by Jeremy Szal
‘You’ll do no such thing.’ Sokolav stood in the entrance, hands held behind his back as every eye turned towards him. ‘I want a word with our prisoner.’
‘You can talk all you like,’ the Jackal said. ‘But not until I’m done with him.’
‘Perhaps you didn’t understand me. I’m speaking with him now.’ I’ve never heard my former Commander raise his voice in anger. Because when he adopted that steely, authoritative tone, you knew you were going up against more than you could chew. The Jackal’s features smoothed over into that smiling, charismatic expression of his. But I knew he’d use our history together somehow, either with me or Sokolav. He departed and his group went out with him.
Sokolav reached out to unclasp the dog collar from around my neck. He dragged out a metal chair for me, before retrieving one of his own. I remained standing. Whatever shreds were left of the man I’d once looked up to, I wanted no sympathy from him.
‘You always did get yourself into trouble, my boy,’ Sokolav said with a slow shake of his head. ‘I didn’t believe it when they first said it was you. Didn’t think you’d ever work for Harmony again.’
‘I guess everyone changes, given enough time.’ He’d been a beacon of light, guiding us through the nightmare storm that was churning through our bodies. His cool hand on my shoulder when I was thrashing in my restraints, fighting against the introduction of stormtech to my body. His breath on my neck as he told me I didn’t deserve to give up. Someone like me had to pull through. ‘And now you’re working for these psychotic pricks.’
‘You don’t understand—’ Sokolav started.
‘Don’t you dare,’ I hissed. ‘You don’t know me. You don’t know my brother.’
‘I doubt that, Vakov. You see, I’m the one who recruited Artyom.’
‘What?’ I croaked out.
‘Vakov, I think you’re the one who doesn’t know your brother,’ said Sokolav. ‘The day he realised you were going to fight Harvest and he was not … it changed him. You knew you were leaving him alone with your father while you escaped. You knew you were breaking your promise and throwing away everything you had together. That betrayal kick-started something in him.’
Sokolav had been one of the few people to know what had gone on at home. ‘Don’t you dare pretend to understand.’ I wanted him to hate me, hurt me, give me an excuse to fight back.
‘I’ve never pretended with you, son,’ said Sokolav gently. He wore a quiet, sombre expression, like he was watching long-lost events play out in the distance, beyond his control. ‘I found your brother miserable, depressed and despising Harmony for stealing you away. He thought you were going to die far away on some bombed-out planet, fighting a hopeless war. The poor soul didn’t know how to carry on. He was looking for something that’d take him from here and give him a fresh start. The House of Suns was the answer to that.’
‘A bunch of extremist nutjobs, trying to drown Compass in addiction.’
‘No, Vakov.’ Sokolav was not letting me provoke him. There was that same tiredness in his grey eyes, as if he needed a deep, long sleep. ‘You remember my injury at the Battle of Korag, yes? The one that got me sent home with a pat on the back? Lying bed-ridden while newsfeeds spoke about valour and fighting for a cause, I realised that Harmony doesn’t deserve to govern our galaxy. Jae Myouk-soon helped me understand the potential of stormtech. Why should Harmony decide who’s permitted to use it? Who gives them the right of ownership? The most genetically advanced specimen discovered in human history, and their scientists treat it like a common disease, exploiting it when convenient and banning it when they dislike the results. Their ideas are old-fashioned, out-dated.’
I remembered eighteen-year-old me, sitting on the hard metal chairs in the cold recruitment hall with Artyom. His face still carried bruises from the previous night when our father thought he’d come home too late. I could defend myself. He could not. Posters showcasing Reapers in battle armour and live feeds of Harmony victories were hung up around us. We were both scared and uncertain, and we didn’t know if this would be the biggest mistake of our lives.
‘Promise me we’re doing the right thing, Vak,’ Artyom begged me, his hands shaking as they gripped mine. I’d told him we were. I knew we had to be here because if we were sent home, I’d kill my father eventually. Sokolav had seen two dark-haired brothers sitting together and guided us through the procedure, had us tested under his supervision, ensuring we had the benefits that came from being from an underprivileged and troubled household. He’d become the father I never had.
‘The best organisms adapt, Vakov. As I did.’ He indicated to the stormtech curling up my throat. ‘We respect the stormtech in a way Harmony never has. They leaked it onto the market, not understanding the chaos they’d cause, or the good it can be used for.’
‘Good?’ I yelled. ‘There are hundreds of thousands of addicts willing to kill their own families just for a sliver of this stuff. There are children who are being kidnapped by stormdealers, shot up with stormtech and forced to work the streets as foot soldiers. Turf wars that are tearing up neighbourhoods. Whole floors filled with skinnies turned into empty husks, hurting themselves just to feel something. It started a damn war.’
‘It’s one thing to make a mistake. It’s another entirely to continue making them when you know they can be avoided. That’s what we’re doing. And you know as well as I do that Harmony will continue making mistakes. Which is why we’ve been planting those deaths on them, helping people see them for who they really are. Do you really think Kindosh cared about stormtech being on the markets until the media pointed out it was her own that were turning up dead? The people won’t tolerate their insolence any longer. Once the public discover the potential we’ve reached with stormtech, the things Harmony never dreamed of, they will listen.’
My old instructor had died in the war. Jae Myouk-soon had simply dug up the bones and twisted them into a pathetic imitation. ‘You were supposed to be there for all of us,’ I rasped. ‘You were supposed to be better than this.’
‘I’m sorry, son. You were one of my favourites. I wish you hadn’t put yourself in this situation.’ His eyes dissected me as a flicker of sombre determination flitted through them. ‘But what’s done is done. I’ve chosen my path. You’ve chosen yours. What happens to you next is out of my hands.’
As if on cue, the rusted doors cranked open to reveal the Jackal, surrounded by his usual entourage. ‘Time’s up, old man. We’re taking him now.’
Sokolav didn’t even look me in the eye as they came forward and grabbed me. ‘Come, dog.’ Every cell in my body ignited with equal parts misery and rage as the Jackal tugged me forward on my muzzle chain. The rail above me rattled, the chain following me as I was dragged out of the metal box and into the steel throat of a corridor flanked by my captors. Artyom attempted to edge away but the Jackal wasn’t having it. ‘Not you, Artyom. You come along. You watch.’
‘I don’t think that’s necessary—’ Artyom began.
‘But I do,’ the Jackal insisted with a smile. ‘It’s only fair, given you helped capture our prize.’
So Artyom trailed behind as I was dragged in full sight of the cultists. Feeling hundreds of eyes drilling into me as I waddled forward in the Jackal’s humiliation ritual. I rolled my burning shoulders, the harness straps groaning and digging into me. Without the tight confines of my armour, my flesh prickled and shuddered. The itchy fabric of the prisoner’s suit chafing against me. My hairs all standing on end, my back prickling with sweat, my body flushed with sticky heat, breath sawing like razorwire up and down my throat. I felt exposed. Vulnerable and filled with dread. I’d spend whatever was left of my life in utter misery, being tortured in captivity.
I’d expected to be tied up in some kind of holding cell. Instead, I was dragged into an office filled with a smoky yellow light. Dark, heavy armchairs and tables decorated the room. The walls
were skinned in a forlorn shade of brown, smeared with event-monitoring systems. Tiny, clicking mechanisms perched atop a row of bookcases. Heavy drapes were drawn back from the viewport that peered out into the sweeping asteroid field. Jae Myouk-soon sat behind an antique wooden desk. The woman who had taken my brother from me. She was reading an old manuscript and casually folded it away to inspect me. I took in the pronounced Korean cheekbones, intelligent eyes, dark hair swept up in a perfect bun. Her small frame was almost swallowed up by the highbacked leather chair. If she’d been standing, she’d only have come up to my chest. Her cream blouse, shawl, and pencil skirt looked bizarre in contrast to the scuffed armour worn by the men who’d dragged me here. Sitting above her on a backlit podium was the same black, serrated helmet I’d seen her wearing in the photo.
I was roughly shoved to my knees, still hunched forward. The metallic scrape of the chain being locked in place high above me. Cables were unspooled from the corners of the room and latched to the back of my harness to cement me in place. I couldn’t move an inch.
‘Good.’ She dismissed my escort with a flick of her fingers. Artyom moved to follow, but she called him back. ‘I’m told you captured your brother. It’s only fair you remain to see the results.’
The Jackal hadn’t moved. ‘You promised me I’d get to spend time with him,’ he said in a low, cold voice.
‘I did. That was before you failed in the Pits. Failed tremendously.’
‘You owe me for—’
Jae cut him off. ‘You are owed nothing, Akira. Only what I choose to give.’
A crack shivered down the Jackal’s facade, exposing an animalistic outrage. At first, I’d believed it was embarrassment, rejection in front of others that was his sole weakness. Now, I saw it was also having his authority undermined. He was a quiet schemer from the shadows, manipulating until he had you under his control. Jae saw it, too. Tension strung between them over my restrained body. Eventually, the Jackal bowed his head, his mask back in place. A temporary retreat to fight another day, although he was no doubt imagining sawing my head off with a dull knife.
He departed and left the three of us alone.
‘I’d be lying if I said it’s not been amusing to watch you scurry around.’ Jae inspected me like I was the most bizarre of animals. I smelled her minty perfume as she leaned forward to tap the jaw of my muzzle. My restrained hands shook against my chest with the urge to wrap around her scrawny throat. ‘Amusing and annoying.’
‘Should have thought about that before you got my brother involved,’ I spat through my muzzle.
‘Don’t be so naive. Artyom joined us willingly, didn’t you?’
Artyom said nothing. He didn’t have to. ‘And what makes you people so sodding special? You’re just like any other group of violent nutjobs, spreading fear for power.’
‘We’re the only ones who see the truth, Fukasawa. Harmony’s a parasite. Holding us back in the dark ages when we could be so much more.’
‘Did you come about this dawning realisation while poisoning Harvest deserters?’
‘I came about this dawning realisation when your people destroyed my home.’ Jae’s face was expressionless as asteroid rock. ‘The Harmony warships swarmed the skies of my homeworld and turned everyone I loved and everyone I knew into meat and rubble. I wanted to know what could possibly be worth so much that entire civilisations would try to destroy each other for it.’
‘You think we wanted to go to war?’ I’d never have defended Harmony once, but I couldn’t stay silent at this insanity.
‘But a war was had regardless, wasn’t it?’ She laid her hand just under my collarbone. Her touch burned like dry ice but I was in no position to shake it off. ‘And then I found out what the stormtech was and what it could do.’
‘So you formed this little band of alien-worshipping freaks?’ I asked.
But Jae wouldn’t be provoked. ‘It seems your brother has all the brains in the family. You’re exactly what he said: a rabid dog on a leash.’ She traced the stormtech zigzagging from rib to rib. ‘You have never understood what a gift this is. How to embrace it.’
I stretched as far as my restraints allowed, trying to shrug her hand away. My knees were already aching and numb. ‘Is that what you’re doing, as you study and enhance it?’ I nodded towards the stacks of leather-bound tomes and readouts, glowing with statistics pertaining to the Shenoi. Maybe I’d die here. But I wasn’t going to go down without knowing why the cult was doing this.
‘We’re embracing what’s natural, Vakov. The stormtech heals, enhances and boosts those who are worthy. It sharpens the dullest of minds, nurses crippled limbs back to life, eats diseases out of the human body. It’s a gift. Harmony wants to take it for themselves, use it for their own gain. Instead, we’re giving it to the world.’
‘You want to infect everyone,’ I breathed. It had never just been about discrediting Harmony. It was a complete and utter rejection of their rule. They wanted to spread stormtech to as many people as possible, while dialling up the distrust of Harmony and any rehabilitation or suppressors they offered.
‘We want to advance humanity,’ Jae corrected with a vaunted air, her small, fox-like face wrapped with the room’s golden glow. ‘Why do you think the Kaiji are so much more advanced than we are? Because they’re adapting, interacting, exploring, while we’re here, rotting.’ She gestured to a flexiscreen, winking with orbital data from local galactic regions and celestial bodies. ‘We could conquer the galaxy if we embraced stormtech. Our gift could put humanity light years ahead of every civilisation, every species. Imagine what we could build, the problems we could erase. We’ve pushed its capacity beyond what Harmony could even dream of.’
‘At the cost of murdering thousands of people,’ I growled, ‘and potentially murdering millions more.’
‘The powerful survive, Fukasawa. As you and your kind have already proved. And power is nothing unless it is used. Tell me, did you enjoy being so drugged out of your little mind you didn’t feel a thing as you mowed my people down?’ She glanced back at a rotating hologram of Compass. ‘No matter. Transhumanism is the only solution. Tens of thousands are already enhanced, their bodies upgraded to their full potential. Why should we hide from it? Harmony is afraid of the inevitable. The House of Suns is not.’
I saw the glaring light of conviction – of madness – in her eyes. She actually believed her cult could control and contain the DNA of a galaxy-consuming race of aliens. That the stormtech was just another kind of wetware upgrade that body-modifiers and cyberneticists played around with.
Artyom continued to watch impassively by her side. Nothing I said would convince him to help me now. I was on my own.
‘Harmony’s made mistakes, but you can’t blame them for holding the stormtech back from the public,’ I managed through gritted teeth, streams of sweat sliding down muscles that felt as tight as bridge cables. I nodded to the blue ribbons dripping down my legs. ‘They didn’t mean to create a drug market.’
Jae shrugged. ‘Does intent matter if the end result is the same?’
‘They’ve never stopped trying to repair the damage!’
‘Apologies don’t matter. The way Harmony feels now doesn’t matter. They’ve made their move. Now we make ours.’
I twitched in my restraining harness. ‘What?’
‘You didn’t think those deaths were for nothing, did you? Give us some credit. The stormtech we’ve been distributing on the market contains a virus, sending the user’s body into overload. You’ve seen as much. Those few terrorist attacks and random killings so far will be nothing in comparison to what a good chunk of Compass’ population will do once we activate our Surge virus. Remember when you were on the battlefield, eager to tear Harvest soldiers limb from limb? That’ll happen with every fifth stormtech user.’
She scraped back the sweaty strands of my hair that had plastered to my
forehead with ice-cold fingers. Her nose wrinkled as she inhaled deeply. As if she liked the sickly-sweet smell of stormtech wafting out of me. ‘It’ll be mass hysteria. Harmony will be unable to do a thing.’ She reached into the pocket of her blouse and retrieved a hypodermic. ‘But we can. We’ve engineered a solution. We’ll shut down the Surge signal and users will emerge from the madness, enhanced by the stormtech. They’ll understand there’s a way to live moderately with it as a species. Following our example, they’ll embrace the stormtech – as we were always meant to. We’ll show them the way forward.’ She cupped my jaw with a surprisingly iron grip. ‘You helped so, so very much when you broke out of that xenomuseum. You and your brother make a fantastic team.’
There was a perfect crack as I headbutted her, hard.
Artyom startled. Jae recoiled, dabbing a hand to her forehead. ‘You’re going to pay for that, you arrogant little worm.’
This was exactly what the Kaiji had feared: the House of Suns were going to flood Compass with drugs out of some arrogant, screwed up sense of leadership. The sociopaths were doing the Shenoi’s work for them. Our asteroid would become another footnote on a long list of fallen civilisations and ravaged worlds across the galaxy. And I could do nothing except sit here and watch it happen. I’d failed my brother, I’d failed Kasia, and now I’d failed Kowalski, Grim and the people of Compass.
A sudden thought struck me, pieces clicking into place and presenting a picture. ‘You’re immune, aren’t you?’ I glanced up at her with a mad grin scattering across my face. ‘You’re like my brother. Your body rejects your beloved Shenoi DNA. You’re not just a zealot. You’re jealous. Jealous of something you can never have. Watching people like me be enhanced by it is driving you insane.’
Artyom stiffened. Jae’s face twitched, a crack running down her facade and hinting at the mad machinery powering her actions. I felt her control slip and swerve from her grasp before she promptly regained it. ‘I don’t need to partake in the stormtech to know its power. Or to show the world what I want them to see.’