by Isaac Hooke
“I don’t know,” Rade said. “I suppose my beliefs are similar to yours. That the beyond is nothing like we can imagine. How can it be, when the brains doing the imagining are flesh and blood? I still think there has to be something there, otherwise what’s the point? We’re just random points of life that crop up, exist for a little while, and then cease to exist? For what purpose?” He paused. “I once met an alien race, who called themselves the Mahasattva, that believed the reality we perceived around us was an illusion made of quantum bundles and spin states, and that life was the universe’s way of interacting with itself, and thereby recognizing its own existence. Without us, the universe wouldn’t even know it existed. That’s probably the closest to what I believe.”
“There is some truth to that believe,” the alien agreed. “Reality is an illusion, a construct formed by the brain of the observer. Take hot and cold. These are how the brain interprets the differences between molecules that are moving fast, and imparting energy or vibrations to slower moving molecules, and those that are moving more slowly, and taking energy from the faster vibrating molecules. Similarly, the brain interprets the compressive and expansive movements of molecules in the atmosphere around us as sound. Sight is how the brain registers electromagnetic energy, mostly produced by the nuclear reactions in the sun, as it bounces off the different molecules around us.”
“Yes,” Rade said. “And the lenses found in the human eye actually project that electromagnetic energy upside-down on the retina, but our brains flip it right-side up again, only reinforcing the notion that reality is a brain constructed illusion. If we humans wear special glasses that flip the image before it hits our retinas, so that the electromagnetic energy hits right-side up, for two days the world will appear upside-down to us. But then on the third day, when we wake up, magically the world will appear right-side up again. Until we take the glasses off, and the process has to reverse itself.”
“Our minds are wonderful organizers of reality,” Waldo agreed. “It is a great illusion they present us with. Very convincing. I can almost believe I am alive.”
Rade chuckled. “Yeah. For an alien, you have quite the acerbic wit. Anyway, how did we get sidetracked?”
“I don’t know,” Waldo said. “But I do enjoy debating philosophy, especially with alien races. After all, while I may be a general, I’m also a scholar.”
“Like most great generals,” Rade quipped.
“I should have liked to meet you under better circumstances,” Waldo said. “Our two races, meeting in peace, rather than war. Alas, the universe had different designs for us. Made us both victims to a damaged AI.”
“Yeah, malfunctioning AIs have caused more than a few problems for humanity in the past as well,” Rade said.
Rade heard the clang of heavy feet. Pyro was coming down the ramp, inside his mech.
“Well, it’s time for me to say goodbye to my brother,” Rade said. “I was hoping to delay this moment for as long as possible, but now it’s finally come.”
“As you always knew it would,” the alien said. “You could not be with your men forever.”
“No, I suppose not,” Rade said.
He left the alien to greet Pyro as the mech reached the floor.
“Farewell, Brother,” Rade said, clasping the arm of Pyro’s Falcon with his own. “I’m sorry to see you go.”
“It’s for the best,” Pyro said. “I’ll miss you and the others. I hope to see you again, one day.”
“I hope so, too,” Rade said. “If we ever depart, I’ll try to leave behind some kind of recording, to let you know where we’ve gone. Either that, or I’ll leave a message with Waldo.”
“Sounds good,” Pyro said. “Well, then, I guess I should take my leave. Before this gets too hard.”
Rade released Pyro. “I’ll escort you.”
Rade went with him, following as Pyro descended the ramps and crossed the floors of the next levels. They moved in silence: there wasn’t much more to say between them.
Finally, the pair reached the entrance to the building, and they paused to clasp metal arms one more time.
Then they released their holds, and Pyro went on his way. They didn’t dare exchange words. Rade certainly didn’t think he could manage it, not with the way he was blinking constantly like that.
It was the end of an era.
Rade watched Pyro depart only for a few moments, then he turned away. He crossed the vault of the bottom floor, and clambered up the ramp to the next level.
He continued on his way toward the rooftop. When he reached the level with the glass tubes, he caught Waldo doing something he had never seen before.
The alien was peering through a portal of some kind. The edges were ghostly, insubstantial, but the central region was far clearer. Even so, the revealed image was slightly glossy, as if viewed through a thin layer of glass that floated in the air.
Waldo was watching some sort of attack against a city. The assailants were dark, spindly things: the buildings they ravaged looked almost like they belonged to a human colony. One of the attackers passed close to the portal opening, and Rade recognized the characteristic plates and long tail of a Slicer—these were Subversions. As he continued to watch, he realized it was a human colony: the design of those buildings, and the dome that enveloped them, was definitely Sino Korean.
Waldo glanced over its shoulder, noticing his presence, and the portal instantly shut, leaving behind only the curving far wall of the room.
Rade stepped forward angrily. “What was that?”
Via a nearby glass tube, Valjean signed the question, and then translated the response.
“We were talking earlier about wars that were started by malfunctioning AIs?” Waldo said. “It seems the universe has decided to play a practical joke upon me, because an AI malfunction has caused you to see something you were not meant to see. It did not warn me of your approach… I thought you were escorting your friend through the streets below.”
“Yes, and I caught you,” Rade said. “You have a way to remotely view the attack your kind is making against humanity? Show me.”
The alien didn’t reply.
“It’s more than just a remote viewer, isn’t it?” Rade said. “You lied. You have a way back. That’s some kind of on-the-fly Slipstream, isn’t it? You had a way for us to return all this time, and you kept it from us!”
Rade swiveled his 5-way and stingray into his arms.
20
Rade waited for the alien to respond. Rotating those weapons into place was a pointless threat of course. The alien knew he wouldn’t fire. Not when it could simply regurgitate the attack and spit it right back at him.
Then again, he’d never actually fired at an alien belonging to this particular cast. Waldo wasn’t a Subversion. Perhaps he would not be able to absorb a plasma or lightning blow. If so, then Rade definitely wasn’t going to fire: he needed the alien alive to bring him back.
Reluctantly, he swiveled the weapons away.
“It was experimental… something I was working on before I was drafted for the war,” Waldo finally said. “For the first time, individuals could be transported without the need of a ship. I took up my work again when I returned… the Slipstream was to be my gift to you. A side project that had no guarantee of success. The biggest problem was supplying enough energy to make it big enough. I wasn’t sure I could do it, and didn’t want to get your hopes up.”
“It looks like you did it,” Rade said.
“Yes,” the alien said.
“And yet you didn’t tell us,” Rade said.
“I was still fine-tuning it,” Waldo said.
“Really…” Rade said. “And how long exactly have you been fine tuning it? Looks to me like you’ve been using it for a while already.”
“I haven’t yet tried sending anything through,” the alien admitted. “I have been using it solely as a monitoring device… watching the war between the Subversions and humanity: I’ve been trying to decide whe
n and if I should intervene. I thought your people would win on their own at first… your space navy kept the rogue starship on the defensive, while your ground troops used a spray foam that quickly hardened, encasing the invading Subversion army in rock. But then the rogue fought back, using some strategies that surprised even me, forcing your navy to retreat. The starship returned to the colony and simply unleashed more Subversions to make up for the stock that were lost to the foam: the AI has improved the breeding facilities, and is creating new Subversions faster than humanity can cope. Also, the Subversions have adapted, learning to disperse the instant the foam is detected, and they’ve become very hard to snag. Some of those that were formerly encased have begun breaking free as well.”
Rade shook his head. “My people are losing colonies and worlds as we speak. You had a way to send us back, and you didn’t!”
“My people are inherently social,” Waldo said. “Or they were, at least. As I told you, family units involved four mates. I was… afraid… of being alone. I’m sorry. I planned to keep you here only until my clones were old enough to provide company for me, and until then, a fruitful exchange of knowledge would have occurred between our races. I realize now that keeping you here was a mistake. It was selfish of me. I should have offered you the chance to return as soon as I had created the portal. I should have understood that you would want to fight for your people, even if six of you wouldn’t make much of a difference in the overall scheme of things.”
“No, six of us wouldn’t,” Rade said. “But we’d still want to fight, you’re right about that.”
“I will send you through the portal,” Waldo said. “I will return you to your colony.”
“Thank you,” Rade said.
Waldo considered for a moment. “Perhaps, to make up for my previous lapse in judgement, I could give you weapons that will harm the Subversions, and armor that would offer a degree of protection against their claws. You would have to destroy the main AI running the ship, too, off course, for any attack plan to be effective.”
“You will do this for us?” Rade said.
“As I told you, I have been monitoring the attack against humanity, and deciding whether or not to intervene,” Waldo said. “After talking with you I have decided that yes, I will intervene. This is partly my fault. So, I will make this right. Your platoon will be my warriors.”
“How soon can we leave?” Rade pressed.
“I have some further experiments to run to confirm that the Slipstream is stable enough,” Waldo said. “But if all goes as planned, two to three of your hours.”
Rade was running across the path the mechs had trampled through the undergrowth outside the building. He spotted his target ahead.
Pyro entered comm range.
“Pyro, stop!” Rade sent.
The Falcon mech turned around.
Rade closed the distance, and joined his friend.
“What?” Pyro asked.
Rade paused a moment to catch his breath. He had been running at his top speed, when he probably should have let the mech do the work. Well, it was good exercise. Back when he was still a MOTH in training, he had run everywhere he went. A jog like this would have never winded him.
Getting out of shape.
Then again, he reminded himself that the gravity was a lot more than Earth’s, and even if the inner actuators of the cockpit helped him out, he still had to fight his own body weight.
“Chief?” Pyro said.
“You can’t leave,” Rade told him.
“I’ve already made up my mind,” Pyro said.
“You don’t understand.” Rade grabbed the upper arms of Pyro’s Falcon. “We’re going home.”
Rade and the others stood behind Waldo. They watched a small, spherical alien probe pass through the thin, glassy surface that seemed to cover the view of the Sino Korean colony on the other side. The probe’s front section dissolved when it touched the atmosphere beyond, but its momentum carried it forward so that the entire object had vanished a moment later. It didn’t appear on the other side.
“Where did it go?” Bender asked.
“Spaghettified,” Waldo replied through Valjean. “Its atoms stretched into a line so thin, it was too small to be visible with the naked eye.”
“So, it’s not working yet…” Bender said dryly.
“Good observation,” Waldo said. He glanced at Rade as he conjured the next set of tube sparkles for Valjean to translate. “This Bender unit of yours certainly has a keen intellect.”
“Smart ass,” Bender commented.
“Earlier I mentioned I had yet to send an object through,” Waldo continued. “I was hesitant to do so, because of a certain part I had used, whose power output was slightly in flux. I had hoped the fluctuations would not matter, but it’s clear that they do. It relies upon a particular element that exists only in nature. This element, when exposed to our atmosphere, slowly decays with time, causing the fluctuations I am seeing. So, in order for this part to work, you’re going to have to collect this element for me. Rest assured, it’s already been harvested… you need only retrieve the containers that store it.”
“And where can we find these containers?” Rade said.
“There is a machine depot ten kilometers to the north of here,” Waldo said. “It exists in a cave underground. I’ve sent probes to explore it, and have confirmed it contains the element I need. However, a particularly nasty denizen of my former world has taken up residence within.”
“A nasty denizen?” Rade said. “I thought you said all the fauna died on this world in the aftermath of the Craldon attack.”
“On the surface, yes,” Waldo agreed. “But some beings survived by burrowing underground. Or taking shelter in existing underground compounds, such as the depot.”
“Can you give us weapons to help us defeat this ‘nasty denizen?’” Rade pressed. “You already promised to give us gear to fight the Subversions…”
“Your existing armaments are all you will need,” Waldo said. “The Teppakhan and its minions are vulnerable to conventional attacks. The weapons I am developing to help you fight against the Subversions will grant you no advantage here.”
“The Tepin-Can?” Bender said. “The alien named the hideous cave dweller after your wife, Cyclone. Somehow seems appropriate.”
“Har, har,” Tahoe said.
“So, when we get there, what does this container we need to fetch actually look like?” Rade said.
“A large tool-box, something that only one of your mechs can carry,” Waldo said. “The surface is marked with this symbol.” The glimmers in the glass tube formed the rough shape of a hand with one finger extended.
“So, someone flipping the bird,” Bender said. “Easy enough.”
“It will be obvious when you see it,” Waldo said. “The coloration is designed to attract attention… it will stand out from all the other devices in the depot.”
“And whereabout will we find it, in this so-called depot?” Rade said.
“The Teppakhan has lined its nest with the different gadgets contained therein,” Waldo said. “I last spotted it close to the entrance, among the first few rows of material. When you emerge from the tunnel leading to the cave, you should see it immediately.”
“All right,” Rade said. “Looks like we’re going Teppakhan hunting.”
Rade and the others trekked through the wilderness outside the city. Rade was in his mech, as were Pyro and Bender, with the others in the passenger seats.
Waldo had given the relative coordinates of the machine depot to Valjean, who had in turn marked it on the overhead map: it was located in the black, unexplored regions to the north. Those dark regions filled out as the team advanced, replaced instead with the unremarkable green of the surrounding undergrowth. The foliage reached to the shoulders of their mechs, filling the landscape from horizon to horizon.
Since this was new terrain, there was no trampled trail for them to follow, and Bender led the way, while the ot
hers followed in single file. The environmental blending on the mechs of Bender and Pyro allowed them to match their surroundings; not that it mattered for Bender, given that he was visibly crushing the undergrowth in his path. They still showed up on Rade’s HUD silhouetted in blue, thanks to the comm nodes. As for Rade’s mech, he still had unrepairable skin damage, so he didn’t blend with the surrounding foliage at all.
Rade and the others kept an eye on those shrubs, leery of potential ambushes. Even if they had never encountered Subversions since that first day, it was still possible some remained behind, or that other creatures lurked here. If the Teppakhan had survived, it stood to reason that other aliens still existed. And they’d be very hungry.
Well, not that Rade and the others would be biologically compatible. The mechs would give them a bit of an upset stomach, too.
“Always feels like we’re walking through a thick hedge or something,” Bender commented. “This place is so… monotone. Really needs some trees or something.”
“Larger plants were killed off by the Craldon devastation bomb,” Tahoe said.
“Oh really?” Bender said. “And since when have you become Waldo’s mouthpiece? You really believe everything that alien says? I bet it’s leading us into a trap. It doesn’t need no element. It could send us back right now.”
“I’m not sure whether I believe it or not, either,” Chow said. “But I admit, the fact that the alien has kept us alive this long is a good sign. But if it’s true that once we retrieve this container, the alien can send us back, then tell me, what’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get back?”
“Me?” Bender replied. “First, I’m going to take a long, hot shower. Then I’m going to eat a nice big steak, with a side of potatoes. None of this liquid meal MRE crap. And then, I’m going to head down to the local whorehouse, and hire all the available fembots and have my way with them.”