Silhouette

by Arthur McMahon

  “At the time when my aptitude as Archon is widely known, and my more radical ideas are called into question, it will be the aid that Erde gives to Nye which will propel the desire for cooperation among all of the human worlds. There will be an outcry of support as planet after planet joins our cause in the wake of Nye’s liberation. We will eradicate the Burmin menace from our section of the Verse, and then the Yarlian gangs, and then the rest of the scavengers and thieves that plague our space. But the liberation of your homeworld, Susan, that will be the spark which ignites the fire.”

  * * *

  Sue returned to her apodment where she grabbed her homehub tablet and swiped over to the appliances. Coffee. She flicked on the brewer, knowing that a long night of thinking lay ahead of her. A red square blinked in the corner of the tablet, meaning that someone had left her a recorded message via facemail. Sue activated the message and her friend’s face took over the screen. Sue swiped Linn off of the tablet and the image was projected in front of Sue as she walked around her home. The message played and Linn’s image followed Sue. When Sue directly looked at her friend they made eye contact, otherwise Linn’s image moved off to the side to avoid being in the way.

  “Hey lady,” Linn’s voice rang out from the tablet. “I have to cancel our plans for tomorrow night. All of a sudden, Elise decided to have another party for her bridesmaids. You know if I blow off her gig she’ll have a fit. I don’t get this whole parade up to the wedding crap, but it is what it is. At least her douchebag groom won’t be there. Whatever. Let’s reschedule for Saturday? Get back to me. There’s this awesome beer garden down in Fusion Valley I haven’t shown you yet. We can hit up the Laugh Track after. Anyways, face me back!”

  Linn’s smiling face disappeared from view as the message ended. A cup of pressed coffee waited on the counter. The aroma was light, floral, heavenly. Sue took the hot coffee, placed it on the parlor table, and then she cozied up on the couch, triggering the mediabay to resume the movie she had started earlier. Her coffee cooled as the opening scene unfolded. Sleep took her before she could take her first sip.

  * * *

  Thoughts raced through her mind as she transitioned from deep sleep to waking panic. The world spun. Her mind felt pressurized, like it was going to explode. Was she going to die? Memories of her family clashed with the possibilities of her pending decision. She could feel her thoughts as they overworked her brain. They were like a colony of ants running around inside of her skull. They itched. They stung.

  Sue noticed that she was hyperventilating. Her fingertips were going numb. Calm, she thought. Calm down. Breathe. Her thoughts were out of her control, but she could restrain her breathing. Slow breaths. Her heart was beating too fast. She covered her face with a pillow and inhaled. Deep breaths. After a minute of focus, she had it under control. By concentrating on her breathing, Sue had also slowed her racing mind. She had regained her composure.

  She had only then noticed that her alarm was beeping, and so she shut it off.

  Could she do it? The mission was too big. Too much. What was Folami thinking? Her family: her father, her brother. She could save them. Smuggle them off of the planet to a safe place. But take down a command ship? Rescue a planet of people? Alone? There was no way. How could she ever presume to take on such a responsibility?

  There was little time for her to recover from her panic attack as she had to get ready for an appointment with her trainers, not unlike any other weekday morning. Stand-up grappling was today’s focus. It was a grueling exercise and she hated it. Because of her small frame, grappling nearly any opponent was an uphill battle and she would never win a wrestling match, but there was reason for the training. She only had to pull her opponents close, eliminating any reach advantage they may have over her. The goal was to hold her enemies long enough to stab something into them or punch their throat.

  She arrived at the gym, and during warmups she knew that her head was not going to be in it today. Her instructor took advantage of her distant mind and twisted Sue into some painful holds. She could not stop it, but she did not quite want to. The pain was a useful distraction and helped her focus her thoughts.

  Worrying accomplished nothing. Sue had been waiting for this opportunity ever since her freedom was purchased by the Presider. She could set her family free, or at least she could try, and she needed to try. Sue was knocked down by her trainers, taking open palm strikes to the chin and wooden staffs to her sides. She was pinned into agonizing positions and held until she screamed, and through the pain she transformed her fear into fuel. Instead of fearing what she could lose, she focused on what could be gained. Now was the time. There was no longer any doubt in her mind as to what her decision would be.

  Sue left her dojo with her body beaten, but her mind strengthened. She set off to meet with the Presider.

  * * *

  “When do we begin?” asked Sue. They met at one of Folami’s residences, a modest house set in the foothills of large, snow-covered granite mountains. It was the house where Leslie Folami had raised her adopted child, Susan Singh. The house they had both called home.

  “I will soon be inaugurated, and so you must begin your journey immediately.” Folami moved a sheet of fresh baked cookies from the oven to the counter. “I’ll be signing bills into law before you even arrive on Nye. You’ll have some months to complete your mission, but when the time comes for Erde to attack the Burmin, you must be ready. Syncing the timelines is crucial, all must line up tactically and politically for this to work. Here,” Folami took off her oven mitts and reached into her pocket. She handed Sue a data drive. “Load this into your Ocu.”

  “Anything new?” asked Sue.

  “An updated timeline of events, a comm code so you can send me an encrypted message from inside the Juggernaut, the most recent information we have on the Burmin, and the coordinates of a man we’ll call X. He will provide you with more intel than we could have ever hoped for.”

  Sue loaded the information wirelessly into her Ocu, the data becoming instantly accessible to her mind and stored for future use. “That’s quite a few things, Presider.”

  “Sue, please call me Leslie. We’re alone here.” Folami put two of the cookies onto a plate. “Here, have some.”

  “Sorry Leslie, and thanks.” Sue took a bite. Warm gingersnaps were her favorite. She could not help but continue to chew as she spoke. “So go on, explain the new things.”

  “The timeline better lays out what I expect to transpire over the next six months politically, and when I need your mission to be completed.

  “You will use the comm code to relay to me when to launch our attack on the Burmin with the Erdian armada. The Juggernaut must be destroyed or disabled before our fleet can move in, otherwise that behemoth will devastate our forces. Put together a plan and notify me forty-eight hours before we should attack, and there will be no contact before that to prevent the Burmin from breaking the encryption and tracking your location. I will not respond to any messages you send, and so you must trust that they will go through.

  “You can read over the new intel on the Burmin when you find time. It’s not much, but I expect you will receive a great deal more from X. Your transport will depart on Sunday. Toruk, my pilot, will take you most of the way, and from there you will be launched in a dropcraft which will land in an abandoned quarry. There should be minimal Burmin presence nearby, but you will have to quickly vacate the area and make your way to the provided coordinates. You will find a farming residence. Inside will be X. He will give you all of the intel he has gathered on the nearby Burmin compound and anything else he can provide. I trust the man, but be cautious. We do not know if he is being watched.”

  “Land on planet, get intel, infiltrate the Burmin compound, find my way up to the command ship, blow it up somehow, but give you a call before I do,” said Sue. “Got it.”

  “Yes. Do not be overconfident, Sue.”

  “Oh, I’m not. I’m scared as shit that I’m going to fail.
If I don’t make it…”

  “Sue.”

  “If I don’t succeed, Leslie, Presider, you will still work to free my family, right?”

  “Of course. Not only your family, but the entire planet of Nye, and all of humanity. We are all prisoners in one way or another as the situation currently stands.”

  “I’m not talking about your life’s work to rebuild the Cooperation and unite humanity and all that. If I fail, I want my family’s freedom to be your top priority. Leslie, do I have your word on that?”

  “It would be the least I could do for you. Yes, you have my word.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Leave now and prepare for your journey, Sue. You will be gone from this world for quite some time.”

  “What about my stuff and my place?”

  “They’ll be taken care of. Do not worry about your things. Be at the safehouse by dusk on Sunday. I’ll see you then.”

  * * *

  Sue flipped over the sushi restaurant’s menu, unable to make a choice. Her eyes were unfocused, distant.

  “Would you pick something already?” said Linn. “The waiter’s going to be pissed if he comes back and you’re still not ready.”

  “I just don’t have much of an appetite,” said Sue.

  “Well, I’ll order for you then. Here he comes.”

  “You two ready now?” asked the waiter.

  “Yeah,” said Linn. “I’ll have the grilled soba. Get my girl here the Frostarc assorted nigiri plate and we’ll both have a double vodka with a splash of plum juice.”

  “Linn! I…”

  “That’s all for now,” said Linn. The waiter nodded and walked away. “You’re feeling down and I’m going to bring you back up. All drinks are on me until you start smiling again. What’s up anyway?”

  “I, uh… it’s work,” said Sue as she brushed back the hair from her face. “I’ve had a big project dumped on to me all of a sudden. It’s a lot to think about, lots of stress.”

  “Work is work. Don’t let it ruin your social life. Leave it at the desk.”

  “If only it were that easy. Look, I’m going to be gone for awhile.”

  “Awhile?

  “Yeah, a long awhile. They’re sending me to another planet to do some research. It’s out in uh…it’s in a remote place. I won’t be back in the bay area for a long time and I won’t have any way to call you either.”

  “Well that blows,” said Linn. “How long is it? Can you turn it down?”

  “I don’t know how long, not for sure. Six months if it all works as planned, much, much longer if it doesn’t. Much longer. And no, they’ve got me pretty much locked in.”

  “Government stuff?”

  “Yeah, government stuff. I can’t really turn them down or I’d be in big trouble.”

  “Is this because the Archon is dead?”

  The vodka arrived just in time. Sue gulped some of it down, winced, and then took another swig. “Yeah, pretty much. Kinda sorta all about that.”

  “Damn,” said Linn. “Well, it’s not like you haven’t disappeared on me before.”

  “A little bit different this time, but yeah.”

  “Ok. Well, finish that drink and let’s get another round. We’re hitting the town tonight.” Linn raised her glass and Sue did the same a moment later, clinking them together. “To tonight, because nothing matters more than the here and now!” Linn worked her way down her drink. Sue finished hers shortly after.

  “I don’t feel better yet,” said Sue. “We better order a couple more.”

  * * *

  Thank God the Presider said to meet at sunset. Sue did not wake up until noon, and she struggled to remember how she had made it home. Flashing memories of last night’s wild party lights pained her aching head while her sore thighs and ass reminded her of the hours she had spent on the dance floor. She and Linn spent most of the night together, but there was one man who had grabbed her attention by the night’s end. She had fun with him, that was for sure. They danced together and later found a quiet place. She was alone with the dude for a couple of hours, but at some point Linn had called her and came to pick her up from wherever she was. She remembered getting into the car, both women laughing over something while the driver took them…somewhere. They got more drinks at a casino or someplace, and then….

  She made it home, and that was all that mattered. Linn had left her a wakeup text. “Be safe on your trip,” it said. Sue was inclined to check her bank account to survey the night’s damage, but what did it matter? She would either be dead or have everything taken care of by the Presider. Nothing on Erde mattered anymore, but that was not true; she knew she was just being dramatic. It’s just that freeing her family was all she could think about now. Uniting humanity was a bonus, sure, but even that paled in comparison to finding her father and brother.

  “Oh yeah,” Sue said to herself, grabbing her homehub tablet and flicking through the presets. “I almost forgot how smart I was.” She activated the hangover mode she had put together. All of the lights in her home dimmed to their lowest setting, her windows shaded themselves, coffee brewed, breakfast meats sizzled on their own, and on low volume a morning talk radio station started to play. The only thing she had to do for herself was reach over to her armchair and grab another pillow to put over her head. The crisp, cool pillowcase on her cheek was refreshing.

  * * *

  “Where is she?” asked Toruk.

  “She will be here,” replied Folami.

  Silhouette stepped forward from an adjoining room, fully covered in her shadowsuit.

  “You’re late,” said the Presider.

  “I was waiting to see how many people would show up,” said Silhouette. “You didn’t tell me that the pilot was going to be here. Will anyone else be stopping by? How much does he know about the mission?”

  “You knew that Toruk would be your pilot for this assignment. He has been informed of nothing beyond his role to play, and no one else is here. Only us.”

  “Good to see you again as well, Silhouette.” Toruk stood tall and was dressed in his formal pilot’s outfit, helmet and all. “Still spooks me every time you pop out of the shadows like that.” Susan knew the man; he had acted something like an uncle to her when she was still a child in Folami’s care, but he did not know who Silhouette was, and she had to keep it that way.

  “Sorry,” said Silhouette. “Your presence surprised me is all. Can’t be too cautious.” She looked into the man’s dark brown eyes and wanted to say more. Sue did care for him, but Silhouette did not. It was business. Silhouette turned back to the Presider. “So nothing has changed, then?”

  “Nothing,” replied Folami. Only the Presider knew who Sue was both with and without the mask. The lives of Sue and Silhouette remained separate, the Presider being the only link between the two.

  “Toruk,” spoke the Presider, “I have no more directions for you. Will you please go prepare the ship for departure.”

  “Yes, Madam Vice Archon.” Toruk left the safehouse and Folami stepped closer to Sue. “Toruk has been by my side for decades, and you’ve known him since you were a child. You do not need to be so discourteous toward him.”

  “I know,” said Silhouette. “But I don’t want to reveal who I am. I’m afraid that if I talk with him I’ll give myself away.”

  “A good Enforcer is diplomatic,” said Folami. “It is a skill you must improve upon. We will work on it when you return from your mission.”

  “I have a couple of weeks cooped up in that ship with him to look forward to,” said Silhouette. “I’ll have to have some sort of conversation with him, I suppose.”

  “Consider it more training, and a chance to get to know a man from another perspective. You will soon be longing for conversation, no doubt. This will be a long, lonely mission for you.”

  “Yeah, unless I find my family.”

  “You know that will be unlikely. Remember that freeing the planet will bring freedom to your father and brother.
Do not endanger your mission by jumping off track and searching for them. Stick to the plan, Sue. It’s the only way we can ensure your family’s safety.”

  “Yes, Presider.”

  “Be safe. Be cautious,” said Folami. “Above all else, come home.”

  “I am going home, Leslie.” Silhouette’s eyes welled up and her lips quivered. She scanned the area, saw no cause for alarm, then pulled off her headpiece and looked with affection into Leslie’s eyes. “But I will come back. I promise.” They hugged and whispered goodbyes to one another in a long embrace. “Thank you,” said Sue, “for everything.”

  Sue pulled her headpiece back on and left the safehouse. The ship’s engines hummed a pleasant buzz and the moon was a full, bright beacon in the sky. She felt the humidity in the air, smelled the sweet flowers of the garden, tasted the salty tears which had dripped down to her mouth; Sue focused on her senses, wanting to fully experience what might be her final moments on Erde. Toruk waited in the cockpit, letting Silhouette take all the time she needed. She looked over to the nearby skyscraper skyline and followed the buildings up to the dark sky above. After all of these years, she thought, I’m going home.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Darkness Within

  It was a quiet journey. Silhouette did not put much effort into the small talk the Presider had hoped for. The modest ship was equipped with an exercise room where Silhouette spent most of her time, though she did join Toruk in the cockpit every evening to look out at the stars. It was a time they both enjoyed. Silhouette found it difficult to make discreet conversation with a person who knew her only as Susan, but it was easy to talk about the stars.