by Geoff Brown
“Him probably brain dead,” said Map
“But how him get the helmet off?” asked Sergeant looking at the boy in wonder.
“I did it,” whispered the boy. “I ripped them out of my head.”
That surprised them. Them all started talking at once, until Sergeant held up his hand for quiet. “What's your name, son?”
“Alistair Rein.”
“Well, Alistair Rein, I want to talk to you, serious. But it can wait awhile. Why don't you go with Joy? Her medic. Her sort you out.” Sergeant beckoned to Joy. Her took the boy to the bathroom.
“I didn't know it was possible,” said Sergeant shaking his head. “Let's sit down and eat. Time enough to find out more, when Joy's finished.”
Them took their rations. Tantas was surprised to see his hand trembling. Him forced it to stop.
* * *
When Joy bought Alistair over, him had stopped crying.
“How long you been on your own?” asked Barns.
“Dunno. What day is it?”
“June three.”
“Then it's been three weeks. Them took us in the first wave at Troy.” Him sighed. “Who'd have thought the hivers would go rogue?”
Them shook their heads at that. Nobody could have thought it. Otherwise they'd have shut down the recreational hives, the educational hives, all them.
“I was with the Queen,” said Alistair.
“The Queen?” asked Joy, her eyes a-shining. “What her like?”
“Her direct everybody,” said Alistair. “And her sensed I was different. I had the smallest bit of free will left. Her didn't like that.”
“Is the Queen still at Troy?” asked Joy.
“I suppose so.”
“So what happened with you?” asked Sergeant. “How you manage to escape?”
“I had just the smallest bit of personality left, about nothing. But just enough to keep me trying every night. Eventually I gathered enough will to rip the helmet off my head.”
“What make you special?” asked Barns.
“I was always special,” said Alistair with a bitter laugh.
“How come?”
“I'm ADHD. I had meds for it, but I was always ... special.”
“Different brain chemistry, must have kept them out,” said Sergeant.
Alistair nodded. “I'm resistant. Them captured me, and them couldn't understand why I didn't fully assimilate. Them took me to the Queen.” His voice grew quiet. “Her liked me. Her found me fascinating.”
“I don't understand why them didn't kill you,” said Barns. “That's what I'd have done.”
“Maybe them wanted to study me. Or maybe the Queen wanted me as a pet.”
“Makes sense in over a million people there'd be one or two who had some kind of natural immunity,” said Sergeant.
“Tell us about the Queen,” said Joy.
Alistair shuddered. “Her helmet is mutated more than most. Wires grown in and out of her face. Nothing human left inside.”
“Kill the Queen, cut off the head,” said Joy.
“Maybe,” said Alistair. “Though some of the generals, their heads nearly as bad.”
* * *
“What do you think, Sergeant?” asked Tantas. Alistair was in the back-room with Joy checking him over again.
“We need get Alistair off this world and to Primateur. Seems like him could be a weapon against the hivers.”
“There are flyers in Troy,” said Joy.
Map whistled. “You're right. There's a private flyer school. I've flown there. That could be a way off planet.”
“That's what I figured,” said Sergeant. “Most important thing is to get Alistair to Primateur.”
“I don't see why,” said Barns.
“That's because you don't think much,” said Joy. “Well don't you worry, we do the thinking for you.”
“Him a valuable resource,” said Sergeant.
“He's a kid,” said Tantas. “And a brave one.”
“Yeh, yeh. That too,” said Sergeant. “But the fact is that him ripped off the hiver helmet. You all know what that means, don't you?”
“No,” said Barns sullenly.
“It means hope,” said Sergeant. “It means there's a way for us to reach inside the men and women trapped in that hive concurrence.”
“So we go to Troy? To the Queen's nest? You must be crazy,” said Barns. “What about our orders to go to Alice Town?”
“That's the difference between hivers and us,” said Sergeant “We can make our own decisions. I reckon this could be a turning point, it really could. We need to get the boy to Primateur.”
“Agreed,” said Joy.
Map and Tantas nodded their heads.
“Barns?” asked Sergeant.
“This no democracy,” her said. “I do what I'm ordered.”
“Good enough,” said Sergeant. Him went to fetch Alistair, explaining what them had decided.
* * *
“So, what's the plan?” asked Barns. “We just walk in to the lions’ nest?”
“More like a wasps' nest,” said Alistair. “Something about me confuses their hive mind. Once we in, them might let us pass.”
Sergeant nodded. “We rest here. Five hours, we move on.”
* * *
Them all bedded down. But after an hour or so, Tantas heard Alistair tossing and turning. Him crept over, shook the boy awake. “Bad dreams?” him asked.
Alistair nodded.
“Take a sip of 'shine,” said Tantas passing over Joy's flask. Alistair gulped it down gratefully. “What was it like?” asked Tantas. “To be part of the hive mind?”
“Well, I wasn't fully integrated, but it was good.”
“Good?”
“Yes, it was very good. You ever linked?”
“Nah. I never fancied it. I never liked the idea of losing control.”
“It's good to lose yourself, you know?” said Alistair. “Complete unity, nothing to worry about, and the wave of pleasures – like the best sex ever.”
Tantas hid a smile. Alistair looked too young to know much about sex.
“I hate them,” said Alistair.
“Don't hate them. Pity them. They've got no free will, and it wasn't as if they were given a choice,” said Tantas. “What we got to do is cut them down. Don't let hate enter into it.”
* * *
It took them two days travel to reach Troy. Them travelled by night to avoid the heat, and for stealth. Troy town like many of the towns on Lyceum was a hill town. A town of colony-bubbles homes, toughened glass, perched unnaturally amongst the towering rock.
“Easy,” said Sergeant. “An army couldn't infiltrate, but a few could.”
Them all agreed.
Alistair told them that the Queen had her headquarters in the Flight School. “Her was an instructor,” him explained.
“How much of their old lives them remember?” wondered Map.
“Hard to say,” said Alistair. “I remembered more than most. But some of them remember, come and goes in waves. But them no able to do anything about it.”
“Bad business,” said Joy.
“For sure,” said Alistair.
Them creep into Troy though a passage winding through the rock.
“This is a mining tunnel I found as a kid,” said Alistair. “Used to spend a lot of time here.”
* * *
The Moirae smiled on them, 'cos them crept out of the tunnel into the night darkness of Troy without being observed. Sergeant sent them off to fetch hiver helmets and clothes. “We need to blend in,” him explained. “I'll stay here to guard Alistair.”
Joy and Tantas found a couple of hivers minding their own business. Joy slit their throats nice and quiet. “I don't want to touch them,” her said, her mouth curling in disgust. But her pried off the hivers' helmets. Half circles them were, like fancy bicycle hats interlaced with thin wet wires.
“I know what you mean,” said Tantas, stripping the bodies of their clothes
.
Joy wiped off the blood and tissue as best her could and fitted the helmet over her cropped hair. “How do I look?”
To see Joy standing there, as if her assimilated dried the words in Tantas' throat.
When them got back, Barns and Map had acquired four more helmets and a pile of clothes that would just about do.
“Get these on,” said Sergeant.
Them had to keep their army masks to filter the hiver virus. “Do you think that will fool them?” asked Barns.
“Only one way to find out,” said Joy with a grin.
* * *
Only one guard stood outside the flight school.
“Them not expecting trouble,” whispered Map.
“No talking,” said Sergeant, sotto voice. “Hivers no talk.”
But when they approached the guard him held out his arm to them. Like him wanted to touch them. “You are not... You are not... “
Map stepped forwards and slit his throat. “Jeez, him talked,” said Map wiping his bayonet on his jacket.
Tantas stared at the body. “Maybe hiver control isn’t as complete as we thought.”
Alistair shook his head. “I'm like interference. I told you, my brain messes them up.”
“Where we find the Queen?” whispered Joy.
Sergeant sighed. “What's with you and Queen? We no want to meet her. We want to escape.”
“I think killing the Queen would stop this whole thing,” said Joy.
“Unlikely,” said Sergeant. “Cut off the head, and another grows.”
“Like a hydra?”
“Yes,” said Sergeant, “like a bloody hydra.”
* * *
Alistair led them confidently down the darkened corridors.
“Why there no lights?” whispered Barns.
“No talking,” said Sergeant.
Them ran down the stairs to the basement. Them needed to go underground to reach the field where Alistair had told them the flyers were.
But in the lower levels them luck ran out. Half a dozen hivers emerged from a door. One hiver's face was covered by his helmet.
“Him general,” said Alistair.
No more need for subterfuge. Sergeant barked out, “Joy and Tantas, take the boy. Get Alistair to the flyers. Me and Barns and Map, we hold them.”
“Leave you behind?” asked Tantas.
“You take him off planet, that's the important thing.”
Joy nodded “Use the stuff,” her whispered to Sergeant.
Them run, leaving the others to fight. Tactically it was good. Them was in the narrow corridor, so even though them was outnumbered, them could still fight one on one.
“What stuff?” asked Tantas, as they ran.
“Sergeant's still got some volatile ware, remember? Would give him an edge in a fight,” explained Joy.
Them ran along the basement corridor. Them see a couple of doors at the end.
“Which way?” asked Joy.
“The left leads to the airfield,” said Alistair.
Behind them they heard the noise of battle. It was hard to leave the others behind.
Joy grabbed the door handle, threw open the door, and them all ran through.
The Queen and a hundred soldiers were waiting for them. There was no mistaking the Queen. Her metallic helmet covered all her face. “Alistair.” The Queen's voice was the buzzing of a thousand minds. “Alistair. You've come back.”
Joy let out a great scream. Her lunged toward the Queen firing wild. Smoothly, a dozen hivers stepped forward to protect the Queen. Tantas was only moments behind Joy, pulling Alistair behind, shielding him. Out of the corner of his eye, Tantas notice some of the hivers standing still as salt. Must be the effect of the boy, Tantas thought.
Them firing, cutting down the hivers. The Queen started laughing, the ringing of a thousand discordant bells. Tantas cut down the hivers like scything wheat, but him know that there too many of them. Sure, them falling, but sooner or later one of them smash his mask. Sooner or later Atropos would snip her shears.
Joy was swimming in a dead sea. Cutting them down. Screaming, magnificent, raging, while the Queen laughed. But soon her will fall. And then there'd be nothing. Snipping shears so close.
But ... the door slammed open. Sergeant ran into the gym, holding his arm up high, then smashing the bottle of volatile ware onto the floor. The smell of almonds filled the air, the hivers fell.
“Where's the Queen?” yelled Sergeant.
“Joy was near her,” shouted Tantas, overstepping the waves of bodies. “Where's Barns and Map?”
“Them dead,” said Sergeant. His head whipped form side to side, surveying the room. “That the exit?” Him pointed to the far corner. Him grabbed Alistair. “Come on. The plan still good, we get Alistair to Primateur.”
“I'm not leaving Joy,” said Tantas.
“Go to her then,” said Sergeant.
Joy was crouched over the body of the dead Queen. Her bayonet still protruding from the Queen's chest. Tantas could see the Queen's eyes through the hole in her helmet, green multifaceted, unseeing, an alien and a dead thing.
“It's over,” said Joy.
“I don't know,” said Tantas. Him scanned the room. The hivers on the floor were stirring. Like Sergeant had said, maybe even now one of the general hivers was mutating into a Queen. “We're leaving, Joy. Getting Alistair off-world, remember?”
“I thought it would be the end of it, if her dead,” said Joy
“I know.” Tantas pulled her to her feet. “We're going now.” Him pulled Joy through the room of hivers, and out into the field.
* * *
But instead of the fleet of flyers them expected there was just the one, a small craft, a two solider flyer. Alistair was already in the flyer, Sergeant stood at the wings, waiting for them.
“Where all the others?” asked Joy, bewildered.
Sergeant shrugged. “Who knows. Wordsworth, you climb in and take Alistair to Primateur.”
“No.”
“That's an order, Acting Private.”
“Joy should go.”
“No,” said Joy “You go. You go. You the civilian. I knew what I was signing up for.”
Tantas shook his head. “I mean you should go, Joy, because I can't pilot a flyer.”
“You what?”
“I can't fly.”
“Everyone can.”
“Not me.”
“That's settled then,” said Sergeant, “Alistair no pilot either. Joy, you go with Alistair. And don't even be thinking of telling me to go.”
Joy saluted. Her climbed into the flyer. Her set the course, while Sergeant activated the roof port.
Joy reached out her hand to Tantas and said, “I'm sorry that you can't go. It would have been better if you could get to safety. I'm the solider.”
“Only someone who can fly, can go,” said Tantas. “Lachesis has seen to that.”
Joy smiled. “Yeh. Them Moirae. Can't argue with them.”
“Now go,” said Tantas. “Take care of yourself and Alistair.”
“I will,” said Joy. “And you and Sergeant, you better stay safe until I come back.”
The roof to the flyer slid shut. The burners pulsed out red-hot air. The flyer lifted into the sky. For a moment or two Sergeant and Tantas watched the flyer. Then Sergeant said, “Come on then, Wordsworth. Them hivers aren't going to be confused forever.” He set off at a trot.
Them made it thought the school safe enough, and ran through the town and to the old mining tunnel.
“Are we going to make it?” asked Tantas.
“You better hope you don't survive,” said Sergeant.
“Eh? Why's that?” asked Tantas.
“When Joy finds out that you can pilot a flyer, her going to rip your head off.”
“You knew?”
“Sure. I'm not stupid,” said Sergeant. “What was it between you and Joy?”
“Nothing,” said Tantas quickly “I just... you know.”
/> “Oh, yes,” said Sergeant. “I know that song.”
When them emerged from the tunnel, them both turned their faces to the sky. The flyer was a diminished speck of light against the stars.
Sergeant laughed “Wordsworth, if you get through this, you going to be in so much trouble.”
Tantas grinned. “I reckon so,” him said.
Perfect War
Jay Werkheiser
“How the hell could a soldier get killed?” Colonel Spencer shouted. Gardner wondered if he might pop a blood vessel. “It's the middle of a war, for Christ's sake.”
Gardner avoided eye contact. “We're looking into it, sir.”
“Well what the hell happened?”
“He was on a simple recon patrol, sir, when he slumped over at his station. If I had to guess—”
“You're not paid to guess, Lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir. I'll let you know when I have the autopsy report.”
Colonel Spencer huffed and stalked out of Gardner's office without another word. Gardner collapsed into his chair, trembling with anger. He didn't even care to ask the guy's name.
A tentative knuckle rapped on the door. “You okay, LT?”
“C'mon in, Liz.”
She sauntered in, dreads bouncing, and melted into the chair on the opposite side of Gardner's desk. Her fatigues were crisp enough to snap had she bothered to salute. “That bad, huh?”
He blew out a long breath. “It's not bad enough we lost Joel. Now I have command breathing down my neck.”
“Don't sweat it. Brass doesn't give a flying—”
“How often do you see a full-bird colonel snooping around? To them, this is bad publicity. Another war in the Mideast gone wrong. And they're sure as hell going to want a scapegoat.”
She shook her head. “The autopsy will clear you. Probably show he had an aneurysm or something.”
“The EMEG rig was fried. That had to be what killed him.”
“So it was a malf.”
“It passed the pre-mission inspection.” He realized he was standing, his voice practically a shout. He again collapsed into his chair. “They don't want any doves claiming the EMEG rigs damage soldiers' brains.”
She planted her hands on his desk, leaning her face into his. “It. Wasn't. Your. Fault.”