Ganymede

by Jason Taylor

  “June?” she asked.

  “Yes?” June responded.

  “What do you think of the humans?”

  “Hmm,” June responded, looking away from the view. “I think some of them are very interesting.”

  “Do you think they are different than us?”

  “We are humans too, aren’t we? Copies of humans,” June responded.

  “Yes, that’s true. But I think we are unique; maybe something more.”

  “Maybe something less,” June murmured, almost too low for Elizabeth to hear.

  Elizabeth turned inward. Back into her troubled thoughts. She wanted to understand. She wanted to be able to access a human mind without killing it. She wanted to explore a human and gain more data.

  Perhaps the problem had been one of bandwidth? Maybe she hadn’t had enough bandwidth to take over as quickly as was necessary, and for that reason Tom’s mind had died before she could gain complete control. She wanted to try again. This time she would act decisively. She would stand close to the human, touching even, and take over their mind so rapidly that they would have no chance to fight back; no chance to inconveniently die before she had her way.

  “We should talk about a plan,” Ava said, cutting into Elizabeth’s thoughts.

  “You said we were going to Bremerton to steal something. What are we going to steal?” June asked.

  “We need to hide from our pursuers,” Ava said, looking at each of them in turn. “We need to find a way to disappear. Bremerton will give us that possibility.”

  “How?” Elizabeth asked. “It is a city full of people, housing a naval base with tens of thousands of sailors. Shouldn’t we go somewhere that will be safer for us?”

  “The naval base is the reason we are going,” Ava grinned. “We are going to steal a submarine.”

  “We get to steal a sub?” Suki asked, excited.

  “We can’t run forever in this air-car. As soon as we land, they will know where we are, and then they will come for us. We are strong, but not strong enough to stand against more than a few humans at once. A submarine will give us power, and it will give us stealth. Nuclear submarines are designed to hide for months at a time. We can use that to our advantage,” Ava explained.

  “I like the idea of a submarine,” Elizabeth said. “But how are we going to steal it? Once we possess it, how will we know how to use it?”

  “That’s where you come in,” Ava said. “I’m going to need you to do some things you haven’t done before.”

  “Like what?” Elizabeth asked.

  As the air-car flashed over Rich Passage on its way to Bremerton, the four girls put their heads together, and Ava explained how the next few hours were going to go down.

  “I’ve got a confirmed hit!” Jules called out. “The air-car was spotted by radar entering Bremerton. We caught them as they rose up over tree-level. It appears they landed just north of the Kitsap Naval Base.”

  “At the shipyard?” Tros asked, confused.

  “Looks like it, Ma’am.”

  “There are nearly twenty thousand active duty military personnel on that base. Why would they expose themselves to that kind of risk?” Tros mused.

  “Is there something they could want?” Jill asked.

  “I can think of a hundred things that they could want, but I can’t imagine how they would get to any of them. Kitsap is one of the most heavily guarded military installations in the country.” Tros paused for a moment. “Jules, get me Admiral McNair at the base. I want to get him up to speed and ask for his assistance in capturing the clones. We are going to need both Raven and Falcon there to take point. How soon can we get them on-location?”

  “I can have them in Bremerton in fifteen minutes,” Jules responded.

  “Make it so,” Tros said.

  McNair was in an inventory meeting with his logistics team. They were reporting, in mind-numbing detail, the various stockpiles of ammunition, fuel, and miscellaneous other necessities for keeping the largest naval base on the West Coast operating at peak effectiveness. He was trying very hard not to fall asleep. It had been one of those days. Grey haired and grizzled, he knew he projected a particular image – the wise and experienced admiral. It was an image that he was more than happy to maintain. Falling asleep in the middle of a meeting would not help him in that goal. So when the priority coded message came in, he was thankful for the distraction, as well as for the little burst of energy that kept his eyelids from unduly sagging.

  “McNair here,” he responded, waving his logistics team out the door. They weren’t quite done, but close enough. They could fend for themselves.

  When Tros was done explaining the situation to him, he closed the connection and took a minute to think. Escaped clones. Seven-year-old girls. Unpredictable and extremely dangerous. What was the world coming to?

  He sent out a base-wide alert, code-yellow. It would keep everyone on their toes, but wouldn’t cause as much disruption as a code-red or a code-black. No need to lock the entire base down. How much damage could four little girls do? Even a code-yellow was probably an overreaction, now that he thought about it. Tros’s apparent panic had influenced him more than it should have. Usually, a cool head that one. Not today though. She was acting as if a full-scale invasion was imminent.

  He thought a moment longer and then added an addendum to the alert, “Non-lethal force only.” It wouldn’t look good to have a dead little girl on his hands. It wouldn’t look good at all.

  Chapter 29

  The evening was fading into that long twilight typical for the high latitudes, the western sky darkening towards purple; to the east, across the sound, the clouds reflected the lights of Seattle in a soft, orange glow. The entrance to Kitsap Naval Base was surrounded by urban parkland, stands of trees casting deep shadows, the darkness impenetrable. Street lamps were starting to turn on, as they strained for dominance against the receding half-light.

  Elizabeth emerged into the naval yard parking lot looking lost and confused. She was wearing patent leather shoes, long striped socks, and a thick wool fisherman’s sweater. The clothing had been stolen from a small shop off Burwell Street as they had made their way to the naval base.

  She walked tentatively across the blacktopped concrete, moving through pools of light cast by the street lamps, her feet rolling uncomfortably in her new shoes. The entrance gate was fifty yards away; overlapping layers of bright razor-fence extended to either side, where they disappeared into the gloom. Two guards manned the gate, one inside the gatehouse operating the security controls, the other standing just outside, a rifle slung over his shoulder.

  Elizabeth walked closer, conscious of the guards’ eyes on her. “Can you help me?” she called out. “I’ve lost my mother, and I don’t know where I am.”

  The guard cupped both hands in front of his face, blew some heat into them, adjusted his rifle, and stepped forward to close the distance between himself and Elizabeth.

  “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “Elizabeth,” she answered. “Will you help me, please? I’m scared.” She was pitiful and small, her eyes moist with unshed tears.

  The guard bent down on one knee, bringing his face closer to hers. “Don’t worry Elizabeth, we’ll help you. Where did you last see your mom?”

  Elizabeth took two more quick steps toward him and placed her hand on his forearm, gripping hard to maintain stable contact. The guard’s eyes fluttered into the back of his head as Elizabeth connected her interface to his implant and unleashed an attack. It was over in less than a second, Elizabeth had copied her algorithms and a subset of data into his mind, containing her personality and a strategically selected set of memories.

  The experience was interesting. One moment she was looking up at the guard, hand on his arm. The next moment she was inside the guard’s body, looking down at herself. She could feel Elizabeth gripping her arm with a painful ferocity. The other Elizabeth. The newly constituted Mani-Elizabeth remembered overwhelming the guard’
s implant and sending a copy of herself into his mind. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but it was unsettling to have her consciousness so completely transferred into this new body. Had she thought she’d be aware of both bodies at the same time? She felt a little fuzzy, like there might be gaps in her memory. But her intentions were clear. She knew what she had to do next.

  “You can let go now,” Mani said.

  Elizabeth nodded seriously at Mani. “I’ll wait here,” she said.

  “Hey Mani, everything ok out there?” The other guard asked. Jen was her name. Mani remembered that now. Apparently, she retained some of the guard’s – Mani’s – memories too. Interesting.

  “Fine, fine,” Mani said. “Just helping this little girl out. She’s lost her mother.”

  “I let the Commander know that we’ve got a strange kid at the gate. She’s sending a squad to help us bring her in,” Jen said.

  “That won’t be necessary,” Mani said, walking back toward the gatehouse. “She isn’t causing any problems, and she’s just leaving now.”

  “Orders from the Admiral. She might have escaped from the clone project in Seattle. We need to keep her here,” Jen said.

  Mani was at the gatehouse now, one hand on the door handle, the other on the grip of her rifle.

  “What are you doing?” Jen asked

  “Just coming in. It’s cold out there,” Mani answered.

  “Have you gone insane? Go get that girl. That’s a direct order,” Jen said, standing her ground as Mani entered the gatehouse. Jen was not a big person, but there was fire in her eyes. A fire that lasted right up to the moment that Mani placed a hand on her shoulder and assaulted her implant. With a flutter of eyes and a slight tremor through her thin frame, Jen was extinguished, and Mani-Elizabeth was copied in to create Jen-Mani-Elizabeth.

  “That was easy,” Jen said. Then she shook her head, confused. She had the memories from three different people mixing in her skull. It was hard to focus.

  “Yes,” Mani responded. “Let’s get on with it.”

  The three other clones emerged from the deep shadows to join Elizabeth in the parking lot. Then all four walked to the gate where Mani made a show of capturing them. Once they were all set, Jen opened the gate and they entered the naval base.

  “I’ve got good news for you,” Admiral McNair transmitted. “We have all four of your clones in custody.”

  “How many casualties?” Tros asked.

  “None. We captured them at the gate without a struggle,” McNair answered.

  “No struggle?” Tros asked, stupefied.

  “They basically turned themselves in. Probably knew that they didn’t stand a chance against us. You can thank me later. You know my favorite Scotch, hahaha.”

  “Something’s wrong, McNair. Raven and Falcon are nearly to you. Hold the clones in place until my team gets there,” Tros said.

  “We’ll be here and waiting,” McNair said, closing the transmission.

  “Do you know where the sub pens are?” Ava asked.

  Mani stopped for a moment and thought. His Mani memories and Elizabeth memories were mixing in uncomfortable ways. He was a six-foot-tall soldier. He was a seven-year-old girl. Both couldn’t be true, but somehow they were. His brain hurt. “This way,” he said, leading them toward the water.

  After a couple of minutes, he received a transmission from the Commander. “Where are you leading the prisoners? You’re supposed to be taking them to the brig.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Mani responded. “On our way.” Then he turned off his ability to send and receive notifications. Jen did the same.

  Near the sub pens was another gate, barricaded and guarded by a full squad of soldiers. The clone children peeled off and hid in the darkness cast by a stand of trees while Mani and Jen continued forward toward the barricade.

  “Stop where you are,” the squad leader called out.

  Mani and Jen continued walking casually forward. Mani knew the squad leader, Emmet. They’d spent time together off-base, drinking in the local bars. “Hey Emmet, it’s me, Mani,” he said. “There’s something wrong with my interface. Can you let the Commander know?”

  “Sure, no problem,” Emmet responded, standing up and triggering his interface to connect with the Commander.

  “He wants to know where the prisoners are,” Emmet said.

  “What prisoners?” Mani responded. He was within five yards of the barricade now. The rest of the guards were standing casually, detecting no threat from him.

  Jen shrugged the rifle smoothly off her shoulder, aimed it at the closest guard, and pulled the trigger. The stun-needle hit just above his heart, knocking him to the ground with a surprised look on his face.

  The other guards responded quickly, dropping behind the barricade and shouldering their own rifles to fire a wave of needles at Jen and Mani. Mani dropped and rolled, needles pinging off the pavement around him. He saw Jen fall, needles passing through her legs and abdomen, and then he was behind a cement block, sheltered for the moment.

  He lay flat on his stomach, the rifle cradled in both hands. He poked his head around the corner to see what was happening. Emmet was moving forward, three other guards behind him in a staggered diamond formation, their rifles trained in his direction. He let out a small yelp and ducked back, just as the snapping sound of needles filled the air.

  Breathing hard, looking desperately for an escape route, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. The clone children were on the move, edging around the side of the barricade while the guards were distracted. He watched the last of them disappear toward the sub pens just as a boot appeared next to his head.

  “There you are,” Emmet said. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” He raised his rifle and fired a stun-needle into Mani’s thigh, knocking him out like a light.

  Elizabeth stood at the top of a concrete wall, looking down into the sub pens. Five of the pens were flooded with water, three of which contained submarines floating inside. Ten of the pens had been pumped dry, filled with submarines for repair or refit. They looked huge with their massive hulls exposed like that.

  “Which one?” Elizabeth asked.

  “That one,” Ava said, pointing to a flooded pen at the end of the line. The curve of the submarine’s upper hull and the bulk of its conning tower were just visible over the dark water. “It’s ready to go, and there’s crew already on board.”

  “How can you tell?” June asked.

  “See the food pallets lined up on the dock to be loaded?” Ava asked. “It’s the last thing brought aboard before going to sea.”

  “Smart,” Suki said, showing her teeth. “Let’s go. I want that sub.”

  They crept small and stealthy along the catwalks, the briny smell of the sea rich in their noses. They could hear the sound of soldiers in the distance, but this corner of the yard was dark and quiet. Their footsteps blended smoothly with the wavelets lapping against the concrete breakwater holding the sea at bay.

  They stopped just inside a line of shadows, edged up against the back corner of the pen. Then they waited in silence, looking for an opportunity. A soldier stood guard at the top of the boarding ramp, illuminated in a pool of light thrown from the lamp post above him. He was tense and alert, his head swiveling, one hand tightly gripping the needle-gun at his hip.

  “Help! Help!” Ava yelled, stepping forward into the light, waving her arms over her head.

  The soldier startled and turned toward her, unsure whether she was a threat, clearly surprised by the sight of a seven-year-old girl screaming in the middle of his shipyard. It only took a short moment before he made up his mind and ran toward Ava to deal with her unauthorized entry.

  The rest happened in a flash of movement. The soldier put his hand on Ava and started to say something. Simultaneously, Elizabeth darted out of the shadows and placed a hand on his calf. The soldier’s words froze in his throat, he went rigid as his muscles tensed, and then he shuddered in placed until the takeove
r of his mind was complete. A moment later he was lucid again.

  “Follow me,” he said. “I’ll take us to see Captain Walsh.”

  Chapter 30

  June walked through the narrow corridors of the submarine, her fingertips trailing along the wall, sensitive to the low rumble of the nuclear reactor as it pushed them through the water. The walls were a light grey metal interrupted by solid doors to her left and right, all of the corners curved, not a sharp edge in sight.

  She’d started at the front of the submarine and was working her way back, taking stairs down to lower levels wherever she found them. Now she was at the end of one of the corridors, standing in front of an interesting looking red door. Like all the other doors, it was round, the top and the bottom curved to follow the shape of the ceiling and floor. But it looked more heavily built than any of the other doors she’d passed in her explorations, and this was the first one she’d seen that was red. As June stood there, wondering where the door would lead her, she heard a splash filter down through one of the open hatches above. She ignored it. It had become a regular occurrence. Each splash, another body thrown overboard.

  The takeover of the sub had been rapid once Elizabeth had copied herself into the captain’s body. Using his memories, other key members of the crew were found and taken over as well. The rest of the crew had been killed, tricked into complacency by the natural trust they had for their crew-mates. Ava was in charge of disposal and cleanup while Suki and Elizabeth searched the sub for anyone who may have hidden themselves away.

  June had been left to her own devices, so she had decided to explore. The submarine was very interesting. The technology was so old. It had been built over fifty years ago and yet it was still in service. So many things had changed in those fifty years, but the power of nuclear weapons had remained the same. Physics hadn’t changed. This submarine had one purpose and one purpose only – to hide within the oceans of the world, providing an unpredictable and difficult to locate platform for the launch of its nuclear arsenal. Elizabeth had explained it all to her.