None of the images seemed to mean much to him save for the feeling of all of it being lost. The image of a ship burning as he fled into the blue-black night was the last thing his mind allowed him to see before consciousness was lost and he fell away from the table.
When he awoke, he had been placed back on the table, this time with a soft cloth under his body. The simple kindness was frightening. It meant he wasn’t alone and someone was watching. It also meant whoever was out there knew him on a level he had never known was possible. His mind had been laid bare and somehow he knew they had seen all of it. His sins and passions, his pride and his mistakes were all out there, while he lay on the table and felt cold. The only positive was the ability to recall those images without pain. In his head, he replayed the examination, looking carefully at the faces and hoping he would feel something towards one of them. The numbness of his emotions was disturbing and he sought any relief from the monotony of his experiences.
A face … triggered something.
A man older than he, with a mustache and heavy build, his face darker than his and his hair turned white, but holding an air of authority. He felt fondness for the man, like a son to a father, but he knew it wasn’t a familial relationship. This man wore a uniform, though not one of the military. He was respected and that was something different. The man on the table tried to remember a name, but that was too elusive for his addled brain. He considered the light.
Without a doubt it was some kind of probe. He felt as if his mind were being drawn out and devoured by whoever was watching. It was aggressive and painful, though the rape of his mind had not been absolute. There was more he could not access, and if he couldn’t, maybe they couldn’t either. A slim hope, but hope nonetheless.
This was not the scan of someone trying to help him, this was the work of an enemy trying to discover facts about the other side. The memories he could not access now seemed less desirable to be retrieved and more like secrets to be guarded. He tried to imagine walls going up around the blank spaces in his memory. When he thought the walls could get no higher or thicker, he pressed his elbows against the table and lifted himself up again.
The blue glow from above had become brighter but not enough to call a light yet. He could see the clouds of creatures swarming again, this time in a bunch about two meters above his head. The cloth he was lain out on was thick and held a spongy feel. He ran his hand through the pile and discovered the source of the warmth. The cloth was similar to a bed of moss or lichen which wove itself together in a tight layer. It was alive and producing an insulating warmth under his body. Again, the kindness of his observers was unsettling to him and he had the urge to cover himself with the living cloth. He repeated the movement to swing his legs over the edge of the table. He wanted to test his mental defenses before he met his captors, and there was no time like the present.
In a quick move, he pressed his eyelids shut and pushed off from the table. Bracing himself for the onslaught of light, he remained crouched for a long moment. Instead of the rush of pain and illumination, he heard only the distant sound of air moving in the room. No light and no pain. He cautioned himself for the pain, not wanting to uncover his eyes for fear of the return, but wanting for more than just the whisper of air. Gingerly, he opened one eye. After no blinding light, he opened the other. Slowly he rose from the crouch and stood tall. His back cracked as he stretched his arms over his head, hoping to activate whatever sensor he had tripped earlier. When there was no further light and no pain, he crossed his arms over his chest and waited.
His patience was rewarded not by a shaft of bright light but by the gradual increase in warmth. He could feel the heat through his skin and thought about sitting back on the table and removing the cloth. After pulling the surprisingly heavy cloth from the table, he sat back down to wait. The pressure of the heat and heavy air increased steadily until even the starfish couldn’t keep up with his breath. He felt the sensation of suffocation, and for a fleeting instant he believed the watchers were upset with him for testing them, punishing him for his curiosity and arrogance. As the edges of his vision began to close into blackness, he perceived a thick shaft of light from the wall to his right.
“Who … who are…?” the man tried to ask, his breath coming in gasps.
The image appearing by the door was beyond his comprehension. White filled his vision, making him believe he was dying. The creature was familiar only in the basic shape of its body. Two long arms and two long legs were topped with a wide, lumpy head. His vision began to clear, but his mind was reeling. The surface of the creature was shiny but not smooth. Projections like skeletal wings erupted from the creature’s shoulders. Its face was wide, with two bulbous eyes under a tall, sloping forehead. He knew the basic structure, but his mind refused to lock on to what he was seeing. In his head, the creature refused to stay in one form. It arms and legs were growing and shrinking at the same time.
A screech like an angry predator filled his ears, followed by loud popping and scratching. Again, he felt he should know the sound, but it was different from everything he had heard before. He tried to close his eyes, but the image of the creature stayed. It was in his mind now and he had no defenses against it. His mental walls crumbled before the beast’s attack. He tried to hold on to the images being drawn from his head, but only found purchase on one final brick. In his mind, he held the brick close, not wanting to relinquish the moral to the creature. As images streamed past, he tried to focus on the brick and what it meant. It was small but important to him. He could ignore the other memories completely if he just focused on the singe square of demolished mental wall. It was inscribed with a single word, and that word opened his mind and made him powerful.
Resolute.
11
Venus Atmospheric Research Colony
Henry pulled the loose trousers up, securing them with the pull cord around the waist. The pants were hand-woven and of a rough type of wool he hadn’t seen before, but they were comfortable and fit well. The tunic he was given by Kip was also loose and comfortable, with a wide neck and short sleeves. It had been so long since Henry had worn anything but a uniform, he had forgotten clothing could be comfortable. The only thing remaining of his old duty uniform were the boots, which were worn but still comfortable enough to wear. Kip had offered a hand-tooled leather pair from the station’s stores but Henry refused. There were some habits of an old soldier he just couldn’t lose. One of them was the security of a good pair of boots.
“Are you changing?” Henry asked as he walked into the main room shared with the android. “These things are actually kinda—”
He stopped in his tracks as he saw the pleasant-faced woman naked and standing in a corner, wearing her perpetual Mona Lisa smile. Her posture was rigid and unlike her normal stance, and the presence of a naked woman in his room made him uncomfortable in a way he had not experienced in a very long while. Emma had been forward with him in the beginning, but he had settled into a married routine which didn’t include being alone in a room with other naked women. The fact that she was an android and not real did not distract him from the problem. He turned his back to her and avoided looking at any reflective surfaces.
“Good God,” Henry said, trying to back closer to the bed without looking towards the naked android. “Put some clothes on.”
“What can I do to serve you,” the woman said in a calm and pleasing tone. “Is this model to your liking?”
“I’m not even looking at this model,” Henry said, feeling the bed for the clothing laid out for her. “Here, take these and put them on.”
“If this unit is unpleasant to you, another form can be provided which better serves your needs,” she said, a subtle change in her voice telling Henry she was changing form. “Is this unit better equipped to serve your needs?”
Henry kept his eyes closed as he fished on the bed for the blouse and skirt the colonists had left for her. He had seen her change into the form of his wife, and the idea she m
ay have done it again was frightening. As he found the soft fabric of the simple tunic blouse, he tossed it in the direction of her voice. He still didn’t want to take the chance of looking, but the sound of fabric sliding to the floor made him open his eyes.
Standing before him was a tall, blue-skinned alien with low hanging breasts and fat hips. Henry’s mouth fell open. Of all the forms she could have chosen to entice him, this one was not the first he would have guessed. The hair on the creature was long and green and hung from her head like seaweed. A double set of bright green eyes looked back at him from lidless sockets. Henry quickly pushed his eyes shut again, not wanting to imagine what she might come up with next. He turned and looked at the bed. The dark brown skirt was laid out just beyond his initial reach and he stretched for it just as a long-fingered hand pressed into his shoulder.
“Sir…” The woman’s voice was thick and slurred from fat lips. “Does this form suit your needs?”
Henry rolled forward, startled by the sudden movement of the naked creature. He let out an involuntary yelp as he tumbled over the bed. As he righted himself, he turned back to see the woman change again. This time, she appeared as a black armored Ch’Tauk Centurion, complete with sharp forearms and clicking mandibles. Henry’s head began to hurt again, causing his stomach to violently rebel. He retched over the side of the bed onto the soft carpet.
“You are a hard man to pleasure,” the woman said, straightening up and shifting back to human form. “Neutral form returned. Please state the nature of your desires.”
“You just stay the hell away from me,” Henry said, pressing his hands to the sides of his head. “What the hell are you? You think you can just … whatever you just did to me?”
“Please state the nature of your desires,” the woman replied, her short dark hair falling over her eyes. “I am here to serve.”
“Did Jakes put you up to this?” Henry said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hands. “He’s trying to drive me crazy with this.”
“Please state the nature of your desires,” the woman repeated, her eyes never wavering from the wall beyond Henry. “I am here to—”
The sudden cut-off made Henry blink. The woman’s body shuddered slightly and a new glow could be seen around her. Henry backed off the bed, placing his boots on the floor opposite the android. Twin tendrils of light flowed out of the overhead light socket. Like long fingers of liquid illumination, the tendrils dropped down over the android, seeping into the eyes and mouth and along the curve of her breasts. As the energy was absorbed, the woman’s eyes appeared to come to life, blinking and looking around the room. It took Henry a moment to remember the energy beings Connor Jakes had referred to as the “twins” and how they could control computer cores. The realization he had been talking to a robotic woman devoid of consciousness was ludicrous, but eased his mind about the android’s intentions.
“Henry Moore,” the woman said, her voice now warmer but less inviting. “My reconnaissance is complete.”
“Reconnaissance?” Henry replied, his hands dropping from his temples as the pain subsided. “What recon? I didn’t ask for reconnaissance.”
“Reconnaissance is necessary for intelligence, and we need intelligence if we plan on escaping from this place,” she replied, reaching to the floor and taking the tunic.
“Escaping?” Henry said. “I think that body is shorting out. These people are farmers and vegetarians. I like them and I plan on asking for their help. Kip will be here any second to give us the tour and—”
A tone sounded from the door, halting Henry and causing him to smile. “See, we’re being shown around, and then we’ll get to eat dinner. Do you eat?”
“I can digest with this body in case the needs of the customer are such that—”
“I don’t wanna know,” Henry said, stepping over his own sick towards the door. “Just put on the skirt and keep your mouth shut. We’ll talk about reconnaissance and the chain of command later.”
Henry tapped the key for the door, activating the mechanism which swung the door outward. An automated system activated a small robotic cleaning drone which swept into clean the vomit from the floor. It was a primitive system, but one of the only submissions to technology he had seen. Kip stood outside smiling and waiting for him. He looked past Henry into the room, seeing the android pulling the brown skirt over her shapely hips. His smile grew wider as he looked back to Henry.
“Did I come at a bad time?” the old man asked. “I can come back later.”
“No,” Henry replied, glancing back as the android smoothed the skirt. “Why?”
Kip looked back between the two again with the wide grin on his face. Henry thought for just a moment how the man reminded him of some of the older soldiers he had known. He had told him before about the war and the man had shrugged it off. Now it seemed he was remembering a time before he had come to the station and reliving the memory at the sight of the woman. He held up an arm towards the hall, inviting the duo to the tour.
“Well…” Kip said. “Shall we move along?”
Henry waited for the woman to exit and followed with Kip behind them both, moving along a corridor to a small lift, where Henry found the buttons quaint. It reminded him of the abandoned base he had met Emma in during the war. Kip told him the station had been built with the most modern conveniences left off because of the corrosive environment outside. It seemed the station was in constant need of repair due to the outside environment and the old-fashioned elevator was easier to fix than the more modern magnetic systems.
“The whole place is a marriage of convenience and rustic charm,” Kip said. “We all pitch in and fix whatever breaks and it makes us a better community.”
“Don’t you miss other people?” Henry asked. “I mean, what do you have to talk about around here? It seems you’d run out of things after a while.”
“Not really,” Kip replied. “Just like any small town, we gossip and gab. Most of the time it’s about people we used to know, but as the kids get older we can talk about that. We run a pretty good school on level three.”
As the lift stopped, Henry and Kip continued to talk. Kip, it seemed, was the head of security for the village. He had come from a rural police force on the Mars colony after falling in love with one of the Venus explorers. She had died two years ago local time and Kip had been alone ever since. The colony, though, had been more of a family to him than his own, and when his wife had died they had closed ranks around him and kept him from depression. He had never had any children, but helped to raise the children of the colony.
“I may not be one of these scientist types here, but I do okay,” Kip explained. “Now what about you two? Kids?”
“Uh…” Henry replied. “We’re not a couple. I’m married and trying to get back to my wife.”
“Oh, I see,” Kip replied with a twinkle. “Sneakin’ away for the weekend, eh?”
“No, it’s not like that,” Henry tried to say. “She’s my … uhm … niece. I was showing her a solar storm and we lost our bearings.”
“Oh I understand that,” Kip said as they came upon a group of men holding farm implements. “Me’n the boys’ve shown our nieces around the solar storms once in a while, haven’t we?”
Cheers and laughter accompanied the pronouncement and many slaps landed on Henry’s back. For her part, the android tried to keep her face pleasant even when hands caressed her bottom. She laughed and played the game, but the old soldier within Henry felt like tearing each of their arms off and beating them about the heads and shoulders with them. Kip finally broke the tour away from their fun, moving towards the green fields they had seen when entering from the oubliette nearer to the skin of the station.
“How many acres do you have, Kip?” the android asked from behind. “I scan at least one thousand acres, and penned off areas containing even more habitats. Do you raise cattle or pigs?”
“Oh glory, no,” said a voice bubbling up from a level below them. “Kip, you telli
n’ these people we’re growing golden geese again?” A face burst through the underbrush of the forested area near the farmhouse, carrying a load of deep red carrots. “We’ve got what we need to survive and that’s about it. Kip’ll talk yer ear off about our miraculous powers over the greenery and how we worship the cows that provide the fertilizers under our feet. He’s an old fool who waits for one of ‘em to die so he can taste steak again.”
“Mister Moore, this is our Diane,” Kip said, swinging his hand to present the woman. “She’s the town pain in the ass.”
“I’m vegetable steward for the northern quarter, decks three through nine,” the woman said, hefting a basket of vegetables onto her hip and extending a dirty hand towards the android. “I’m Diane. Good to meet ya. You are?”
“On a tour of the station,” replied the android. “I have a designation comprised of three hundred separate non-linear equations in fourth-dimensional imaging. I can teach you to say it if you have three separate sets of vocal folds and a hollow space in the center of your brain for resonance.”
“Glory hell,” the woman replied, marveling at the pleasant expression on the android’s face. “That’s a mouthful alright, and I gave up 4D quantum languages years ago.”
“We’ve not had time to get her one a little easier for us mere mortals to pronounce,” Henry said, stepping closer to the android to put a protective arm around her shoulder. “I guess she’ll just have to latch on to something she likes.”
“Glory,” the android stated. “I’ll call myself Glory Hell. It sounded so nice, and suits our personality so well.”
“We’ll talk about that later, dear,” Henry said, using his body to gently push the android away from the woman. There was something suspicious about the way she was looking at both of them. Like the owl to the mouse in his opinion. Kip appeared to see the movement too, and stepped between Diane and the new arrivals.
“Now you just go on back to the pavilion and get us ready,” Kip said. “I want the whole village there when we introduce our new arrivals.”
Resolute Glory (The War for Terra Book 8) Page 8