Sidekick

by Carl Stubblefield

“We should be there in about an hour. We are approaching the origin of the signal, but my orders were to maintain a distance of at least fifty miles, find an island nearby, and you would proceed from there,” a quavering voice replied, obviously wary of provoking whomever was talking to him.

  “Fifty miles? That’s a bit far, but I guess I’ll make do,” the voice agreed, grumbling.

  “There is a chain of islands in this area, so we should have a lot to pick from, sir.”

  “Good, at least there’s that. Patch me into shipwide comms.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Okay, everyone, report to the bridge. I’m going to go over the mission ops and how we’re going to play this. Touchdown is in an hour, so be ready. Basileus, out.”

  A short time later, the crew rolled in. Aurora accidentally sniffed a dust bunny up her nose and massaged her nostrils in an attempt to stay silent. She looked at her gray, dirty hand in disgust as she pulled it away.

  “Everyone here? Good. Alright, like you may know, we don’t really know everything about the situation we are going into, so we’re going to have Fade and Sideshift do our reconnaissance on the island. You two are not to engage, got it? I want to know what the situation is, estimated numbers, and types of defenses we can expect. The tech should be around fifty years old, but they may have come up with something new in the time they’ve been off the grid, so don’t get sloppy and keep your eyes open. Plus, we need to be quick about it before the Factions get wind of what we’ve found; we know Purple had a special interest in our target.”

  The twinge returned and Aurora buried her nose in her shoulder. If she sneezed, everyone would know. She took silent gulps of air through her mouth, blowing out her nose in an attempt to dislodge the offending particles.

  “Based on what they find, we may go in quickly or in waves. I personally doubt there will be as much opposition as what you may have been briefed on. One more thing: there may be some infected individuals still on the island. If this is the case and you see anyone, do not allow them to have any physical contact. Shoot for the head and get out. If you have no ranged attacks, fall back and we’ll have our augments take care of business. Any questions? No? Then, dismissed.”

  Basileus gestured, calling Fade and Sideshift over to him. The woman and man came closer and Basileus’ voice dropped to a whisper. “You share your findings with me and only me, got it? I’ll determine what the plan needs to be. All three of us know some of these mercs are volatile. I need them though, and I can’t have anyone buggering out before this mission is done. There’ll be something extra for you two if you can handle that. Deal?” He looked at them and they both nodded. “Good. Remember, stay out of sight. They should never know you were there.”

  The supers left and Aurora was curious, having heard the entire surreptitious conversation. What were these guys so interested in on the island? If they were willing to torture her for as long as they had, it must be important. Feeling the impulse to sneeze arise again, she retreated back down the duct and down the ladder. By the time she got to where she’d napped, the sneezing sensation totally abated. Typical.

  Whatever they were looking for must be important to Purple Faction, if the two were connected. They had been running focused scans for a while and Graviton had not really given her any rationale, just that they had noticed some ‘suspicious activity.’ It had sounded contrived to her at the time, but she was not one to question authority. Becoming a lieutenant was a big promotion for her and she didn’t want to come off as antagonistic on her first mission in that role.

  The attack on the station was really surprising though. They had no warning and were caught totally flat-footed. That idiot Basileus had killed Graviton, and he was probably the only one who really knew what was going on. She shivered a bit, knowing he’d been about to kill her just a little while ago.

  Something was wrong with that guy. Like, sociopath level wrong. If he was into something, it was something that she needed to stop. And since the enemy of her enemy was her friend, she made a plan to get to this mysterious island and befriend whoever was there. She would have to get in contact with Purple Faction before she left the ship though. Let them know she was alive and where to find her. Fortunately, she had everything she needed right here.

  Popping open a panel, she slid out a tiny keypad connected with a rainbow-colored strip of wire. A tiny grayscale monitor came on and she sent out her message, timing it to go out with any other burst communications to mask its presence.

  That done, she made her way back to the access hatch. She could tell when they were firing landing stabilizers and when the ship settled as it landed, bouncing slightly as the supports absorbed the ship’s weight, followed by a jarring thud as the engines powered down.

  In short order, two underlings hit a large button and the hatch yawned open. She would simply follow these supers and figure out what the hell was going on at long last.

  “Let’s get this crap unloaded, the boss says once we’re done, we can relax on the beach a bit,” one of the grunts suggested.

  “Good, we deserve some downtime,” the other agreed. They efficiently pulled large rectangular crates out to the sandy ground below. Half an hour later, their voices dimmed as they headed off to the distance for their R&R.

  Aurora peeked out of her hatchway and made it off the ship to hide in some nearby ground cover. As soon as the coast was clear, she put some distance between her and the landing site, maintaining a visual on the LZ. Soon after getting in position and settling down to wait, a small group of supers began filing out. They conversed among themselves, consulting a device and pointing off to the south. Two of the supers lifted off and began to fly in the same direction, while the remaining supers returned back into the ship.

  She recognized them as Fade and Sideshift from the bridge. Perfect. Giving enough of a lead, Aurora followed. Her flight abilities were not nearly as developed as she would like, but she could hover fairly easily. She headed out after the supers, occasionally getting sprayed by an errant wave as she tried to stay as close to the water as she dared.

  The supers were making a beeline to a nearby island, and when they came to two miles away from it, they disappeared. Trusting that they wouldn’t change trajectory, she made her way to the island.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Geek Out

  Aurora waved at the tiny camera and waited by the door. She could tell by the way it panned left that she had been seen. Could it really be Gus on the island though? She had kept her distance as the two went into stealth mode and was surprised to see someone tracking them. She was even more shocked to see that it was Gus or someone who looked exactly like him. Apparently, he must have made it off the station in one of the escape pods. He’d been right in front of one when everything went down.

  She followed him as he crept along the beach path, trying to stay out of sight. The sight of the huge resort-like building was a surprise, and definitely not what she was expecting from what she had heard about this island. Gus sat staring at something above the patio in front of the building for a long time, so she hid and watched the same spot but saw nothing.

  Aurora maintained her position and kept looking to see what Gus apparently saw. They must be in stealth nearby. She didn’t hear anything, but he must have been spooked since he took off into the jungle for no apparent reason. Aurora almost followed, but not knowing where the others were could give away her position. So she waited.

  Half an hour later it happened. The window above them opened and Gus snuck out onto the balcony. He jumped down to the patio, literally getting the drop on the two. They materialized immediately when he startled them and they crashed through the terracotta tiles that covered the patio. They all fell ass-over-teakettle and scuffled a bit until somehow Gus subdued the two. Something had changed with Gus, because he somehow levitated their unconscious bodies and went back inside the large building.

  Curiosity got the better of her and she just had to get some answers. G
us could fill her in on what the big deal was and why so many people were interested in what was going on here.

  She couldn’t see through the mirrored doors and waited there; sure he would be alerted she was there soon enough.

  Gus soon threw one of the doors open. “Hey, it’s you… you survived!” he said awkwardly. He saw her vivid sea-green eyes widen at his sudden appearance.

  Amazing, he thought, transfixed momentarily. Gus barely pulled his eyes away before his stare got to the uncomfortable stage, and scratched the back of his head.

  “You did too, congratulations.” She looked around furtively. “May I come inside? I don’t think there’s anyone else coming right yet, but I’d rather they know as little about us here as possible.”

  “Oh yeah, sure, come on in,” he said, leaning out and trying to hold the door like a gentleman but getting more in the way than making it easier for her to enter. “Are you hungry? I haven’t eaten yet and we have a cafeteria…”

  Aurora couldn’t remember the last time she ate a normal meal, and her stomach growled its assent. “Some food sounds great. Lead the way.” Gus seemed happy to see her but also tense and on edge. “So Gus, I saw you take down those supers just now. Obviously, a lot has gone on with you. With me as well, to be honest. I came in on the transport that brought the other supers to a nearby island.”

  “Really? How many are there?”

  “A lot, unfortunately.” Gus’ shoulders slumped at the news. Aurora pressed on. “So who should go first with their story, me or you?”

  They arrived at the cafeteria and a robot came and assessed them. It headed back into the kitchen as the two sat down. “I guess I can go first. What do you want to know?” Gus asked.

  “Why don’t you start with the powers? That’s pretty new. Did you always have them and just chose to be a janitor?”

  “I wasn’t a janitor.” His face soured at the thought that that was how he’d been perceived. “I was a henchman, but I did seem to get custodial more than everyone else. That may be partly my fault. I really didn’t know anyone and kept to myself rather than getting to know the other henchmen; they all had their established cliques and I didn’t expect to be on the station long enough to really make the effort worthwhile.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend.”

  Gus waved it away. “For all intents and purposes, I was a janitor. Anyway, you might have seen me jump into the escape pod. Maybe not. You had your hands full.” Gus flushed a bit, hoping she didn’t remember it was his barf she’d had to deal with.

  Who am I kidding, how could anyone forget that? He hurried on, hoping the topic wouldn’t arise. “I managed to get into one of the space suits and crash landed. The pod was destroyed and I got pretty beat up in the process. The suit was equipped with Nth who kept me alive and repaired a lot of the damage. And that was the day my powers came.”

  “Did he just say Nth?” the voice in Aurora’s head asked.

  Not wanting to seem crazy for talking to herself, she decided to ask Gus herself. “What are Nth?”

  “What do you mean? You’re a super, don’t you talk to your Nth?”

  “I don’t know what the hell Nth are!”

  “Oh, really? How is that possible? I guess they’re extraterrestrial nanobots that help the highest lifeforms on a planet evolve and develop abilities using a game-like interface. Does that sum it up accurately, Nick?”

  “Oooh, I see what he did there. N-I-C for Nick. I like this guy,” the voice in Aurora’s head cooed.

  “Gus, do you ever hear voices? Ones that talk to you about your powers?” Aurora asked tentatively.

  “Yeah, I thought everyone with powers did, but Nick told me that some places train supers not to listen to their Nth interface, which limits how much they can help their hosts.”

  “Oh, whoever could he be talking about?” the female voice asked, irritating Aurora. On one hand, it was a relief to hear that she wasn’t cracked in the head, but she worried if she could get along with this personality in her head.

  “How do you get along with Nick?” Aurora pressed.

  “Oh, he’s great. He busts my balls sometimes, but I wouldn’t have leveled and gained skills if I didn’t have him around.” He suddenly turned red. “Sorry if that was offensive.”

  Aurora waved it away. “You don’t have to be formal around me. That’s nothing compared to the average conversation at the academy. But getting back on topic. How does Nick help you? I just escaped a sociopath’s torture dungeon and only because of that experience was I able to reconnect with my Nth, as you call it. I have been using my powers for years without even knowing about an Nth, so what does it do for you?” She leaned forward, intent on the answer.

  “For one, he’s answered a ton of questions. There’s a lot of things regs think they know about supers that are totally wrong. And maybe that is done on purpose. He’s taught me a lot of things, both how to survive on this island all alone, and to develop some skills. He even helped me get my head straight when the zombies took the manor. Sometimes he leaves me alone to figure out things, but it’s been—”

  “Wait, zombies?” Aurora threw her hands up. “Okay, why don’t we start at the beginning and explain what’s happened since the station to each of us and I think that’ll answer a lot of questions along the way. You go first, your story sounds much more interesting than mine.”

  Gus started his tale and the robot waiter returned with two plates of food.

  Aurora was a little disappointed that it was fish, as she wasn’t a big fan of seafood in general. After one bite though, she changed her mind. It had the texture of fish, but the flavor was something else altogether. She ate mechanically as Gus explained the crash, getting out of the suit, developing powers, finding the manor, training and fighting zombies, and eventually defeating Methiochos and lowering the bio-stasis field. She barely noticed she had eaten everything by the time he had finished. He then recounted what happened with the pirates and the two supers and how he took their powers.

  She, in turn, recounted her considerably shorter tale of how the supers on the ship ganged up on her, and Mercurio wrapped her up while Slipstream jabbed a needle in her neck and she passed out. When she awoke, she was chained to the wall. They interrogated her and tortured her, then left her alone. Once a day someone would come in and feed her some flavorless gelatin-like material and leave. She recounted how she finally heard her Nth and escaped, and eventually made it to the island.

  “So you’ve never even known you had Nth the whole time you had powers? That kind of blows my mind. How did you get them in the first place?”

  “My Nth recently showed me a memory I had avoided when my mother died. I think I inherited hers.”

  “Yikes, that’s heavy. I’m sorry your mom passed,” Gus said, feeling awkward for bringing up the obviously touchy subject.

  “Don’t be. I’ve gotten over it; she was never really there for me. I guess she taught me to survive, if indirectly. Altogether it was a pretty difficult time though, so yeah. I’ve avoided thinking about it for so long it almost seems like it happened to a different person. Walled it off so it couldn’t hurt me anymore. My life totally sucked until I entered the academy. Then things changed for me; it was like a dream come true.”

  “So how does the academy work? Do they pick a skill and you level it, or what? I’m kind of home-schooled, so I don’t know how most supers use their powers.”

  “What do you mean ‘level’? We do drills, spar, and try to improve skills, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Well, right now I’m level fifteen. My skill levels are all over the place, but most are in the first-to-fourth level range. I have been on such a time-crunch in the last weeks that I haven’t really followed a plan to improve my abilities.”

  Aurora sat there blinking, her expression clearly confused, but she didn’t say anything, so Gus continued.

  “Well, if you don’t know your level, how much HP do you have? I have to check my
logs for a level to register and for me to get points to increase stats though, just so it doesn’t distract me while in a fight.”

  “HP? I don’t know exactly, I can’t really see my own, just others when I spar or fight with them.”

  “You can’t see your own? My display has all sorts of bars, tabs, and filters. I know my MP, HP, Stamina, which is super helpful during battles. I can see my opponent’s stats too but I haven’t leveled up my Wreckognize skill that much. Are you telling me you don’t even have a display?”

  “That is partially my fault, dear,” the voice in Aurora’s head said hesitantly. “It took me quite a while to recalibrate after your mother, and I didn’t interface with you as is typical with most Nth. There were a lot of things that got missed. All the Nth have an innate sensing ability that allows their host to scan and evaluate how healthy an opponent is, but I’m afraid that I have let you down in other ways. By the time I was back to myself, you had already entered the academy and I never had a chance to share that.”

  “That was two years after!” Aurora said indignantly.

  Gus jumped at the outburst until he realized that he wasn’t the object of her anger. He relaxed, contemplating how he appeared when having an in-depth conversation with Nick.

  “We had to make a lot of changes and wipes to avoid transferring any of your mother’s behaviors to you. Even your powers are different than hers. She was a Psi-bender, did you know that?”

  “No… I feel like I barely knew her,” she whispered, almost in a daze.

  “Are you okay?” Gus asked, obviously concerned.

  Aurora nodded, still thinking about the past and missed opportunities. Surprised that a tear had fallen on her cheek unbidden. “Well, what can be done now?” she asked aloud.

  Gus started to answer, thinking she was talking to him when her pupils dilated extremely wide, and Aurora saw. Gus stopped mid-word as he noticed her reaction. “What are you seeing?”

  “Around the periphery of my vision there are intricate, curved designs. Tracing filled with delicate lace-like decorations. I don’t know why, but I understand what they mean, like I’ve always known.”