by L B Garrison
Alex and her students were just insects witnessing a conflict between giants. The explosion left no doubt of that. Two hours later, they had no word from Mandy and no way of knowing her fate. Every minute of waiting ate at Alex’s stomach.
Another sing-song chime yammered for attention. Bailey was too occupied with stacks of floating spreadsheets to notice.
Alex shifted to block Bailey’s view. Information displays littered the T30’s side window against a background of speed-smeared trees. She tapped the blinking galaxy icon. The natter-bot retrieved a list of stories from the Q-net that met her search criteria. Thousands of reports populated the list. The Kinderen moved across Confederation space at will, but they had only besieged Demeter. She had expected worse. Being an eternal pessimist had one perk—she was often happily surprised.
Several other displays jostled for attention. Even with the T30 predigesting the torrent of data, the amount of information threatened to swamp Alex. How did Bailey do it and why would anyone want to be aware of all this minutiae?
A list of seats on outbound transports scrolled along the window’s edge. Nothing available. Alex rubbed her temples, which did little for the tension and nothing for the situation.
At least the military brass believed her account of a super-powered girl. The base commander, Colonel Fischer, had known already. He had linked privately and been clear about the situation.
The war had burned millions of square miles. A wave of refugees broke against Persephone’s Landing. Many would be left behind. Cisco and Bailey would have to take their chances. Fischer was intensely into all things Mandy-related, but he wouldn’t reciprocate with a hint of his plans for her. Presumably, he would want her off-world, since the Kinderen was pursuing her. Alex drummed her fingers on the armrest.
Bailey leaned closer, crossing the space between their seats. “I’ve not known you to spend so much time wandering through statistics.”
Alex dismissed the data windows with a flick of her hand. There was no point in staring at the same mess any longer. “I want to keep up with the broader conflict.”
Bailey pulled back and brushed imaginary dust from her pants, as if the cloth would allow one speck of mud to besmirch it for long. Her hands slowed. “It’ll be alright, you understand. We shan’t be trapped. Fischer asked to use civilian cruise liners to ferry people out. He doesn’t know it yet, but it’s been approved.”
Alex should have known she couldn’t hide anything from Bailey. “That’s good news. I take it you’ve broken military encryptions, again. Are you monitoring me?”
Bailey knit her fingers together. “It’s just you’re clomping about so. I can’t help but notice, can I? And I may have decoded a transmission or two. What of it? It’s not as if they could find a more backwater planet on which to maroon me.”
Cisco moved to the center of the back seat. “Are you looking for Mandy too? I haven’t had any luck.”
Bailey turned around in her seat. “Between the Kinderen and the explosion, the swarm net is too damaged. It isn’t likely to locate her, and Kinderen stripped the satellites. No view from above. Alex was attempting to find a way off-world.”
“Oh.” Cisco stared out the window.
“You like her. True?” Bailey asked.
“True,” Cisco admitted. “What do you think happened to Mandy?”
Bailey’s lips parted to speak again, then closed. Her eyes shifted to Alex. “That explosion looked nuclear. Was that her evil twin’s doing?”
Alex concentrated on keeping her expression neutral. “The other personality has a hard edge for sure. Not evil, though. She wanted us to escape. As for Mandy, the Kinderen are still here. That probably means it doesn’t have her.”
“I think if anyone can get through this, it would be Mandy,” Cisco said.
Alex allowed herself a smile. “She seems to rise to each challenge. I think we’ll see her again.”
Bailey’s eyes darted across Alex’s face, looking for something. “Mandy plus we three makes four. You’ve only searched for two openings.”
“Mandy has priority. They’ll hold a transport until she arrives.”
“That would leave three seats,” Bailey said. “Correct?”
There was no advantage in delaying. Better to have it settled while they weren’t pressed for time. “I’m ex-military and I can fight.”
“I should stay too,” Cisco declared. “I have the basic military enhancement package and I can handle a gun.”
“No,” Alex said. “A modern battlefield requires specialized skills, training and enhancements so team members can act as a cohesive unit. You don’t have them.”
Cisco closed his eyes. “Mandy led the enemy off, so we could escape and she doesn’t know how to fight. If she can risk her life for strangers in a world that isn’t hers, how can we just run?”
Alex wanted to shake Cisco by his collar and tell him the good guys don’t always win, but he was still young enough to think he was immortal. Reason seemed more likely to succeed. “Cisco, I wanted to help Mandy, but I knew we would only be in her way. This time, I have to stay and the two of you have to go.”
Bailey’s face turned rosy. “Stop it! Stop it, both of you! It’s just a rock and not worth your life. Let them have Demeter.”
“A lot of people are trapped here, Bailey, and this isn’t about Demeter,” Alex said. “The Kinderen are everywhere. We may not win here, but we have to bloody them. Make them think twice before doing this again. Hey, Cisco.”
He met her eyes.
“You need to go home,” Alex said. “You’re not ready now. If they come to Glint, you need to be ready then.”
A shadow moved faster than the blurred forest. Alex whipped around to follow as it crossed the road ahead. It was gone.
An impact rocked the T30. The forest whirled, and clods of mud thumped across the windows, splattering the view of idle clouds. Centrifugal force pressed Alex against the shuddering door. The T30 spun off the road and into the trees. Bailey clung to the cross-strap of her safety belt. At least Bailey had kept hers on.
The back window exploded, sending glass bouncing through the cabin. The wind whipped Alex’s hair. A petite figure crouched in the cargo compartment with its hand above the matter printer. It printed something small. Alex reached for her pistol. The figure vanished.
The side window shattered and Alex’s collar pulled tight. She sailed through the cold air and struck the ground, sliding across the mud on her back. The pain registered all at once as it rushed down her spine. The T30 spun away.
Orange lightning backlit low clouds and distant thunder rumbled. Bitter smoke clung to the ground. Paper rustled and a red candy wrapper tumbled away in the wind.
Alex rolled over, drawing her pistol. Three taps of the trigger sent nine rounds at Razor, who stood a few yards away. Like popping fireworks, black flame vaporized each flechette inches from the target.
A bang and the crumpling of metal made Alex’s stomach tighten. She lurched to her feet and angled herself so she could see the T30, while covering Razor with her gun. The T30 had come to a stop against a Thorn-Mary. Both doors on the outer side had buckled, while the tree on its far side pinned the other doors shut. At the speed they were going, the damage should have been much worse. Alex focused her attention on Razor. Did she absorb the momentum somehow?
Razor stared down at the glossy lollipop she twirled in her fingers. Pearl-like blisters covered the left side of her face. Tufts of charred bristles clung to her head where hair had been. Swirls of sores collapsed to form new skin, while new hair crackled and sprouted up from her scalp.
She flipped the lollipop into her mouth and closed her eyes. “Sour cherry is Mandy’s favorite flavor, but human memories are so indistinct.”
Alex fired. The flechettes burst into smoke.
Her gun clicked empty.
Red and white lights blinked in the clouds. A patrol was coming.
Razor opened her eyes. “Events are moving quick
ly. Many paths have opened.”
Her students needed a distraction to escape the wreckage. Alex circled and Razor turned to face her until she had her back to the T30. “It looks like Mandy kicked your ass.”
Razor crunched the lollipop and spat out the stick. “Their union is unpredictable. No matter. The technology I sought will be mine soon, but a choice looms. I require bait. You are chosen.”
Alex turned to run away from the T30. With a flash and a pop, Razor displaced the air as she reappeared in front of Alex. In one blurred movement, she ripped the gun from Alex’s hand and slammed her against the ground with a jarring thud.
Adrenaline drove Alex’s heart into a frenzy.
As Razor’s fist came down, its trajectory changed.
Alex flinched.
Mud splattered. The force of Razor’s punch buried her arm up to her elbow.
“Run,” Razor said. Tears welled up in her eyes. “Oh, God. Please run.”
Alex turned over and stumbled to her feet. Even with a weapon, she had no chance against Razor. What could she do now?
Razor pulled her arm from the mud. The filth slid off to splash on the ground. “This body’s personality can be distracting. Where were we? Ah.”
Razor flashed across the distance between them and slammed into Alex. Wind whistled by as the hit carried them through the leaves to smash against a tree high above the ground. Alex’s legs sprawled across the spongy bark of a wide limb. Her back pressed against the trunk. The metallic tang of blood filled her mouth. She coughed. More blood. Her hand fell across her utility knife. Its two-dimensional edge could cut anything.
Razor leaned in closer, her face indistinct and fuzzy like the forest around them.
Alex grabbed her knife and slashed at Razor’s throat.
Razor caught Alex’s wrist easily and rammed the fingers of her other hand deep into Alex’s gut.
Alex wheezed from the impact. Warmth spread across her belly as blood spilled. It was just pressure, not the pain she expected. The knife clattered against the trunk as it tumbled down to the moss far below.
Cold tears streaked her face as she struggled for breath. For escape. But she was pinned against the tree.
Her peripheral vision grayed, but her consciousness exploded. Gone was the forest, the tree and the cold wind. The entire galaxy rolled before her. It filled her. All Kinderen, everywhere, were linked together into one mind. Dozens of wars flared across the stars—rebellions against fate. There were vast dark places too, where the others dwelled and the Kinderen could not see. Alex lost the boundary between herself and everything else. She pulled back, tried to resist.
“Shh,” Razor said. “The inevitable has come.”
Possibilities shifted among the trees near the misty southern edge of Persephone’s Glade. With a whisper of shadows, Rin deposited Mandy on the King’s Way and concentrated her presence into an image next to Mandy. Humans patrolled the forest, filling the night air with encrypted reports.
Mandy stomped her boots, scattering snow onto the blacktop road. “At least it isn’t as chilly as the mountains. Did we lose our mystery stalker—what is that?”
In the distance, a thin blue-white tower rose above the trees and into the clouds. The material of the tower glowed, giving it a shifting, ghostly halo in the gathering mist.
“That’s Midgard Tower. It’s only seven miles tall, but forms the base of the Bifrost elevator that rises another twenty two thousand miles to Asgard Station in orbit. That is the way off-world. And yes, I believe they are not following anymore.”
“Twenty-two thousand . . .” As Mandy gaped at the tower, her lips parted.
“I am going to reconnoiter the area. Guard the road.”
Mandy’s eyes slid from the tower to her. “Now you’re being mean.”
Rin’s awareness surged up the road and poured through the forest. Her cursory survey revealed nothing along the path to Persephone’s Landing. Widening her focus, she sifted human data and watched the combination of patterned and random patrols. Kinderen seemed to be avoiding contact. Orion Union military tech was comparable to the EC, but this outpost used outdated equipment. The Kinderen definitely had the advantage.
Rin’s consciousness flooded the naval base, spilling through the wide lanes and flowed around the eclectic buildings of glass, wood and adobe. Troops and sophisticated equipment were arriving from off-world. She gathered and prepared to withdraw. A presence brushed her mind.
A familiar figure stood on a corner, in the glow of a street lamp.
“You didn’t answer my calls,” Jazz-mir said.
There was no point in hiding. Rin condensed her image by the lamppost. “I couldn’t.”
“You would only hide from us for one reason. You needn’t have.”
“I could never fool you, could I? The schism is my responsibility. My burden. I didn’t want you to choose between your duty and me. How did you know I would be here?”
“I didn’t. The Kinderen hasn’t demonstrated the ability to create antimatter. The detonation in Banded Canyon had to be you. Atropos investigated and found you having a conversation with someone unseen and reported to me. You ran. Given your starting point, Persephone’s Landing was the most likely goal.”
“I knew I felt her,” Rin whispered.
“I am terribly cross with you. I worried. We all did. You thought to hide this from me? I’ve raised all of you like my own children. You should have trusted me.”
“You’ve got the guilting part of parenting down.” Rin crossed her arms and paced. “I was thinking I could handle it on my own. Before anyone else found out. Then it took so long. Oh, she was so stubborn and then she was so real.”
Jazz-mir stopped Rin’s pacing with a gentle touch. “You did not have to face this alone.”
Civilians in muted colors milled about them.
Rin took a breath and tried to relax. It didn’t help. “Sorry. I guess I overestimated what I could do.”
“I have been instructed to coordinate with the Orions. The Admiralty has decided to go public with the Mobius project. If we can defeat the Kinderen here, Admiral Pillado expects funding for the program and to that end, Mother is coming, and soon after that, the full host will arrive.”
“How long?”
“Mother will be here in sixteen hours. The host in a little more than two standard days. The Kinderen are well established here and they are moving. The Admiral has touted your capabilities to the military commander, Colonel Fischer. Pillado has promised to find you and we have spent every moment not engaged with the Kinderen searching for you.”
“He’s worried.”
“Worried. Embarrassed. Angry. I will speak to Admiral Pillado on your behalf. I should be able to convince him that your current incarnation would be more effective than a less experienced back-up of your personality.”
Rin’s stomach did a slow roll. “It’s my death we are calmly discussing. At least the death of my current self.”
“It is alternatives we are discussing. Help us in our efforts to show your worth in your current state. The argument for your stability would also be more convincing if the schism were gone before Mother arrives and the Admiral has the capability to remove it himself. Can you delete Mandy?”
Rin looked at the pavement. “I’m isolating her section of my neural network. I can cut the power then.”
“You seem reluctant.”
“Do you remember Ange Noir? I did that to save my own life.”
Jazz-mir stared into the distance behind Rin. “I remember. You have no choice here either. This is just maintenance to the humans. Whether it requires slight editing or reinstalling your personality, they will remove Mandy. Nothing you do will change that or save her. It is time for you to come home.”
Amidst the flood of patrol data, was the ID number of a T30. Rin’s breath caught in her throat. “I have to go.”
The trees blurred as Rin refocused next to Mandy.
Mandy wagged her head side to
side. “Well the road’s fine, or do I need to salute before reporting?”
“Mandy. Something’s happened.”
The haze of quantum effects cleared and Rin stepped onto the blacktop near the point where the T30 had veered off the road. Red and blue lights from huddled aircraft cast flickering colored shadows in the gloom. Mandy stood by the T30, bounced on her toes and bit her thumb. She was all adrenaline and no focus.
“Mandy, I want to take a look around. You should check on them, back where the emergency vehicles are congregated.”
“Yeah. I should do that.” She dashed toward the assembled military and emergency vehicles.
Rin wasn’t used to comforting. She usually just hit things, but the situation seemed to require giving emotional support. “It’s alright, Mandy. If it was serious, I would have heard. I would have told you.”
Mandy ran past. “I know.”
“Humans need more maintenance than I do,” Rin murmured. She turned and walked to the T30.
The wreckage was piled against a prickly lavender plant humans called a Thorn-Mary. Two impact points had crumpled the T30’s front and middle door panels. The vehicle had healed enough to make the impressions indistinct, but something small and roughly rectangular had caused the damage. A child’s hand.
The antimatter blast could have ruptured Razor’s shield, but her reactions were too quick. Rin had known it was only enough of a threat to keep her from attacking with that body again. It was too valuable as a central router to expose to harm, which was likely why the Kinderen hadn’t used Razor until it thought victory was assured. Rin hadn’t considered Razor might attack the humans directly.
What was the purpose?
She followed the T30’s tracks. Near the road was a depression in the mud. Boot prints arced away from the depression. The print size indicated Alex. Whatever she had circled, had been on the road.
Orion soldiers in flex-force power armor made a final sweep of the forest. The active camouflage of their suits mimicked the fall color palette, giving them the appearance of glass figures moving among the trees. The last of the angular combat drones lifted with a silent gust of warm air to join a flock of drones hovering above.