by J D Huffman
Demeter’s voice reached Sasha more clearly, as if he’d come closer to the other comm panel. “What do I tell him?”
“Short in the power system,” Sasha advised. “Not fixed yet. We’re working on it. Driscoll’s working on it. Tell him that.”
He passed the message along. “We have a short in our power system. We lost main power for a while. Most of it is back up. Driscoll is in the reactor room, assisting with repairs.”
“That doesn’t sound like Driscoll. It must be quite bad.”
“Yeah, a very pesky short. Took a while to find. Taking a little longer to fix. I apologize for not having the most detailed information. It’s a little hectic up here, and I’m new.”
The Totality on the other end of the connection laughed heartily. “Ah, that explains a lot. You even apologized. Is this your first body?”
“I…” His hesitation told Sasha he didn’t know what that meant. Neither did she, for that matter. “Yes,” he finally answered.
“You’ll figure it out soon, don’t worry. In my day, we used to apprentice new Totality so they could get used to their bodies. What’re they doing now, dumping you poor babies out in the middle of nowhere?”
“More or less,” Demeter played along.
“Well, like I was saying, don’t apologize. Cylence hates that kind of deferential behavior, and so does Driscoll, if he’s not changed much since I saw him last.”
“Oh, yeah, he’s the same old Driscoll,” Demeter laughed.
“Alright, I’ll leave you lot to your repairs and pass along the message to the other outposts so they don’t bother you. Last thing Driscoll would want is a bunch of us taunting him about his power outage. Man’s got a lot of pride, you know.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” Demeter agreed, as if he knew.
“Outpost #9 signing off.”
Demeter spoke directly to Sasha again. “I hope I don’t have to repeat a performance like that anytime soon.”
“Agreed. Now that you’ve placated the Totality, get the mining units open. I want everyone out. Send an announcement for everyone to assemble in the Totality mess hall in an hour. Send someone to each group to lead them there. I don’t want anyone to miss it. Give out reminders every ten minutes—it’s not like any of us are used to telling time after being underground for so long.”
Demeter agreed to her instructions. She next went to Fred. “I’m going to survey the damage.” And collect my thoughts.
The troll nodded and she left him and Janus to whatever work was left in the powerplant. She knew Fred would put Janus to work if needed, and also wouldn’t let Janus run free around the complex. Fred would do it in his usual, genial way, finding excuses to keep the man around, busy, and out of Sasha’s sight. With the interior of the complex fully illuminated again, Sasha began to get a sense of how badly it was compromised. Floors, walls, and ceilings all suffered serious damage. There were dents and holes all over the place from roving firefights. The damage was contained to limited areas of the facility, but if they had visitors—and they soon would—it would be necessary to keep them away from the affected areas. But then there was William’s ship, too, and whatever destruction it had wrought. If he’s caused too much damage on the surface, there’s no way we can sell this as a power malfunction. We’ll have to come up with an entirely different story for the cargo train, and hope they don’t contact the other outposts. That means a perfect deception. We’ll have to pretend to be Totality ourselves. But that also means I have to stay out of sight. No one’s ever seen a female Totality—if they even exist—and it would be far too suspicious if one appeared now. I wonder what that other Totality meant with talk of Demeter’s “first body.” Can they change bodies? When we kill them, they don’t actually die? Then where do they go? Do they remember everything? What if they go somewhere they can tell other Totality about what happened here? The thought terrified her. What if our revolt is doomed right as it’s just begun?
Chapter 12
Damage Control
Sasha thought about what she would say even though she didn’t have much time to ponder it. The assembly was set to begin in a few minutes and the slaves packed into the Totality mess hall looked restless. She spied them from a window inside the food preparation area, where she understood slaves were rotated through and allowed to work in the kitchen as an alternative to mine labor. No one in her unit had ever been called up for such duty and she could only guess it was due to her unit always meeting or exceeding quota. Why move us up to the kitchen if we’re doing a good job mining? No sense breaking up a well-functioning unit. It didn’t escape her attention that the Totality got to eat real food: meat and vegetables shipped in from offworld, prepared and cooked into meals that surely tasted better than the processed slurry they got from the food dispensary. A panel near some of cooking appliances related a series of recipes that could be drawn upon for various preparations, some of which sounded absolutely delicious to her rumbling stomach. I can worry about eating later. Everyone’s expecting me to say something. I set myself up for this—I can’t exactly let them down.
When the time came, she emerged from the kitchen and stepped onto one of the long tables that had served the Totality during their meal breaks. Several such tables were arranged parallel to one another, filling the length of the mess hall. A couple hundred slaves were packed in, some of them sitting on the benches attached to the tables, many standing or leaning against the walls, and some sitting or lying along the floor. This room had been mostly untouched by the combat that took place elsewhere, so she was thankful that the already tight space wasn’t further compromised by, say, having a huge hole blown in one of the walls. Her eyes moved across the many faces of her fellow slaves, almost none of whom she’d met or interacted with. She’d never stood in front of a large group of people and spoken to them. I don’t know how to write a speech, much less deliver one. But I have to try.
She pushed down the anxiety and began to speak, pacing along the length of the table and turning occasionally to make eye contact with different parts of the room. “Anyone who can understand me, please raise your hand.” She watched as a great majority of those present complied. She noticed many who didn’t, however. “Look at the people around you. Anyone who doesn’t have a hand up, if you know their language, please repeat what I’m saying so they can hear it, too. I don’t want anyone to be left out.” She caught eyes darting left and right, people exchanging confused and skeptical glances, but all she could do was hope her words would be translated faithfully to those not fluent in the language she spoke—the curious amalgamation of languages and dialects spoken in her mining unit, which was present before she arrived and taught to her by Fred as the “slave tongue.” It was an imprecise and eclectic form, less than ideal for a public address, but it had to suffice.
“What binds us all together is the fact that the Totality enslaved us. Whatever else we are, wherever else we came from, that’s what we have in common. We were subjugated, abused, controlled by these creatures. But now, they’re gone. We’ve killed the Totality in this outpost and taken control of it. I wish I could tell you that the hard part is over. The fact is, this is only the beginning of something bigger.
“The Totality will never accept this state of affairs. We have begun something that can only end one of two ways: with our destruction, or theirs. If we could negotiate with the Totality, they wouldn’t have enslaved us in the first place. They are our enemy, wherever we encounter them. You may not agree with the fact that we’ve taken up arms against them. That is your right. I will not force anyone to fight against their will. I will ask that you give us a chance to prove ourselves, and give us time to figure things out.
“In a few days, a cargo train will arrive at this outpost to offload supplies and take on a shipment of ternium fulsenide crystals—the products of our labor. It is my intention that we take these ships for ourselves and u
se them to escape Actis. We will obtain more weapons, free more slaves, and destroy Totality infrastructure anywhere we can. We must break their ability to kill and enslave us.
“Thanks to the damage inflicted on this facility during our uprising, we have a lot of cleanup work to do. Again, we will be accepting volunteers to assist with this. There’s wreckage on the surface that needs to be cleared, and interior damage that we must do our best to patch up. Once the cargo train is here, we’ll need healthy, able-bodied men who can masquerade as Totality. We’ll give the impression that nothing is amiss. As each cargo ship docks and offloads its cargo, we’ll take control of it, put some of our own people aboard, and give the appearance that everything is going smoothly. By the end, we’ll have full possession of the cargo train and we won’t be tied to this facility anymore.
“The supplies being delivered by the cargo train should provide enough food to sustain us for a while. We’ll find more. We’ll take it however we need to. We’ll fight, and we’ll survive. I’ve fought too hard to give up now. And I’m fighting for all of you. I can promise you that, wherever we fight, you will see me out in front, fighting right there with you. I don’t expect others to die for me. It’s more likely I will die for you. As long as those who survive me keep fighting, it won’t have been in vain.
“So, what I am asking you to do is join me. Join us. Help us clean up the mess from today’s fighting, help us deceive the cargo train when it arrives, help us take control of it, and leave this planet with us so we can spread our rebellion—our revolution—to other worlds.”
She scanned the room again, watching their reactions. No one applauded. She saw some smiles, but a lot of fear. Eyes cast down, eyes avoiding hers, people whispering in each other’s ears—translating, or gossiping? She didn’t know, though she knew which one she hoped for. I won’t promise these people anything I can’t give them. They have to be willing to fight, or we’ll never make it off this planet. After giving them a moment to digest what she’d said, she spoke again, this time focusing on more immediate details.
“Many of you are probably tired, hungry, sick, or injured. It will take us a little time to accommodate everyone but I promise you that we will. If you need immediate attention, please line up near the kitchen.” She gestured toward the wide window behind her where the Totality were served their food. “Gather here, and you will be evaluated one by one to see what you need and how quickly we can provide it. If you have any medical skills or training, come to the table I’m standing on.” She pointed down with both hands to make the point clear. “We’ll need all the help we can get. The infirmary isn’t large—any of you who’ve been there certainly know that—so it may take a while to get you in there. We’ll do the best we can. We could also use some volunteers for the kitchen. I’m sure many of you are hungry and would like a cooked meal, for once. If I can get six volunteers, I think that would be enough to start. I don’t care if you want to snack while you prepare food for everyone else, just don’t overdo it. If you’re interested, please go into the kitchen and get started. Fred will be in charge to make sure there’s no hoarding of food—we need to make sure there’s enough for everyone, so be considerate.”
She received a large number of volunteers for the kitchen, almost certainly due to the snacking privilege she mentioned. That was exactly why she offered up such an enticement. Fred barricaded the doorway with his body and only allowed the first six in. Sasha looked to the disheartened volunteers who didn’t make it. “Don’t worry, you’ll all get a chance to help later. Food preparation will start immediately and continue until everyone’s had a good meal. When the first group gets tired, they can rotate out and six more of you can go in.” She hoped her words were enough to placate them. She knew people could riot over nearly any perceived injustice, and being forced to wait for food was a particularly volatile trigger. She found herself morbidly grateful for the ways in which the Totality had subdued them and broken their wills. It’s ironic that I’m now relying on their Totality-instilled subservience to keep order. It won’t last—I know that—and I need to make sure we have something in place to keep the peace once they start to realize that this situation isn’t temporary. The Totality are gone. They’re free. They’ll always be free, if I have anything to say about it. Once they figure that out, who knows how they’ll react? Some may turn to despair, or violence, or even try to give us up to the enemy. It was a heavy responsibility, and she was far from comfortable managing a group of disparate humans who were likely to become unruly for lack of an established social order. The Totality had a system, and one that worked quite effectively, for what it was. Revolts were, she assumed, rare. Successful ones, even more so. To build a new human civilization out of a revolt on a remote mining planet? She dared not consider the odds for fear of falling into despair herself.
Everything proceeded in an orderly fashion, at least initially. Janus was put to work evaluating those who claimed to need immediate help, Sasha having decided that his administrative experience would be useful in helping to make decisions quickly. She watched him prioritize people for the food line as well as the infirmary, deciding who could eat first, who would receive medical attention first. Minor arguments cropped up which she quelled with patience and kind words. These were not strong skills for her, but she found that invoking a kindly voice, making eye contact, and lightly touching people’s arms and shoulders seemed to calm them. It occurred to her that it was the quality of behaving in a motherly fashion to defuse the tension. She didn’t like that at all, yet saw no other realistic options. I’ll play the part if that’s what it takes to get through this, she told herself. I’ll pretend to be their mother figure, their friend, their confidante, whatever they need so they’ll keep calm and not explode into violence. The last thing we need is a revolt within our revolt. The Totality are, without a doubt, our greatest enemy. But if we’re not careful, we’ll be nearly as dangerous to ourselves.
Sasha went up to the general operations center, where Demeter was still managing the facility to the extent possible from that location. She sidled up next to him, glancing over his shoulder. “How’s the damage assessment coming?”
He sighed, his shoulders drooping. “It’s bad. You told William to cause a diversion, and he caused a diversion. The surface is a disaster. Three of the six surface-to-air cannons were destroyed. The others have light damage. Holes were punched in the roofs of the food storage building, the crystal processing plant, and the Totality living quarters. The main communications array works well enough to keep up the carrier signal the other outposts expect, but part of the array looks to be damaged because I can’t pick up long-range signals.”
“What sorts of long-range signals would you be expecting?” she asked, puzzled.
He shrugged. “The Totality run a large empire, don’t they? There should be interplanetary and interstellar communications traffic. I’m from a planet that doesn’t even have faster-than-light ships or communications methods, and we still send signals to and from our offworld colonies.”
“Oh? How many of those did you have?”
“By the time the Totality picked me up? None. They destroyed our last and most recent colony.”
She frowned. “Did they destroy the others, too?”
“I don’t know. It’s possible. We lost contact with them. Every time we established a colony, after a year or two we’d lose contact. The next time a ship arrived, it would look like someone tore the place apart. We didn’t know if the colonies just fell into civil war or if something else happened. Based on what I know now, of course, I’d have to say the Totality were involved.”
“Seems like a safe assumption,” she agreed. “So, the damage you found, is any of it going to affect our ability to hijack the cargo train?”
He shook his head. “No, the docking area managed to come out of this unscathed. They’ll be able to dock without a problem. I was thinking about what to tell them, by the
way.”
“Go on?”
“I think, with a little help from the cannons, we can make it look like an out-of-control crystal fire reached the surface and caused the damage that’s visible from above. I read some of the operational specifications on the remaining cannons and they can be set to scorch and burn rather than pierce and incinerate. We can give the appearance that those towers fell victim to a raging fire.”
She liked this idea, and immediately began building on it. “We can use it to explain why large parts of the facility are inaccessible, too. They’re under repairs and too dangerous to traverse.”
“Exactly. If a fire spread enough to reach the surface, it would have destroyed at least one mining unit, possibly more. That’s a very serious fire.”
She started looking for holes in this explanation. I don’t know how skeptical the Totality are, but we can’t afford to take chances. This story needs to be as airtight as possible. “What about the system they use to seal off mining areas when there’s a fire?”
“I don’t know. No system can be perfect, can it? What if the powerplant malfunction you made up earlier is still part of our story? That happened, and a fire broke out around the same time, so we were unable to contain it and it spread so far it damaged the surface cannon emplacements.”
She didn’t have a better idea, so she decided to go with that. “Sure, let’s use that, for now. Do you think it’s possible to patch the holes you mentioned?”
“Definitely. There’s patching material in the construction shed. Inventory says they have a bulldozer, too. Once the wreckage from William’s ship is cleared, we can use that to even out the ground so they can’t tell a ship was crashed there. Somebody will have to dump snow on it after, to completely hide it.”
I wonder how hard it will be to find people willing to do this work. I just freed them from the Totality, but what’s the point if I have to all but enslave them again so we can survive? The difference is, I’ll be asking for volunteers instead of forcing them. But what if no one does? She sighed audibly. I’ll do it myself if I have to, she resolved. “I think your plan sounds good,” she praised, even if she wasn’t fully convinced it would work. Too many things could go wrong, and she wasn’t even done planning, much less executing.