Horseplay

by Cam Daly

  “Zess! I-“ In slow motion Kery watched the Tumorish spring at him, obeying new Craven masters who were paying to watch Broaalg die. The black wheel turned and spun, cutting opponents in half with claws and beams.

  “The Admiralty is checking it. How did you do it?”

  “I just did what Keryapt Zess wouldn’t do. Leave an enemy alive.”

  One of the Tumorish flopped out of the scrum holding a Craven leg stalk. They were dismembering him. She almost felt sorry for Broaalg.

  On the floor, Farley began to spasm.

  “Kery! Did it work?” Connor could hear but not see what was happening.

  “We’re checking. Mez is coming to you. Keep Park safe!”

  “Keryapt, save our children in Farley! You have the data. They have weapons!”

  Broaalg fought free of the pile somehow. Blood and ichor covered him, sputtering from broken stalks. “Zess!” He shoved off a broken body, fought through another pair of Tumorish to get closer to the winglet. “Mercy!” He disappeared beneath the wave of bodies again.

  “Sienaly! Do we have it?”

  Shadow didn’t notice the use of her real name. “Still verifying….”

  A narrow beam of energy shot from somewhere inside Farley, burning through her foot. She jerked backwards, inadvertently freeing Ormlan as well.

  “ZESS!” The same enraged cry came from Broaalg, Ormlan and Farley all at the same time.

  “Verified!”

  Kery put her razor sharp hand through Farley’s chest right next to where the beam had come out. The Molu she pulled from the hole was gray and leprous, squirming with malign vigor.

  At the same moment, a hundred milligrams of antimatter mixed with its containing vessel in the underground ballroom of the Eternal Night. Two hundred thousand tons of rubble, all that remained after the first antimatter blast, shrugged violently upwards on a momentary bed of incandescence, then started to thunder back down into an even deeper crater. Broaalg was spared from his tortuous end.

  Kery held the infected family member up to Ormlan, who sadly shook his head. She handed it to him to deal with and was glad to not have to watch what he did next. She cut and pulled through the rest of the Farley familycraft in seconds, separating the infected young from the healthy few that remained.

  Finally, it was done. She had certainly wanted to kill the Craven and his Tumorish for his part in events, but didn’t feel the euphoria she expected. Just a sad sense of relief.

  She turned back to the Molu. “Oh - about Ruut, and the bomb in Mezerello’s head…”

  It took several seconds before Ormlan spoke. “There isn’t one. That was the only way to make sure you couldn’t find it.”

  “Why did Ruut help you?”

  “He feared death. We were going to make him an Active.”

  “You could…really?”

  “Yes. Now leave us. We would mourn our lost children.” The healthy young had disappeared into the Ormlan body.

  She turned to go, but had one last thing to make clear. “You have the condolences of my family and Fleet. But make no mistake that this is nothing compared to what will happen if you cross us again.”

  Ormlan met her gaze. “We know. We will speak more, later. Others will come for the humans and what they have discovered. This is only the beginning.”

  “I know.”

  She left the grieving Molu, walking until she reached the main familycraft hangar then activating her remaining gravitic nodes to fly. Ormlan would almost certainly have to evacuate and scuttle the base, as human rescuers would be coming to the island once they determined the invaders were dead. She was glad that she wouldn’t have to be the one to deal with the explanation and investigation to follow.

  She followed up with Connor as the smoking ruin of Alcatraz fell behind her. “It will take forty minutes for me to fly Mez down to you. I took some damage. Meet us on the roof with a sample of Park’s blood.”

  “I heard everything, Kery. Would you really have done it? Forcibly convert the Molu and let the Craven have the technology too?”

  “I knew that Farley was made up of the children of the Ormlan group. The decision makers were parents, just like me. The Molu would take any excuse to save their children.”

  “You’re a parent?”

  “Yes. Shadow is my daughter. I have sons in other ships of Fleet Four.”

  Another brief pause. “Your daughter? Your daughter was…she was observing or shadowing or whatever while we had sex?”

  “Yes. She was extremely helpful during it.”

  “Oh! That’s…oh, damn. That’s just wrong. I didn’t want to know that. Why did you tell me?”

  She smiled to herself as she flew, but felt almost guilty to have his discomfort to lighten her mood.

  “Why? That’s always the real question, isn’t it?”

  #

  Five minutes later, Shadow delivered news in the most relieved voice that Kery had heard in days. “We just received telemetry that the Craven Fleet has started to reverse course. They know that we have the human field targeting technology.”

  On the Planning Stage, Kery finally stopped her pacing and sank into a seat. No one else had to die today. If her body weren’t hurtling eastward at mach four to get the Interloper and its biolab to Park, she would have put on an aerobatics show to celebrate.

  Mezerello, sharing the featureless Stage with the two of them, was less visibly cheered. For her it had only been a few hours since the Molu took her head at Dogpatch. “If we were smart, we would launch an attack on them before they can figure it out as well. We may never get another chance like this.”

  Kery regarded the younger Active with weary resignation. “Ormlan was right.”

  “Right about what?”

  “Kill what you hate. Hate what you fear. Fear what you don’t understand. It’s the same for individuals as well as civilizations.”

  “They were the ones who launched an attack against us! We have a right - a duty - to finish it!”

  Shadow interrupted the two. “Fear what you…that’s the same expression Ruut used in his interrogation. He claims he wanted to be Activated so that he could have more time to study alien civilizations. Teach us something about how to live without fear.”

  Mez snorted in derision. “So that’s why he helped them almost kill me and then Kery? He’s a traitor.”

  Both women turned to look at her.

  “What?”

  Shadow let Kery speak first. “You tried to kill me too. At Ormlan’s direction.”

  “That was different! I didn’t know.”

  Shadow rose from her inactive console to face Mez. “You say that, and I believe you, but how does the Admiralty ever trust you in the field again? If they weren’t entirely distracted by the human field engineering project, you would probably be Deactivated by now.” Removed from her body, cranial pod left unpowered.

  “They have to…they wouldn’t.” She looked back and forth between mother and daughter. “Besides, who made you the paragon of trustworthiness? We worked together for years and you never told me who you really were. You just let me go on about ‘What would Keryapt Zess do’ and let me look like an idiot.”

  It was Shadow’s turn to be defensive. “If anyone knew who I was, I’d never be taken-“

  “Enough.” Kery stepped between them. “We’re in a non-secure Stage, transmitting through a Molu controlled tanglecomm relay. Each of you knows a lot that the other doesn’t about the situation. And even about me.” She longed to tell her daughter the story that Mez had heard, but the Admiralty had just expressly forbidden discussion of recent events until they could be sure about what codes Ruut had given them.

  The two younger women assumed almost identical poses, arms crossed and brows furrowed. They glared at each other.

  “But for now, Mez and I are the only assets we have in this system. I’ve got Horseplay, three winglets and an empty cannon. She’s got the Interloper-“

  “No.”

&nbs
p; Kery turned to face Mezerello. “No, what?”

  “I’m not staying in this thing. You’re going to give me Horseplay.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. You get the Interloper and the biolab. I get Horseplay. I’m not going to sit around and wait for the Admiralty to have you shut me down. I know what they did to you.”

  Once the words were out of her mouth, there was no taking them back. All three of them knew it.

  Shadow was aghast. “Oh, Mez, no! You can’t. They’ll never forgive you.”

  Mezerello just stared at Kery, waiting for an answer.

  It only took a few seconds to consider the options. “Sienaly is right, Mez. They will regard that as treason. But you have us at a disadvantage. We have to have the biolab. We need Park on our side as leverage against Ormlan.” The younger Active didn’t smile at her victory. This was the end of the world she had known. “But I get the winglets. Connor can switch our cranial pods when we get to Dallas.”

  “Agreed.” She turned to Shadow. “There’s one more thing you should know.”

  “What, more demands?”

  “No. A parting gift.”

  Mez studied the Admiralty glyph in the corner of the Stage for a long moment. An icon above her head changed, showing that she was ramping up to her maximum possible processing rate.

  Shadow looked to her mother, then they both accelerated as well. None of them could stay at this rate for long.

  Mez took a theatrically deep breath. “Sienaly, yourmother’sseveredheadwasaloneforasubjectivecenturyafterWesenthertoFleet 17withanAMbombinhertoassassin-“

  She disappeared.

  The Admiralty glyph pulsed blue and yellow. “Communications suspended for former Active Mezerello Varell Aarstop. Contact with her is now forbidden.”

  “She was…” Shadow stopped, then turned from the glyph to her mother. “An antimatter bomb. You were planning to…”

  Kery stared at the glyph. Surely, for all that she had accomplished, she had earned the right to tell her daughter the truth?

  “I didn’t know about the bomb. They-“

  The Planning Stage with Shadow disappeared, replaced by the streaking view of eastern Californian desert. Kery had been expulsed as well.

  Far to her north, she could see the clouds of smoke rising from Las Vegas.

  #

  Connor was strongly reminded of Kery’s alien-ness as she landed on the hospital roof and Mez climbed off her back. Horseplay had seemed vaguely human before, when it had her face, but the battle-scarred thing in front of him was missing its head and an arm. The black gash down its left side was deep enough for him to expect her to limp, but her movements were still smooth as took the syringe of Park’s blood from his outstretched hand. She turned and gave it to the woman who must be Mezerello.

  Kery’s old body wasn’t much better off, but at least it had a head. It was disconcerting to see the lighter-skinned face with different features on a body that he had been intimate with. The masculine arms didn’t help.

  “What’re you staring at?” For a moment he had forgotten that an entirely different person inhabited the body as well. She turned to Kery. “The serum for Park will be ready in…six minutes. Let’s get this done.” She turned back to Connor and narrowed her eyes. “Anything you do to my brain, I do to yours. Got it?”

  He took a step backwards, surprised at her hostility. Kery explained. “Mez isn't happy that she doesn’t get any remotes. Now, stand back a bit. I have to swap our communication blocks first. Then we need your help.”

  “Why me? Can’t your bodies do this for you?”

  “I trust Mez completely - she saved my life at Alcatraz. But she is afraid she will be left bodiless if the Admiralty has their way. After I explained that you triggered the self destruct on Stopgap, unknowingly countering their orders, she decided you were the best choice.”

  “About that…”

  “We can talk more later.”

  He stepped back and watched Kery go to work. In less than a minute she had somehow opened up a hole in the other Active’s back and was removing a small cluster of devices. Then Kery’s arm twisted backwards in a way which made his stomach churn and she did the same to herself. “It will take you a few weeks to get a fabricator working to replace your limbs, Mez. After you’re done, you'll make me some new arms, right?”

  “Don’t hold your breath.” Mezerello pivoted to expose her back to Connor, then turned her head for one last threat. “I’m serious about this. Don’t even pretend to drop me. I'll know.” She descended into a cross legged position, tilted her head forward and froze. “Ready when you are.”

  Keryapt turned to Connor. “Our pods are perfectly symmetrical. You won’t have any trouble swapping us. But be sure to put them in at the exact same time. That’s our agreement.” She turned away from him as well. “See you in a few seconds.”

  Both women went motionless. At the exact same time, they both opened to him. For Mezerello, the hair and back of her skull slowly peeled open from the bottom to the top. A set of interlocking plates pulled apart and the grayish lozenge of her cranial pod was exposed. A similar set of armored scales irised open in Kery’s back, revealing the cranial pod space of Horseplay.

  Connor pulled Kery’s pod free, surprised again by how heavy it was. The vacant socket glowed with faint blue light, cables and cradling arms ready to accept a new pod. He gently tucked her brain into the crook of his right arm, careful not to jostle his damaged hand. He turned to the Interloper and pulled Mezerello’s pod out with his left hand and held it, feeling its weight.

  His phone chimed twice in rapid succession. He gently put the cranial pods down and checked it. There were two new messages.

  From Kery: Put me in first. The Admiralty ordered me to take Mezerello into custody.

  From Mez: Put me in first and I'll tell you the truth about Keryapt and the Fleet.

  He looked down at the pods. There were inscriptions of various sorts on each which made it easy to differentiate them, so there was no reason that he couldn’t immediately insert them and complete the process. But he hesitated.

  For the first time in a while, he felt in control of the situation. Perhaps he should keep the brains but turn over the bodies, along with Sousa and Park, to the government. Let this all be someone else’s problem. He had spent the past year, or maybe even his entire life, trying to find something worthwhile to try to accomplish. Now that he had, he wasn’t sure if he wanted the responsibility.

  His phone rang, startling him. The call was coming from Keryapt. He looked down at her disembodied cranial pod for a moment then answered the phone.

  “Connor. This is a recording. You’re hearing this because I haven’t been reactivated yet but enough time has elapsed. My guess is that you’re having second thoughts about whether or not you should put us back in.”

  “The reality is that your world is still in terrible danger. There are only a handful of Molu ships in the system. In a few weeks there will be some from my Fleet but even more of theirs. In a few months, all of Fleet Four will arrive here. Almost a million ships. The Molu have agreed to make this entire system a joint protectorate.”

  “But you should know - no one has ever successfully defended a system against a focused assault. Once our enemies know what you humans have done, they will come and try to take it for themselves. Some of them might even be here before any other help arrives. You will need my help. And maybe Mezerello and Ormlan’s as well. You have to choose who to trust.”

  He looked up at the sky, where traces of the Stopgap detonations were still faintly visible. He knew that she was right. He was also keenly aware that he had no way to save Park without Keryapt’s help, and he wasn’t prepared to let someone else die today.

  He put the phone away and reached down for the first pod.

  #

  Kery was back in the Interloper’s Planning Stage environment. It was set up according to her preferences but had data and displays of Mezerel
lo’s activities and projects, creating an odd melding of the familiar and the unknown. The Interloper’s control systems immediately let her know that there were myriad compatibility issues with her Molu arms, Intruder head and the communication block she had transferred from Horseplay, but she waved the warnings away and turned her sensorium to the real world.

  Mezerello was gone. Connor still stood there, staring at her from a few meters away. Her four winglets were functional and powering up again, but the other Active was nowhere to be seen.

  Kery had been bodiless for two minutes, an eternity for her.

  “Where is she? What happened?”

  “I…I put her in first. We talked. She left.”

  “You…really?”

  “You told me that I had to choose who to trust.”

  She had. And he had listened. “What did you talk about?”

  “She told me about what your Admiralty did, and your time alone. How it changed you. She also promised that she would send you new arms. And answer when I called.”

  “When you call? She gave you her number?”

  “Yes.”

  It had taken a few seconds for her chimeric body to come up to full functionality. Her head, originally from Mezerello’s Intruder body, had the same ability to change its features as needed. It now finally rearranged itself to her last settings, the Kery Lee identity that Connor had first met. He smiled to see her familiar face.

  “You didn’t put her number in your phone, though.”

  “No, I thought that…wait.”

  He squinted at her, puzzled. He was starting to get it.

  “The phone. You’ve known everything that has happened to me. DeVries, trying to convince me that we couldn’t trust you with Stopgap.”

  She took a step towards him. “Yes. The Admiralty gave specific orders to me about how I was to use it.”

  “But you made the app for me to control it. You put the self destruct button at the top of every screen.”

  Closer. She smiled.

  His eyes opened wide. “You knew I-“

  She kissed him. It was important for him to understand how much he had helped. Mez would probably be dead now if it weren’t for him. Maybe all of them, here and back at the Fleet. But as long as she didn’t admit it, the Admiralty couldn’t know for sure that she had planned it. They would eventually review everything she had done, even this moment.