War in the Fringe - Chris J Pike
Page 54
On the center of the dais sat a large rectangular piece of equipment. As he approached, the machine’s purpose became clear.
“Looks like some sort of rejuv autodoc. Kinda high-tech for a society who has sworn off tech,” he muttered aloud. “Maybe Mei’s whole ‘thousand-year reign’ wasn’t just hyperbole.”
“Kronos disease,” Grayson whispered.
That disease was the fate of anyone who tried to cheat death forever. The body could be repaired, but eventually, the brain became too interconnected, too much a hodgepodge of neurons, axons, and dendrites, cross-wired in every direction.
Otherwise known as ‘stark raving mad’.
“You discovered my secrets,” a voice said from behind him. “Just like I feared Raynes did. He was out to destroy us because we lied to Peter Rhoads about destroying our AIs.”
He spun around to see Mei approaching. She had an arm twisted around the handmaiden’s neck. The old woman’s terror was evident in her labored breathing and her face, wet with tears.
“So, you lied and got caught. Sounds like something you’re not used to.” Grayson struggled to keep his eyes off of how violently the handmaiden was shaking. “You’ll be all right. I won’t let her hurt you.”
Mei pursed her lips. “I doubt it. I’m used to getting away from things. Like using this rejuv tank to stay young, so I won’t have to give up my reign to any thieving daughters.”
“Is that why you murder your own children?”
Grayson’s words had more of an effect on the handmaiden, who began to cry at the accusation. He wondered how close she had been to the babies and young girls before Mei had ended their innocent existence.
“They were a menace, as the young always are. It doesn’t matter if they were my blood. A threat is a threat, same as you. Even I am not immune to the sweetness of all babies. There were those I couldn’t slaughter in their crib, so I waited until they were older; then it grew easier. Except for this one.” Mei tightened her arm around the handmaiden. “She was such a good servant, I couldn’t see her dead. Until now.”
Grayson’s jaw went slack. “This is one of your daughters?”
“From about seventy years ago, yes. I needed a useful tool, someone who feared me, yet loved me. She served well. She helped me give birth to my other vile daughters, and when I asked her to help me end them, she did that, too.”
The handmaiden’s eyes squeezed shut, and that was all the proof Grayson needed to know Mei spoke the truth.
“When living under such a reign, you cannot be held responsible for your crimes,” he said kindly to the handmaiden. “We’ll end Mei’s tyranny.”
His microdrones had picked up four figures hiding behind the pillars that lined the room. Another pair were tucked behind the ornamental dragons.
“Only I decide when it needs to be ended!” Mei once again raised the thin hairstick in her hand and held it out, ready to plunge it into her daughter’s chest.
No one moved for a moment, but then Mei screamed, and Grayson knew there was no more time to wait.
He leapt from the dais and crashed into the empress, knocking her down, narrowly keeping the sharp—and probably poisoned—implement from stabbing the handmaiden.
Overhead, shots rang out, and Grayson felt the wind from a round fly right past his ear.
A moment later, George called out, “Clear!”
Grayson looked around and counted six dead guards whose bodies littered the floor. A meter away, the handmaiden lay curled in a fetal position, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Check her over,” he directed George before turning back to Mei, who was struggling into a seated position, her eyes so wide that the whites were showing all around.
She drew in a deep breath and began to scream.
“No!” she picked up the hairstick and lunged at Grayson. “No!”
She didn’t even make it half a meter before a pulse blast knocked her back to the ground. Grayson rose and kicked away her weapon as he stood over her.
“Don’t worry, Your Highness, we have a nice cell picked out for you on the Polis Fury. Life is about to get very different for you.”
* * * * *
While the empress was transported under armed guard to the Polis Fury, Grayson spent some time getting the handmaiden—who was likely the rightful heir to the throne of Battia—to pull herself together.
He hoped it was luck that he’d found someone who could take the throne. Maybe even someone who’d seen Mei’s brutal behavior up close and would pledge a change.
Maybe a little too lucky.
He escorted her to a private room and had a cup of tea brought up to her. As she tried to drink it, her hands shook so bad, the teacup and saucer clattered together.
Grayson steadied the teacup and brought it up to her lips. “Maybe we can start by you telling me what your name is? Your real name…you must have one.”
She nodded and stared up at him with the wide, guileless eyes of a child. “Fen, but no one has been allowed to use that name in decades. I wasn’t allowed to keep my youth, or my beauty.” She turned her cheek so he could see the thick scar running down her jawbone.
It pained Grayson to think about what she must’ve gone through. “I’m sorry for the way she forced you to live, but I’ll make sure the people of Battia have a good life. Do you know what Silstrand is?”
Fen shook her head. “I know only of Battia and Hubei. Mei had it in for them. She didn’t like that they’d oppose her or Mr. Rhoads.” She swallowed her tea. “He was nice. I never had a father, but he brought me a stuffed bear once. He said he knew who I was, and that he’d help me.” Fen laughed and tucked her hands beneath her robes. “He never did, though.”
“Something more pressing came up for him.” Grayson was beginning to have a sinking feeling that what Mei had done to Fen wouldn’t be easily reversed. “I’m sure he didn’t mean to abandon you here.”
“Sometimes he brought candy. I sure would like some now.”
“Oh, candy? I have red licorice and jelly nodes up on my ship. I could have some brought down, or maybe have you brought up, if you’d like to try some.”
Fen folded into herself, recoiling as if someone had tried to hurt her. “No, I can’t go into space. Mother, I mean Mei always said that to go into space would be the death of Battians. I am Battian and I wish not to die.”
“You won’t die. I’ll show you, I promise. But if it’s too much, on the next trip down, I’ll have some of my officers bring you down a basket of the best candy we have.”
Fen’s face broke out into a wide smile, and she clapped her hands with glee. It was the happiest Grayson had seen her, and it made her look a decade younger.
“Yes, yes,” she squealed. “I’d love that so much. Mother never let me have nice things.”
“Good. Then we’ll have a nice little treat, and maybe you and I can talk about Battia and the possibility that if your mother can no longer rule, who that task should fall to.”
“No longer rule?” Fen’s face fell, and her eyes darkened. “No, no. Mei is the empress, the one ruler of Battia, and has been for almost one thousand years. No one can take her place.” She shook her head, pulling at the skin on her hands violently. Grayson feared that if she didn’t stop, she’d hurt herself.
“Fen, please calm down.” He gripped her hands to make her stop, but she just slapped his attempt away and did her best to drive him back. “Fen, please! I’m trying to help you.”
“She is the immortal one!”
“She’s not,” Grayson said calmly. “She used technology available to many others t
o lengthen her rule. Mei fooled you and the people of Battia.”
Fen shook her head violently. “No!” And then she was rocking back and forth in her chair, as if she couldn’t hear him anymore. “I need Mother,” she whispered, her face crumbling as she cried. “Bring back Mother, I need Mother, bring back Mother….”
Lost in her own world, she didn’t seem to be aware of Grayson anymore. He clasped her shoulder and said her name, but he couldn’t reach her anymore. The notion that he had found the next logical ruler for Battia, went out the window with the realization that her psyche was severely damaged—maybe even permanently.
Fen was still a child in many respects and would need someone to look after her. He felt more than just sadness for Fen, the kindly old woman; he felt despair for her and all of Battia.
* * * * *
One of the field medics came and gave Fen a sedative. Once she was out, they took her on the next shuttle up to the Polis Fury.
After she’d departed, Grayson walked the halls of the palace and checked in with Alice for a report.
Grayson had been worried about that.
Grayson blew out a long breath. His job had just become that much harder.
IF BY FORCE
STELLAR DATE: 12.21.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: CSF Precinct 3, Holding Cells, Chimin-1
REGION: Chimin Asteroid Group, Hanoi System (independent)
Shots ricocheted down the hall, and Lana ducked back into the lift, Winter following suit.
“What the hell?” she asked, to which Winter only shrugged.
“Reaching out to the CSF,” he began as he drew his sidearm. “Crap! There are three guards in the ward—they’re pinned down by some attackers. Vid feeds are out.”
“Not really breaking news,” Lana muttered as she released a nanocloud to scout the corridors ahead.
Her probes didn’t even make it to the first passageway before someone leant out and fired a series of rounds toward the lift.
Lana broke cover long enough to fire three shots and duck back behind the wall. “Disgruntled workers? Someone just hate you?”
“Let’s hope it’s not that. I just helped put this rock back together!”
Lana switched to the Link.
Lana wondered who that was, but then realized he meant her. Oh, he’s so funny.
She mentally berated herself for thinking of kissing him just a minute ago. Then, using the feeds from her nano, she focused on the man—make that two men—advancing down the passage.
He really does care about this place. She fired off a few more rounds to keep the attackers from getting any closer. “You’ll never get through here alive!” she called out. “Put down your weapons and surrender if you know what’s good for you!”
Rounds ricocheting off the wall was her only answer.
Winter snorted. “ ‘What’s good for you’? What are you, their mom?”
“Maybe they need a mom,” Lana muttered.
Via her nanocloud feeds, she saw the two attackers in the corridor turn for a moment, and didn’t hesitate to use the distraction.
Lana rushed out from her cover, racing toward the two men, having taken note of a few possible weak points in their armor. She fired her pulse pistol at the closest man, aiming for the insides of his thighs.
Three shots hit his left thigh, and he groaned, knees buckling. Lana was on him in a second, hand against his neck as she deployed breach nano into his armor.
She crouched behind him and pulled the trigger on her pistol to fire on the other man, only to have the weapon flash a red indicator that the charge cylinder was dry.
“Shit!”
The enemy leveled his rifle at her. “Game’s up, little girl. Step away from Lew, and I won’t shoot.”
“Uh…isn’t that when you’d shoot?” Lana asked, confirming that Lew’s armor was locked up and he was out of the picture.
“Just fuckin’ move!”
Suddenly a series of rounds slammed into the man, and he fell back under the barrage. Unfortunately, Winter’s shots weren’t enough to disable the attacker, but Lana knew she was.
Rising up, she planted a foot on Lew’s shoulder and kicked off, sailing straight for the shooter. He swung his rifle toward her, but it was too late. She wrapped an arm around the weapon and jerked it down while delivering a kick to his neck.
The blow wasn’t enough to hurt him through the armor, but it gave her the leverage to wrench the rifle free as she fell to the ground.
She hit the deck, deploying nano onto the biometrics to unlock the weapon, only to see an albino blur charge past and slam into the soldier full force.
“I guess that works,” Lana said as she rose and looked down at Winter, who was sprawled across the enemy, straining as he held the man’s powered armor to the ground.
“Yeah…well, Grayson would have my hide if you got shot,” Winter grunted. “Can you work your magic with this guy already?”
Lana tapped the enemy soldier on the head with the barrel of his own rifle. “Give it up.”
“It’s biolocked, bitch,” he spat. “Try it.”
“OK.” Lana moved the rifle a few centimeters over and fired a round into the deck right beside the man’s head. “Huh, look at that. You were saying?”
The man suddenly went limp. “OK, OK. But we have more ships coming. You can’t hold her forever.”
Winter sat up and groaned. “Fuckin’ Ranstock.”
Just then a figure came around the corner, and Lana jerked her rifle up only to see that the newcomer was one of the station police.
“Clear back there, sir,” the officer reported. “We bagged four of them. Jenny took a shot to the leg, but otherwise, no causalities on either side. Glad the SSF gave us that riot foam.”
“Good work, Tom,” Winter said as he rose, sparing a glance for Lana’s discarded pistol. “Don’t you know to keep that fully charged?”
“It was.” Lana shrugged. “I guess even the SSF has faulty equipment sometimes.”
“Gotta say,” Winter grinned as he picked up the other attacker’s rifle, “I forgot what it was like to watch you work.”
Lana tried to suppress a smile, but found she couldn’t.
She knelt down and placed a hand on the second man’s neck, feeding breach nano into his armor as well. “Well, I guess we finally got to meet more of the Coalesce Legion.”
“Hell,” Winter muttered and gazed toward the prison cells. “Guess we finally have proof that Ranstock’s up to no good.”
Lana didn’t buy that. “Let’s talk to them first before we rush to judgment.”
Winter raised his eyebrow. “Fine, but I’m the one doing the questioning. You got me?”
Lana took one look at the rage that was simmering in Winter’s eyes and nodded. “I got you.”
LAST CHANCES
STELLAR DATE: 12.21.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: The Hyperion Hotel, New Roma, Dante
REGION: Dante Velorum System, Fringe
He was her brother and he was standing right in front of her. If Kylie extended her hand, she’d be able to touch him. A part of her was terrified, while another part rejoiced. If she could convince him to turn away from the path he was on, the family could be back together. Barring their father, of course, but otherwise together.
“I thought your name was Chassea?” Levin asked, turning a suspicious look toward Kylie.
“It is. He has me mistaken for someone else,” Kylie said, standing taller and meeting her brother’s eyes, seeing what she always saw when coming face to face with him: wisdom, intelligence, the shoulders she had cried on when their father rebuked her and when she’d had her heart broken for the first time.
How could that have changed? How can I be looking into the eyes of a monster?
“Forgive me,” Paul said and offered her his hand. “For a moment, you reminded me of someone I knew once…a long time ago.”
His words were spoken casually, and they crushed her, but she had to move past the dismissal.
She patted the cylinder. “As you can see, I have it. Can we go somewhere private to set things up?”