The Ghost and the Machine

by L B Garrison

  Warm hands touched her shoulder.

  Rin spun and struck, stopping an inch short of punching Cisco.

  Mandy covered her mouth with her hands. “Be careful.”

  Finally, Cisco flinched as his wetware mind processed the danger. “Mandy? No. You’re the one Mandy spoke about. She called you Rin.”

  Mandy’s reaction to Cisco spilled through Rin. She feared for his safety, from the Kinderen and Rin, but there was more. Strength, warmth, and under it all lay a too familiar loneliness. Crisp autumn days, warm summer nights and the moist tingle of a first kiss against plump lips. Mandy’s feelings for Cisco and Landin were tangled.

  Rin’s attention snapped back to the cold air and driving rain. She touched her trembling mouth with her fingers and gave Mandy a sideways glance. Ships only mimicked human reactions without experiencing them. What seemed real to the observer was just a complex illusion, or so the creators said.

  Mandy dropped her hands to her sides. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to have those thoughts. You don’t need the distraction. I guess I still want something I have no right to.”

  Rin swatted Cisco’s hand away and pointed an accusing finger in his face. “No human touches me.”

  “Is there a way I can talk to Mandy?” Cisco asked.

  “No,” Rin said.

  The Lieutenant closed her comm line. “The Colonel has agreed. He isn’t thrilled about the delay this will cause getting civvies off-world. I doubt they’ll be thrilled either.”

  Responding to the Lieutenant gave Rin a plausible reason to look away from Cisco. “The Kinderen targeted the elevator in this terminal first, even though it had armed opposition. Its goal is to collect human minds and it wants to trap as many people here as possible.”

  The Lieutenant’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know that?”

  “It told us,” Rin said.

  Bailey looked away from her floating displays. “Like a bloody menagerie?”

  Mandy shuttered. “We should go.”

  “Mandy’s right,” Rin said, garnering curious looks from the others.

  “She is here, now?” Cisco asked. “Can I relay something through you to Mandy? It’ll be quick.”

  The Kinderen were moving with purpose. A rippling green defensive shield swirled to life around the city, like a domed shaped aurora. They would be sealed in Persephone’s Landing with the Kinderen and no reinforcements until the shield fell. They were on their own.

  “Whatever you have to say, you should tell her yourself. I hope you get the chance.” Rin turned to the window and ran.

  A thud stole a fraction of her momentum as the glass shattered. Wind thrashed her hair and rain splattered her body. She landed lightly on her rain-slicked armor. Clattering shards of glass rolled off her sloping hull.

  Mandy smeared into pixels that swarmed across the gap and reformed into her image. She looked up at the broken window. “We were interrupted before.”

  “Whatever it was, it shouldn’t be rushed.” Not that Rin understood humans well, let alone boys. Rin plunged away from Midgard, diving into the waiting currents of dark energy. She drank her fill, recharging her capacitors.

  For the first time on Demeter, Rin went fully online to gather strategic intel on the enemy and link with the other ships. Trillions of gigabits flowed through her as she pulled information from across the Q-net. Dark portions of the military net resisted her touch. She pushed until the EC codes broke. Pillado had kept secrets.

  The projections of the Kinderen’s growth were far worse than either she or Fischer had been led to believe. If Persephone’s Landing fell or they couldn’t liberate Artemis, conventional weapons wouldn’t save Demeter. The Orion Union Council had agreed to sacrifice the planet to deny the Kinderen a base of operations in Confederation space. Only one ship could scorch a world.

  Rin flinched. A communique from Pillado dropped into her queue. Six boron-hydrogen fusion plants powered the shield wall and only had the fuel to do so for a limited time. A loss of two of them would bring the wall down. Kinderen forces in the city were converging on the southwest and northeast facilities. The orders were predictable enough.

  Atropos and Trident would remove the Kinderen within the base. Jazz-mir would intercept the forces advancing on the northeast power station, while Rin would assault the larger force bearing down on the southwest power station near Allister Park.

  Rin came about, angling towards the park. She threw out a delicate shield to tame the raging winds of her acceleration into a light breeze. Her sonic boom echoed across the city

  Mandy paled and wobbled. “It's too much. I’m losing who I am.”

  Rin reached out to hold her steady and isolated Mandy from most of the data stream. “We have the same mind. You have to learn all this and quickly.”

  Mandy managed a curt nod, but still looked like she might throw up. “Someone’s coming.”

  Three slight shadows fell across the tilted deck. Eins, Jaiden and Kolme, the three elements of Trident’s personality stood on Rin’s deck. Kolme closed her eyes and inhaled as if the storm smelled of snickerdoodles. “It’s good to feel you online. I was a little concerned—hey!”

  Two of the Tridents ran giggling across the deck and through Mandy’s image. “Rin!”

  The triplets collided with Rin, forcing her to stagger back with their warm hugs. They wrapped around her, squeezing hard. Eins looked up with wide, violet eyes. “You were quiet for so long, then you didn’t come see me when you did come back. I was worried you were mad or weren’t okay.”

  Mandy had recovered enough to stand on her own. She reached out to touch the girls, but her hand passed through the image. “They’re precious.”

  The girls smelled of strawberries. Rin mussed their curly hair and let their warmth drive the chill away. The weird sisters. That’s what the other ships called them. They were outcasts, like her. She had defended them against bullying a few times and made a friend for life. “I didn’t mean to worry you. I shouldn’t have been silent so long.”

  Jaiden clung to Rin’s waist, closed her eyes and purred as Rin smoothed her curls. “I missed this too. The others don’t do it right. Their fingers get all tangly.”

  Kolme, stamped her foot on Rin’s upper deck. “I did miss you, but hugging isn’t very soldierly and I wish I would stop it.”

  The other two Tridents wrapped around Rin whispered. “Sometimes I worry too much about what everyone else thinks. That’s not very grown up either, is it?”

  Rin smiled. She seemed to be doing more of that lately. “I don’t think you ever outgrow that.”

  Jazz-mir appeared across the deck from Rin. “Atropos is waiting for you to assume your position, Trident.”

  Jaiden stepped away from Rin and pouted. “I’m not dumb. Something is going on and everyone knows but me.”

  “We have to take care of this first,” Rin said. “People are in danger. When we have time, we’ll talk.”

  “You better. No holding back.” Kolme pressed her lips into a thin line and faded on the wind. The chill returned.

  “They still don’t know?” Rin asked.

  “The schism is a flaw in our design,” Jazz-mir said. “Even you shouldn’t know about it.”

  Mandy’s gaze focused on Jazz-mir, no doubt learning as much as possible by studying her stance and expression.

  Jazz-mir walked across the deck to the spot occupied by Mandy, forcing her to stand aside. “Your attention seems focused here. You aren’t becoming attached, are you? Should I be concerned?”

  Jazz-mir had obviously guessed Mandy still existed. “I need twenty more minutes.”

  They passed over the park’s southern border. In moments, she would reach her assigned position. Jazz-mir was fast approaching the intercept point with her target as well.

  “Not a direct answer to my question, I noticed,” Jazz-mir concluded. “In twenty minutes’ time, we should finish dealing with the Kinderen incursion. Mother will arrive soon after that.”

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nbsp; Meaning Mandy would have to be gone by then. “I understand.”

  Jazz-mir turned to leave, then took Rin into a firm hug. “All ships have now reached their assigned positions. Take care of yourself.”

  “I’ll see you on the other side,” Rin said.

  Jazz-mir blurred into mist and was lost in the shifting air.

  The wind whipped through Mandy’s hair. She watched the smoke rising from the park. “I think we all know what you have to do. Let’s get this over with.”

  Treetops blurred below them. Rin veered toward the crackling blue domes of two shielded tick-tanks. A volley of metal fragments approached at supersonic speeds. Rin cast a shield. Shells flared and thundered against the barrier, shrouding the sky in crimson fire and grey smoke.

  Mandy flinched with each new detonation.

  “This is war, Mandy.”

  “I know, get used to it. I’m trying.”

  “Follow me down.” Rin stepped off her deck and plummeted into the dark green of the terrestrial forest. Above her, the gray sky and the shadow of her black hull vanished, hidden in the swirls of wind swept leaves. She tucked the ship safely away in the elsewhere until needed.

  Mud splashed as Rin hit the ground with a thud. Bitter smoke swirled through the shadows and fleeing animals rustled the murky undergrowth. The ground shook with every step of the enemy. Flashes of blue light moving through the dark foliage marked the passage of the two Kinderen behemoths. Rin dodged through the trees to meet the nearer Kinderen.

  It lumbered on eight thick legs towards the power plant, its body just a smeared outline within the swirling blue shields that destroyed all it touched. Trees turned to ash and fire followed in its wake.

  It couldn’t bring its large top mounted guns to bear, but it splintered trees with the smaller weapons that bristled along its hull.

  Rin dashed ahead of the destruction, spiraling inward and analyzing the shield. There was little exotic matter in these machines. Their weapons were weak and their shields would be easy enough to breach.

  A blaze of white light cast stark shadows. Trees ahead of her burst into burning embers as the Kinderen tried to catch her between two converging fields of fire. Shadows churned and the park vanished.

  The darkness cleared. Rin stood on a smoldering branch among the burning trees and churning dust. The Kinderen machines were just six-point-eight miles from the power plant.

  Rin knelt on the branch. “It took you long enough.”

  Mandy clasped her hands over her heart and panted. “Sorry . . . you’re so fast.”

  “These are soft targets. Good for practicing. We’ll take this one out by hand, since you are more familiar with the human form. The second one we can deal with as a ship.”

  Mandy’s image crossed her arms, as if she was hugging herself. “By hand? It’s as big as my high school—with legs.”

  Rin gave Mandy a sideways glance.

  “Sorry. This isn’t my thing. It’s not even next to my thing. The only fight I ever had was with Scarlet Barton. In second grade.”

  “That was mostly hair pulling, as I recall.”

  Mandy sat on the narrow branch beside Rin. “Point being, I’m afraid. I don’t want to screw up and get someone else hurt.”

  Scans swept over the forest. A tingle crawled down Rin’s spine. The Kinderen had broken through her counter measures. It knew where they were.

  “You don’t want to let the others down. I feel the same. Sometimes.” Rin frowned. Why would she ever admit that?

  “Rin? I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry?”

  Multiple weapon systems locked on to their location.

  “You weren’t supposed to be based on just me. Scans from other people were supposed to fill in the holes. You could have been better. Happier.”

  Rin stood and faced Mandy. “I regret things I’ve done, not who I am.”

  Mandy looked at the moss far below. “I’m glad. You know, it’s kind of nice we can talk. Like a couple of girlfriends.”

  The Kinderen fired.

  Rin stepped off the branch and dropped thirty feet to the damp moss below. The branch exploded, filling the air with burning orange sparks. She hit the slippery ground and came up in a full run toward the nearest tick-tank.

  Mandy stood on a bike path in the shade of a redwood. “Could’ve told me they were going to blow the tree. I’m starting to think you have intimacy issues.”

  Rin ran through Mandy’s image. “Starting?”

  “And stop running through me—it’s rude,” Mandy yelled from behind.

  It was also fun and she would take that when she could get it. Rin dodged off the path and through the smoldering stumps. In the distance, the Kinderen defensive shield glittered between the trees.

  Mandy caught up and ran alongside. “So what’s the plan?”

  “I get through the defensive barrier, then we switch. I can show you what to do then.” Ideally, Mandy should break through the barrier instead, but it might take several attempts and too much time. This situation seemed designed to split the ships among multiple objectives and that made her stomach crawl. Jazz-mir said, always listen to your gut.

  A snap echoed through the forest. The machines heavy lasers turned the air into plasma. It fired again. Damage reports added to the panicked radio chatter from the humans. The Kinderen was attacking the space elevators.

  “Dammit,” Rin whispered.

  “What?”

  No point in answering. Rin plunged into the first tick-tank’s defensive shield with her own field blazing. Concentrating, she pushed against the crackling colors and burst into the eye of the storm to stand alone before the spiky machine. The outside world was obscured by the fury of the Kinderen fields.

  Mandy stared up at the colossal machine. “Actually, it’s bigger than my high school.”

  The tick-tank swiveled and brought a blunt claw down on Rin. She leaped as it struck. Clods of damp soil splattered and burst against the shield. Rin landed on the bumpy black armor and jammed her fingers into the seam just below the Kinderen’s knee. Purple veins throbbed around her. She gripped tightly. It paused and slammed its foot down to dislodge her.

  The main lasers fired again.

  Mandy’s image climbed next to Rin, holding onto the seam. The throbbing light threw shadows across her face. Her wide eyes held doubt.

  What would Jazz-mir say? “Success builds confidence. You need—”

  “Save the infomercial.” Mandy’s eyes traced the path to the top of the machine. “I’m committed. Just show me what to do.”

  Rin scanned the machine. All the control conduits from the weapons and limbs tied together in a central knot near the machine’s core. Rin’s hand brushed against Mandy’s. “Switch.”

  The world shifted. Rin tightened her grip as she became the image. Mud slurped. The Kinderen pulled its leg free of the mire.

  It slammed down again. Mandy hugged the machine’s hull.

  Rin took Mandy’s hand. “First, slow the Kinderen down a little. Like this.”

  Rin pulled Mandy’s mind along with her as she focused on the ceramic armor, searching past the woven fibers and down to the quantum level. She grabbed hold of buzzing quarks and yanked them out of alignment. Probabilities spiked. Protons decayed. Metal vanished in a flash of blue light and gamma rays. Smoke fizzled from the wound and the Kinderen stumbled.

  Rin let go. “Got it?”

  Mandy stared at her hand. “I’ve had this weird feeling before, I know how to do all this. It’s like I forgot.”

  “There is more in our head than just us. There are many algorithms and subroutines. Most of them deal with combat. You’ll find learning to use them again is like falling off a bike.”

  “Riding a bike?”

  “Yes, like that. Meet me up top and I’ll show you how to stop it.”

  Mandy searched Rin’s eyes and seemed to find what she was looking for. She climbed, using the hole in the Kinderen’s armor as a foothold.

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nbsp; Rin refocused her presence on the thorny back of the machine, in the shadow of the horseshoe-shaped UV laser battery. The Kinderen lurched along, dragging its useless leg. The power plant lay three miles away.

  Mandy climbed onto the upper armor. A small weapon emplacement swiveled towards her. She snapped the barrel off with a backhanded strike, sending it tumbling to the burning trees below. Other turrets pivoted towards her. Mandy ran. The Kinderen bucked. She stumbled, but kept moving.

  Mandy had potential, if they just had enough time for her to put it to use.

  Deep in the tick-tank the main weapon’s power reached a crescendo. The beam would have been invisible to human eyes. It blazed past the power plant and struck Midgard tower, cutting into an elevator. The other Kinderen fired a salvo at Midgard as well.

  Rin placed her palm above the central processor. “Here. We have to be quick or it will seal the only way off Demeter.”

  Mandy dropped and slid on her knees. She slammed her hand against the armor. A searing wave of gamma ray photons propagated through the Kinderen, scrambling matter as it went.

  The machine stumbled and hit the ground in a spray of mud. The field faded. Heavy rain popped against the armor.

  The second tick-tank fired as soon as the field was down. Rin threw her hand out. A null shield roared to life. Now that she wasn’t trying to overpower Mandy, her reaction time was almost normal. Two shaped charged fusion warheads detonated. Blazing white and gold light blurred the world. The glare faded. Smoke and ash swirled around them.

  The Kinderen launched three more fusion missiles. Rin twisted, rolling her ship portion out of the elsewhere. Her shadow fell across the downed Kinderen.

  Rin grabbed Mandy’s arm. “Something is wrong. With these weapons, it could have destroyed the power plant from a distance. It’s been keeping us occupied.”

  Mandy’s eyes slid from Rin to the approaching missiles. “Yeah, maybe. Uh, those rockets are getting really close.”

  Rin targeted the incoming missiles. The bass thump of her rail guns sounded across the smoldering park. Three white flashes lit the gray sky, followed by the crack of echoing explosions. Blooms of smoking debris from the missiles trailed down to the ruined landscape.