“It does, and it’s already plotting courses based on hourly updates. As long as we don’t encounter animal herds at greater than our own speed, we’re fine,” Yulin chimed in.
“So the AI can adjust to stampedes, too? Impressive,” I said, and it was. If we could get enough highway and transports, then the only thing left was to find more people. I suspected that would be the biggest challenge of all.
We arrived at the Cache in six hours, a feat I considered nothing less than miraculous given the conditions of The Empty and my own experience making the trip on foot. Since we were expected in The Oasis, it was a short stop—some gear, a few goodbyes, and moving on, leaving the three salty veterans to explore and speak with Andi by their communicators. She would walk them through the startups and any other processes needed to begin building the net we needed. Step by step, my vision was coming true. We were reclaiming the world.
“We’ll arrive at dark,” I told everyone as we pulled away from the Cache. “You’re in for a treat with the stars. Clear night. Take a look once the sun goes down,” I said. Smiles and nervous laughter greeted me, and I realized that despite their age, everyone on the transport was heading into something new—an unknown, which was a rarity for them. When a pair of massive, furred rhinos thundered across our path, the AI slowed, and we all watched them go into the fading dusk, horns gleaming like steel.
The faces around me were tinged with awe. “It’s a big world, and it’s about to get a lot bigger. My people are your people now. You are going to a place where there’s only joy at your arrival. Never forget that, no matter how big the sky might seem.” When I said that, a few smiles broke out, and I sensed that our first night as a unified people would be better, if not great.
Tybur took the controls back when a low chime sounded and our wheels began to hiss on an actual road. “Ten klicks out, and we’re on a paved track. Tracks, I mean.”
“Breslin has been busy,” I remarked. Ten klicks was a lot of work, and the crew was pushing out farther with each passing day. At this rate, we would have highways in a year, and that was far ahead of any schedule I’d ever dared to dream of.
“How many towns will connect here?” one of the engineers asked. His blue eyes were round with curiosity.
“Three at least, with more being planned. We’re building near water, and the forest goes with us. Not unlike your model, but above ground,” I told him.
“There is much to do.” His tone was admiring, as he saw the problems we had as things to be fixed.
“There is, and we can start tomorrow,” I said as the lights of The Oasis came into sight. “For tonight, we’re going to mingle. When we get off the transport, head to the center of town with the crowd. We’ll do introductions there, and then—”
“Then what?” Tybur interrupted.
“For us, we eat and drink. For you, something different,” I said cryptically.
“What’s waiting for me?” Tybur asked, nervously.
“Girls and beer, Tybur. The best kind of night ever.”
11
The central fire was roaring when we all disembarked to greetings and cheers. It was nearly an hour before we extricated ourselves from the transport, which was a pure miracle for everyone in The Oasis—including me. Andi was taken aback at the sophistication of Silver, as she’d nicknamed it, spending several minutes in quiet discussion with Aristine and the other engineers. The oil hauler was spectacular as well, but since it was a glorified tool, it didn’t hold the same fascination for everyone.
“Do I smell pig?” I asked Andi, who waited for me as I locked Silver’s doors with a silent hiss. There were a few discreet key units, given to trusted people like me, Andi, Silk, Mira, and Lasser. They would act as backups to the main key units that Aristine and her people had, so that no matter what happened, Silver was always accessible to those who needed it at any location.
“You do. Natif and his rowdies popped a huge boar trying to come into the new section out west. Took them an hour to get it on a cart, and then another two hours just to hoist it for cleaning. We saved the fangs. I think you’ll want to see them,” Andi said, her blue eyes twinkling in the dark.
“That impressive?” I asked. For her to save them, they probably looked like swords.
“In a manner of speaking. Come with me for a minute. I’ll show you.”
We walked to our home, and there were lights on inside, but only in what we called the office, a room added on to the back for any and all purposes other than living or sleeping. Mira, Silk, and Aristine were already there, and Yulin walked in just as we were pushing the curtain aside.
“What’s the—oh,” I finished, seeing something completely new. “So, not the fangs off a hog.”
“Not quite. We needed a reason to get you here. Quietly. Before any of us state our case, what do you think?” Silk asked, regarding me with her intense green eyes. She had her black hair pulled back and wore a thin work shirt covered in grit. She’d been busy. The room was an impromptu clinic, and there was a table with an intravenous drip set up, the liquid bag roiling with pearlescent fluid. I’d seen it once before, nearly two thousand years ago.
“Bots? A new generation?” I asked.
Aristine spoke first. “Not just new. A quantum leap ahead. These are what flow in my veins. In Yulin, and the rest of us. We don’t just need raw materials for buses and oil transports, Jack. We need elements to make our people whole again, and it can start right here, if you’ll allow it.”
“There was never a question. I want Mira, Silk, and Andi to go first, followed by—”
“Not us, Jack. You,” Silk said, taking my hand.
“What? No, I need you all to be—to be protected. Assured of a longer life, free of illness. I have a vision, Silk, and it includes all of you,” I said, pointedly looking at Aristine, who was older than every one of us but looked to be thirty at most.
“And we’re going to do just that. But this first treatment is for you, because of the effects,” Aristine said.
“What effects?” I asked, leery of the swirling liquid.
“Some down time. Up to a day, and . . . some discomfort,” Aristine said, with a hesitancy that was unlike her.
I rubbed my chin, understanding. It was going to be a bad transition, and if I couldn’t survive it, then there was no way Mira or Silk could, and if we all couldn’t make it, none of us would try. That was my condition for anything related to ‘bots and the future in general.
“Do you—will you?” Silk asked. Her eyes were hooded with pain.
I didn’t speak. I sat on the table, swinging my legs out and taking off my shirt. “Give me something for my mouth,” I said.
Mira slipped a hard rubber guard in my hand, and I blew on it out of habit, like I did when I played football in high school.
“Stick me,” I said.
Aristine nodded to Yulin, who produced a needle that looked bigger than a sword. She plunged it smoothly into my arm with practiced ease, then connected the bag. “And this, too.” Yulin gave me an oval pill that dissolved instantly on my tongue, and things began to get hazy.
I slipped the guard in my mouth. Andi kissed me, and Mira put her hand on my shoulder for a lingering moment, but it was Mira who had to turn away. I pulled the guard out and reached for her as the dark liquid began to creep down the line toward my arm. “S’okay. I don’t mind.”
Mira let out a small noise and left without looking back, and the first of the ‘bots hit me like a fucking hammer. Sweat sprang out of every pore on my body, and then the pill began to work even harder, pushing back against the raw agony of the ‘bots as they colonized my blood and body in a cellular assault. I tensed, tried to scream, and then everything went silver, white, and black.
12
First I felt the sun, then I felt cool air. It was a fan pushing against me with a gentle hum, and then the sheets slipped off and I was naked, starving, and hungover.
“Just like Sunday morning at college,” I said,
my mouth drier than The Empty and just as foul.
“He’s awake,” Aristine’s voice said. I didn’t see her, but she was close. I felt her hands on my face, and then remembered it was up to me to open my eyes.
“Oh. Hey.” I saw her smiling at me, her brow furrowed in concern.
“How do you feel?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Hungry?”
“Hungry is good. Sit up if you can,” she said, and I tried, slipped back once, then steadied myself. Something hummed in my body, and I felt myself begin to unlock, like a series of puzzles were being solved deep inside my core. It was an odd sensation, and not one that I would recommend, but it was a hell of a lot better than my last memory, which was one of extreme pain and a fear that I would piss on the table.
I sat up, and the room stayed in place. “That’s good.”
“It is.” Aristine helped me to my feet, and I stood, swaying, before something unlocked yet again, and the haze of ‘bots began to fade into obscurity, like a distant crowd. “Your eyes are clear. Fast transition, but I expected nothing less given your previous injections.”
“Am I supposed to feel this good? I thought I’d be—I don’t know—messed up for some time.”
“That’s bad tech. This is two millennia of research. If we can’t get this right, then we haven’t been working,” Aristine said, handing me clean clothes and my belt. My boots were near the chair, and I sat, tying the laces while watching my hands.
“Will—”
“Silk and Mira have already had small doses. We’re giving them the treatment in boosters over a span of weeks, so they can build up to maximum efficacy without risking any system wide issues. They’re already at breakfast, and everyone is itching to get the oil tanker in use to secure our future, you might say,” Aristine told me.
I stood up, feeling solid. “Then let’s eat and make our first journey south. There’s oil in them thar hills.”
“Is that one of those sayings from your time that’s supposed to be—ah, funny? Or sexy?” she asked, eyeing me with a grin.
“Depends. Do you feel turned on?” I asked her.
“Of course. I was watching your naked body. As to whether we have time, that’s another story,” she said, frowning slightly.
“Oil first. Booty later,” I said.
Aristine looked skyward. “I truly do not understand your language, Jack.”
We stepped into the morning sun, and The Oasis was in full swing. Breslin was bellowing to his crew in a good-natured tone, Lasser was driving past in a truck filled with bricks, and Beba had no less than two dozen kids carrying medical supplies and food toward our trucks and the oil tanker, which fairly teemed with people. Silver was parked nearby, a cadre of residents looking over the mirror finish in the bright morning sun.
Silk saw me first, and then Mira. They were pale, but smiling, and I rushed to them, gathering them both in my arms. “So glad you’re okay.”
“Same for you,” Silk muttered. Mira just grinned, looking queasy but happy.
“How was it?” I asked.
“You want to go first?” Mira asked.
Silk shrugged.
“I puked so hard I thought I was going to die, and then things got interesting. Kind of like this fever I got hunting in the river basin a few years back, but without all of the fun. Not something I would recommend, but Aristine told me each dose gets easier, not harder.”
“Same for me,” Silk said, leaving it at that.
“And . . . any side effects? Now?” I asked.
“I can see!” Silk said, grinning. “Everything! Far, near, and—such colors. I never knew my eyes were bad. I just assumed that the world was dim, and out of focus. I guess I needed—what do you call them? Contacts?”
“Or glasses, but yeah,” I said.
“Well, not anymore. Amazing. I’m sure there are other things, but for now that’s the first,” Silk said. Her smile was radiant, and her beauty even more noticeable because of her joy.
“My shoulder is healed,” Mira said. “I took a hard hit from a lizard two years ago, and there was a click in my shoulder, used to hurt when it rained. It’s gone,” she said with a sense of wonder.
I’d heard the noise. Sounded like grating glass, and when she wound her arm for me, it was silent, the motion smooth. “Perfect,” I told her.
“Perfect.” Her smile was like Silk. Full of amazement, and still letting the reality of a new life sink in.
“Now that you’re all remade, what’s on the menu for this morning? Looks like we go south for oil first?” I asked.
“I have the map ready. Andi printed a hard copy, and we’re going to assume that the area is occupied based on some sat data that she collected. Aristine thinks it’s worse than just a tribe—she says the flyover indicates some fairly hefty defenses, but we might want to try and trade first, attack later. She’s leaving it up to you. Looking at the geosat images, it seems like a huge place to fight over? Isn’t there enough for everyone?” Silk asked.
“You’ve just described my entire world before I went to sleep. Oil was among the top resources, but this land has more of it than we’ll ever need. I’m sure we can work out some kind of agreement without shooting, but if we have to, we will. The Free Oasis and our friends will not go without materials just because of local tribes. We’ll find a way,” I said, and I knew it was true. I wouldn’t let us wither on the vine because some local warlords controlled an oil field the size of Rhode Island.
We walked together, discussing the journey, and our load out, and what guns we needed, and all of the myriad items that went into building a trip into The Empty. Since this was essentially a joint operation, I asked them to come with me and meet the Daymares, as well as the engineers who would be handling the actual collection of the crude. It was a large group of nearly twenty people, bristling with weapons and hard stares, but Aristine walked up and every eye turned to her. She pointed to me and said, “Listen.”
I held out the map. “This is the field. We’re going to try this the easy way, and if that doesn’t work, we’re going to take the field in an even simpler way.”
“An assault?” asked one of the Daymares, a tall man with cropped brown locks and goggles covering his eyes.
“Of a kind. We’ll send drones first for a flyover and single gun run, and if that doesn’t convince whoever is in charge, I’ll personally fly a Vampire and roast their balls until they abandon the field. This is based on an assumption that whoever is there is unreasonable or without any needs. In my experience, everyone needs something, so we’re going to start by talking to them. If that doesn’t work, then we get tough. We drive to five klicks out, walk in, and have a chat. We’ll make our command decision from there. Any questions?” I asked.
Another of the Daymares raised her hand. She was medium height, intense, and could have been Aristine’s younger sister or cousin, which she was, but her eyes were hazel, and her smile pulled to one side. “Do you want sniping?”
“What’s your range?” I asked.
“Nine hundred meters with wind over four knots. Under that, anything on this side of the fucking planet goes down if I want it to,” she said. She delivered that stunning report with a calm tone that told me she meant every word of it.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
“Call me Neve,” she said.
“Neve, you’re with Mira. She’s family, which means I’m trusting you like family. Listen to her and throw rounds downrange if she does. Clear?”
“Clear.” Neve and Mira shook hands and began speaking in low tones, looking at each other’s rifles.
“Saddle up. We leave in five,” I said, lifting my voice so everyone could hear.
Breslin, Silk, and Andi rode with me. Aristine and her engineers were in the hauler, and there were four other vehicles packed with everyone else. As a force went, it punched far above its weight, given that the Daymares were nothing short of lethal to anything walking on the earth. We pinged the ma
p and sent a signal to everyone else, who keyed in the position of our stop. The trip was nearly a hundred klicks, and there were no less than three canyons of washouts on the route, which meant picking our way along an unstable edge until we found something like a crossing. We had plenty of daylight to burn, and in the first hour we made nearly fifteen klicks. We left the familiar zone where our ranchers and farmers were scouting to break into the open desert, and in a flash everything familiar fell away. We were on our own, and The Empty was waiting.
Thirty klicks out, we saw the first sign of a herd, the dust rising in the distance as countless hooves pounded the brittle ground. “Bison? Cattle?” Aristine asked over the group channel. Breslin squinted but shrugged his massive shoulders in frustration. It was Andi who identified the beasts, raising her powered binoculars and taking a long, slow look before lowering them as her mouth fell open.
“What are they?” I asked her, but all she did was pass the glasses my way.
I put the lens to my eyes, and the image cleaned up digitally, bringing the thundering creatures into sharp relief. They weren’t bison. They weren’t cattle. In fact, they weren’t mammals of any kind. They were lizards, and they were huge, fat, and low, sniping at each other with beaklike mouths and teeth that were broad with rounded points. Their dun colored hide was splashed with red and green, and the males had a single horn on their nose that looked thick enough to punch through a stone wall. Each creature was seven meters long or more, with some being a third again as large. Those had their heads up high, like scouts, and their feet were similar to an elephant: thick, hobnailed, and round.
“Like dinosaurs,” I said.
“Just like that,” Andi agreed softly.
We let Breslin take a look, and he whistled once the image came clear. “Hundreds of them. Where are they going?”
“The same place the Cleaner was headed?” Andi asked.
“You seeing this?” It was Mira, in another vehicle and using her scope to pick up the herd.
Future Reborn Box Set Page 66