The Last Holidays

by Grover Young

  It was like feeding a sleepy drunk coffee. You got an awake drunk.

  Huddled on a rock, I took the time which I didn't have to spare, to take a deep breath. Doing the best I could to clear my heart and soul as well as my mind, I gathered my second wind or maybe it was the third... I'd lost count.

  I thought of Sheila, with her no nonsense smile as she forced me to make a promise I'd known then that I might not be able to keep. The distant thunder of the Battle for Asheville gave me my bearings. With as much as will I had left, I lifted off flying Nap of Earth for my last objective. I had promises to keep.

  Actually, it wasn't hard finding the right mountain. The Air Force planes and Army artillery had thrown one hell of a hammer and anvil style attack at the last redoubt. Special Forces teams had carefully aimed throwaway laser designators at every target they could spot.

  Sure, the second those lasers had remotely flashed on, the Sha'leian 'bots responded. But this wasn't the SF teams’ first rodeo if you know what I mean. The lasers were placed so they weren't easy targets and a great many missiles, shells and anything else they could throw, were thundering down our invaders' throat. Perhaps the kitchen sink didn't make it, but everything else sure did.

  The T-Rex, however, demonstrated just why it was so formidable. Targets were identified and assigned a priority. Then, the 'bots and drones were assigned their targets. Hundreds, if not thousands if counting the sub-munitions, of weapons filled the air. Then, they began to disappear in a careful calculated orchestra of destruction. Rail-guns engaged first with plasma burners taking out the leakers.

  Not every missile was stopped, nor did the tank's forces escape casualties, but the mighty wave of destruction was blunted. What it did do was cut off and isolated the rest of the Sha'leian forces still in Asheville. Those units had lost their command and control due to me. Now, without the coordinated support that last tank could've provided, those 'bots, now dependent only on their own programming, got hit in the rear by the Pantheon Teams.

  That is... if the plan was working.

  From what I could see, it was … more or less. The air strikes and artillery were supposed to have taken out the uncoordinated 'bots of all three strongholds after I'd disabled their command units. Instead, that massive hammer had just the one remaining intact site since the Sha'leians had nano-bombed their own forces after I'd trashed those other two tanks.

  In a way, it made sense. One, they had found my weakness, and two, it kept us from recovering any equipment. Three, not all of their units in the 'bombed' area had fallen to the nanites, making me think they did have some kind of Identify Friend or Foe, IFF, system, but the nanites weren't very discriminating. It only mostly worked.

  It also proved that the SF guys were on the ball and were able to adapt and improvise to the changing situation. I hadn't run across any of them, but then again they knew better than to get this close. It was only clueless me that was charging into the guns.

  However, this was my chance to get close to that last tank. That is, if I didn't get nailed by friendly fire. There were smoldering and smoking fragments of shells, missiles and 'bots all over the place. I'd no intention of using my legs, keeping to the air not only because it was easier, but because of all the sub-munitions and other unexploded ordinance all over the mountain now.

  I was wondering just how long I could keep the flying thing going, but one, I wasn't flying high or fast. I was low and slow, using it to speed me faster than I could low-crawl which really wasn't very speedy at all. It was possible it was a function of all that energy I'd 'drank,' an external manifestation of the energy.

  No complaints from me since it let me move relatively quickly across some very rough, snow covered territory. Not that unexploded bombs, snow storms and invading aliens were the only problems. The still exploding ones dropping, not only on the ground, but detonating in the tree tops.

  By the time I'd reached this summit, I was as cautious as a mouse. Really wishing I really was a submarine, complete with periscope, I craned one eye over the edge. There were at least 50 'bots that still stood among the blasted remains of about ten. Not a single Drone was to be seen; nor any handy stockpiles of ordinance for me to be creative. Of course, the T-Rex was still intact as was the autofac.

  As I watched, the automated factory's dedicated worker 'bots shoveled the pieces/parts of their dearly departed comrades in one end, while another brand new war machine rolled out the other side.

  Ducking back down to the safety of the trees, I slid around to the closest point to the tank. Once again, I wasn't sure what I was going to do once I got there, but my window to do anything at all was closing. The attacking bombs and shells were slacking off. It didn't take a genius to figure out where this group's drones were at.

  Roughly, I figured I had enough oomph to kill a 'bot, or maybe destroy the tank's comm systems, but not enough to just blow the damn thing to hell. Plus the 'bots were spread out so as to catch the incoming munitions in their vicious crossfire. At the very least, trying to attack the tank directly would put me in the cross-hairs of at a minimum of ten of them.

  Okay, it was do or die time.

  Making sure of the path I would have to take to my objective, I took a deep breath. Please 'cool down' be over, I prayed. Really wishing I had my Q-Box, I reached for the feel, the sensations, of how it was to change. It was one of those damn frustrating nebulous things like trying to hold a handful of sand or not thinking of a given color. It was just out of reach like I could touch it with the tips of my fingers, but couldn't grab it to bring the desired change to me.

  Gritting my teeth, I opened my eyes. It was still too damn soon. Looking up, I wondered what hell was I going to do now. That's when I noticed the chute in the tree above me slowly twisting in the wind.

  In of itself that wasn't a bad thing. The large coffee can like sub-munition that was no doubt still live, most definitely was. SADARM stood for Sense and Destroy Armor and housed a small radar unit and other sensors to help find large metal vehicles like armored vehicle or 'bots. When it found one, the just over three pounds of explosives would fire an explosively formed penetrator.

  If it couldn't find a target, it would self-destruct upon reaching the ground. This one hadn't done either one yet. Looking around, there were other SADARM's that had also failed to complete their journeys.

  My breath froze in my chest. Talk about a very deadly decorated Christmas tree.

  I began moving out from under the tree of death, when I had a thought. Those things had failed to find their targets, but what if I was to help them?

  That was really, really stupid. I remember a drill sergeant saying if you did something stupid and lived, it was still stupid and don't do it again.

  The damn things could go off at anytime, and even if it didn't, I would have to loft them into the air somehow without getting myself shot to pieces by all those guns just a few feet up the slope.

  Why the hell why not?

  Careful not to be seen or set off the damn things I fished the chutes out of the trees. I got three of them tied to together using the parachute cord from one. I kept one of the chutes attached to act like a kite's tail. Then I flew down a ways to give me time to accelerate to full speed. Very deliberately, I 'ate' that last bit of energy, I'd been holding. This was going to take all the strength and speed I could get.

  “I love you Sheila.” The whisper was lost in the falling snow as I flew hell bent for leather for the crest.

  It wasn't anywhere close to the 200 mph plus of my insertion. With my burden, I was about as aerodynamic as a swallow carrying a coconut. Even still my eyes burned in the cold without any protection from the freezing air. Like a skier taking a jump I soared over the edge ever mindful of the thin deadly line. Too high and I would be a target for all the 'bots, but too low and I risked my deadly Christmas gift going off early.

  Luck was in my favor, the 'bots were looking up prepared for threats from above. I zoomed between two so close I could've t
ouched one. Their guns swiveled to track me as I poured on the coal feeling like a fat pig with the load I was carrying.

  “Stay on target,” I whispered as the tank became aware of me and both fore and aft turrets sought me.

  Rolling on my back, I heaved my jury-rigged bomb into the air as high as I could.

  At first, I thought I'd screwed up big time. It wasn't high enough so the damn chute would fill which would orient the sensors in the proper direction so it would explode. Then, the chute and cords caught on the comm tower, swinging up in a high arc as it stopped.

  All the guns from hell were pointed at me, but they held fire since their own units would be in the crossfire. Too late Mr. Tank realized that it should've been targeting the bomb hanging from its tower.

  Close to ten pounds of shaped charges turned three sheets of copper penetrators into plasma driving down into its top deck from a distance of only a few feet.

  Meanwhile I'd gone back to being the perfect human arrow, flying as fast as I could. It was strange that I knew I had to be streaking along at better than a 100 mph, but damn it felt like I was just floating along as all those damn 'bots tracked me. I suspected I'd at least had hurt the freaking thing when the 'bots in front of me broke formation.

  Mr. T-Rex had stopped giving orders.

  Things got hectic as I cleared the mountain's summit and dove down the slope. I went from flying in a snow storm to flying in one made of metal, plasma and exploding trees. At some point, either I got hit or ran into something. I'd no idea of what, but it sure felt like I busted several somethings in a couple places as I'd finally tumbled and bounced to a stop.

  To paraphrase Colonel Austin, a TV character from my childhood, “I'm breaking up. I'm breaking up!”

  It was crystal clear I wasn't going anywhere. Even thinking about moving, hurt. I decided this was a good place to rest for a spell.

  Flashes of light and more explosions from above suggested that the good guys were taking advantage of the opening I'd given them.

  “Go get'em fellas,” I cheered them on, being cautious not to move anything. It didn't quite hurt to breathe, but it sure didn't feel good.

  My mood fell as a 'bot crashed through the trees in a kind of running jump. You never see them doing that sort of thing. It was just more proof that the Sha'leians were directly controlling at least some of their machines. Not that I would be telling anyone. It had seen me.

  “Well shit,” I smiled grimly as its guns snapped into firing position.

  I made my arm move meaning to give the sonofabitch the 'finger', but something made me change my mind.

  Bringing my open palm over my chest, despite the pain, I gave it the Sha'leian salute.

  A so very long second passed, followed by another.

  With smooth precision the guns retracted. Then, it bought up its own arm up returning the honorific.

  Stepping back, it waited as a drone came and picked it up. This was the first I'd seen them do the air-mobile thing. Together, the two flew upwards into the lightening clouds, which signaled morning had finally arrived.

  “Happy New Year,” I whispered, as both machines were lost from sight.

  Epilogue

  As efficiently as any robot, Lapis Lazuli dusted the last of the Master's library, the long, lighted table. The décor could've come out of any old movie featuring a college or university, up to and including the card catalog cabinet. It lacked only in size for all that it was far larger than most private collections.

  Having the time to think and index decades of memories, she thought it was because he sought as familiar and as comfortable surroundings as possible – perhaps going back to a time before he broke and went insane.

  Certainly he treated her and the other automata, on occasion, like staff, students or colleagues for all he never loosened his control one iota. It was an affection – like talking to any 'thing'.

  Even she was the same. The other automata were not her sisters or even fellow prisoners. You had to have interactions to form relationships. They were mostly empty shells given a semblance of life by ripping that required vital spark from the people they had once been and binding it into lifeless statues.

  Lapis Lazuli's memory of those times was full of holes, but she hadn't been a saint. That person had tried to do the best they could, but like all humans, they'd fallen short. Those same memories suggested that others of the automata had been far worse than simply having feet of clay. They had embraced that darkness.

  However, none of them held a candle to the man who'd captured and tortured them, sacrificing their humanity for the sake of a revenge that had lasted over 70 years. He hadn't just embraced that blackness that lay within every human. The Master had become one with it, reveling in forbidden knowledge, insane even before grasping such that would break any man.

  She knew he had something planned that would result in a tremendous catastrophe. He had spoken of wrath he would bring down upon his enemies. The thought that so many that he so hated and despised were escaping him by dying of old age drove him over lines even the crazed avoided. Even they wanted to live.

  Another, but significant factor was the few who had cheated both justice and death. Not many of the old Nazi Ubermensch survived, but those that did were the smartest and most cunning of them all. Of all the deeds she been forced to do by the Master, fighting those, who despite their fair faces were monstrosities, were things she didn't regret.

  At this very moment, he was studying the materials he had used her and the others to gather. Pieces of ancient writings in stone; age old accounts of others' research; odds and ends they had dug up from buried cities the rest of the modern world didn't even know existed, as well other parts to a puzzle he was working on solving.

  No matter how mad he might be now, or his age, the Master had always been a brilliant researcher. Additionally, no one could underestimate the effects of the marvelous, taboo and dark things he'd seen, done and knew upon his mind and body. She wondered just how human he still was after all was said and done.

  He was on the trail of some long hidden mystery. Given the care which that'd been spent to erase all clues of its existence, that boded ill for all. She had no doubts he would ferret out the secret, one fragment at a time until he had it all.

  That was what he did. Just like he'd uncovered the riddle of how to make, not half-shaped golems, but full-fledged automata like her. The world might have called him the Master of Golems, because of his Jewish ancestry, but she and the others were no more golems than a firecracker was a nuclear bomb.

  From his craftsman father and his own demented intellect, the Master had sculpted not just five sculptures with the form of beautiful women, but many. Some were flawed and had been placed in storage or melted back down. Others were replacements for those lost in his lust for revenge on an evil regime that'd been defeated more than a half century before.

  No, the Master's ego would never settle for just an unfinished thing that was a golem. Just as his creations had to be perfect, so did his retaliation. She feared that the world would not, could not survive what he sought to unleash.

  She had some measure of freedom, but could not go against any of his direct commands. The helpless feeling of knowing what he was doing, but being unable to oppose him was part of the two edged sword of being aware again.

  At the least, she'd saved the life of one hero. She knew the Master had intended for her to kill Grey Wolf. Thankfully, the hero had kept that low profile she'd suggested, saving both of them from the Master's retaliation if he ever found out.

  Straightening the desk, Lapis Lazuli left the library precisely as the Master ordered it. In the hallway the grandfather clock chimed midnight. A New Year had begun, but unless she could find a way, it may very well be the last.

  There was a way. There had to be. She just had to find it. At least, she had time to think about a solution. Like a robot she went on to her next housekeeping task. Well almost, she kept her smile to herself. The Library w
as normally cleaned last, but this time, since the Master was in the 'working' room downstairs, she'd left the starting the fire in the sitting room instead for her final duty.

  Perhaps it was only a little rebellion, but the more loopholes she could find in his commandments the sooner this rebel could set a fire he would never forget.

  Grey stared at the screen as the file copy progress bar edged towards complete. While not a computer savvy hacker, he knew those who were. His 'friend' had gotten him in the desired database by sneaking in though some kind cyberspace backdoor. It also helped that being New Years Eve most everyone was out counting down the last minutes of the old year.

  The Protector Bureau guarded its archives more closely than even Ft. Knox. Even with all the help, Grey knew he would only have a short time to do his search. Before hand he'd listed all of his questions, and possible follow ups.

  He'd tracked down some previously unknown information about Golem Master and everything the Bureau had on his golems. The sections he was very interested in included those which had any signs of the previous personalities of the ones killed to make those foul things ever been seen, but no, none at all. Those who had died at Golem Master's hands were believed to be just that, dead.

  Lapis Lazuli was the oldest of the current group and the most powerful. However the most likely donor had probably only been a 'B' plus rated hero by the name of Flashback. He had energy absorption and reflection powers with enough of the kinetic variety as well to let him fly and project a decent if not powerful force-field.

  Flashback was active for about ten years before disappearing and Lapis Lazuli appeared. From the very beginning, the merger of Flashback into a golem demonstrated the sum was much greater than the parts. There was a synergy that amplified the abilities of both forms into a very powerful single creation.