Andrea Cort 03: War of the Marionettes

by Castro, Adam-Troy

  they remained where they were facing the carnage their shared mind racing through all the available data in search of the alternative that would keep me from having to do this unless I led them they’d continue to wait for my sake until it was too late for all of us so I dropped to my hands and knees and scrambled backward toward the cliffs edge

  gasping twice as the dirt beneath me gave way and I slid further than I had prepared for I was still a metre or so away from the straight vertical when the drop-off became steep enough to qualify as the point of no return it was dark but I could see a narrow outcropping less alleged than a finger length wrinkled in the rock maybe two body lengths below me that might be able to hold my weight and the weight of the Porrinyard s long enough for us to consider what to do next the problem was understanding that was not the same thing as knowing it I might have remained frozen where I was until the advancing vani whips pierced my heart had Skyee not slid down to where I was and shouted wait for me lowering herself to that rough place in the rock faster than I could believe she then inched sideways along the climb face to a place where I would have sworn that little half a ledge had smoothed away to nothing but she was an expert at this and she

  clung with no support I could see to an expanse of stone that my eyes interpreted as smooth go ahead she shouted I’ll watch you I forced my body to slide down the rock face suffering a moment of absolute panic as my feet slid past the point where climbing back up remained a possibility the top of the cliff receded above me and I closed my eyes in full expectation of free fall but then my toes touched something and my entire body shattered and I felt myself clinging to what felt like nothing at all listen to me Andrea you haven’t reached the true edge yet the surface you’re clinging to is nothing but a sharp diagonal you’ll be trampled if you stay there there’s another drop below you and you’re going to have to get past that if the overhang is to offer us any protection I can’t I don’t expect you to not yet I’m going to have to scout the territory below to see if there’s any place an inexperienced climber like yourself can reach barehanded I’ll be fast in the meantime you just stay here close your eyes and concentrate on maximizing your contact points wait what do you think you’re doing don’t leave me alone don’t leave me hanging here I squeezed my eyes shut intent on shutting out not only the light but also the rest of the world the sounds of carnage continued above me they consisted of screams of confused shouts of wet noises as bodies were pierced or trampled or broken below me they were a multitude of inhuman cries and rhythmic smashing noises I understood that I was caught between two massacres both involving Villani and human beings both following some rule change in the way things were supposed to work on this planet both destined to change more than the list of people who would not be alive to greet the Sun tomorrow morning but in the meantime there were just screams I squeezed my eyes until the salt and my own tears had nothing left to burn the AI source had been right when they said this had happened to me before my life was all about madness descending from night skies to swallow people who thought they were safe a shrieking form slammed into the rock near me harder than I was willing to believe and disappeared behind me trailing a cry there was no way of determining the species I opened my eyes shuddering my arms and legs numb and turning to rubber somewhere below me Skye shouted Andrea can you hear me I almost let go in shock what you’re in a very dangerous position right now I could get to where I am barehanded because I grew up doing this but you don’t have the grip strength or the skills you’re going to have to do exactly what I say and you’re going to have to do it fast because there are going to be a lot of falling bodies in a few seconds understand it would be easier to fall yes alright first step off that ledge and let yourself slide down you still haven’t reached the straight vertical so you should be able to grab hold with your fingers make sure you do because if you miss you’ll keep sliding you don’t want that to happen say yes if you understand me all I understood was that there was death above me and death below me and I was being required to do something Lanaya : in order to escape both yes yes goddamnit after that it’ll be tough to bear your own weight for more than a heartbeat or two but you’re going to have to because that’s how long it will take me to talk you through the next step say yes if you understand me yes you have to do this Andrea slide I took a deep breath and let my toes slip off the wrinkle in the rock gravity took me at once I slid down for what felt like entire kilometers not just a few but thousands millions universes of empty space passing in front of my eyes and mocking the prospect of being able to grab hold of any handhold even if it was broad enough to support a world I screamed and I screamed and clawed at the rock and felt my nails peeling away from my fingers and then jerked my fall arrested but my situation not improved because my legs no longer pressed against cold stone but instead dangled free over nothingness another body fell past me screaming The Scream sounded like a cheese I despised that she as much as I despised any race except humanity and the chill of this one’s passing made my spine called alright Andrea we’re fast running out of time now so we can’t afford the luxury of yes Azure knows you’re going to have to do exactly what I say I need you to put all your strength into your arms holding on as tight as you can while you swing your legs from left to right and then right to left building up as much lateral momentum as you can you’ll release at the top of your swing to the left but not until I say go weeping hating the necessity to do this most impossible of all impossible things I made my legs a pendulum and assaulted the emptiness first left and then right and then left and then right go I don’t know whether I let go on cue or just fell but I was certain I’d missed by a millisecond or two that I’d fall right past her clutching hand or helpful ledge and no nothing else but the terrible emptiness of free fall I didn’t land anywhere my legs still dangled over nothingness but something had grabbed me under my arms and was pulling me back up don’t kick you’re not safe yet in a second or two you’re going to have to climb stiffen your left leg and swing it to that side you’ll find a wall to brace against do that and don’t move again until I tell you I complied the brace she’d mentioned was a sheer vertical straight down but with her grip under my arms and her words guiding my hands to a secure hold it seemed a solid as any surface in the universe above us and around us the screams continued wails dopler away to silence

  I made the mistake of turning toward the darkness where half a dozen figures of assorted races all plummeted at the same time calling out names that might have been loved ones and might have been deities too far away to help I cursed the AI source who had known this was coming and had tormented me with cute little hints the bastards want to die with no direct access to their hardware they lack the means to commit suicide but they still want to die I have promised them many times that I’ll find their route to the Oblivion they crave I have also said that I will make sure it hurts I promised it again now as I grabbed Skye’s wrists and climbed the screams from above ass grew farther apart as the number of survivors diminished the screams of Lonnie in the amphitheatre remained and at times grew more frantic expressing disbelief as well as fear and horror something terrible was happening down there something is nightmarish to them as the slaughter above was to us Skye urged me upward into an indentation sheet found one small step at a time each movement accompanied by a further retreat on her own part as she made room for me our refuge was not much of an improvement over the vertical drop it was a narrow imperfect gash able to support me only if I lay on my back kept my legs propped against the vertical at my feet and my right arm on a handhold to my right if I let my legs buckle I’d slide in that direction and plunge sixty meters if I release the handhold I’d roll to my left and plunge 90 there were no places of safety below us or at least none where she’d be able to guide me in the dark my only hope Skye said was to stay where I was awake and concentrating on motionlessness when I didn’t thank her soon enough Skye who had wedged herself between two illusions an arm’s-length above us cried forgive me I didn’t have
adequate light sufficient time to scout or a partner with any training in the sport was that anger at me where’s Ocean he got Hammersmith to a safe outcropping then he went back up to see if he could help anybody else and is lowering one of the rear gone to safety now I join him if I thought you could stay by yourself there are still people who can be helped yes that was anger all right don’t worry about me I have to Andrea bitterly that’s what I’m here for right I didn’t know where this sudden resentment came from can you see what’s happening maybe 30 sentience have been able to climb down to places of relative safety another 20 or so made the attempt but fell I don’t know how many were killed up there or forced over the edge but I count at least a hundred confirmed dead we’ll get the exact figures if we get

  out of this if the Porrinyards were not the type to say if that said more than I wanted to think about it what about down there what about down there come on love this isn’t about killing a few offworld ambassadors I saw something on the opposite rim but it was too dark and I was too busy climbing down to tell her face was a mask communicating nothing I couldn’t read the thoughts that delayed her answer by several seconds couldn’t tell whether she was considering the question or protecting me from the answer they didn’t need more than a few dozen to take care of us the rest got sent into the amphitheater on a suicide mission to kill as many dancers as possible that doesn’t make any sense why would any Villani try to stop what their race has always done I’m watching this at the same speed you are Andrea and no it doesn’t make any sense to me either my brain was not big enough to encompass this this was not one race warring on another or even one society warring on another this was a people turning on itself rampaging and slaughtering in the kind of racial insanity that is sometimes ennobled by the term Civil War but is better understood as an auto cannibalism it might even be worse for the Villani dancers down below than it ever had been with those human beings unfortunate enough to have the sorts of temporary madness turned against them human beings had their lives ripped apart by war but even those shattered by it knew that war had always existed and always would but from what I understood the Villani had devoted the entire history of their entire race to the construction of one fragile artifact and were now under assault by an entire traitorous fraction intent on shattering it no wonder they were screaming did it make any sense to them did they even know why they were being killed by eight to turn my head to pull detail from that confusing darkness down below who’s winning there’s no such word

  Andrea they’re destroying everything they are

  it’s the moral equivalent of human beings burning every last copy of every book mankind ever wrote I’m not talking about the goddamn ballet I’m talking about the goddamn fight tell me what you see

  there was no true silence just the competing screams of dying Lonnie and dying offworlders the cries along the cliff side from people trying to find their friends among the few survivors clinging to life in the dark the chopping and smashing noises from up above and the carnage from down below the stars above us shone as bright as diamonds too far away to know anything about the hell we endured after a long time Skye told me the invading force is outnumbered more than two to one maybe three to one they’re dying by the thousands but they’re also killing by the thousands it’ll be a loss for them only if you find a point in keeping numerical score what about us are the Villani who came after us still coming after us her silence lasted only a few seconds but felt like it went on a hundred times longer than that I don’t know there was another long silence I couldn’t tell how long this one lasted for a long time I tried to contact the AI source via my interface they didn’t answer that was typical they had an open conduit into my head and a pact with me that gave them open permission to use it at will but they spoke up when they weren’t wanted and remained silent when I needed their help I’d remember this the next time I was in bed with the Porrinyard s just a few breaths away from climax and that smarmy software broke in to ask a technical question about the biological imperative that was of course assuming we survived this night and that my relationship with the porn yds survived whatever the hell I’d done to piss them off this time all I knew was that I did not want to die tonight as I might with them still hating me until then I could see nothing but the occluded Skye above me and Skye herself clinging to the rock above me the distant cries of Lani dying in the battle below seemed to come to us an odd bursts as if tossed like toys by in constant wind the worst of the screams the ones that announced yet another soul tumbling past us to a death on the amphitheatre floor stopped for a while but I had no way of knowing how many offworlders had survived I could have asked Skye I suppose but I was afraid to disturb the fresh tension between us either way we might have clung there for an hour or more waiting for whatever that night had in store for us next before Skye said this could be very good or very very bad what listen there seemed nothing to listen to that we weren’t already hearing the wind the cries of the Villani in the amphitheater the now fading sounds of battle down there the shouts of other sentient calling to each other from across the rock but then I picked up something else a soft crunching drumbeat like a thousand tiny hammers drilling holes and gravel it seemed to be coming from below us but that was all I could tell except that I didn’t need any further help from Skye to feel in my gut that the explanation could indeed be very very bad do you hear it Skye said I think so what’s happening I presume that’s the sound made by Villani whips punching holes in rock about 90 of them have separated from the survivors on the amphitheatre floor and are now climbing the wall toward us my bowels clenched what do they want that’s the big question isn’t it I tried to imagine how much time we had couldn’t be much the hundreds of meters between us and the amphitheatre floor didn’t amount to any more at their scale than climbing a flight of stairs the odds of reaching the summit before they could let alone putting any helpful distance between us as we fled through whatever unholy mess littered the desert up there amounted to nil we have about 20 seconds Skye said it was one of the only times I’d ever heard of fear and her voice a quaver I didn’t think anybody else would have noticed cries of panic rose from the sentience clinging to the rock I heard somebody’s yell trail off as he either fell or jumped rather than allow the Fulani to get him I tried to turn my head as the crunching noises grew closer and felt my stomach lurched as that simple act unbalanced me Andrea it was too late I was in freefall Skye screamed trailed away behind me as I plunged wide-eyed into a darkness lit by stars that somehow and possibly shone between me and my inevitable impact point far below I had time for two thoughts or rather one-and-a-half oh good I’ve always wanted to die and then what are you talking about you stupid selfish bitch you used to want to die you can’t still want it not now not when there’s somebody who impact

  CHAPTER 5

  Survivors

  You owe us an apology Andrea Court this time the AI source avatar was a sullen freckle-faced little human girl of about six in overalls and dirty blonde pigtails her clothes and skin were filthy and she wore the resentful expression of a child rolling around in sand before her parents came along to ruin her day with expectations to behave the little cliff wasn’t anybody I’d ever known unless she was among those killed on both I and I’d since repressed the memory IO lots of people apologies the little girl scowled eyes narrowing cheeks puckering every facial feature looking like it wanted to sink into the midpoint somewhere in the vicinity of her button nose you had an errant thought while conversing with Ambassador her path which accused us of lying as easily as you breathe this we must protest as we have never

  lie to you at any point since the beginning of our special Association maybe not but they had doled out truth in slices fine enough to create false impressions which amounted to the same thing you could have warned me and we have your very presence here today is the result of conclusions you developed from information we provided but that was the most we could tell you you need to learn that just as some battles fought between membe
rs of your own species are lost before a single shot is fired some of ours are already lost long before the repercussions make themselves plain I felt a twinge in my side a ferocious itch that made me want to tear off my suit and rake up my skin with hands curved into claws why put me at the middle of a nightmare if I’m not even allowed to understand it you are allowed to understand anything you want to understand Andrea Court but perhaps we can share this much before you try to save the little you can there next words seem to burn with genuine sorrow as of these most recent developments the unseen demons are winning the auburn-haired woman tending to my wounds had the discordant combination of a round face and life—the body with eyebrows that ran together in a manner that rendered her default expression a scowl of angry concentration the Scarlet Chevron’s tattooed on both cheeks might have been an attempt to accentuate her ferocious demeanor either way her brave smile needed and achieved excessive breath to look reassuring and not carnivorous given that facial architecture she wore a sleeveless belly length brown shirt of some material unknown to me and so many trinkets and tokens hanging from bracelets around her wrists or on the chains around her neck that she tinkled when she moved she asked me if I was in any pain the language was mercantile the accent reorg all complete with their characteristically rolled or whoever she was she’d spent more time with the lizards than with other human beings I said I feel like I just fell off a fucking cliff her bracelets clattered as she applied the nanite pen to my side that’s an appropriate reaction and encouraging in that it confirms the absence of any real cognitive damage damned if she wasn’t fucking with me what’s your name valina she said pocket kathai aval Enya the odd combination of the human name Villa Nia and the two rear Gaul honorifics deepened my scowl her path mentioned her path mentioned an adopted human daughter are you she hath laughed half trilled do not say that around him counselor his human daughter could puck is still on Vlad but she is no longer a ryokan citizen he didn’t mention that it is a sore subject they do not speak interesting and yet he’d volunteered the information and you my rear gone parents do not work in diplomatic circles she probed my ribs does that hurt we were passengers in a rear gone flier headed for the medical facilities at their embassy my own survival had been a near thing as near as I could figure it the dancers in the amphitheatre had fought off or killed the invaders then they’d sent a few of their number of the cliff to rescue any offworlders who had not yet become collateral damage the climbers had still been a significant distance beneath me at the moment I fell and the one that saved my life had to catch me at a vertical run even then the sudden stop had come close to dislodging every vertebrae in my spine a little more speed and I might have ended up a quadriplegic stuck in the clinic for the two or three days that would take to fix or not to put too fine a point on it among the many dead councilor Fox was one of the wounded in the via with us we’d found her kneeling beside her employer’s body in the vast debris field between the wreckage of the bleachers and the wreckage of the embassy vehicles the blood from a gash in her thigh had mingled with the blood of shifts sucking chest wound in the Scarlet puddle spreading at her feet the air had cooled so much that his wound still gave off tendrils of vapor at the moment the Porrinyards and I stumbled across the grisly scene Fox had just pulled the instrument of his death a section of shattered pole from the bleachers from the wound she regarded it less in the manner of somebody overwhelmed by tragedy than that of someone who accepted it and then moved on nodding much later when Pavel Ania promised her that Schiff’s body would be brought to her in the first available flier she still hadn’t said anything out loud the other wounded in the skimmer with us included a wheezing kiss and houghton whose exoskeleton was now spotted with Uzis punctures a weeping human woman with a broken arm two or three others Oshin who had suffered a minor wound on the forehead from a falling stone sat beside me saying nothing but staying close he had not yet made eye contact with me Skyee who was not hurt