by Terry Mixon
Then it occurred to her that from the way that Julia was moving, she had a blind side. Her mechanical eye hadn’t been reparable, at least in the short time they’d had with tools.
She made a mental note to have Carl do something about that if he could. That might not be possible, but she owed it to the other woman to try.
Moments later, Julia was in the tub, and Kelsey handed her the soap. The other woman took it gratefully and began lathering up.
“I saw you talking with Jebediah while we were helping the injured,” Kelsey said. “He was listening to what you were saying, and I think you might’ve formed a connection with him. Tell me about it.”
Her doppelgänger shrugged. “There’s not much to say. He asked me how I could be so strong, and I explained how the computer had captured me and forcibly implanted the Marine Raider augmentation inside me.
“He said they already knew what Marine Raiders were, just based on tales told by the older generations. Since you and Talbot were busy showing off your own strength, I told him that you were the other members of our team that had augmentation. I stuck with the story that we were twins simply because it’s a lot easier to understand than the truth.”
“That works,” Kelsey said as she started washing off. “You were looking out the other side of the building toward the horde city. What did you see?”
“It looked like there was fighting taking place, and Jebediah said that there was some type of power struggle to replace the leadership, so maybe they won’t be looking for us for a while.”
Kelsey smiled at that. She hated the horde as much as anyone, but she knew that Julia loathed them. There was a kind of bloodlust in her that Kelsey had never developed. It was somewhat worrying, but in this case, she thought it was understandable. Perhaps even laudable.
“What do you think the best course of action is that we can take to make friends with these people?” Kelsey asked as she began lathering her hair.
Julia shrugged and followed suit. “Be honest. The truth will serve us better than some story. Other than the fact that I’m you from another universe, the truth is the best story that we can tell.
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Kelsey said right before she ducked her head under the surface of the water.
Once her hair was thoroughly rinsed out, she climbed out of the tub, grabbed a rough towel from where they were stacked nearby, and wrapped it around her hair. In consideration of her doppelgänger’s body modesty issues, she turned her back as she dried off with another towel. Then she dressed once more.
They’d have to see about getting their clothes washed. Hers smelled, and she felt dirty again almost immediately. Now that she’d cleaned up, she could smell her stink in the cloth. Perhaps they could get some clothes from their captors. She’d have to ask.
By the time she was done, Julia was out of the tub and drying off with her back turned.
Once they were both ready, Kelsey gestured toward the curtain. “Let’s wake Jared and Talbot. They can clean up, and then we’ll go see what our captors have to say. The sooner we start forming bonds with these people, the sooner we can be on our way to the Imperial Palace. And the sooner we can get off this damned planet.”
8
Jared sat up when Kelsey woke him, rubbing his eyes. The bed that he’d slept in wasn’t anything to scream about by Imperial standards, but it beat the hell out of the ground. The past week had certainly taught him that.
Even with the thin cushions that they’d recovered from the horde, sleeping on the ground was brutally hard on one’s body, particularly when their medical nanites were disabled.
He gratefully took advantage of the hot water to bathe and was exceptionally pleased when Elise joined him. That made the bath take a little more time than it should have, but they didn’t hog it for unduly long, as hanky-panky was out of the question. While rank had its privileges, he didn’t want to be standing between the rest and being clean for longer than he had to.
Even though Kelsey had been urging them to get ready and go out and meet their captors as soon as possible, Jared insisted that everyone get a chance to bathe first. He didn’t know exactly what his plans were going to be, but he didn’t want to be rushed into them.
Lily still hadn’t returned. He wasn’t shocked at that. With the sheer scale of the carnage, it had to be like fighting the tide. He’d ask about her and check in on her as well if he could.
His sister was smart enough to realize that she couldn’t argue with him on this subject just yet, so she sat beside her doppelgänger while the last of them took baths, discussing the general parameters of their imprisonment.
They also talked about how the AI now knew about their presence and undoubtedly suspected that they’d failed to deliver the Omega Plague that it thought would eliminate humanity on Terra.
That was going to have long-term consequences, but he wasn’t sure what they would be or when they would occur. It had taken years and a lot of money to secretly develop the virus. Lord Oscar Fielding—the man that had created the deadly pathogen—had claimed that he’d destroyed the actual research and tampered with the recipe that he’d given the AIs because he had no desire to see such a weapon spread beyond Terra.
Jared wasn’t willing to give Fielding much credit, but he believed the man had no desire to die with the rest of humanity. That hadn’t stopped the bastard from growing enough of the Omega Plague to kill the remaining population on Terra.
Once the rest of his people had bathed and dressed, he let Kelsey make her pitch.
“I think that we should form a small delegation to meet with Leader Mordechai,” she said, moving her gaze evenly around the group. “Julia, Jared, Sean, and I would be a good start. We need to convince him of our sincerity about fighting the AIs. If we can do that, there’s every chance that he’ll not only let us go but provide us with valuable intelligence to help us get to the Imperial Palace.”
Jared immediately shook his head. “I agree in principle, but I think you’ve picked the wrong people. They’ve seen how heavily modified you and Julia are. They’re going to be distrustful of you and what you have to say. Admittedly, the rest of us are modified as well—except for Clarice—but I think that’s going to give us a better chance to have an open and honest discussion.
“I think Elise and Olivia would be a better choice. They have the most experience as leaders in our group. I understand that you’re not exactly lacking in that area, Kelsey, but I think you should focus your attention on Jebediah.
“He’s going to be suspicious of everything we do, and I think you and Julia can help allay his fears. Sean and I could round out the delegation.”
He looked around the rest of the group, and his eyes settled on Carl. “And that brings me to you, Carl. I think you, Ralph, and Austin would be an excellent delegation to see if any of the equipment in Frankfort can be repaired. I understand that you don’t have much in the way of tools, but there must be a lot of things lying around inside this megacity that the inhabitants don’t understand anymore. I’ll bet you can rig up something to make their lives a little easier.”
He paused for a moment to let all that sink in before continuing. When no one argued, he went on.
“The remainder of you get what rest you can and be prepared to assist any of the teams that need an extra hand or two. Our captors are exceptionally suspicious of us, and we’re only going to get one chance to make a first impression.”
“I agree with everything you’ve said, but I want to make one change,” Kelsey said. “Julia has formed something of a bond with Jebediah. What you’re saying about her talking to him makes absolute sense. But I’m the leader of the political side of this conversation, and I’m going to be going with you, Elise, and Olivia. Sean can help Julia. I think he’d bond well with Jebediah.”
Jared considered that and slowly nodded. Her change wasn’t that drastic, and he could live with her modification.
“Then we have a plan. Everyone be on your
best behavior, and try not to get us all killed.”
Talbot decided to include himself in the group that was going to see Jebediah. If, of course, the man was willing to let them out of their cells long enough to talk with him. Julia was the one leading the effort to have a conversation with him. They’d finally decided that Commodore Meyer, Commander Cannon, and himself should come along for the meeting.
Their captors had decided on an interesting way of providing security for them without endangering too many of their people. The rooms where they were being kept were isolated in a hallway with multiple heavy doors that one had to go through. Just outside the first set of doors was a pair of guards. This grouping was duplicated in each and every set of doors so that none of them could be taken out without the rest being aware of the attack.
Julia spoke briefly with the guards, and they passed the word to the next set of guards that she wanted to speak with Jebediah. Twenty minutes later, the man himself arrived to hear what she had to say.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to have a private conversation with you and a few of my people,” she said. “We talked yesterday, but I feel as if we could expand on that and let you know more about ourselves and what we’re trying to do.”
The large man considered her for several seconds and then nodded. “My father is still uncertain whether we should believe what you’ve told us. Because of that, I’m inclined to agree.
“None of the other groups that we’ve captured have gotten this level of access, so you should feel honored that you’re getting a chance to at least try to convince us that we should let you go. I want to caution you that that possibility is still unlikely, but it’s not completely off the table at this point.”
He gestured for her to follow him. “As you are probably ignorant of our way of life here in Frankfort, I feel as if I should give you a tour to show you what kind of society we have. Even though those who intrude here are not allowed to leave, we don’t do anything like what the horde does to its prisoners.”
Jebediah led them out of their prison suite, and fresh guards fell in all around them, staying at a distance to keep an eye on them without being in what they perceived to be danger themselves.
Talbot knew that they were underestimating the capabilities of Julia and himself. If they genuinely wanted to, the pair could reach the guards and disable them.
Since the guards weren’t using projectile weapons, they risked getting cut in that fight, but there was no real doubt that they could disarm or kill all of the guards in just a few seconds with their bare hands.
Not that they’d ever dream of doing that. They already had one large group of bloodthirsty warriors itching to torture them before setting them on fire. Having a second group on the warpath would be suicide.
No, convincing these people that they could be decent allies was a much smarter play. Not that it would be easy, he suspected.
Rather than going up, Jebediah led them to a broad set of stairs that descended even farther under the city. Before they’d come down to join Admiral Mertz, he and Kelsey had wondered how far underground a megacity might have extended before the AIs suppressed all civilization on Terra. He suspected it was very deep indeed.
He doubted that would protect from something like a kinetic strike, but the illusion of security allowed people to live what life they could with some joy, so perhaps it was worth it.
Talbot’s guess was proven correct when they continued on for quite some time. So deep, in fact, that they had to switch stairwells to continue down. With his implants back online, he could tell pretty well how far down they’d come. The level they exited on wasn’t the lowest that the stairs could reach.
“I see that the stairs keep going down,” Talbot said, giving in to his curiosity. “Is there more below us, or are we near the bottom?”
The large man smiled back at him. “Frankfort wasn’t the largest megacity, but it was fully developed. We aren’t in the lowest reaches of the underground tunnels. Those go so far down that the air is tainted, and no one can venture there. The explored portions that we’ve reached go down at least as far as we’ve already come.”
That was a long way down, Talbot had to admit. Depending on what was down there, the air could have been tainted with any number of things once life support failed. It might be a naturally occurring gas coming through cracks in the walls. Methane perhaps. Or it could be some industrial chemical from work being done deep underground that had leaked out of its storage containers after the power went out.
Going everywhere with torches provided its own form of air pollution. The smoke made Talbot’s nose itch and occasionally made him cough. The ceilings were coated with soot from generations of people that had used torches to light their way.
It was also possible that the use of so many torches had depleted the oxygen deep below. Not a pretty way to go.
Thankfully, that wasn’t his problem.
“If you don’t mind my asking, without any power, how is it that the air down here is still any good?” Julia asked. “After all this time, the air should be bad, shouldn’t it?”
Their captor gave her a slight smile and a nod. “There’s some truth to what you say, but we’re in the right place for me to give you an example of why that situation isn’t occurring.”
With that, he stopped at a large double doorway with two guards posted outside it. The two men opened the doors for the party. Talbot stopped in his tracks as soon as he made it inside.
The large room in front of them certainly appeared to have formerly been used for life support. The massive air circulation machines were an obvious clue to that. Their original intent must’ve been to pull air from the surface and move it around the underground portions of the city.
A large wooden structure had been built around the circulators, and about forty people were sitting on what looked like exercise equipment, peddling gears set at the level of their feet. He wasn’t sure what they were supposed to be doing, but it obviously served a purpose.
Julia scrunched up her face in disapproval. “Those people are peddling to drive gears inside the equipment, probably to rotate fans and pull fresh air down into this area, right?”
Jebediah gave her an approving glance and nodded. “The process also circulates the air to areas that we use on this level and above. The people you see driving the air equipment are primarily citizens of the city, but some of them are prisoners. They don’t work any longer hours than our own people do. If you want to steal from us, then you can deal with the consequences.”
He gave them all a stern look. “Unless you can convince us that you can grant us some benefit that outweighs the crimes you have committed against us by intruding into our privacy, work like this is the fate that awaits you. I suggest that you be convincing. My father is not one to take intrusion lightly, and neither am I.”
Julia smiled at the man and nodded. “I think that we can come to some kind of arrangement once we convince you of our sincerity. Is there a place where we can sit down and have a frank discussion?”
The large man gestured for them to continue on into the industrial space. “There is a conference room attached to the offices just across this room. I believe it will suit our needs.”
Talbot saw the doors to which the man gestured and started walking that way. He really hoped that Julia was better at talking her way through problems than Kelsey was. Fighting wasn’t going to save them this time. They had to solve their problems with reason.
Not that his wife was unreasonable, just impulsive. For his love, far too many problems looked like nails, so her solution ended up being a hammer.
Or, as could be said after she’d made him watch an old entertainment vid called The Fifth Element, she negotiated like Korben Dallas.
The vid had proven far more humorous than she’d intended, and for entirely different reasons. Talbot had taken great pleasure in pointing out all the similarities between her and Dallas.
Her sudden consternation s
eemed genuine, so she probably hadn’t even considered that aspect of the vid. His high point of the evening was telling her she was a pint-sized Bruce Willis.
After that, they’d watched Die Hard, which had proven his assertion decisively, much to his wife’s annoyance.
Unable to help himself, Talbot grinned at the large man and Julia as they came in behind him. This should be… interesting.
9
Kelsey walked up the stairs slowly, since not everyone had her stamina for climbing what seemed like an endless number of steps. Now that her Marine Raider augmentation was back online, she could do this all day. And she meant that quite literally.
Her artificial muscles took up the majority of the strain, while her medical nanites kept her biological muscles working at peak efficiency. As long as she wasn’t pushing things, everyday activities like this could be continued until she ran out of steam and had to eat.
The same wasn’t true of Jared, Elise, Olivia, or Clarice Beauchamp. Hell, it wasn’t even true of the guards that were trying to look tough as they escorted the prisoners up to meet their leader.
Their captors tried to put on a good show, but Kelsey could tell they were exhausted by the time they reached the tip of the spire high above the dead megacity.
With her implants active again, she could keep track of little details, like how many levels they’d passed and how high off the ground they were, but after a certain point, that just became a matter of keeping score.
Yes, this building was significantly smaller than the one that had dominated Imperial City, but it still rose more than three hundred levels from the surface and had a dominating view of the landscape around them.
When the guards escorted them into the single large room that filled the spire of the building, she could tell at a glance that it was once a restaurant of some kind. Many of the tables were still stacked by what was obviously a door to the kitchen.