by Gini Koch
“You’re not allowed to make alliances, to let the other sentient creatures have a voice, to consult the Gods, or to let anyone else have this planet.” This was definitely said as if it were rote memorization.
“Why not?” 2.0 sounded outraged.
“Your role is not to lead but to be a figurehead, to hold the planet until she returns.” Again, rote memorization.
“Ah, Ronaldo is talking to the Gods right now,” Fancy pointed out, before 2.0 could say anything else.
The Clarence Clone nodded. “I don’t know how to stop the Gods.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Reader said under his breath. “Clarence, who laid the traps?” he asked in a normal, friendly tone.
“I don’t know them.”
“Can you describe them?” Fancy asked. “Tell us what they looked like?”
“Yes. They looked like—”
But before he could finish the sentence, we were rocked by an explosion that knocked everyone to the ground.
And then the building started to crumble.
Always the way.
CHAPTER 73
“EVERYONE, link up!” Abigail shouted as we scrambled to our feet, which wasn’t as easy as it sounded, since the building was still shaking like we were in a major earthquake. “Grab the animals, too!”
Reader was closest to Wilbur so he grabbed the chocho and I picked up Ginger. The princesses each grabbed one of The Clarence Clone’s arms, and Fancy grabbed 2.0. Abigail held onto 2.0’s other arm while the rest of us hooked up. Then she concentrated.
Before and especially during Operation Destruction, Abigail and Naomi had learned to use their talents to provide shields. They were the reason Washington, D.C. still had all the monuments and museums in the National Mall, as well as all the people who’d been able to take cover inside them.
But that effort had burned the power out of both sisters. Naomi had taken a terrifying amount of pure Surcenthumain in order to protect Chuckie and Jamie from the Mastermind, which was why and how she’d first gotten her talents back and then, about five minutes later, become so powerful that she became her own superconsciousness.
Abigail had been working to get her talent back, but it had been slow going, in part because she refused to try the drug and no one would have let her near it anyway. That is, before we were on Beta Eight it had been slow going.
On this oxygen-rich planet, however, apparently all the bells and whistles and a whole lot of other special luxury extras had been added onto Abigail’s abilities.
A shimmering field went around us and, as stones started to crumble and fall, they bounced off. I’d been in a shield like this before, only it had taken both of the Gower Girls to create it. Wasn’t in any mood to complain that Abigail seemed to be fine handling this on her own, however. I knew when not to look at a gift horse’s butt.
“I need a destination!” She had to shout, the rumbling, creaking, crashing, and hysterical hissing was so loud. Apparently the snakipedes were getting crushed and, no surprise, not enjoying the experience. “We’ve only seen this castle since we got here, and not much of it.”
“Ronnie, have you seen more of this world than your castle?”
“Of course I have, I’m the king.”
“Super. Choose a safe location somewhere else in the world, preferably in Iceland, the white section, if you can manage it, or the Purple Land.”
“Ah, I haven’t seen all of the world.”
“Fine, whatever. Choose someplace. Anyplace. Anywhere but here. Find the place, and show it to Abigail in her mind.”
“I can’t mind control her.”
“No, you can’t. But you can show her a picture.” The Ronaldo who’d come back to Earth had done that to Gladys—shown her places he wanted her to go. Time to see if this one had those skills, too.
“But—”
“Do it,” Abigail said. “I can’t hold this shield forever.”
He nodded and closed his eyes. Abigail looked thoughtful, nodded, and then, suddenly, a sort of bubble went around us and we did the thing that I could only describe as time-warping.
We raced through the castle at hyperspeed, but without actually moving ourselves and as if the walls weren’t there. Well, a lot of the walls weren’t there anymore, but for those that were, we went through them like they were mist. Sailed over a part of Greenland, then up and up, until, there we were, at the top of the All Seeing Mountain.
The landing felt as if we’d always been standing right where we were now, which was inside the railings.
“Abby, nice to see you got your powers back and then some.”
She grinned. “I figured out how Sis did things and I’ve been working to learn how to do them myself.” Her smile faded. “I miss her every day, but I’m never not going to do my best to make her proud of me and carry on our work.” She looked at 2.0. “You did well. Thank you.”
He shook his head. “Thank you. What happened? What was that?”
“That was Abigail using her talents, like you use yours. What happened, however, was an attack. And, seriously, Ronnie, I ask you to get us out of danger and you take us to the point where we’re closest to the attackers?”
Looked up and around. Sure enough, we had spaceships in the air. They weren’t like any of the four kinds I recognized, meaning they were from a planet that had a high probability of being anti-Earth, or at least anti-Alpha Four, which, under the circumstances, was likely to be the same thing.
As was typical for this solar system, the spacecraft weren’t bullet shaped. There were three, two hovering higher up and the one shooting up Beta Eight. They did have aerodynamic bodies that were elongated ovals. They also had what could only be described as wings, though they didn’t resemble bird wings all that much, but were more rigid-looking and seemed like they could expand out or contract in, sort of like an accordion.
The ones floating higher up had their wings mostly contracted. The third, however, had its wings fully expanded. The craft fired out of the wings as well as out of the front of the oval, which ended in what I assumed was a command center bubble, looking like a crude head.
There were only these three crafts I could see, and only the one appeared to be firing on the castle. However, we were far enough from the Greenland area that I couldn’t be sure, even though the height we were at should have given us a better vantage point. It would have, but buildings and such being blown up made a lot of smoke and dust and such and we were hella high up, meaning everything down below looked extremely tiny. Our location probably also made us really great targets, but no one was shooting at us at the moment. Didn’t expect that to last.
“You wanted someplace safe. I didn’t have a lot of choices—the area I know the best is the Horrors’ Nesting Area. I just took a guess and figured you wouldn’t want to go there.” 2.0 definitely had a sarcasm knob, and it was headed for eleven.
“No, you’re right. I just wanted to get somewhere where we might have a hope of mustering up reinforcements or even fighting back. Not where we’d be the definition of sitting ducks.” Wondered if there were ducks in the ships, and if so, if Howard the Duck was amongst their number. I’d have a shot of getting Howard on our side, which was more than I expected for whoever was really up there raining fire down on a defenseless planet.
“Why not fight back from up here?” Rahmi asked. “We are much closer to the ship.”
Chose not to discuss the merits of a handful of humanoid beings attacking a big, nasty spaceship without a major weapon among them. Felt I deserved some kind of medal for my restraint.
“Think those are Alpha Five or Six spacecraft?” Reader asked, effectively changing the subject, for which I was grateful, and which I was sure he knew. “They didn’t have the means when you and Jeff got married.”
“No bet. I mean, I think it’s a safe bet that Alexander or the other
spacefaring planets gave the others who wanted it spaceflight capabilities and help, because that’s the sort of thing you do if you’re trying to be a kind winner. And I’m also sure that we have Alphas Five and Six represented in the fight, I just don’t know if things that look kind of like giant bats would represent either of those planets.”
“It is not the same as the ship that fell,” Fancy said. “That ship was more triangular.”
“Yeah, it was sort of stealth bomber-ish, now that you mention it. In a really geometric way.”
“Does that mean this ship is trying to kill any survivors of the crash?” Rahmi asked.
“Did any survivors fall onto the castle?” Wasn’t sure if Rhee was being sarcastic to her older sister, but based on her tone and expression, she wasn’t. The princesses didn’t do sarcasm as a rule.
“I think all the parts fell into the ocean,” I said, lest I be wrong and a sister catfight was about to start. “But if they hit the land, they didn’t hit the castle.”
Reader nodded. “We’d have felt them before this—the debris was hitting when we went underground.”
“So, we have possibly Alpha Five or Six down and also possibly Alpha Five or Six shooting at whoever is down. Think that either Alpha Seven and/or Beta Sixteen have joined the space race and they could be one of the two down here?”
“Considering we saw three distinct ship designs that we couldn’t identify, it’s a good bet, babe,” Reader replied. “But like you, I don’t have any idea which planet has just destroyed the seat of power on this one, but we’re out of time—the war’s arrived.”
CHAPTER 74
“WHAT DO WE DO to stop them?” Fancy asked. “We don’t have the means to fight them while they’re in the air.”
“We do if any of the Horrors are still alive,” 2.0 said. “They can take on something like that.”
“I sincerely doubt it, Ronnie, but it would be worth trying. If we knew for certain that whoever is blowing up the castle is actually our enemy.”
“Well, it was my castle, so they’re my enemy.”
“Can’t really argue with that one, girlfriend.” Reader shook his head. “I’m kind of with Ronaldo here—why would you even wonder if they were friendlies?”
“Because someone removed every, single, living Lecanora from that castle before it was bombed. Said removers might be siding with those whose ship was shot down, those who are currently shooting up the Capital of Greenland, or someone else.”
“They didn’t remove any of his honor guard,” Fancy pointed out.
“Said honor guard was eaten by the Poofs. I think that means we can’t judge if whoever’s snatching people out of thin air are pro Free Women extremists and Amazonian Ancients or not.”
“They didn’t remove us,” Abigail said dryly, indicating herself and the princesses.
“Well, they tried to remove me, James, Fancy, Wilbur, and Ginger. They got everyone else.”
“We’re assuming those who took the others were the same as those who took the servants in the castle?” Rhee asked.
“Good point.” Heaved a sigh. “Honestly? I don’t know. We have so many planets involved, and a lot of them have hyperspeed and most of them have advanced tech. It could be any of them. It could be beings we’re not even aware are involved.”
“And we don’t know if they’ve taken people from other areas or not,” Fancy said. “Do we have the time to verify if Haven is still secure?”
“No.” Reader had a Commander Voice and it was on High right now. “If they’re taking people off this planet it’s either to save them or enslave them. Period. But us knowing how many are gone tells us nothing, so it doesn’t matter at this time. We need a plan of action, but since we don’t know what we’re up against, it’s harder to devise. But spending time verifying who is or isn’t here is just a time waster.”
“It would help if we knew who took the Lecanora out of the castle,” I said. “It’s either someone with hyperspeed—meaning, to our knowledge, it can’t be someone from Alphas Five or Six, but it could be someone from Alpha Four, a Free Woman, an Iguanodon, a Major Doggie, or a Cat Person—or it’s someone with Snatch You Out Of Thin Air Tech, meaning it could be anyone on any of the inhabited planets. But otherwise, I agree with you, James. I just have no idea what actions to plan.”
“He was about to describe them when the attack began.” Rahmi pointed at The Clarence Clone. “Those who had taken the servants out of the castle.”
“Yes, I was.” He looked rather proud. “They looked like flightless waterfowl.”
We all stared at him. “Excuse me?” I asked finally.
“Flightless waterfowl.”
“Like . . . penguins?” Reader asked.
Clarence brightened up. “Yes! That’s the name. Penguins. Black and white, with wide and thick webbed feet, big flippers instead of wings, sort of rotund bodies, and bird-like heads with pointed beaks. They’re very pretty. At least, I think they are.”
The rest of us, 2.0 included, all looked at each other. “How does he know what penguins are but couldn’t remember their name and can’t remember his family?” Abigail asked.
“I’d imagine there’s a basic knowledge base they have for all the clones—all basic living functions like how to eat, how to breathe, how to blink, and so forth. Then you’d overlay a standard knowledge base. For all we know, Clarence and Ronnie can both speak multiple Earth languages.”
2.0 nodded. “I can. I can understand, speak, read, and write in at least twenty languages. Maybe more. I haven’t really tried.” Noted that he seemed far more on our side than an adversary right now. Possibly because the devil you knew that wasn’t trying to blow you up was better than the devil you didn’t who was.
“Right, so a generalized knowledge base would be Earth-centric, because that’s the planet that our clones are technically ‘from.’ So, our Clarence Clone pulled up the description before the name—memory is funny and I can buy it working that way.” Turned to said Clone. “How big were these Penguin People?” Without an Earth A-C here, didn’t have a guess for which planet the Penguin People were from, but it had to be either Alpha Seven or Beta Sixteen because we’d never seen them, and if faded memory served, the races on those planets were avian-ish.
“Big. Our size. And they weren’t all black and white. There are some that are a pretty blue with white, and some that are a deep brown with white. That I’ve seen so far.”
“All working together?” Reader asked.
The Clarence Clone nodded. “Yes.” He cleared his throat. “Can I be on your side?”
We all stared at him, 2.0 included. “Excuse me?” Apparently I was the designated WTF asker at this time.
“I’m alone, and I don’t like being alone, and I’ve been alone forever. You’re the Gods and Ronaldo is the king. And I . . . ,” he looked down. “I’d like to have some friends.”
2.0’s eyes narrowed for a few seconds—was pretty sure he was in The Clarence Clone’s head. “He means it,” he said quietly, as his expression relaxed. “He doesn’t want to wait for ‘her’ anymore. You haven’t hurt him, too much, and he feels needed right now.” 2.0’s turn to clear his throat. “And, frankly, I feel the same way. I was set up by someone I thought cared about me, and the people who saved me are my supposed enemies. I’d also like to switch sides.”
“He could be lying,” Abigail said quickly. “About both of them.”
Studied 2.0 and The Clarence Clone. They looked a lot like I felt—out of their element, lost, and mostly alone. Only they were far more alone than I was. “Could be. But we have to remember—they aren’t the originals, they aren’t the people who are our enemies. They’re similar but different.” In the case of The Clarence Clone, very different.
“Look, on behalf of both of us, clearly we were created to fill roles, do jobs, but not be real people. But we are real,
at least I am, and I’m pretty sure he is, too.” 2.0 indicated The Clarence Clone with his head. “I don’t want to be exterminated when she gets back, or when the Z’porrah arrive. Deposed kings can have decent lives. Assassinated kings cannot.”
“What’s the name of the one who put you onto the throne?”
“She has a lot of different names. On your world, it’s LaRue. Here it’s Zenoca. I don’t know if either one of those are her original given name. I don’t know that it matters, either.”
Fancy hissed. “Our world has been ruled by Zenoca for these past years!”
“Fancy, that’s not necessarily news. Ronnie, any guess for why she didn’t tell Clarence her name?”
He shrugged. “Not a confirmed guess, but my bet would be that she didn’t want him giving her away. She knew I wouldn’t.” He sounded quite bitter, not that I could blame him. “Basically, she had two patsies here, just at different knowledge levels.”
“It’s always hard when you discover the person you thought had your back is instead the one shoving in the knife. We tend not to backstab, but we get the knife far more than we like.” Tried not to think about what I wanted to do to Cliff Goodman for what he’d done to us. Failed. But I figured the anger would probably give me an assist.
“In the short time I’ve known you, you’ve threatened me, beaten me, and saved me, but as far as I can tell, you haven’t lied to me. I’d like to try working with people who actually tell me what the hell’s really going on.”
“The love on the mountaintop is great and all,” Reader said, “but we have bigger problems than the two of you realizing you’ve been used and wanting to come over to the side of right. War. On this planet. Right now. With technology so advanced there’s nothing here that can protect everyone.”
Thought about this. “Well, actually, that’s not true.”
CHAPTER 75
GOT SEVERAL WTF LOOKS. Ignored them. “We have a power source we know about in Iceland. More scattered throughout this continent. And there’s likely one somewhere under us, right under us, because that gigantic telescope isn’t hanging up here simply because it wants to.”