by Ramy Vance
One of the orcs laughed as he pointed at the insectoid. “That one likes you.” He chuckled. “Mantiboids don’t usually share meals with anyone.”
Terra was about to correct the orc about the nature of sharing. Seeing as it was her plate, she was the one who was technically sharing. But it didn’t matter. “You guys all look like you already have one foot in the grave,” Terra said, her tone critical. “Doesn’t seem like you have a lot of fight left in you.”
No one replied for a little while. Then an orc said, “You’re not wrong there. Some of us have been at this for a few hours now. None with any battles as glorious as yours, though. How do you still have the strength to go on?”
Terra hung her head as she let the pain of her burns settle in. How was she getting through this? “Honestly, what else am I going to do?” she asked.
As Terra was talking, the mantiboid who had shared her food was making an odd noise; its mandibles worked as if it were trying to speak. “Uh, You got a name?”
The mantiboid looked up at Terra, and a series of unpronounceable sounds emanated from its mandibles. The only thing that sounded like a word to Terra was a series of clicks. “Nib-nib” was all she was able to gather. “Sorry, I didn’t catch all that but is ‘Nib-nib’ cool?” she asked.
The creature started to vibrate, holding its hands in front of its face. Then it spat up a sticky blue-green substance and held it out for Terra. “Uh, no thank you,” she whimpered.
Nib-nib obviously didn’t care about Terra’s reservations and commenced to slather Terra’s arm with the goop.
Terra shrieked in surprise, but her immediate fear dissipated when she found that the area the goop had been applied to had stopped hurting. “Holy shit,” Terra said. “Whatever that is, just keep on doing it.”
Nib-nib uttered another series of incomprehensible noises while the rest of the fighters began to gather around Terra. They were silent, as if they were waiting for Terra to speak.
Terra didn’t know what to say. She had never motivated anyone before. Hell, she felt like she could do with some motivating. Her body felt like shit, and she didn’t even want to think about having to fight again. But the other fighters were haunting in their despair.
There wasn’t any sense in trying to be positive. The other fighters had to know how the odds were stacked against them. But they were all in it together. “Back home, I was a nobody,” Terra started. “Everyone took a shit on me. My parents. My roommate. My shitty ex-boyfriend. Everyone.”
The eyes of the fighters were glued on Terra. It gave her a little encouragement. “And now these assholes are trying to take a shit on me. Well, I’m done. If it really is kill or be killed out there, I’m not going to go down without dragging some assholes with me. That’s all it is. Plain and simple. I don’t want to die. And if I have to kill someone to make sure that doesn’t happen, so fucking be it.”
There was silence, each of the fighters taking Terra’s words on board. She wasn’t sure if they were what anyone needed to hear, but it was what she felt.
Nib-nib coughed up more goop and layered it on her other arm.
The effect was instantly soothing, and the relief from the pain gave Terra a little bit more energy. “And if I can fight through this, so can all of you,” Terra said. “So, get some rest. Because we’re going back at it again. And Nib-nib, please keep that up. You are a treasure.”
Nib-nib scuttled about, clicked its mandibles, and threw up more of the goop. Terra leaned back and allowed herself to be as pampered as she could get in the prison of an orc arena.
Chapter Nine
Abby and Creon had been at it for some time, and neither had come to a clear solution. Ideas were tossed around. Some of their best hadn’t panned out. It wasn’t for lack of effort, even though Abby felt like she wasn’t pulling her weight.
Put simply, there were too many constraints on the situation. Both Creon and Abby had tossed out an unreal number of ideas to help Terra out. None of them were viable, though.
Abby knew the nanobots were key. A few hours ago, she’d had a flash of ideas centering around the nanobots and transporting them using the hadron collider. It had been a good start. The problem was, once they got the nanobots to Terra, what were they going to use them for.
The most Abby could think of was another construction similar to the speaker she’d created for Terra during her last battle. But the problem was more nanobots would mean a larger construct and would draw more attention to Terra than before.
Creon had gone out for coffee. He figured it was the only way he and Abby were going to be able to get through the next few hours.
Abby wasn’t worried about staying awake. She was much more worried about dropping the ball and being responsible for Terra dying. Before Creon had left, he had tried to encourage Abby not to think of it that way. They weren’t responsible for anything. All either of them could do was try to make a bad situation better.
That didn’t help. Abby managed to nod and agree, enough to make Creon believe she had taken him seriously. But Abby knew deep down that if she didn’t do something, Terra could very easily end up dead, and her death would be on Abby’s head.
She rested her head on her desk. There had to be something she was missing. Something so obvious that she’d kick herself if someone brought it to her attention.
It was at that moment that Martin popped onto Abby’s computer screen. “So, what are we going to use that collider for?” he asked.
Abby hoped Martin was in a better mood than usual. She didn’t have the patience to deal with his sarcasm or shitty attitude. “No idea,” Abby said. “Do you have any of those specs, based on what you found?”
Martin smiled mischievously as he folded his body into a rectangle. “Like I said, whatever I figured out is going to be so upsetting to Myrddin that you might get kicked out of this whole program. Are you still game?”
“As long as it helps Terra. I don’t know if I can deal with her getting hurt because of me.”
Martin straightened out and disappeared, reappearing on the holoprojector in the lab. “Good. I wanted to wait until Creon was out of here. Not sure how he would take this. I found some information on the Dark One’s tech, and, fuck me, it’s disgusting-ass shit.”
Abby sat up and looked at Martin, intrigued. The AI hadn’t mentioned anything earlier about Creon being upset about their plans. On top of that, Creon seemed pretty easy going about breaking the rules. What could Martin have in mind that would have made Creon uncomfortable?
“What do you got?”
Martin’s eyes narrowed as the background of the holoprojector changed. Flames grew behind Martin as if he were in hell. “Well, looks like the Dark One’s forces aren’t all natural and organic,” he started. “He’s using a form of mind control to get different races to follow him.”
Abby didn’t have a whole lot of background on the various races of the different realms nor an understanding of the complexities of the war so far, but she knew what Martin was telling her was terrible. The idea of losing the ability to make her own decisions sent a chill up Abby’s spine.
Martin had disappeared, and the screen was now taken up with an image of frequency and different examples of DNA structure. “It looks like there are two ways that he’s accomplishing that. One is through a form of microchip that disrupts the host’s DNA. The other is with a sort of radiofrequency, but that one isn’t used as often.”
Abby stood and approached the holoprojector. “Why are you telling me all of this?”
“Because I figured out how to take over that system. One of them, at least. We can disrupt the microchips and use them to our advantage.”
Abby suspected where Martin was going but wanted to hear him say it. “And how are we going to use that to our advantage?”
Martin groaned, obviously getting bored with the way the conversation was heading. “If the Dark One is controlling people through tech, that’s only a hop and skip away from us being able t
o control people through tech. We could disrupt the microchips of everyone fighting in the arena, take them over, and use them to help Terra win.”
There it was, exactly what Abby had thought Martin was hinting at. She didn’t need Myrddin in the room to tell her it was a very bad idea. Not because it wouldn’t work. The premise made a slippery slope look like an afternoon jog. “Mind-control the arena fighters?” Abby asked. “That’s your plan?”
The display of DNA disappeared and was replaced by an image of Terra being taken care of by a goblin. “I’m just saying, none of those orcs or goblins have control over their minds. Who are we to be trying to kill them? How about instead of getting our hands dirty, we release them from their prison and see what happens?”
For the first time since Martin’s creation, Abby had a very real sense of him as a person. She couldn’t see what he had to gain from pushing this agenda, but he seemed to think this was the right approach.
What kind of AI had she created?
But the premise of his plan was solid, even if it did dip into morally questionable territory. But where did anyone draw the line of morality when you were facing enemies who were basically slaves?
And wasn’t she doing the right thing by freeing the orcs to be able to fight whatever battle they wanted to?
But that wasn’t what Martin was suggesting. Even if the AI hadn’t said it explicitly, Abby knew what he was getting at. He didn’t think Abby should just disable the microchips. Martin was suggesting they should co-opt the microchips and use them to help Terra.
Basically, they’d be taking one enslaved person’s will and transferring it to the other. “How long would we be controlling them for?” Abby asked.
Martin shrugged as he poured himself a cup of coffee. “Don’t know, don’t care. That’s up to you. Once we disrupt the signal, that’s all up to you. I’d suggest up to the end of the fight.”
“And what happens after we sever the connection completely?”
“Hard to say. Depends how long they’ve been hooked up to the chips. Most of them will probably survive. The other ones, though? Their brains might melt, or something like that. Who knows? I’m not an expert on orc cranial physiology. Wait, now I am.” There was a pause before he added, “They’ll probably live.”
Abby glanced at Creon’s desk, wondering what he would do in this kind of situation. This wasn’t the sort of thing Abby had been prepared to think through when she had signed up. She had believed she was just going to be stopping the Dark One.
Now there were ethical questions about whether or not she should take control of an orc’s brain or not. On the one hand, Abby didn’t give a shit about the orcs or their plight. Orcs had killed her father. That was all she had needed to know.
On the other, Abby knew what that looked like in history. She knew what bigotry did to people. How was assuming all orcs were terrible any different? “Say we bypass their microchips. Once we’re done, we can give them back control?”
Martin, who had been snoring softly, snapped back awake. “Huh? Yeah, of course. Whatever you want.”
“Were you even listening?”
“Technically, since I’m now hardwired into every aspect of Middang3ard HQ, I’m always listening. So, yes. I heard you. We can if that’s what you want. We could also fry their brains so we don’t have any issues with them ever again, but I guess, to each their own.”
Co-opting the Dark One’s control was something Abby could justify. Keeping the orcs under her control was not. “All right, that’s the plan. How are we doing it?”
Martin gestured at the nanobots. “I’ve already loaded the bots with a virus that’ll wipe the Dark One’s chips and insert our control program instead. Just send ‘em to the collider with the coordinates I provided, and they’ll beam aboard your tracker and bam! We’re in business.”
“This going to get traced back to us?”
“Not if you don’t want it to.”
“Good. Load the nanobots.”
Martin blipped away and Abby went back to her computer, watching the upload of the virus. She didn’t want to think too much about the plan Martin had proposed. There were some very obvious moral dilemmas, but at the end of it all, at least she wouldn’t be keeping the orcs imprisoned.
As Abby tried to distract herself from the thoughts racing through her head, Creon returned to the lab. He set a cup of coffee in front of her as he returned to his desk. “Okay, so I was thinking we could try another kind of construct. Maybe something with a—”
Abby interrupted Creon. “Martin and I already took care of it. We’re uploading the nanobots with a…perk buffer for Terra.”
“A perk buffer? What the hell is that?”
Abby wasn’t used to lying. Nor was she familiar with technical jargon. All she could do was repeat something she’d heard in passing in the bunkers. “Oh, I’m not sure, but Martin did some hypothetical scenarios and said it would be the best idea. I’ll send it over if you want.”
“No need. I trust your work. What’s next?”
“Uh, just gotta teleport the nanobots over there.”
Creon flipped through a few menus on the holoscreen the two shared. “All right, cleared them for transportation. I’ll just get those down there.”
As Creon loaded the nanobots into a transportation container, Abby’s comm went off. Holy shit, already in trouble? she thought as her heart raced. “Hello?” she quietly answered.
Anabelle’s voice came through calm, surprisingly calm for someone who was supposed to be upset. “Hey, I need to see you. Can you come down to the lounge?”
“Be there in two shakes of a calf’s leg,” Abby chirped a little too loudly.
“You okay, kid? You aren’t freaking out about the whole Terra thing, are you?”
“No, no. No, everything is great. Where are you?”
Abby heard the crack of the lid of a carbonated bottle. “In the lounge, I told you that,” Anabelle answered. “See you in a bit.”
Anabelle was sitting at a table by herself, three drinks deep, by the time Abby arrived. The booze had taken no obvious effect, and she leaned back coyly as Abby sat down. The elf’s hands were still covered in the wyrm’s blood.
Abby scanned the lounge, uncertain of what she was supposed to do. She’d never been in a bar before and had no idea what the proper decorum was. “Uh, am I supposed to—”
“You just think of what you want and hit the pad right there.”
“Am I allowed to drink? I mean, I’m not—”
Anabelle laughed as she waved her hand over the pad and another drink appeared before her. “I’m not your mother.” Anabelle chuckled. “The human enlistment age is eighteen, right? And you’re drinking age is twenty-one? I think there’s a discrepancy there, but that’s just me. So, do what you want.”
Abby had seen her father drinking a beer called Industry. She tried to imagine the beer bottle and waved her hand over the pad. The beer appeared. She took a sip.
A rush of memories hit Abby, more than she was prepared for. She remembered her Pa allowing her to take a few sips whenever her mother wasn’t looking. It was their little secret. The taste was bitter enough to make her laugh. It tasted like a secret.
Abby put the beer down and stared at the rim of the bottle while Anabelle watched her from across from the table. “Uh, did you just get back?” Abby asked as she picked the beer back up.
Anabelle studied her hands, the blood on her fingernails. “What let you know?” she asked.
Abby tilted her beer at Anabelle’s nails. “Never seen your nails that dirty before,” she said. “Even I’d have cleaned ‘em up before entertaining company.”
Anabelle chuckled as she nodded. “Yeah, been touch and go. Just got back. Closed up a Dark Gate. Was kind of an event. You should have seen it.”
“What was it like?”
“Other than all the blood and carnage? Well, I got another look into a Dark Gate. Remember when you went through one?”
Abby didn’t want to think back to that night. It had all been so terrifying and had happened so quickly that she didn’t remember much. “It’s all a blur,” she finally said. “But I do remember the shit coming out. What’d you see?”
Anabelle bit her thumb, absentmindedly licking the crusted blood off her fingertips. “Not quite sure,” she answered. “Looked like I was looking through a doorway, but it was…split down the middle. I saw one place, but then another. Didn’t know how to make sense of it.”
Abby snapped her fingers, remembering something she had read about varying waves of information on a conspiracy theory website. It had sounded like nonsense at the time, but with how things were rapidly changing in her life, she wasn’t going to write anything off.
Anabelle glanced up from her drink, her face as dark and mysterious as ever. “What you thinking over there, kid?”
Abby sipped her beer again, her thoughts on the conversations she and Pa would have, staring at the sky, letting their minds wander. “Read about different kinds of astral portals once,” Abby said. “People doing astral projection, seeing different realities and things of that sort.”
“And?”
“Well, one lady said she opened a portal once, but it was getting frequencies from an alien ship passing by, and her portal became two. She was looking at two different places at once.”
Abby regretted telling Anabelle the anecdote as soon as it was out of her mouth. Why the hell would Anabelle care about alien stories? She was surprised when Anabelle asked, “So you think it might be two frequencies conflating?”
The girl shrugged. “I mean, according to the theory, if all these gates open to the same place and there are a few open at the same time, cosmic rays and all that could scramble things up pretty badly. You might be getting a little look into what the other gates have to offer.”
Anabelle leaned back and crossed her legs as she folded her arms. “Huh. I’ll run that by Myrddin. How’d things go on your end, kid? Figure out how to help Terra?”