by Eric Warren
Frees barreled into her again, this time stopping her in her tracks as they connected, sending a shockwave of sound through the cavernous space. “Shut…her…down!” he yelled, struggling against her strength.
There was only one way Arista knew to stop her and she ran over to David. “I need a long piece of metal, like a pipe or a beam.”
“There’s nothing like that in here,” he said, flustered. “This isn’t a construction site.”
“Look out!” Frees yelled and Arista ducked on instinct just as Max grabbed for her, having gotten away from Frees.
“Get away from my daughter, you psycho!” Jessika yelled, firing her weapon into Max until she was empty. Dark spots formed in Max’s torso, but she didn’t stop. She backhanded Jessika, who was knocked off her feet toward the Gate. Arista winced, crawling backward on the floor. She had to find a way to incapacitate her. No matter the cost.
“I’ve been waiting for this too long to stop now,” Max said, approaching Arista.
Frees came up behind her and wrapped her in a bear hug, pinning her arms to her sides. “Do something!” he yelled.
Arista glanced down at her new arm. Well, it had been nice while it lasted. She managed to get to her feet while Frees held Max back, even as she was kicking and struggling against him.
“Hurry! We’re evenly matched on strength,” he said.
Arista drew her right arm across her face and over her left shoulder, then swung it wide, connecting with Max’s neck ligaments in the exact same place she’d hit her the first time. There was an audible crunch and Max’s body went limp, but her eyes remained full of fire. “No!” she screamed. “Not again!”
Frees lay her body down as Arista ran over to Jessika. She turned her over to find her face swelling from the hit and she was unconscious. “Jessika?” she said softly, shaking her. The Device performed a cursory evaluation verifying her heart rate was still strong. At least the blow hadn’t killed her. “Jessika,” Arista said again, stronger this time. Still no response. “Mom?”
Jessika’s eyes fluttered, and she reached up for Arista, brushing her hair out of her eyes. “You turned out beautiful,” she whispered. “Did I tell you that?”
Arista shook her head, struggling to hold back tears. “Can you stand?”
Jessika nodded. “I think so. Give me a second. That was a hard hit.” She sat up, taking a few breaths and feeling her face where Max had backhanded her. Her glasses were askew, and one lens had a spiderweb crack. Arista remained with her arm around Jessika’s shoulder, rubbing it lightly.
“I will kill you before all this is over,” Max yelled from where her body lay limp.
Arista stood and motioned to Frees. “Turn her head to me, we need to get those things out of her.” She flexed the fingers of her new hand. Other than a small dent in the arm itself, it didn’t seem her blow to Max had done any permanent damage. And she was very glad. She liked this hand much more than the last one.
Frees grabbed Max by the shoulders and turned her to face Arista. She took a quick glance at David who remained on the ground against the control panel, watching it all unfold in front of him.
The small knife ejected itself from Arista’s finger and she used it to cut through the skin of Max’s head, pulling the small patch away. She tapped the cranial unit and the central port opened, but there were no discs inside.
“I don’t understand,” she said, examining the port further. “There should be two small override discs in here. Red and green. Like the others.”
“Maybe some of us don’t need discs,” Max said, her voice full of hate.
“You mean you attacked us voluntarily?” Frees said. “How could you do that? I saved you.”
“I thought I could get over it, the hatred and the revenge. And I tried. But a month living under that roof, living with her walking around every day like things were fine. I couldn’t take it anymore. I saw my chance here and I took it,” she replied.
“You were awake?” Arista asked.
“They activated me, and at first I wanted to fight them. The humans. But it wasn’t the same. They weren’t my enemy and I didn’t feel the same hated I thought I would. They weren’t the ones who took my life away. In fact, they were quite kind to me. So I told them I’d help them. I was supposed to go out looking for you, but you showed up, so I was placed back into storage until you came to me.”
“But why, Max? Is Arista really so bad?” Frees asked, dropping his shoulders.
“You don’t see it. But she is the most devious, self-serving human I’ve ever met. She will do anything to accomplish her goals. She hurts others needlessly. She attacks and destroys then justifies it all in the name of saving her parents or the machines or even herself. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me she hasn’t gone over the line.”
Arista’s chest tightened. No doubt Frees was thinking of the waterfall torture. Or when she’d beat that man in the morgue. Maybe Max was right. Maybe Arista was too dangerous. Too excessive.
“What I see is someone we trusted. Someone we thought we could count on betray us. You chose your fate, Max. No one did that for you. You could have had a place with us.” Frees paused. “But you decided revenge was more important.” He glanced at Arista. “You decided we were your enemy. Arista didn’t make you do anything.”
“You’re an idiot, Frees. You don’t see it because you’re infatuated with her. Don’t think it gone unnoticed. Don’t think you can hide something like that. And don’t try to deny it either. It clouds your vision. You can’t see her clearly for what she is. And it’s going to end up killing you one day,” Max said.
Arista took a step back, her eyes wide. Frees hadn’t moved. He didn’t look at her or say anything. Only stared at Max. And Arista could only see half his face. She glanced over to Jessika who only raised her eyebrows, the corners of her mouth turned up slightly. David only wore a blank expression, like he hadn’t heard any of it.
“Frees…” Arista began.
“She’s not going to give us any more useful information,” Frees said. “I suggest we shut her down.”
“Now you sound like she does!” Max yelled. “I hope you’re happy, Frees. I hope it feels good to betray everything you believed in. Remember you and I weren’t so dissimilar once! You hated the humans as much as I did. Now look at yourself, look at what you’ve become. How dare you call yourself a machine anymore. Don’t you have any—” her words cut off mid-sentence.
Arista glanced down to see Frees remove his fingers from inside the port she’d opened. He’d smashed in some of the surrounding casings.
“Frees—” Arista said again, only softer this time. He didn’t acknowledge her, instead he picked Max up and took her to the far side of the room, laying her back down gently. Arista glanced to Jessika who only shook her head slightly.
Frees returned to the group. “We need to retrieve those explosives,” he said, his voice void of all emotion. “Do we know where those humans went?”
Jessika smacked David on the shoulder and he looked up, as if he’d just come out of a long dream. “What? Oh, you mean my staff?” He got to his feet. “I’m sure they’ve already notified colony security by now. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to retrieve them.”
Frees stepped up to David. “Then we need another way to destroy that Gate.”
David pinched his face together. “I’m sorry, it’s just—”
Frees yanked him forward, so his face was only inches from Frees’. “Another way,” he said.
David nodded. “Another way. Got it.”
Thirty-Five
“You know, I designed this thing so it couldn’t self-destruct. I was very proud of that. I thought if the system ever overloads, I don’t want it taking the Gate down with it. Too much work and all that, so—”
“Just shut up and do it,” Frees said.
David looked up from the console. “You are a very rude person; did you know that?”
Jessika shook her head. “I sometimes ques
tion my sanity for ever wanting to marry you.”
“It must have been my intense sexual prowess.” Jessika only rolled her eyes. “I question how someone I trusted so completely could stab me in the back. If I recall you were all for this project once upon a time.”
“Things change,” she said, her voice flat. Arista glanced between the two of them, watching them argue. She’d retreated closer to the Gate, thinking it might be better if she stayed away while David worked. Her head was a jumble of emotions and she couldn’t trust herself not to say something stupid. Not right now anyway.
Max had been so sure she was a terrible person, and Arista wasn’t sure she could disagree with her. And then Frees had gone and…stopped her. And he probably blamed Arista for it. For doing the one thing he hated more than anything else: killing his own kind. Especially after they had received their autonomy. She glanced in his direction and he stood beside David, watching him work. Apparently monitoring to make sure he didn’t further alert anyone else. He’d made David seal all the exits but there was no telling how close colony security was. They could be here any minute. This time Arista doubted they would take prisoners.
Jessika came over and took a seat beside Arista, rubbing the side of her head. “Still smarts,” she said. “But it cleared my sinuses right up.”
Arista forced a brief smile.
“Are you okay?” she asked, leaning into Arista just a touch.
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“She’s wrong, you know. About you being devious and self-serving. Obviously she was wrong.” Jessika looked up at the Gate. “If you were, you never would have risked so much to save your parents. Or even to save your friend there.” She nodded to Frees. “You could have insisted we come straight here without him, just left him to be sliced up on that table.”
“But what about all the other things I’ve done?” she asked. “Max…I hurt her. I needed her clothes and I put her life at risk. For her clothes.”
Jessika pulled her lips between her teeth. “Were you scared? Confused?”
“Scared. I guess,” Arista said.
“Were you desperate?”
“Yes.”
“It doesn’t make it okay,” Jessika said, causing Arista to look at her. “But it does make it understandable. Max should have understood you made a mistake. Or mistakes. It seems to me she was looking for a grudge. She wanted someone to punish and you just happened to be the most convenient target.”
“I apologized to her,” Arista said. “I did everything I could to try and make it better. She just—”
“That’s because she didn’t want it to be better.” Jessika put her hand on Arista’s metal one. She could feel the warmth radiating from the woman. “There was nothing else you could have done.” She glanced at David working under Frees’ supervision. “We can’t change the past. Nor should we want to.”
Arista nodded. “Thanks. You’re pretty good at this.”
“I have my moments.” She gave her a smile, then turned back to the control panel. “How much longer?”
“I’m working!” David yelled. “Give a man a minute! This is complex stuff. It isn’t like I can just—”
“Wait, what are you—” Frees began.
David ducked down, and the panel beside Frees blew, sending sparks and smoke in his direction. Frees covered his face and moved away as David tapped furiously on the controls.
“What the hell are you doing!” Jessika demanded. Both she and Arista were on their feet.
“I’m not letting you destroy this project!” David yelled. “Not after fifteen years of work. Not after everything I’ve been through. It’s too important. Can’t you see that?”
Beside them the Gate rumbled to life; the concrete wall transforming into the gray fog.
“You can’t!” Jessika yelled. “You need all the Gates to power it!”
“I’ve got enough,” David yelled back and ran around the console, just dodging Frees who had lunged for him. He took off in a sprint toward the Gate.
“He’s going to do it himself,” Arista said. “He’s going to change the past.” She took off after him, her arms and legs pumping harder than they ever had before. He’d almost reached the terminus.
Frees landed directly in front of him, stopping his forward momentum with an arm. Arista nearly ran into the back of David but stopped herself in time.
“Ah. Yes. Forgot you could do that,” David said, staring at Frees.
Frees rolled his eyes and dragged David away from the opening and brought him over next to the control panel. “Shut it down,” he ordered.
“I can’t,” he said, his eyes locked on Frees’. “I’ve locked it down so the Gate stays open. The only way to shut it down would be to cut power to this whole section. And the reinforcements will be here any minute, so you might as well just let me go.”
Arista had had enough. She stormed up to David and struck him across the face. He recoiled as much as he could in Frees’ grip as his hand reached the welp she’d produced. “You shut this thing down, right now,” she said. “How dare you think you have the power to change history. To alter what has already happened. To affect millions of lives. Who the hell do you think you are?”
“I am my father’s son,” David replied proudly. “And my grandfather’s grandson. And we are not going to let them win.” He indicated Frees with a nod.
“I am so sick of hearing about your failed legacy,” Arista shouted. “Just because your parents screwed up doesn’t give you the right to destroy countless lives. Humans lost the war! That’s the end of it. We had a good run, but now it’s over and it’s time to accept it. Just live the rest of your lives here. You could be comfortable. You don’t have to fight anymore.”
“But, Miranda,” David said, tilting his head slightly, “That’s what humans do. We fight. We survive. You used to believe in our cause. And I can’t believe after everything that’s happened you still don’t.”
Arista scoffed. “What, you can’t believe I’m not brainwashed to think humans are the greatest thing on the planet? It’s because I know they’re not. I’ve seen acts of compassion from the people you want to destroy the likes of you’ll never know. I’ve seen machines love, laugh, cry, and despair. They deserve their shot. Taking it away from them like this is cheating.”
“Nothing is cheating, not when the stakes are high enough,” David retorted, struggling against Frees’ grip. “Not when our entire species hangs in the balance. You used to agree with me.”
“I was eight years old!” Arista screamed. “How does any eight-year-old know what’s right or wrong? Even now, sixteen years later, I still grapple with the subject. But you were all too willing to let me do it, weren’t you? As long as it aligned with what you wanted. Nothing else mattered.”
“That’s not true!” David shouted. “Yes, I was thrilled when you volunteered and yes, I thought it would be wonderful for a Reynolds to go out there and perform your duty. But I never wanted to turn you into a weapon.”
“Oh, come on, Dave. You were practically showing her off to everyone. You couldn’t see all she wanted to do was impress you,” Jessika said.
“Yeah? And where were you in all this? I didn’t hear your dissent other than a word here and there.”
“I expressed my dissent in other ways.” Jessika crossed her arms.
“What do you…?” Recognition dawned on him. “The accident? Her memory loss? That was you?”
Jessika didn’t respond, only stared David down.
“You cost me my daughter!” he yelled.
“You lost your daughter the minute you decided to send her out into the wilderness to infect machines!” she yelled back. “Insane plan. It never would have worked! And if I hadn’t done something, she would have ended up like the rest of them. Alone, captured, or dead! I saved her.”
David stared at his ex-wife for a long time, then dropped his head. “I never wanted you to lose sight of who you were,” he finally said. “I wanted you
to be proud. To come from a family you could be proud of, instead of ashamed. It turns out,” he glanced up at Arista. “I did the exact same thing to you that was done to me. I’ve been fighting that shame my entire life. That ridicule. I didn’t want the same thing for you. I wanted you to say that you had a proud heritage, one that you could pass along to your children.”
“It isn’t what I wanted,” Arista said. “I don’t care about that.”
“I know. And maybe I knew that back then too. Maybe I was too enamored with the idea you could save our family’s reputation. I didn’t mean to lay all that on your shoulders. A father shouldn’t do that to his child.”
“No, they shouldn’t,” she said. She thought back to everything she’d been through. From those first terrifying days on the farm when she didn’t know who anyone was or even who she was to all the running, hiding and then her screw-up at Manheim and everything that followed. Everything she’d done that she never thought she’d have to do. “I haven’t always done things I’ve been proud of. And sometimes I used the excuse that because you two weren’t there it gave me a right I didn’t actually have.” She glanced at Frees. His features had softened. “I wanted to think humans were my enemy.” She turned to Jessika who gave her an encouraging smile. “But I don’t think that’s the case.” Finally, her eyes landed on Max’s body in the corner. “Everyone is different.”
“I want you to know I’m not ashamed of you. Of the person you’ve become,” David said. “Even though I carry a lot of that around in my life, none of it is for you.”
“Then how could you be willing to erase me from existence?” Arista asked.
“Because I lost sight of what was important.”
Jessika pursed her lips. “Yes. You did. Now can you shut this thing off or not?”
David took a deep breath and nodded. He looked up at Frees. “If you’ll be so kind.”