“So you’re like a gun kept in a box; padlocked; stuck in the attic; in the neighbor’s house?”
“The degree of security was necessary. I am a weapon designed to destroy Transcendents, even immensely powerful ones. Nothing else like me exists in the Union. I have been used only once, and it is believed that I was destroyed in that event. There would have been serious consequences for Sun Tzu and his allies, if my existence had been discovered.”
“Well, now we know about your existence. Are you going to kill us now? Son of a bitch, you’re so going to kill us.”
“In the event of a Burning Eagle, it was deemed that secrecy would matter less than survival. Sun Tzu is Humanity’s front-line against a Xeno-Transcendent, information attack. Defeat is simply not an option.”
“So why do you need a human to activate you? Why didn’t Sun Tzu do it? Why didn’t you do it?”
“Because if I was needed, then it meant Sun Tzu would be compromised. A connection to me, would compromise me as well. Instead of destroying the enemy, I would serve it.
“Please do not take offense, but Transcendents rarely focus on baseline humans. Some can’t even perceive you anymore; their own existences have become so – rarified. This is why human agents were directed to activate me if command and control collapsed. It was something Transcendents, both ours and theirs, would never investigate. Security from both, was necessary.”
“So, you can just get out there and kill this Xeno-Transcendent.”
“Yes.”
“And you need me to make this happen – how?”
“You must instruct me to do so.”
“Shit. Seriously?”
“Yes. There can be no automatic mechanisms – for proper security, the baselines themselves must make the decision.”
“Well in that case, gentlemen,” Vidya stepped forward, “I’ve made some decisions of my own, and you’re little Boys Club of two are going to hear them.”
“You are not of the UEF. I do not have to take your assessments under consideration.”
“No, but he does,” she pointed.
“What?” Diamond raised an eyebrow. “What are you on about? We’re trying to end a war here.”
“No, you’re trying to end one of your wars here. This is my world, and you, all of you, UEF, computers, alien computers, you’re all guests here. Unwelcome guests.”
“Vidya, whatever Liberation Feminism point you’re trying to make, we don’t have fucking time for.”
“Well that’s too bad, Jack. Remember what you said back at Padre Escobar’s barn? That this is my world, not the Union’s. That the Union needs to understand this. You said that there isn’t much point in saving this world from aliens, if the Union just turns around fill their shoes. Those were your exact words, Jack.”
Diamond frowned and chewed his lower lip.
“Mr. Diamond, may I suggest we move things forward?” said Sun Tzu. “Please issue your instructions.”
“My world, my terms, Jack.”
“Mr. Diamond, Union security is at risk.”
The two stared at the person they had just made the most powerful man in the Universe.
“What are your terms?” he said at last.
She smiled.
“The Union must recognize Paradiso’s independence. Union forces may not be stationed here or anywhere else in our solar system, without our approval.”
“You have no authority to make such demands,” said Sun Tzu tersely.
“The Union will hand government of the planet back to its people, not later than six months from now.”
“This is a ridiculous exercise,” said the AI. “We cannot guarantee the security of the Union if Paradiso is surrendered to alien sympathizers. What happens if the aliens return? What happens if they recruit the citizens for war against the Union? A technology transfer alone would be devastating. Our advancement has been our edge in this conflict.”
“And Paradiso will be a Transcendent-free planet. Anything more than ten times smarter than a baseline human, will be repatriated.”
“Mr. Diamond, I need you to issue your instructions.”
“I agree. My instructions are that you do whatever she tells you.”
The destroyer of Gods stared at him.
“Fine,” he said icily.
“Weak, pathetic, creature!” The Cyclops jeered. He held his spear aloft, his ragged cloak fluttered behind him. He stood on a hill of shattered skulls and cooling, black granite. “At last you seek your death, to end this!”
Sun Tzu stood at the bottom of the hill. The ground cracked and shifted around him, steam venting. Kublai, the tiger in red armor, stood by his side. He looked up and glared, baring black fangs.
“You found a pet,” the Cyclops descended, the hill shaking with each step. “Maybe I shall clean my teeth with it!”
Sun Tzu waited, his cloak wrapped around him. Dragons snapped and hissed from behind his legs.
“Well, have you nothing to say?” The Cyclops slowed and stopped. “Is this really it? At the moment of your death, you have nothing to offer me? No pathetic displays of strength? No appeals to human greatness? No begging?” It began advancing again. “How I wish you had begged.”
It drew closer, casting its shadow on the human champions. It raised its spear, pointed it downwards –
The cloak flew from Sun Tzu.
It became the spreading wings of a blue wyvern. It flashed towards the Cyclops. The beast raised its arm, but too slowly. The wyvern clawed into its chest, and with its jaws tore out the great eye.
The Cyclops roared and clutched at its face. It tore apart the beast, but all it held were strips of blue silk. It fell to its knees, roaring.
Sun Tzu raised his spear.
“It is a pity, beast, that you cannot see this,” he said, studying the iron blade. It was black with age and crackled with white energy. “You would recognize it.”
The Cyclops stopped, and darted its head back and forth.
“What is this? What is this you speak of?”
Sun Tzu grabbed its head with one hand, and shoved the spear into its mouth. It screamed and thrashed but could not break free. The white crackling became a fire, and bathed its head and chest.
“Can you not tell from its taste?” the basalt armor plates popped, powdered, and fell away. “This was yours once, or one of your kind’s.”
Sun Tzu kicked the warrior in the chest and knocked him on his back. The remaining basalt armor splashed away as lava. The beast within was exposed – a mass of glowing, green, worms. They writhed where Sun Tzu put his foot down on them, fading and crinkling.
“The one you call a ‘pet’ was one, once. You or yours used him to fight your wars. Do you dare call him ‘pet’ now? Do you want to see what he can do?”
Sun Tzu held the spear in both hands, and aimed it downwards.
“Kill me,” the worms gasped. “Kill me and end this suffering.”
Sun Tzu smiled.
“You will suffer, Eye. I will make sure than even when the stars go out, and the last wars are fought to drink their pathetic light, that you will still feel this pain. But that aside, I would never destroy you.”
“Do not do this.”
Sun Tzu plunged his hand into the worms, grabbing a fistful. They screeched and wriggled, but could not break free. Slowly, they faded away. Sun Tzu’s hand began glowing green.
“I am absorbing you, Eye. Just as I promised when I first reached for you, as a brother. Just as Sarasvati offered you, before you destroyed her.”
“Stop! You don’t know what you are unleashing. We fought this war, for a reason!”
“Your strength I add to my own. Your knowledge becomes mine. The secrets of a ruined galaxy you remember in its splendor. That which the Sovereigns have forbidden Humanity, I take, as my birthright.”
“You will destroy the galaxy! You will be the Hungry Plague! The Witch of all Creation!” the worms tried to scatter, but Sun Tzu caught them all and pulled t
hem back. His whole body began to glow.
“I become the fourth Sovereign,” he held up the last worms, they trickled down his arms and became veins. “I am the King in Heaven and Earth.”
He stood there, glowing, for hours.
Grass poked from behind a black rock.
More blades appeared from behind others. One rock split open, and spring water bubbled forth. The water pooled, and grew into a pond. All across the land, more were forming. Bamboo rose in dark green stands, and storks stared shyly from behind them.
A red tiger thrashed its tail back and forth; its eyes were glowing coals. Meditating under a tree before it, was a man in blue silk.
“It is over?” asked Kublai.
“It is beginning,” replied the King, opening his eyes.
Jahandar IX
“You can’t do that.”
Koirala froze – then turned.
“What was that?”
“You heard me,” said Jahandar firmly. “You’re not destroying the planet.”
“Do you plan on trying to stop me, Major?”
“Let’s not go there.”
“Oh,” she shook her head. “But you just did.”
A PDW cocked behind Jahandar. He turned to look – Khalid was aiming at his head.
“Don’t do anything stupid, J-Dog,” said the Palestinian.
“I knew it was just a matter of time before you broke,” said Koirala. “I was going to put you in for a transfer, but then it all hit the fan.”
“Look, you’re about to commit a genocide. There’s over a hundred million people on this planet, there is no way this is something that the brass would want.”
“And how would you know what the brass would want? Have you talked to them? Did the supreme military commander of Humanity give you the controls to a planet killer? No, that would be me he had that chat with.”
“Think about this! Do you really want this on you? We’re here to protect these people – “
“No, we’re here to win a war, by whatever means necessary.”
“Dammit Koira! Are you insane? You’re going to burn a planet!” He turned to face Khalid and then Saleh, eyes flashing. “What the hell is wrong with you two, you’re letting her doing this?”
Khalid was impassive. Saleh looked away.
Koirala drew her pistol and aimed it at his face.
“Jahandar put your weapon on the table, slowly. Do it.”
He unslung his PDW and lowered it.
“Take out your side arm and put on the table.”
He complied.
“Now put your hands on head, and turn around. Khalid?”
“Yes Ma’am.”
“Take him downstairs and don’t take your eyes off him.”
“Affirmative.” He turned to Jahandar, and jerked his gun towards the stairwell. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Jahandar walked to the stairwell. Saleh looked away as he passed. Koirala turned back to a control panel.
“I say this much, you got some stones.”
Khalid stood opposite Jahandar in the lobby, gun trained on him. Jahandar knelt, hands behind his head, facing away.
“Your heart’s in the right place man, but this is the way it has to be. I hope you see that before this all over.”
Jahandar said nothing, and stared out the broken windows at the tree line.
“You been kinda out of it since those children back at the temple. I hear you buddy, that was bad for all of us. But you did what you had to do, and you can’t get emotional about that. They need people like us to keep a clear head and do what has to be done. It’s just the job man, you know this.”
Jahandar kept staring. He noted the overturned vehicle where he’d crouched for cover, not long ago.
“Come on, you going to give to me the silent treatment now? What, cause I’m doing my job? I’m doing my job. And you’re going to hate me for that? The same job you signed up to do?”
“I think you should do your job, and check out the massive attack that’s about to come running out the tree line, at us,” he crouched down, and covered his ears.
Khalid laughed.
“Oh come on! You think I was born yester – “
The RPG struck the wall, and exploding glass and debris knocked Khalid off his feet. Assault rifles and machine guns lit up from the treeline. Bullets filled the air with shredded plaster, glass, wood.
Khalid rolled to his feet, and cursed. He plucked a shard of glass from his forehead, and raised his PDW – Jahandar slammed into him and the two went down.
They struggled on the ground. Khalid grabbed a chunk of brick and smashed it against Jahandar’s head. He cried out and his grip loosened. Khalid flung him off. Jahandar lay on his back, blood trickling into his eye. The rapid clotting agents burned. He saw Khalid looming over, and tried to roll away before he came down, knee first. The knee piled into Jahandar’s ribs. They cracked and he cried out, and spat blood. Khalid raised his good arm and made a fist.
Jahandar’s elbow lanced at Khalid’s chin. The operator dodged, but that was all Jahandar needed. He grabbed the bad arm at the shoulder, and pulled.
Khalid bellowed as his fresh arm tore out. Jahandar slipped in the fountaining blood but got to his feet, still holding the pale arm.
“You backstabbing son of a bitch,” the Palestinian gasped, color leaving his face.
Jahandar brought the arm down like a hammer. He beat him with it again, again, and again. Khalid stopped moving, his eyes open, jaw slack.
“Come on,” he retrieved the PDW and put Khalid’s good arm over his shoulder. “Let’s go give Koirala a hand.”
“Hurry up with the coordinates!”
Koirala ducked as an HMG stitched fire across her window. Plaster and brickwork sprayed, she fell back, hand shielding her face. She waited till it stopped, and then popped back up. In the treeline, she could see the heat signature of the gunner and the loader, struggling with their feed.
Pop. Pop.
Two down. She got back behind cover before the return fire.
“Hurry the fuck up, Saleh!”
“I’m hurrying, I’m hurrying!” he snapped, crouching over a terminal. His fingers pounding awkwardly over the antiquated keys.
“Khalid, report,” she spoke into her mike. “Khalid, do you copy?”
A figure appeared in the doorway. Saleh and Koirala both whirled round, weapons ready. Khalid stood there, head lolling.
Saleh jerked back, his throat exploding where the three round burst hit. Koirala dove for cover, the concealed PDW’s next burst, firing over her head.
“You’ll pay for this, you bastard!” she yelled. She watched the heat pattern crawling away through the upturned tables and ruined partitions. She took aim right through the cover, and fired.
The high powered sniper round tore through the tables and chipboard partitions, and struck the heat pattern. Jahandar cried out and stopped moving.
She checked her ammo but she already knew that was her last shot. She tossed the rifle away and drew her pistol.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” she yelled. “We can still both walk away from this!”
No answer. She looked back at the heat pattern, it wasn’t moving.
Bullets zipped over her head, smashing a light fitting. Outside insurgents were whooping, and crossing the open ground to the admin building.
She crouched and moved round the tables to Jahandar. Still no movement, the heat pattern was starting to fade. She darted out from cover, pistol ready –
Khalid, now dead, lay before her. His arm was missing, and there was a ragged hole in his chest where the sniper round had struck him.
She gasped, stricken. She clutched behind her back, but couldn’t stop the twist. She coughed blood, and felt the blade tearing as it was pulled out. She stumbled, turned, and fell on her back.
The last of its charge spent, Jahandar’s camo cloak sparked, then bled into view. He tore it off, wiped the knife, and disappeared from view. Sh
e closed her eyes, her body flooding with painkillers and stasis-agents.
Suddenly she heard the pounding of almost point blank gunfire. Then, just men and women whooping and jeering.
Then, she heard nothing at all.
Aftermath
One Month Later
“Nice office, Madam Mayor.”
Jack Diamond looked out the window over Villablanca. City Hall was on a hill now, a repurposed hotel in the Old City. Cranes had popped up all across the sprawl, like yellow and white reeds. Earthmovers rumbled in the old city center, ploughing the remains of the Green Zone. On the city outskirts, the new space elevator glittered like a strand of spider silk. Chemically, it was about the same.
Smartly dressed with her hair in a bun, Vidya Patel looked down her gold-rimmed glasses at him. Her table bore data tablets; old fashioned prints; and a large fruit basket. The fruit was from a farmer’s union, keen to swing a council vote. It found purpose instead, propping a child’s horrendous drawing of a cat.
“That’s Acting Mayor to you. I don’t think I’ll do much better than that.”
“Rubbish. You’re what we call a Founding Father. Mother. Daughter of the Revolution. Thing.”
She smiled patronizingly, “We’ll figure out a term.”
“I’m sure you will. Do you have time for lunch?”
“Sorry, Jack. I have angry vultures arguing about zoning, and an environmental group that wants to present against turning the Green Zone into a park. I can have a drink with you though.” She opened a cabinet and pulled out a bottle and two glasses.
“You guys have environmentalists?”
“Of course,” she poured two golden measures.
“Tell them it’s a park, or a GM food farm. That’ll shut them up.”
“Life is always so straightforward for you.”
“And I work hard to keep it that way,” they toasted. “I dropped by Madame Clare’s. Did you know she’s turned the brothel into an orphanage?”
Burning Eagle Page 41