you?” Will asked. “We got what we came for…”
“Yeah, this ‘gift’ Veil left you is probably a bomb,” Brinks said. “Ticking away at this very moment. Wouldn’t surprise me if, in a couple of minutes, the entire cave system went boom.”
Rhea considered that. “No, I don’t think so.” She remembered Veil’s last words.
I’ve never been inside. No Earthling has.
No Earthling.
She stood. “We go deeper.”
18
Rhea collected the X2-59 equivalent, her severed hand, and the other Ban’Shar knuckle. She gave them to Will for safekeeping, who slid them into his backpack.
Rhea and the Wardenites didn’t encounter any Black Hands lurking immediately inside the next tunnel. The minions of Veil had slunk back to whatever dark holes they’d come from. Then again, perhaps the Black Hands were waiting to attack around the next bend.
Jairlin was in the lead with his group, as before. Rhea had authorized the use of their headlamps, as LIDAR was just as betraying, if not more so. Not that the lamps added much color to the scene: the walls were still a dark gray.
“So how far do you intend on exploring?” Brinks asked. “We could be in here for hours. And we risk another encounter with the Black Hands.”
“If we don’t find anything in the next hour, we turn back,” Rhea promised. Will was right: she had gotten what she had come for. And while Veil’s minions might be docile for the time being, hiding as they were somewhere deeper in the cave, they would no doubt fight back if cornered.
As she continued, she began to notice colors in the tunnel walls, courtesy of the headlamps of her companions.
She wanted to get a better look but, seeing as she didn’t wear a lamp of her own, she turned toward Will: “Point your headlamp at this wall, please.”
He complied, illuminating a wall whose layers of strata were different colors: there were reds, blues, purples…
“I’m detecting a more diverse quantity of metals in these walls,” Horatio said.
Rhea glanced at the robot. “Diverse?”
“Yes,” Horatio answered. The robot’s palm was resting on the rock. “Some of these metals have structures that are too refined to be natural.”
“What are you saying?” Miles asked. “Veil built reinforcements into the walls?”
“No,” Horatio said. “I believe some sort of vessel crashed here, and these caves formed in the aftermath.”
“That would have to be quiet a hefty impact,” Brinks said.
“Indeed,” Horatio commented. “My guess is the surrounding rock liquified into a magma sea upon impact. Air pockets would have formed the initial cave structures. Laser drills would have enlarged and expanded them during the years it operated as a precious gem mine.”
“So, you’re saying the refined metal you’re detecting in the wall is the wreckage of that ship?” Miles asked.
“Sort of,” Horatio said. “I wouldn’t call it a wreckage… most of the ship would have disintegrated upon impact, including any passengers. The particles would have spread throughout the molten rock, becoming encased in as it cooled. Forming what you see here.”
“Metal and bones,” Will said. “A few swirls in the wall of a cave. All that remains of whatever vessel crashed onto these plains.”
“The vessel was a starship,” Rhea said with absolute certainty.
They all looked at her.
Horatio nodded slowly. “That’s certainly possible. Though size doesn’t necessarily matter in impacts such as these. Speed however, definitely plays a factor.”
Will studied her. “How do you know it was a starship?”
She had a flashback then.
She stood on the dorsal hull of a massive starship. Streaks of orange flame cut through the air all along its edges, silhouetting the enormous vessel. She was wearing a jetpack. That familiar dome of pressurization surrounded her head and neck, providing her brain with the oxygen it needed.
There were others with her. Also wearing jetpacks, and with translucent domes around their heads. She couldn’t see their faces. Their bodies were tall and lithe, made of a shiny metal that reflected everything around it. Like Rhea, their heads and shoulders were covered in artificial skin and hair.
These others leaped off the hull one by one, jetting skyward, moving away from the starship.
Only her magnetized soles kept her secured to the surface. She deactivated the magnets and jumped at the same time, initiating her jetpack. She fought against the forces generated by the bow shock of reentry, emitting lateral thrust to counter them; she arose steadily, moving away from the hull, passing through a portion of the superheated plasma that enveloped the vessel.