by Isaac Hooke
Jason finally reached the top, and maintained his position on the southeast corner, which gave him a good line of sight on the creatures below. He had to quit using his energy cannon, however, since the power drain was too great, and switched instead to his laser, and used it sparingly. He interspersed his shots with slugs from his railgun; when he exhausted its ammo, he slammed his fist several times into a section of the rooftop, crushing it, and slid the chunks of concrete into the ammo-processing compartment in his left bicep.
Meanwhile, the Rex Wolves watched snarling from the edges. They were ready to swat at any mutants that got too close.
All that added weight was beginning to take a toll on the old building. Concrete clumps began to break away underneath the Octoraffes, from the windows they used for purchase. The damage began to accelerate, particularly on the western face, until that entire side began to slide, forming an avalanche of debris that crushed the mutants on that flank.
The building tipped to the west.
“Hang on!” Jason said.
“Get the kids!” Tara said.
Jason wrapped his arms around Runt and Shaggy, while Tara scooped up Bruiser and Lackey.
The building was tipping directly toward the one harboring the Highlander. Because their building was taller than the other skyscraper, the rooftop edge would land only a few stories below its top level.
Jason retreated to the farthest edge with Tara, and as the building came in to impact, he took a running leap up off of it, and arced toward the other rooftop.
He landed, and used Bullet Time to safely release the two dogs, and land with the least possible damage to his body. He restored to normal time and stood up.
Tara had landed beside him. She’d also released her Rex Wolves, so that all four stood between their mechs, and the Highlander.
The latter turned toward them.
From the side of the building, a large swarm of micro machines swooped upward into the air, and stabbed down like a big knife toward the dogs.
“No!” Tara dashed forward, positioning herself in front of the dogs. “Don’t! They’re with us!”
That knife formed of micro machines halted at the last possible moment, its sharp tip hovering over Tara’s chest assembly, right where her AI core was located.
Tara swept her sparking sword out in front of her, slicing the big knife in half, and causing the constituent micro machines to scatter. Then she spun on the mech. Beside her, Bruiser and Lackey were growling wildly at the Highlander.
“Don’t fight us!” Tara said. “We have to work together if we want to win this.”
Jason came forward. “She’s right,” he said in the most authoritative voice he could muster. “If we don’t team up, those creatures will overwhelm us.”
The Highlander said nothing, but then turned her attention to the edges of the rooftop. Because of the unintended distraction Jason and Tara had provided, some of the Octoraffes had reached the top, and were beginning to clamber onto the roof.
Jason’s power levels were so low now that he didn’t dare fire either his laser or his energy weapon. Instead, he simply bashed in the heads of any creatures that clambered onto his section of roof, and that seemed to work well enough.
Tara was doing the same on her side, joined by the Rex Wolves. The Highlander meanwhile handled the rest of the Octoraffes.
In another five or so minutes, the mutated bioweapons finally gave up. They retreated from the base of the building, and flowed across the streets toward their distant valley.
Jason watched them go. “Well that was fun.”
The micro machines gathered on the rooftop, and then swarmed around the Highlander’s torso, forming a sphere around it and above the carapace.
“Now, you’re going to answer some questions,” Tara said to the Highlander via her external speakers.
But the mech turned to go.
“Hey!” Tara said. “I’m talking to you.”
The Highlander ignored her, and crawled to the building edge on her eight legs.
“Fine, we’ll do this the hard way,” Tara said.
She pointed her right arm at the Highlander and released the harpoon.
A convex half circle flashed into existence a meter in front of the Highlander, and the harpoon bounced off harmlessly. The mech had activated an energy shield.
The Highlander cocked its head, then glanced askance at Tara.
“Uh, I think you made her mad...” Jason told Tara.
All of a sudden those micro machines swarmed outward off of the body. Jason’s power levels were too low to use Bullet Time, so before he could react, hundreds of them had wrapped his torso, binding his arms to his sides. He attempted to break free, but the micro machines had knit themselves together quite well, and he couldn’t budge. They also fastened his feet together, so he could do little more than hop in place.
Tara fared little better, and the Rex Wolves were similarly bound up, though they were hogtied, with three of their four limbs secured.
“I told you to leave me alone,” the Highlander said in that haughty female voice. “But you wouldn’t listen. You wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
10
Jason could do nothing as the mech paced imperiously in front of her prisoners.
“The question is, what do I do with you now?” the Highlander said. “If I free you from these binds, do you swear to leave me alone? Or will you force me to destroy you?”
“We’ll leave you alone,” Jason said quickly.
“Hm,” the Highlander said. “I’m not sure I believe you. That was a little quick.”
“We just want a few answers,” Tara said.
“Answers…” the Highlander said.
“What are you doing here?” Jason said. “What are any of us doing here?”
“You mean you don’t know?” the Highlander said.
“No,” Jason said. “The last we remember, we just had brain scans taken, then we woke up here. No training. No mission introduction. No nothing.”
“You’re lying,” the Highlander said. “You were sent to hunt me. Admit it.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Tara said. “We have no idea why we’re here. And no idea who you are.”
The Highlander’s head angled back and forth, as if the virtual pilot was shaking her head. “I can’t tell if you’re lying or not. I’m going to have to bring you into VR. I need to see your faces.”
“We can transmit our faces,” Tara said. “There’s an avatar transmission mode, I think…”
“No,” the Highlander said. “It has to be in VR. Mine. I want complete control. If you agree to this, I’ll consider letting you go.”
Jason received a message.
The Highlander unit has requested full access to your VR interface. Do you accept? (Y/N)
That meant he would be completely in her power, and would have no control of his avatar whatsoever. He glanced at Tara, but she didn’t return his gaze. He looked at his HUD. Her indicator had turned yellow, meaning she was in sleep mode. Or in VR.
He took a gulp, and accepted the request.
Jason was clad in a loincloth. He was on his knees, being dragged across a tiled floor by two strongmen. They wore a loincloth like Jason, but the difference was they had thick sandals to protect their feet.
Jason flinched every time his knees struck a gap between tiles, as it sent pain coursing up into his body.
He tried to bring up his HUD to dial down his pain settings, but it wouldn’t come up.
Yup, I’m in her complete control.
He was being carried underneath a colonnade of some kind. To his left resided a sandstone wall, carved with hieroglyphics. To his right, a small pond resided at the center of a courtyard. There were flamingos wading in the water. Several cats lounged on the turf beside the pond. Beyond it, he could see an immense ancient city, replete with amphitheaters, parliament buildings, and residences. There were three pyramids in the distance.
“Great,”
Jason said. “We’ve got ourselves an Ancient Egypt aficionado.”
The strongmen ignored him.
Ahead of him, he spotted two more strongmen carrying another prisoner between them. It was Tara. She was dressed just as skimpily as he was, with a loincloth wrapped around her hips, and a thin tube of dark fabric wrapped around her breasts.
The strongmen carried the two prisoners toward each other. There was an intersection up ahead, which seemed to be their destination.
“What trouble have you gotten us into now?” Tara said as they reached the intersection.
“Me?” Jason said. “This wasn’t my fault!”
The strongmen turned into the intersection and carried them into the hallway beyond.
“I thought you weren’t going to accept,” Tara said. “You were supposed to break free while I distracted her in here.”
“Now you tell me,” Jason said. “Wait a second. That’s not even a plan. She would have stayed in the real world until I accepted, too.”
Tara shrugged, though it was little more than a jerk, thanks to her captors.
The hallway opened up into a throne room of sorts. It was partially open to the outdoors, with a vaulted roof overhead, supported by pillars on all sides, sort of like a big gazebo.
A carpet filled with intricate designs led to a small dais, reached by steps. A woman lay there on a chaise lounge, reclining on various pillows, her back propped against the ivory-veneered backrest, an arm draped over the intricately carved wooden armrest, and her legs stretched across the daybed portion. Her other arm rested on a bent knee in a posture that Jason thought was meant to exude not only relaxation, but sensuality.
She was dressed in a fringed bikini, with thin tassels of black thread hanging from both the top and bottom portions. The faint outline of abdominal muscles rippled across her flat belly with each breath. She wore a mask, also fringed, that hung down over the bridge of her nose to conceal most of her face, revealing only her forehead and her eyes, which were painted with kohl to look catlike.
A nearby servant in a loincloth waved a large frond up and down, cooling her. The tassels of her mask shivered beneath the induced breeze.
“You gotta be kidding me,” Jason said.
Beside the lounging woman, a shirtless man in knee-high boots stepped forward. He wore an ancient Egyptian headdress, striped blue and gold; the voluminous cloth hung liberally from either side of his face, giving him the appearance of a hooded cobra. A painful-looking whip hung from his hips.
“Bow before Cleopatra!” the man said.
The strongmen released Jason and Tara, who were still on their knees.
“Cleopatra?” Jason said, unable to keep the smile from his lips.
“Bow!” the man said.
The strongmen forced Jason and Tara forward so that they were completely prostrate.
He held that pose for a few seconds. A glance at Tara told him that she was just as uncomfortable.
He glanced up, toward this “Cleopatra.”
“Uh,” Jason said.
“You may rise,” Cleopatra said. “But remain on your knees.”
Jason did so, as did Tara beside him.
Cleopatra sat upright, then stood.
She took the steps on the dais down to him, then she ran a hand across his chest.
“That’ll be five credits,” Jason said.
She snorted, and withdrew her hand. “Cute.” She stepped back a pace. “So you say you didn’t come here to kill me?”
“No, of course not,” Jason said. “Why would I do that?”
“Then what are you doing here?” Cleopatra asked. The tassels hanging underneath her mask blew out slightly as she spoke.
“Like we said already, we have no idea,” Jason said. “We had our scans done, then woke up in the uninhabited zone. I’ve only been active for a day now.”
“And who’s she?” she nodded toward Tara.
“Just some random chick I picked up,” Jason said.
“Thanks…” Tara said.
Jason shrugged. “It’s true.” He kept his gaze on Cleopatra. “She only woke up a few days ago. We’re just trying to stay alive at the moment.”
“And what about those…” She curled her nose. “Dogs. How did you acquire them?”
“Just some pets we befriended along the way,” Tara said.
Cleopatra glanced at Tara, and her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “One does not simply befriend the bioweapons in this place.”
“Well, we did just that,” Jason said. “I guess it helps that we killed the rest of their pack.”
“You killed their pack,” Cleopatra said, sounding doubtful. “And they became your friends.”
“Yeah I know, it’s messed up,” Jason said. “But I guess they figured, they didn’t have a family anymore, and we treated them nice enough, so they might as well go with us.”
Cleopatra retreated to her dais, and sat back down. “I’ve been monitoring your cardiopulmonary subroutines. Your heartbeat and respiration. Your sweat levels. All of these are simulated down to the gland level. I’ve made sure that you couldn’t turn off these subroutines, nor your emotions. I’ve also been watching your faces for micro expressions, and similarly insured that you couldn’t disable these tells. I see no signs that you’re lying.”
“All right then,” Jason said. He tried to stand, but the strongman beside him forced him back down.
She took off her mask, revealing an exquisitely carved jaw, high cheekbones, and unblemished skin. Combined with that toned body, she was about as perfect as a woman could get.
She looked at him expectantly.
“I’m Sophie,” she said. “This is how I look in real life. My avatar is completely unmodified.”
“All right, great, you’re beautiful,” Jason said. “Can we go now?”
She frowned. She gave Tara a confused look, one that quickly turned into a scowl.
When she returned her attention to him, she’d managed to smooth out her features again.
“I want to join you,” Sophie said. “I, too, awakened only a week ago. I’ve been struggling for answers. The two of you are the closest I’ve come to these answers. The closest to human companionship…” She waved a hand at the servants around her. “These simulacrums look great on the outside, but they have very little depth.” She glanced toward the man in the Egyptian headdress behind her. “Jeeves, tell me the meaning of life?”
“To pulverize your enemies, turn their offspring into slaves, and add their women to your harem!” the man said.
“See what I mean?” Sophie told Jason. She glanced at the man. “It should be, add their men to my harem. Men.”
“Men,” Jeeves corrected.
“Who names their Egyptian servant Jeeves?” Tara said.
Sophie shrugged. “He’s essentially a glorified butler. I called him Jeeves when I first materialized him, back when I was still constructing my VR. Did you know there’s a complete world builder in the toolset? You can find it under the modifications tab.”
Jason had noticed that tab, but he hadn’t had much time to play around with it yet.
“Anyway,” Sophie continued. “I had created a traditional butler dressed in a suit, serving me in my palatial home. I was the Queen of England then, circa twenty-first century. But I soon grew bored. And I always loved cats, so I figured, what cultures in history loved cats as much as I do? And then I realized it…!”
“So we have our princess figure,” Tara said. “Let me guess, you were a secretary of some kind in real life.”
“Hardly,” Sophie said. “There are no more jobs for secretaries, you know that. Most people do their business remotely these days, and the few secretaries left are androids. No, I was a model of course.”
She said the later snootily, raising her chin slightly.
“And we’re supposed to be impressed?” Jason said. “Because you put on clothes designed by other people, and got paid a few credits to let people take pictures of you?�
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“Well, I wasn’t really that kind of model…” Sophie said.
“Oh?”
“Yes, I was a social media model,” Sophie said. “You know, I get paid for making holographic videos starring moi, and sponsored products. Great supplement to my allowance.”
“Ah,” Jason said. “That’s not really a model at all then. Sounds really bad, actually.”
Sophie’s face darkened. “Yeah okay, maybe. But I could have been a great model. I mean look at me.” She indicated her body. “And then I had to go and throw it all away by scanning my mind for a few quick bucks.”
“Wait, you said allowance a few seconds ago,” Jason said. “You mean from your parents. How old are you?”
“Twenty-five,” Sophie said.
“And you’re still getting an allowance?” Jason said. “Shouldn’t you be eligible for Basic Pay or something?”
She shook her head. “My parents are rich. I’m not eligible.”
“Well that would explain the PES,” Tara said.
“PES?” Sophie said.
“Yeah,” Tara told her. “Princess Entitlement Syndrome.”
“I don’t have PES!” Sophie said.
“Of course you don’t,” Tara said. “That’s because I made it up. But you’ve certainly got a princess level of entitlement going for you.”
Sophie regarded her coolly. “You know you’re in my complete power here, right? I can do whatever I want. Torture you, even. And you’d feel every ounce of pain.”
“Go ahead…” Tara dared.
“Okay then,” Jason said, standing. This time when one of the strongmen tried to force him down, Jason sidestepped and tripped the man. The other strongman took a step toward him, but Sophie raised a hand and the big man stopped.
“Our mech bodies are still waiting out in the real word, in case you forgot…” Jason said.
Sophie shrugged. “What’s the hurry? I have monitors running in the background. I’ll be alerted if anything moves out there, or you two try to get away.”