“A long look in the pond’s mirror can teach us much about ourselves.”
“What is that supposed to mea- wait, are you saying you wanted me to think I was crazy so I’d reflect more on my thoughts? You know what, never mind, I don’t even want to know. The important thing is that following my instincts actually paid off. This is the first time I’ve really felt like myself since, well, since before I woke up on the Chesed.”
Legba’s gaze fell mournfully to his lap. “Ah yes, the Chesed. Such adventures that ship has seen. If only its engines could speak.” He used a short-handled ladle to move the pot off the fire and dipped into it to fill a small cup. “I will miss this. I regret so much that we had such a short time, and not just because of your training.”
Bentley glanced up, suddenly alert. “Short time? What, I’m done? But I don’t even know what that thing does!” She waggled her hand at the sword.
Legba sighed and stroked his short beard, the steam from the tea making a wreath around his head. “Yes, but I’m afraid we are needed elsewhere. Amroth and the LaPlacian fleet converge on our friends, and your destiny may pass you up if we do not act now.”
She narrowed her eyes. “There you go with that destiny shit again,” she muttered, but her mind was already racing on the new matter at hand.
Fuck. It’s my fault Amroth found the android base, I know it must be. They were safe for years before I showed up.
“Do you not feel it is part of your destiny to protect your friends?”
Bentley threw up her hands. “Of course I want to help them. What kind of question is that? But we’re stuck way out here in the middle of deep space because you had to drag me on this cloak-and-dagger wild goose chase.”
“This training was necessary,” he replied in a calm voice. “And this place was essential to your training. One day you will understand, if you pay close enough attention to the details.” He held out the little earthenware cup. “Drink this.”
Bentley took the cup and held it. “How can this be part of my destiny?” she chuckled lightly out of sheer frustration. “My friends are in trouble, probably about to die, and I’m not even there to help them.”
Legba raised an eyebrow, and then stood up and dusted off his pants and turned to leave the cave.
“Where are you going?” Bentley demanded, scrambling to her feet.
“Our friends may die, yes…” Legba conceded, “but if so, then we will die by their sides.”
+++
QX849-LF, Dead Rock, Deep Space
The dead air of the little rock felt especially thin as they stood together on the hard-cracked ground. Legba had positioned them in a flat area halfway between the pod and the cavern. Bentley had still not drunk the steaming tea she carried in one hand. Her other hand loosely clasped the sword, the flat of the blade resting comfortably along her shoulder. Svend merely looked on in curiosity.
“Bentley, drink your tea,” Legba repeated. “It will taste even worse once it’s cold, and it’ll become far less potent.”
“Why do I need tea?” she demanded. “Neither of you have tea.”
Legba stepped between them and glanced around as if checking angles for a gunfight. He raised his hands and looked between them, gauging distance.
“We are about to embark upon an extremely strenuous journey. Svend’s synthetic body should handle it adequately, and I am quite used to such things, but I fear the sheer force of it could cause you injury. The tea is a simple cosmic elixir that should help you to adapt.”
“Adapt to what?” she pressed. “We should be on the pod, maybe we can still get back in time to make a difference. If Amroth initiates a siege rather than attacking all out-”
“The attack is in full force,” Legba told her confidently. “We would witness nothing but the wreckage if we travel by pod.” He panned his hands around to look at her.
“What do you mean if we travel by pod? There’s no other way. Unless you have a ship on hand. You know… something with FTL, say.”
Svend stepped around Legba and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Maybe we should just listen to him, Bentley. We’ve trusted him so far. Maybe you should drink the tea.”
Resigned, she sniffed the brew. It didn’t smell nearly as good as it had while it was in the pot, but that made sense with what Legba had said about it getting worse as it cooled. She sighed. “Hold this.” She passed Svend the sword and then pinched her nose and downed the tea in a succession of rapid gulps. It had a rank bitterness to it which she barely tasted, but she still gagged on the gritty dregs.
She dropped the cup as she began to feel drunk. It was not quite the same as alcohol inebriation, but many of the secondary symptoms were there. She felt loose, fluid, and relaxed. Her perspective shifted, and suddenly the situation did not seem quite so dire.
“Is it working?” Legba asked.
“You still owe me some explanations, bub!” Bentley called over to him, and then laughed at herself. Who says bub?
“It’s working!” Legba nodded and outstretched an arm toward each of them. “Please take my hands.”
“Why?” Svend asked, but complied tentatively. The hand reaching for Bentley remained empty.
“Maybe I like it here,” Bentley cooed, and stroked the back of the sword’s blade lovingly. “Maybe I’d rather stay…”
“Come on, Bentley,” Legba insisted. “I promise, we are going home. Home to see all your friends. Home to save all your friends. Jade, Shango, Olofi, Jelly Bean… even Loco. They’re all waiting for you.”
“Yes, my friends.” She smiled and took his hand, feeling safe in his firm grip.
“Good,” Legba said, “now just remember that pain does not spell death.”
Bentley cocked an eyebrow. “Pain?”
Her world shattered like a mirror struck by a sledgehammer, and every scattered shard seemed to pierce a separate nerve ending. She was on fire everywhere: her skin, her muscles, her tendons, her bones. Yet she was not screaming, and not only because she had no mouth.
The pain was familiar to her. She had experienced it somewhere before. She also knew that soon it would end.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Android Base, Orion Sector
Captain Blackfriar leapt nimbly to his feet as the very walls of his quarters vibrated. The crew of the Chesed were only a short step behind him, putting their heads together in a quick conference. Blackfriar had no time to tune his hearing to their distance and timbre to eavesdrop - he had orders to issue.
“Barnabas,” he called. “I need you.”
And then his chamber changed.
The low table folded into the ground, still carrying their teacups while the serving robot darted out to collect the cushions that they’d all been sitting on. As the table vanished from plain sight it was replaced by Blackfriar’s marble chaise and long computer bank. The artwork on the wall rotated, showing scenes of war rather than peace.
Blackfriar folded his long frame onto his large chair and accessed the emergency channel for the android defense forces. He broadcasted to all his troops simultaneously without having to raise his voice.
“My friends, my compatriots, my family,” he began, “I have just been informed that we have come under attack by the galaxy’s most powerful forces. The very forces we have opposed for so long. Amroth is at our doorstep with a fleet of LaPlacian battleships. They have taken us by surprise, yes, but I say that equally they have fallen into our trap. Let us demonstrate to Amroth and his troops that they face the most formidable opponent they have ever encountered! Destroyer pilots, I assume you’ve already been scrambled. How long are you from launch?”
“Just a few minutes, sir,” the voice of his lead pilot, an experienced female android, confirmed.
“Good. I assume our surface-to-air armaments are already fully operational?”
“Firing all cylinders, sir,” reported the gunnery sergeant.
“Any casualties yet?”
There was a brief silence.
“A few injuries in the main city, sir, from their first salvo. After that everyone got under cover.” The first medical officer had a comforting baritone.
Blackfriar closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. He could not afford emotion right now, and yet the love he bore for his people weighed heavy on his conscience.
“Sir,” Barnabas interrupted, and stepped up in front of him. “I would like to join the pilots in the air, please. I’ll teach Amroth some manners, even if I have to dock on his ship and shove a missile straight up his-”
“Permission granted, Barnabas.” Blackfriar nodded and waved a hand. His second turned and dashed out into the antechamber, a grave look on his face.
“We should be helping,” Shango added, approaching the chair. “It’ll take a bit to get up to our ship, but we’ve got a pretty impressive array of weapons. We should be able to-”
“It’s not necessary,” Blackfriar said distractedly. He was busy checking video feeds from his soldiers’ retinal cameras and listening to their regular reports. “You aren’t familiar with our battle formations, so you may get in the way if you try to help. Please have a seat and, as they say, enjoy the show.”
Several chairs unfolded themselves as they were pushed out of the walls, which became screens displaying feeds from several of the android pilots.
“Oh wow!” Jade exclaimed as she sank into a metal chair, staring at the nearest screen. She could see energy beams and projectiles whizzing past as the view spun constantly, the pilot performing skilled roll after roll in order to evade enemy fire. “Look at them go!”
“Sir,” Barnabas called in Blackfriar’s ear, “several of the ships in our second wave were shot down before they could get in the air, but we’ve managed to mount a strong counter-offensive. I’ll be joining them in a few moments.”
“Good,” Blackfriar acknowledged. He nodded and then patched Barnabas through to the room’s intercom so everyone could hear him. “You’re on with the room, number two, and we’ve got your feed on screen one. Make us all proud.”
“Wouldn’t dream of anything else, sir,” Barnabas replied.
“Do androids dream?” Loco hissed at Jelly Bean.
“Shh,” she chastised, her eyes fixed on the screen.
+++
Barnabas finished checking his destroyer’s dual mag-lev engines and elegantly lifted off from the ground. He enjoyed the massive G-force pinning him to the seat and peeling back his lips as he aimed for the heavens, and then flipped on his inertial dampeners and powered upward. Above him he could see the battle already underway.
Android destroyers and LaPlacian battleships circled and spun, always seeking better position in the three-dimensional chess match while firing lasers and ballistic missiles like a festivus lights show.
Barnabas squinted against the glare and jerked his control stick to pull his ship into a roll as one of the battleships sent a pair of missiles screaming his way. With a thought he sent out a cloud of aerial caltrops. Ordinarily used to slow a pursuer in a chase, the magnetized metal objects collided with the homing missiles as they turned around for a second pass, causing them to explode at a safe distance away from him.
Barnabas set his jaw and switched to his fusion engine, putting on a turn of speed that sent him behind the offending LaPlacian vessel. He locked on to their starboard wing strut and fired both laser cannons.
Phsssew!
The beam of laser blaster light sheared the battleship’s wing, causing it to lose a third of its propulsion and some of its navigation controls. Barnabas’ next shot missed as the ship skittered like a wounded insect, but then he pinned it squarely with a blast that blew it into thousands of pieces of space junk.
“Woo! Go Barnabas!” Jade cheered as she watched his work on the wall.
“Why thank you, Jade,” he replied over the intercom.
“Keep up the good work, number two. All pilots follow Barnabas’ lead into formation Alpha-Tango Seven. Conserve ammunition until my mark.”
Blackfriar flicked his eyes across the walls and changed the perspective so that every screen showed the same shot; a surface-to-air camera with a magnified lens, pointed at the battle from the ground below.
“This is amazing!” Loco crowed, “I’ve never seen flying like this before.” He had leaped out of his seat and practically pressed his face against one of the walls. Shango and Olofi glanced at each other but nodded their agreement.
The android ships had formed into a massive shifting block, cycling positions as they defended one another.
“Mark,” Blackfriar said.
The android ships opened fire.
To the crew of the Chesed the shrewd efficiency made it look like a planned firework show. The LaPlacian battleships had been attempting to capitalize on the androids’ actions, and it had lulled them straight into a trap. Their vessels blew up with increasing regularity until they recognized their mistake and turned away, racing deeper into space.
“We’ve got them on the run, Captain!” Barnabas’ cried triumphantly. “Please advise; should we give chase or come back home to defend the base?”
Blackfriar ran a quick check of his systems, crew cameras, and current reports. Everything looked good. They were in a position of strength against an enemy who had expected to find them weak. An enemy he had sworn to one day bring down.
“All destroyers follow Barnabas into formation Zulu Foxtrot Four. Get after them and give Amroth my best regards.”
+++
Aboard the Chesed, Android Base Airfield, Orion Sector
Jelly Bean sighed as she settled into the captain’s chair aboard the Chesed’s bridge. “Jade, I can’t believe you tricked everyone and convinced me to come up here with you.”
“Oh, come on, you have to admit it was pretty clever.” The young woman had already installed herself at the weapons station. She swiped and tapped the inactive screen controls, making explosion sounds with her mouth.
“You pretended to faint and told Shango you needed me to take you for a walk, ‘away from all the explosions’!”
“Well it worked, didn't it?” Jade blushed and sat back in her large chair. “Come on, you have to admit, this is going to be more exciting than watching from the safety of Blackfriar’s office.”
“Well of course it is,” Jelly Bean laughed, “I just hate going against Shango’s wishes. He’s going to be so upset when he realizes what we’re doing.”
“It’ll be worth it,” Jade assured her. “How are our systems looking?”
“Everything’s green for a go,” Jelly Bean announced in a surprisingly accurate imitation of Shango.
“Then let’s go get those goddamn bastards,” Jade growled, trying to make her voice as low as Loco’s.
The Chesed fired its engines and lifted off from the airfield, finding its way skyward rapidly to join the android fleet. Jelly Bean piloted the ship skillfully out and around the mass of dogfighting android and LaPlacian ships until they found themselves behind the enemy forces, bearing down on a scout or straggler who was off by himself.
“What do you think this guy is up to, out here all on his own?” Jelly Bean asked.
“Probably talking to his girlfriend on the phone,” Jade scoffed.
Jelly smiled uncharacteristically mischievously. “You think she’s yelling at him for picking such a risky career?”
“Nah. Phone sex stuff, almost definitely,” Jade grinned back.
Jelly Bean recoiled. “Ew. Humans are so sweaty and noisy. No offense.” She paused as they drew nearer, almost within range. “Do you think they’re having a good time?”
Jade powered up the ship’s weapons and looked through the viewfinder and then shot her a grin. “It doesn’t matter, it’s going to have an explosive ending!”
She targeted the lone battleship and fired a pair of guided missiles that arced through the black and struck home like twin avenging angels. “Wait!” Jade said, “Does that mean we just had a four-way?”
/> “I feel a little bit dirty,” Jelly Bean admitted. “Let’s wash that off with a little fresh LaPlacian blood. I see another straggler, making for their position now.” She made a quick adjustment and the Chesed put on a turn of speed, jetting around the enemy flank toward another lone ship.
“What are these guys even doing, out here on their own?” Jade wondered as she reloaded the spent missile batteries with a swipe of her fingers.
“They’re probably scouts,” Jelly Bean explained. “As long as we keep taking them by surprise, they won’t be able to report back to the main force and we should be fine.”
“Hey now,” Jade winked at her, “we are both so fine.”
“You got that right, sister!”
They swooped nearer to the enemy ship and Jade powered up the missile launchers again.
“What do you think this one is up to?” Jelly Bean asked, glancing back at her grinning crewmate.
“Well, we know he’s not diligently doing his job. Otherwise he would have turned and attacked us by now!” Jade laughed. “I bet he’s writing a letter to his mom, by hand. His name is probably Chad, and Chad seems like a homebody to me. I bet he only took this LaPlacian job so he could send money to his parents. I bet his idea of a good time is watching a comedy on the network and cuddling with his two cats, both named Mittens. I’d like to have a cup of tea with Chad and get to know him.”
Jelly Bean turned fully to stared at Jade. “Are you saying we shouldn’t shoot him down?”
“Hmm?” Jade glanced up from the viewfinder. “Oh, no we’re definitely shooting him down. Bye, Chad!” She fired another pair of missiles, which struck the LaPlacian vessel in both wings and sent it spiraling toward the planet.
“You know something,” Jelly Bean said thoughtfully, “I kind of hope Chad crash lands safely and is okay.”
“Me, too.”
They glanced at each other. “Not!”
Resistance Page 15