“What is it you wish?” the child asked regally.
“We have rejuvenation bracelets, your gracious highness.” Jessie said. “I’d like to get them reprogrammed with our profiles. I was told only the great and powerful Queen of the Outer Reaches could accomplish this.”
It took her a long time to answer and Jessie kept his head down but his senses were wide awake and waiting for some calamity to fall. When she finally spoke, her voice sounded old and wise. When he looked up, her eyes were ancient.
“Your words of flattery are strange and unusual but I understand their meaning.” She said. “Where do you come from?”
“The far side of the galaxy.” Jessie said. “I’m trying to get home.”
A slight smile curved her thin lips.
“I know your home, there is much gold is there not?”
“Probably.” Jessie said. “I didn’t have any of it.”
The queens’ smile broadened.
“It’s a difficult journey. Others have tried and others have failed.” She said cryptically
“You know of how to get there?” Jessie asked and there was a gasp among the advisors, armored guards shifted positions and there were throaty rumbles of anger.
“You dare question the Queen?” the blue skinned woman demanded; her eyebrows arched.
The child held up a hand to silence the quiet furor.
“Sorry, your grace. I am unaccustomed to your... uh… customs.” Jessie stammered as he calculated how many of the reptilians he could blast before they cut him down.
“Understandable, Traveler.” She said. “But you wish something from me. What will you pay for this service?”
“We have coins and relics from ancient star cruisers.” Jessie said.
“Useless baubles.” She said dismissively. “What else?”
“My blasters.” Jessie replied but she scoffed before he could finish.
“Junk. What else?”
“The only other thing I have is my ship.” Jessie said and she laughed cruelly.
“More trash I don’t want or need.” She said. “You have nothing yet you come seeking something. You are a fool on a fool’s journey.”
Jessie’s cheeks burned at the rebuke from the ancient child but he held his anger in check. He was in a strange land and at her mercy.
“I am sorry to have bothered you.” He said “I’ll take my leave and not darken your door again.”
“Not without payment, you won’t.” she said and barked something in reptilian.
A hulking giant of a lizard man flashed a wicked fang-toothed grin and stepped out of line. His armored tail swished back and forth as he approached and his footsteps shook the whole room. It was impossible, they were messing with the force field, making it vibrate and thunder but the results were pretty effective at instilling fear.
“For wasting my time, you will entertain me.” She said. “A battle. Choose your weapon, no blasters. If they leave their holster, you’ll be taking a long flight to the gardens below then be dismembered and fed to the dakners.”
Jessie had no clue what a dakner was but it probably didn’t matter. The fall would kill him before he had to worry about getting cut to pieces.
The reptilian placed his rifle in a rack and chose a shield and a long, spike encrusted battle axe. He swiped it a few times, got used to the heft and clanged it against his chest. His armor was some kind of metal alloy and covered most of his body. His tail had a wicked looking spiked ball attached to it and Jessie wondered how fast he could move.
30
The Arena
The Queen looked excited, tucked her knees under her on the throne and held the scepter in both hands. The child was reasserting itself, the old and wizened part of her pushed away so she could enjoy the show. The lizard men circling the hall started stamping their feet in unison, a slow thunderous sound.
“Are there any rules?” Jessie asked the blue woman, knowing better to question the Queen.
“Rules? No.” the Queen said. “Whoever wins is the winner.”
“Does it matter how we battle?” Jessie asked the woman who wore an amused expression.
“No, you go until someone wins. Choose your weapon and lets go!”
“So it’s not until somebody dies?” Jessie asked as he examined the rack of oversized maces and swords and hammers.
“No, you don’t have to kill him but he can kill you if he wants.” She said and started bouncing. “Hurry! Choose!”
“I choose rock, paper, scissors.” Jessie declared and turned to face her. “Best two out of three.”
They rhythmic stomping died out and there were confused looks among the lizard men.
“What?” the Queen said. “What is that?”
“Stone, cloth, blade.” Jessie said in Universal. “On my world, it’s an honorable game that mighty warriors, men of great cunning and strength play to settle differences.”
He hoped it would pique her interest. She seemed to like playing games and he wanted to avoid bloodshed. Especially his own. If the lizard guy got even one lucky hit on him, it would cut him in half.
She frowned as he approached and explained the rules. It only took a moment, the game was simple and she squealed in delight when she threw blade and he held out cloth. The lizard man only had four fingers and it took him a little longer to understand but he was grinning once he got the hang of it. A big, toothy grin. The rest of the guards left their posts, shed their weapons and helmets and came over to watch. The elders whispered among themselves and the blue woman was actually grinning at the boy’s audacity. Jessie rolled his shoulders, waggled his fingers and made a show of it. The rhythmic stomping started again as their fingers flashed the countdown.
One.
Two.
Three.
Jessie threw blade and the reptilian threw rock. The lizard man smashed down hard, nearly breaking Jessie’s hand. Cheers erupted and the stomping shook the top of the pyramid. He thought about telling the guy that hurting your opponent wasn’t really part of the game but let it go. They seemed to be enjoying that aspect of it the most. The delighted squeals of the Queen could be heard above it all and the blue skinned woman lowered her head and went back to her reading. Jessie gave them a show, shook his head in sorrow, flapped his smashed hand and walked in tight circles. He rolled his shoulders, practiced throwing all three signs in rapid succession and finally stepped back up to the lizard that towered above him. He had a wide grin on his face and started bouncing on the balls of his feet.
Jessie noticed a few credit chips came out and bets were placed. They faced each other and this time everyone counted down and crowded around to see what sign the fighters would throw. Jessie’s paper covered the man’s rock fist and his friends groaned. He crushed the giant fist with everything he had, straining to make the behemoth feel pain. It was the reptilians turn to stomp around and psyche himself up for the final battle. He roared and thumped his chest, his mighty fists nearly denting the metal. He circled twice and worked himself into a frenzy, the final throw would determine the victor. They faced off again and the foot stomping started back up. They stared into each other’s eyes, cobalt blue and icy black, then raised their fists and held them. Slowly they brought them up to shoulder level and threw them down starting the count. Everyone shouted the numbers and when Jessie lost with blade again, the man hammered down his rock fist and drew blood with the rough skin. They erupted and pounded their champion on the back as cheers went up and credits were exchanged. Jessie shook the pain out of his hand and didn’t remember the game being quite so brutal back home but it was better than being impaled by the spikes.
“Well played, Human.” The Queen said as the guards made their way back to the walls with excited chatter and started playing the game with each other.
He gave her a nod.
“Thank you, your Highness, but I lost.”
“No, I think you won.” She said. “It was obvious he was going to play rock again. Go see Sharaal
in the city. He will take care of your needs easily enough.”
She watched the guards play for a few moments then left the throne room from a side entrance. Jessie went back to Maddy and they started down the long staircase.
“That was just weird.” Jessie finally said. “It was surreal. I’m not even sure what happened but the Queen was kind of creepy up close. She seemed a lot older than she looked.”
“I’m sure she is.” Maddy said. “She has a data hacker here that can reprogram the bracelets. She is probably hundreds of years old and can rejuvenate into any number of bodies. Today she chose to be six.”
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they passed the man in the flowing robes hurrying up them again, another glass tablet in his hands.
“Whoa.” Jessie said. “I thought you were dead. She dropped you through the floor.”
“Yes, she does that quite often.” He said, completely unconcerned. “It’s a little game she likes to play when she’s being a child. She tries to catch me unprepared.”
He flashed the ring at them as he swept by.
“But it’s automatic. It activates the anti-gravity sensor for the wearer once you’re about halfway down.”
Jessie looked at his own ring with new interest. He’d thought it let him walk on the invisible floor. The technology was amazing.
“But don’t ever cross her.” He said over his shoulder. “She can turn yours off and can be quite unpleasant if she is truly angry.”
They strolled around the small city and it was nothing like they had expected. From the stories, the Queen was a cruel tyrant who ruled a criminal empire. He had supposed there would be black clad Nazi wannabes kicking around helpless peasants dressed in rags. The city would be one of misery and suffering, dark and foreboding. It was bright and clean and if he squinted his eyes, he could almost imagine he was strolling through a small beach town in California. She may have been a ruthless pirate at one time but that had been a few lifetimes ago. She had spent many decades terraforming the moon at the end of the last jump gate into a private paradise.
It took them a while to find the data hacker. He was a tall, six fingered man with a smooth, hairless head and oversized almond eyes. He was at a sidewalk café that overlooked the ocean, relaxing and enjoying the breeze. He was sipping a cool drink, nibbling on some sort of pastry and scrolling through his data glass. He would have been right at home in any Starbucks.
He introduced himself as Sharaal, invited them to sit then listened to what they wanted. He spoke softly, asked questions and eyed them kindly. At least Jessie thought it was kindness. He kept his hand near his blaster in case it wasn’t. The man’s eyes kept changing whenever he blinked, which wasn’t very often. It was like he was switching contact lenses and it was a little creepy.
“And what is it, exactly, would you like for me to do with these bracelets? Surely it isn’t simply reprogramming them with your signatures, it would have been easier to simply pay a rejuvenation clinic than risk coming all the way out here.”
Jessie and Maddy exchanged a glance and before he could come up with a plausible lie, the man spoke again.
“I know you are from a previous age.” He said and indicated Jessie with a long, gray finger. “You’re mostly human, ancient human but with something alien in your blood. Probably from one of the lost colony ships but your compact muscle structure and bone density suggest planet side living for many thousands of generations. A planet with strong gravity.”
He blinked and a different lens slid over his eye.
“You have been wounded many times, some of them should have been fatal but you are not incapacitated in any way. Very curious. I could learn much analyzing your blood.”
“I don’t have any to spare.” Jessie said.
“Understandable.” He said, undisturbed, then turned his gaze to Maddy.
“You are an anomaly.” He said but not with malice. He steepled his fingers and clicked through the eye lenses, settling on a different one for each. “You are a collection of cells, all of the exact same construction, each working in perfect conjunction with the rest. Mimicking cells. A hive. A highly advanced machine, unlike anything I’ve ever seen. You have a pulse, I see the vein on your neck keeping perfect rhythm with your heart. You breathe in and out normally enough but you just traversed a long flight of steps up from the water. Your heart should have been accelerated, your breathing a little heavier. You are very good, my dear but you didn’t fool me and you can’t fool a bracelet. I’m sorry but I can’t reprogram one for you.”
Jessie’s hand rested on his knee, a nanosecond away from his blaster if it was needed.
The man turned one of his eyes to him.
“No need for violence, young warrior.” He said. “I am merely assessing my customers so I can give them what they desire. My Queen has ordered it and it will be done. She does not tell me her secrets, I do not tell her mine. If I were to guess, I would say you are a relic from the far past, one of the first colony ships that were sent out and never heard from again. For one reason or another, you never did build your jump gate. Until recently that is.”
He indicated Jessie with a nod of his oversized head.
“You are a decedent that has evolved to better suit the planet you came from. An unusual specimen.”
“The Queen asked me if we had gold.” Jessie said. “That seemed a strange thing to ask. Is it rare here? Don’t you guys have gold mines?”
Sharaal thought for a moment and turned an eye inward to consult one of his lenses.
“I have never heard of gold, I had to research what it was. But to answer your question, no. We don’t have anything quite like it. Some of the more fanciful legends claim the Anunnaki harvested gold from a far distant planet to spray into the air of their home world. It was dying and that was an early terraforming process to seal the holes that had formed in the atmosphere. Theories espoused by crackpots, mostly. No one knows much about their culture or politics. They’re the antagonists in any number of ancient texts written shortly after the Great War but like I said, there is no proof. Until someone finds their home world, if it still exists, it’s all conjecture.”
He dismissed the whole affair with a wave of his hand. “Let’s get back to what is relevant and something I find infinitely more interesting.”
“You” he turned his eyes to Maddy “are a ship. The fabled artificial intelligence that could assume any shape. I was unaware colony ships were operated by AI. The stories said only the most advanced battleships just before the Great War had them. Some believe they became aware and tried to destroy all life, that it was them that caused so much chaos and blamed it on the Anunnaki.”
When neither answered he sighed and turned back to the business at hand.
“Okay, you want me to reprogram these and remove the restrictors so when you snap it on your wrist it maps your DNA. You want to be able to travel to a distant place and to a different time, correct?”
They nodded.
“And you understand I can only make it for you?” he asked Jessie.
“Yes, but can you leave the other blank? It will work with anyone who puts it on?”
“Anyone human, yes.” Sharaal said and turned one of his eyes to Maddy. “You understand?”
They nodded.
“Okay, I can do that but they are useless in any charted system unless you are in a safe box at one of the centers. The safeguards are irreversible, to try to alter them results in complete meltdown of the bracelet. I wouldn’t do it even if I could, no one in their right mind would. It would only lead to catastrophe. I can alter them so they are clean again. They will be mated to the new wearer but it is a useless endeavor without being entered into the rejuvenation clinics database. They won’t have a record of you and that will cost extra, the Queen only told me to alter the bracelets, not the database.”
“That’s fine.” Jessie said. “That’s all we need.”
Sharaal looked between the pair again and nodded his
head.
“Come back tomorrow.” He said and stood. “They’ll be blanked out and ready to incorporate a new owners’ data.”
They wandered around the small city, sampled some of the foods and wound up at the beach. There was something peaceful about watching the breaking waves.
The bracelets were his only hope. One for him and one for Scarlet. He knew things never worked out quite the way you wanted when dealing with time anomalies. He was going to program the coordinates in to both of them for the survey stakes in Iowa two years before the end. They’d pop out, the silly woman would call them dirty hippies and they’d run for the river. After that, they were free. They would figure out their next move. He knew they had to be careful, they could easily make everything worse but together they would figure it out.
Maddy had determined that time jumping from an isolated system at the farthest point away from the hub was the only way back. If he went into a hibernation pod to get closer to home, to his solar system at the end of a spiral galaxy, it would take thousands of lifetimes. By the time he got there, in the highly unlikely event that the ship and equipment survived the journey, it would be another ten thousand years in the future.
When Sharaal presented him with the bracelets the next day and showed him how to program it, Jessie told him what he was trying to do. If anyone knew anything about doing illegal things, it was probably a data hacker living on a planet owned by the galaxy’s most notorious outlaw. Sharaal considered for long moments then offered sage advice on how to accomplish the task.
“I still think it will be an impossible endeavor.” He said “I believe the eons you’ll spend in limbo will drive you mad but there is no nobler motive than love.”
He gave them a coded beacon transmitter as a parting gift. It let the pirates waiting for him at the jump gate know that he had the Queen’s protection.
Zombie Road | Book 8 | Crossroads of Chaos Page 20