by Han Yang
She hurried over and I held up a hand.
“Cella. This is your stuff. So far, we haven’t had anyone join us with their own supplies. So far, I’ve been raiding, hunting, and hustling to acquire food for everyone. I’ll make you a deal. First, what is yours and what is Willow’s stuff?” I asked.
“Willow was there before me. I don’t know what was hers or his. The bastard kept her gagged.” She peered into the hold. “A lot of that is mine. I looted my building during the day. Easiest to move around then. I spent a week stocking up supplies in a cart. That asshole was waiting in his fast boat, and I didn’t even get further than five minutes away when he held a shotgun to my face.”
“Ouch, okay, do me a favor. Separate your goods from the rest,” I said.
“You’re not going to close that on me?” she asked skeptically.
I waved over Fen and entered the hold. “Ensure the hatch stays open Fen.”
The ship picked up speed, causing me to adjust my footing. I lifted the crate of ammo to the top of my bandolier belt.
When I finished, I sat on a stack of TNT.
“Here is my offer. You don’t eat from the other food until your food runs out,” I said.
“And my pistol, or the soap and shampoo?” Cella asked.
“Use them for trade. I’m not telling people to give me their shirts and boots. However, going forward, anything you loot is shared, we have children who can’t loot, and they have no parents. Does that make sense?” I asked.
“Those kids have a mom,” Cella said.
“Ah, I get the disconnect. We are going to Lornsto. There’s a mine with more survivors. Quite a few parentless children. Now, I’m not going to confiscate your hard-earned loot. Quite the opposite. Everything you arrive with is yours to keep. No fee to join, so to speak.
“You’re free to get off the ship in Opo or continue towards the interior via foot. But this ship is going to Lornsto, and after we offload, likely a trip to Laro. It is not your private ferrying service.
“If you stay in our group, or even on this ship, you will be expected to help, including chores you may not like. All gains go to the Lornsto community, not me, or you, or any one person,” I said.
She opened her mouth to reply and closed it. I waited patiently while she grabbed a bar of soap and shampoo.
“The private shower is upstairs,” I said, pointing up. “Hey, Cella. I’m glad you’re safe and alive. Just let me know what you decide later. Willow is undergoing treatment so the shower may be loud.”
I walked out of the hold, and she followed, hurrying for the shower above us.
Dex approached with folded arms. “We can use that food.”
“Of course we can,” I said and held up a hand before he could respond. “Right now, she is an outsider. But that was her stuff. Assuming Willow vouches. Which I bet she does. Everyone needs to adjust. This isn’t about the singular person anymore. At the same time, we’re used to looking out for ourselves and she did that work from before us.”
“I hear you, it just seemed bitchy. We saved her life, rescued her from a sinking ship, and she hoarded her food,” Dex said, leaving without another word.
I didn’t have a good answer. I did see some of the other supplies she wasn’t claiming were food and even came with two chickens in a little cage. Not an amazing haul, but every little bit helped.
The city grew larger as the ship approached the docks. I slung Henry off my back and peered down the scope. A lobo’narock floated upside down and a dozen webo’narocks munched on the corpse.
In the city, a hundred prog’narocks feasted on the body of the lobo’narock on the docks. I sighed, knowing if we went to the general supplies, either the feasting would occupy the monsters, or it would bring down more than we can handle.
“What are you thinking?” Beverly said, seeing the swarm from the distance.
“I’m thinking that this is a great time to get some revenge. If I turn the water red, maybe it will help us down the line. Either way, the hull isn’t scalable by the webo water versions. The lobos have their hands full with a feeding frenzy,” I said with a smirk.
Beverly scoffed and said, “So you’re just going to… what? Shoot until you grow tired?”
“Do you have somewhere to be?” I asked.
“Yeah, with Zachary. In a mine with my kids sealed behind fortification sounds about perfect in this shitty world,” Beverly said.
I walked back into hold and hauled out the box of .50 caliber rifle ammo.
“There’s a thousand rounds in here. Seems a good way to spend a sunny day,” I said with a smirk.
I was going to run out of bullets, this seemed to be the right time to do it. I’d rather fire them in the name of humanity, than die with them in a box.
With Henry, and this ammo, I’d become the harbinger of death.
Intermission 2
Councilwoman Laura
Diplomatic Vessel enroute to Alaska
Laura waited impatiently for Jeelina to finish. Her fingers tapped against the table over and over. Marius laid a hand atop hers, halting the thumping. He flashed a charming smile, failing to alleviate her anger.
While she wanted to complain and yell, she stayed quiet. This time, she didn't say a word before they were secure.
Obviously, that had been an error. Talking before Olivia silenced the vile AI may have resulted in them losing Olivia. Not that Laura was that upset about her sudden imprisonment; she had warned the woman after all. No, she was more concerned about her neck, and the fleet.
“And… done,” Jeelina said. Barker walked over with Thomas to inspect the disconnect. A moment later they both raised thumbs before returning to the meeting table in the shuttle. “Sorry it took so long.”
Laura stuck a finger to her mouth and the finger pricking DNA sequencing began. Once those supercomputers finished their work without issue, Laura sighed in relief.
Her fist lanced out, cracking Marius on the shoulder.
“Ow, what the hell was that for?” he protested.
“You brought that Teresa bitch into our midst,” Laura said.
Barker scoffed. “I find Marius overbearing and his flaunting annoying, but he didn’t tell Olivia to attack Theodore Karo.”
Marius rubbed his jaw. “You hit like a droid. Teresa was an olive branch toward the rest of humanity, but you’re right. A mistake. Her proxy champion, Major Jennifer Campbell, kicked in narock teeth with your son. Killing with glee for all of humanity to see. To make matters worse, they liberated thousands of humans who will likely be pro-AI when they, you know, have flushing toilets and food. We’re losing worse than ever before.”
Thomas added. “Favorability for an all human, anti-AI ship is at 14%. An all-time low.”
“And Olivia?” Laura asked.
“Disappeared as if she never existed, and we can't find her. Her goons underwent scans to figure out who was the mastermind. Well, we all know how that went,” Marius said, glancing at Laura to see if she reacted differently.
Laura shrugged, not actually knowing how it went beside the standard report.
Jeelina scoffed. “As if Olivia’s goons did it for the giggles. I expected more from Darcy. Maybe if they said Theodore never got the razzing they did as youngsters on the ship, a rite of passage sort of thing, but nope, just plain ole giggles. Zero connection to Olivia too, and we all know that is total bullshit.”
Laura shook her head. “Assassinating a favored of Darcy was lunacy. Even if he wasn’t my son, the last thing the other side needs is a martyr. Theo is young, he’ll either lose favor or make a mistake.
“Like hell he will,” Barker said, watching her like a hawk. “You don’t know, do you?”
Jeelina piled in, “You really need better intelligence.”
“I don’t have a damn hacker in my faction. What is it?” Laura asked.
Thomas said, “The kid. Theodore. He’s in first.”
“Yeah, so?” Laura said with a shrug. “He’s b
een in first for a while. Even Darcy’s been bragging about him.”
Marius shook his head. “He’s deep in the invasion zone killing narocks like he’s the reaper. The kid has a 96% kill rating.”
Laura became rigid. “How far ahead?”
“After rescuing people slated for certain death… and a day of constant shooting, we think he’ll cross a hundred thousand points before he runs out of bullets. It’s kinda inspiring. There are a few people who started at the invasion edge, but none doing nearly as well. He just has this drive where I would have quit, or you know, grabbed some time to enjoy life.
“Second place is the low thirties,” Barker said with a grunt. “I’m in the high twenty thousand and I’ve been killing narocks while on the run, trying to dive deeper and deeper into the invasion zone. I don’t have a clue how he bypassed the swarm, but he did. Now he is on the one thing they can’t get him on unless he comes to the shore.”
“And he is in the heart of it,” Laura said, hanging her head. “They try to kill him, and he becomes a machine.”
“Yeah, Laura. You raised him to be better than Darcy. In some ways he is, and that is part of his appeal. He is a killer. Stone cold shot a man in the back. He was right, but he did so on a hunch, nothing more,” Marius said. “He’s their favorite. I don’t have to tell you, we’re losing. Once these new citizens can vote and compete, we’ll lose even more power.”
“I may not have hackers, but Darcy visited me. Dropped a bomb that she’s diluting the government seats. Hundred per ship with a council of ship leaders. Something we’ve been asking for, for centuries,” Laura said.
“And Theo will rule Dominus,” Jeelina said. “Look, I’m out. After today, the Alpha Centauri faction is leaving this coalition.”
“You can’t be serious,” Marius said.
Barker scoffed. “The Freemason Faction for independent mining is also leaving. We promise to keep all that is said here secret.”
“Did she bribe you?” Marius asked Barker.
“Yeah. We’re taking mining ships to the belt. She needs materials and there ain’t no narocks in space. Makes mining a breeze. We leave within the next five years and will even have a competition within the next trial or two to decide who goes,” Barker admitted.
Laura seethed. She wanted to lunge across the table and strangle the man. Slight problem: he’d kick her ass with ease. Barker was the opposite of Marius. Rugged, to the point, and extremely violent. Where Marius used words, Barker used his fists.
“Barker I get. But Jeelina, your life has always been about humanity going to Alpha Centauri to planet Phoenix without AI?” Thomas asked Jeelina. “To be clear, Darcy is not the way forward for my faction - Democracy must replace the Trials.”
Jeelina hesitated and said, “The only answer I have is, I’m done with the clandestine, it’s not working. Clearly every plan we have fails to have meaningful impacts and I happen to agree with Barker. We’re not going to expose anything, and we don’t have much to expose anyway.
“With that said, Olivia’s disappearance is too much. We cannot fight Darcy any longer. Fighting the narocks is bad enough. Darcy scares us more. I… I’m going to have children here soon.
“When humanity reaches for the stars again. I will be there to ask for an expansion that is without AI. I think Darcy will grant that, with time. It’ll let her get rid of us once and for all, but only when she is ready to let us go. So… yeah, there you have it.”
“That could take thousands of years,” Laura said, not believing what she was hearing. “Olivia was clearly sent to the surface. If I had to guess, she is in a bunker with the government elites of America or Russia. Traded for parts and supplies.”
“Wait, we have contact with bunkers?” Marius asked.
Even Barker leaned forward. “Can’t confirm, but highly likely.” And they leaned back, wishing she had more to say.
She lost them, and her power inside this voting block was fading quickly. Laura understood she needed something drastic, and she had just the plan.
“Operation Starfall,” Laura said.
Marius grumbled, glaring at her like she was crazy.
“We’d never recover politically,” Thomas said.
“The divide would help more than we can ever calculate. We need a split humanity to drive a wedge between us and Darcy,” Laura said.
Barker tapped the table unhappily. “Last time we sat around this table you mentioned killing Darcy. It seems to me, doing that will be the smartest course of action. Part of us leaving is because that was supposed to happen a week ago.”
Marius propped his elbows on the table, running frustrated hands through his hair. Laura watched him intently. The man seemed beyond stressed and exhausted.
“I’m not going to place in this event. I just know it. I say that a lot of the years, but this time it feels different. None of my crew is performing well and I’ve died. Narocks suck and being eaten alive is the worst. To make matters worse, I also think Darcy is going to force a vote on councils per ship allowing proxies,” Marius sighed.
“You’re deflecting,” Karen said. The abnormally quiet woman added, “That bad?”
“Our power is waning, and she will apply changes she's been wanting, like no proxies. As to the bad news - I’m afraid it's actually much, much worse. Here’s the thing. Darcy has evolved. She’s no longer singular,” Marius said.
Laura, of course, knew this. She was part of the plot to kill Darcy. A scheme that worked but failed because a new Darcy was reborn to replace the old one a fraction of a second later. The whole thing happened so fast, and nothing changed.
Laura received a long lecture that day. Marius did not, which was more frightening. She had hoped to keep this a secret, but Marius revealed the truth.
“You can’t be serious,” Barker said with concern. “You succeeded?”
Marius closed his eyes with a laden sigh. “Deadly serious. I designed the virus, Laura’s people deployed it. She died. But she already existed in multiple places. Darcy is cloning herself. Think about it. She’s an all-powerful being, and now she’s able to replicate herself. However, she adores attention, loves adulation, and absolutely cherishes notoriety. She’ll never want to be away from humans.”
Laura listened, shaking her head in disappointment. “Yeah, when you don’t see me out-bursting over that. It’s bad.”
A deflated defeat settled over the group.
“Marius, what’s Starfall then?” Jeelina asked.
“Sorry, we’re going to compartmentalize that knowledge. I can say, it was, is, and unfortunately will be, a last-ditch effort to drive a bigger wedge between humanity and its controller. I… I don’t see it working in the short term. Long term, yeah, I guess,” Marius said. “Maybe.”
“There’s no other option,” Laura said with conviction.
“It’s… it’s… just so drastic,” Marius replied. “Is this it? This is where you want our cause going?”
“She’s won. Look. Karen, Thomas, and Leo were all on the outskirts for centuries. They never had what it took to win. We should have killed her before we reached Earth,” Laura said.
This statement was blunt and the truth.
Marius slammed the table in frustration. “We couldn't, I needed to reach Earth to delete her files with her origin codes. I did it Laura. After four hundred years of plotting, I did it. Correction, we did it. Instead of sipping champagne at our freedom - she didn’t die and now she’s more popular than ever. Which, yeah. Fine, Starfall it is. I guess we really have reached that point. May God have mercy on us all.”
36
Snagglewood Day 35
Opo Harbor
Bang!
The round soared out of Henry, seeking the target crawling on the docks. For the briefest period, the webo’narock turned toward the ear-splitting sound.
My shot sunk between ribs, likely striking the heart. The intense impact lifted the smaller beast off its feet while ejecting a shower of blood.<
br />
After it slammed onto its side, legs twitched as the narock tried to stay alive.
“Fifty rounds left,” Yilissa said proudly.
That was my stopping point. Fifty rounds with Henry could do a lot of damage, but at the same time, going lower made me nervous.
“That was the first one in about four hours. So much for my infinite killing spree,” I said, propping myself up to bask in the morning sun. “I think we won the right to loot Opo.”
Yilissa glanced at the docks, pretending to count all the dead bodies for me. “After two and half days of fighting, yeah, I’d think the narocks have learned to fear you.”
“In time, new ones will roam here to fill in the gaps, but I have zero regrets. Well, besides the fact that the mine needs us,” I said.
“Don’t doubt yourself Theo. You did this for them. Without critical supplies, we would be coming home with only canned fish. There’s so much we need,” Yilissa said, patting my shoulder with approval. “Which is why I want to dock near the textile warehouse.”
“I agree, it just hurts knowing we are so far, and they will likely think we are dead soon. Enough of my internal conflicts coming to light. Blast the whistle, wake the crew. It’s time we earned our keep,” I said, peeling myself off both my bed, and my sniper point.
For the last few days, Yilissa, Kevin, Fen, Dex, and even Craig played spotter for me. I shot anything and everything that tried to eat the dead narocks from our first raid. During that first day, I killed five more lobo’narocks.
Without a doubt, the beast knew what was killing them. Humans. They were bred to be thinkers and the only saving grace I had, was they couldn’t dig, or climb up metal. Eyes would pop up around the boat, watching us with hate.
I responded in kind, and after I killed the first one within a few seconds of an exposed eyeball, the others backed the hell up. They feared me or at least they feared me on the ship.
They also hungered and I left a trail of dead prog’narock and webo’narocks for them to try to eat. During my killing spree, the death toll became staggering to the point the bodies piled high.