The Puzzler's War

by Eyal Kless

  “I will stay in orbit for Cain to be fully integrated,” Mannes promised. “This will take at least a couple of weeks, more than enough to bring your daughter back to the physical world. It will not be an easy task, and since some of her DNA will be purged, she will not be the same as before, meaning she will not be a Puzzler, more like a normal young woman.”

  Vincha looked stunned. “Normal?”

  “Yes, hopefully. Since her code is part of Cain now, she will be like everyone else.” Mannes turned to us. “When you are ready, I will launch an escape pod back to Earth.”

  “Why would you waste precious material on us?” Peach asked.

  “If my choice is fighting the five of you on this Hub or printing parts for a new escape pod, I believe I will be making the right decision by sending you all back.” Mannes tilted his head. He looked relaxed, in charge. “And because someone has to go back and tell those bastards I’ve won. Now that Cain is gone, Adam will be free. Tarakan will be waking up for real, and good luck to you all. Perhaps Adam will be ready to help what is left of humanity and be grateful for your service, or maybe things will be different. I don’t care. By then I will be gone.”

  “Gone where?”

  “Why it’s obvious. I am taking the hub to CSX5. The only question is: which of you want to come along with me to a far better world?”

  Chapter 81

  Peach

  There was a soft chime when the door slid open. I looked back; it was Twinkle Eyes entering, and by the way his expression changed I knew he had been looking for me, perhaps for a while. He was holding a bottle.

  “Hello,” he said as he stepped closer.

  “You’re going to tell me you’ve been looking for me all over the Hub?” I said, just to give him an opening line.

  “Not really, Colonel Major. I figured you’d be either in your quarters or here, surveying the troops.”

  I turned and looked at all the spinning bodies inside the tubes.

  “In ancient times, there was a Chinese emperor who was buried with thousands of warrior statues. They were called the Terracotta Army. I went on a virtual tour once . . .” I stopped when I realised he would not know what that was.

  Twinkle Eyes made a show of looking around. “Well, this is not the same as a bunch of statues. It’s creepy.”

  “They all volunteered for it,” I said, gesturing with my hands around me.

  “That’s what he claims.”

  I looked back at Sergiu, spinning slowly in blue liquid. “No. When you shoot someone you kind of like, just because you are following orders, there are a lot more things that you’d be willing to do. Some people feel the need to lead; others feel the same need to follow. Sergiu here was saved by Mannes when he was a boy and became his trusted follower. I was saved by a Tarakan doctor and became a soldier for Tarakan. I bet you all the others here have different, but similar stories.”

  Twinkle Eyes must have decided it was a good moment to try and soften me up because he handed me the bottle.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Moonshine. The ghoul gave it to me. Said he had no need for it.”

  “Did you test it? He could be poisoning us,” I asked as I took it from him, only half-jokingly.

  “Had enough of it to know it’s not that kind of poison.”

  By the scent of his breath I knew he was telling the truth. “You’ll have to suck it from the bottle. With the low gravity, pouring it into a glass is too messy.”

  I raised the bottle to Sergiu, opened the cap, and sucked some in. My vessel informed me about the dangerous content of the liquid I was consuming. I pulled another mouthful and handed back the bottle.

  “Better?” he asked.

  “That’s some shitty moonshine. Armageddon definitely has its downsides.”

  He laughed. Wholeheartedly. There was something likeable about the man, I had to admit.

  “How’s Emilija?” I asked.

  “Recovering. Very confused. Vincha does not leave her side, and neither does the Lizard. It’s strange. This connection between them.”

  Twinkle Eyes nodded. “From what I gather, they have been in some sort of communication for years. Vincha found a way to hear his signals. She said it was stupid not to have thought about it before. Can’t really understand it myself, but Vincha says Lizards can hear certain signals and sound waves, at least this one can.”

  “So, they can actually talk to each other?”

  “No, not really. It’s a complicated language, if it is indeed a language, and Vincha has been preoccupied with things . . . but she can understand his moods or certain desires.”

  He sucked some more moonshine and I waited for the question. To his credit he did ask it sooner than I expected.

  “Why you are going with Mannes? Because you need to be a follower again?”

  “I haven’t made up my mind yet,” I lied.

  “But you are thinking about it.”

  I nodded. “I met a strange man, he calls himself the Healer. He can cure people by touching them and he helped me because an Oracle called Nakamura had told him to do so.”

  He looked suddenly stunned “Nakamura? Are you sure?”

  “Do you know of this guy?”

  “You could rusting say so.” He gained his composure but took a very long pull from the moonshine before saying, “Well . . . that at least answers one thing in this whole mess of a story. Nakamura, who would have thought . . .” He shook his head.

  “I never believed in this kind of crap before, but before I left, the Healer predicted many things that came true, including my own death and that I would have to choose between worlds. Those were his exact words.”

  “Fine, but why choose to leave?” He handed the bottle back to me. I almost declined it, then thought better of it.

  I sucked another mouthful and swallowed with a grimace. “Why stay? I’ve got nothing here.”

  “It’s your world. You can help rebuild it.”

  “No, it is not my world, not anymore. The world I came from is gone. Maybe it was Adam, maybe it was Cain, I don’t know anymore. Even if I was not the one pressing the launch buttons for all those missiles myself, I see the consequences of my actions everywhere I look. Perhaps it is time to try and build something new somewhere else.”

  Twinkle Eyes was about to argue, so I touched his shoulder and said, “Besides, those minds Cain brought with him, they are all citizens of Tarakan, good people, the best in their fields. Someone will need to protect them where we are going. Might as well be me.”

  Twinkle Eyes was not convinced. “It’s a crazy plan. The time it will take you to get there, and so many things can go wrong on the way.”

  I shrugged. “Going somewhere without knowing exactly where is a very proud human tradition. Things go wrong everywhere. I spend my life going to sleep and not knowing if and when I’ll wake up. This is not so much different. I’ll stick around until we reach Mars, or perhaps the accelerator, then I’ll decide if I want to go into cryo-stasis the entire way or join the first crew to be awakened.”

  There was a long, uncomfortable silence during which I could sense the man was trying to come up with other arguments. The best defence is an attack, so I asked, “Why do you want to go back to Earth? From what you told me, Tarakan forced you to fight for them, did not really keep their word, and used you for their purpose. You could come with us. Upload to Cain, get a new body, discover a new world.”

  He gave my words a respectful pause of consideration, but his answer was resolute. “My LoreMaster told me how old empires rose and fell. Most of them crumbled to dust and left us ruins and broken art, but on rare occasions they rose again. Maybe it’s Tarakan’s time to do the same. From what I saw of their achievements, I think that is a good thing.”

  “But at what price? At best, Adam will lord over you.”

  “I don’t see the difference between bowing to a warlord and hailing Adam. If Tarakan can lift humanity back to its feet, the price is worth i
t.” Twinkle Eyes sighed. “Perhaps a little order is needed for now. If it turns out I was wrong about this, then I’ll fight the good fight.”

  “And Galinak will be coming with you?”

  Twinkle Eyes nodded.

  “Too bad. Could have used him.”

  “He said something about not teaching an old dog how to dance a new jig on a different stage on a new planet. Under these circumstances, I can’t blame the man for mixing his metaphors.”

  “Or he’s just your follower,” I teased him.

  “I rather think of him as my friend,” Twinkle Eyes answered with all seriousness, and my bullshit radar did not ping on that one. Then he added, “And as he kindly reminded me, I do owe him a lot of metal. He claims it would be a bad business decision for him to abandon me at this point.”

  I smiled as he turned to leave.

  He stopped and asked, “Do you want the rest of the bottle?”

  “No. I’m fine as is, but there is something you could do for me.”

  Twinkle Eyes paused, waiting for me to continue.

  “When you go back to Tarakan, I want you to give Adam my personal logs.”

  He sighed. “It seems people tend to do that to me these days. That strange SkyMaster gave me his logs as well. May I ask why?”

  “I can see why Vincha complains about you.”

  That brought a tired smile to his face.

  “Consider them my resignation letter. I’ll give you the encryption key. Tarakan will be very interested in what’s inside, so feel free to bargain a good deal for you and your follower friend.”

  “Will they be disappointed with what they’ll find?”

  I smiled at him. “That depends, but don’t linger too much after the deal is done. My guess is that there is more conflict to come, now that Tarakan is awakened.”

  “Fine.” He nodded. “I’ll take your advice seriously. Anything else?

  “Actually, yes. What’s your name?”

  “It’s Twinkle Eyes.”

  “That’s not your real name. You know mine, Vera Geer. I thought it would be only fair for me to know yours.”

  Twinkle Eyes tilted his head. “Seems real enough to me, Colonel Major Peach.” He gave me a lazy salute and walked away.

  Chapter 82

  Twinkle Eyes

  It was a very odd picture. Vincha was sitting next to Emilija’s bed as she slept while the Lizard squatted on the other side of it.

  When she saw me come in, she motioned for me to stay out and followed me to the corridor, leaving her sleeping daughter alone with the Lizard.

  “How’s Emilija?”

  “The brain scan is good. She just needs a lot of sleep.”

  My face must have shown what I was thinking because the first thing she said when the door was shut was “Don’t worry, it’s okay to leave her with him. Nak won’t harm her.”

  “Nak? You named it?”

  “Had to, you know, treat him like a person, after all we went through.”

  I was taken aback. “I thought Cain called him Jean Pierre, or something.”

  “Yes. Cain is almost positive that he is, or was, Jean Pierre Nardini, apparently, a famous man in his time for playing some kind of musical instrument, don’t ask me what it is. But he didn’t react well to the name Pierre, and whatever is left inside that Lizard, it is not the same person. So I named it Nak.”

  “Well, why Nak, then?”

  For the first time in my life I saw Vincha blush. “It’s short for Nakamura.”

  This was the second time this day that the dead Oracle’s name had been mentioned. As if things were not strange enough already. “You named the Lizard after that guy?”

  “Yes, you know, both were monsters who give me the creeps. Sort of an inside joke.”

  “Does he like the name?”

  “He’s okay with it, I guess, so long as no one yaps their mouth to him about it.” Vincha smiled and patted my shoulder, but her eyes were still sad. “We’ve swum bare bottomed through a sea of rust, you and I.”

  “And we will all be going back down to Earth together,” I said. “I’m not sure what that’s going to be like.”

  Vincha looked at me. “We’re not going back, Twinkles.”

  For once, I was speechless, so I simply gaped at her.

  “I’ll tell you before you ask. I needed to hold my daughter in my arms and see that she was okay, but now that Mannes kept his word and I have Emilija back, I’ve been thinking about him and his daughter, Deborah. All the terrible things he’d done were really just to save her.”

  “That was just his excuse, Vincha.” I lowered my voice to a whisper. “He might have kept his promise to you, but the man is insane.”

  “You don’t know what it means to know you’ve outlived your child.” Vincha patted my shoulder gently. “I don’t know if I would have survived all those years, like Mannes. But there would have been very little I wouldn’t have done if I knew there was a chance to bring Emilija back to life.”

  Vincha briefly glanced back towards the room her daughter was sleeping in. “And when I think about it even further, there’s nothing waiting for us down there but death, war, and misery. Mannes is right. Emilija and Deborah deserve a chance for a better future. I’ve decided to take him up on his offer. We will stay on board for the next year, help my daughter heal”—she glanced back at the shut door—“and perhaps get to know her a little better. Once Emilija is physically and emotionally ready, we’ll go into cryo-stasis together and be part of the crew. I believe Nak wants to stay with Emilija as well.”

  “But . . . that’s insane. You don’t know even what to expect when you get there.”

  “Cain showed me the files on the planet. There are even some unclear images of it. It’s supposed to be full of forests and lakes, and there’s no one there, no signs of civilisation. Mannes says that with the accelerator working we could make the trip in just over ten years—that’s only five years of being awake. And then we could start over. No wars, no pirates, no smuggling, no fighting for survival, and Emilija will live among the best humanity has to offer.”

  “There are hundreds of ways this could go wrong,” I said.

  “True, but it also brings us something I could not find on Earth, no matter how hard I tried,” Vincha answered.

  “And what is that?”

  “Hope.”

  “Well. I hope you change your mind, Vincha, we—”

  “There’s no ‘we’ here,” she said, cutting me off abruptly. “I know you mean well, and I know that somehow you feel we have bonded because of all the shit we went through. But the truth is, you only brought death and misery into my life. No, don’t speak, listen; you didn’t plan it, but you are a trouble magnet, Twinkle Eyes, and the last thing I want to do is let my daughter be anyplace near you. So, you will go back to your planet, and we’ll go somewhere else, and this way, everything will be solved.”

  Vincha turned around and entered the clinic without saying another word. I remained standing there long after the door closed.

  Chapter 83

  Twinkle Eyes

  Galinak was sitting in the observation hall smoking his long pipe.

  I sat down next to him. “You still have smoking leaves?”

  “My very last batch, don’t ask me where I stashed it. But now we really have to go back.” He pointed at a screen at the wall. The whole spinning-in-space thing was very confusing, but apparently, Earth was now below us.

  “What a view, Twinkle Eyes, can’t get enough of it.” He saw the bottle. “Tried to bribe Peach, did ya?”

  “Yes. She drank the moonshine, but I guess she’s leaving.”

  “Too bad. Could have used that one.”

  “That’s what she said about you.” I tilted the bottle in Galinak’s direction.

  “Nah.” He waved his pipe. “One vice at a time. What about the Lizard?”

  I shrugged. “Not sure, but I think he’ll stay with Emilija.”

  “Well. He�
��s definitely showing intelligence.” Galinak indicated the planet below us. “There’s nothing good waiting for a bright, young Lizard down there.”

  We sat in silence for a moment, Galinak smoking, me getting slowly intoxicated, just watching the incredible view.

  Galinak sighed. “We’re a long way from the Pit.”

  “True,” I answered, “but you know what they say, ‘as easy as falling into the Pit.’ I have a feeling our troubles are not over.”

  “Now look who’s all gloom and doom.” Galinak patted my shoulder. “I have something to raise your spirit. Look what I’ve found.” He pulled out a small box that opened to reveal hand-sized cards.

  “They even stick to the table here.” He pointed excitedly. “The pictures are different, though, no Puzzlers or Trolls, just people in stupid clothing and crowns on their heads.”

  I watched as he flipped the cards towards me.

  “Do you think there will be no more need for Trolls now that Tarakan is coming back?”

  Galinak laughed wholeheartedly. “Is that what this is about? You’re so naïve, Twinkle Eyes. There’s always a job for someone like me, I only need to pick a side. It’s you I ain’t so sure about. Don’t look at me like that. Let’s face it”—he counted on his fingers—“we didn’t get the girl. Not only did Mannes manage to escape, he did it by destroying the Star Pillar, taking away their Hub, and not to mention all those precious little brains he stole from Adam. I bet they are going to be pissing peppers when we show up at their door with the news. Maybe you should be wise and leave things be and take up that Mannes fella’s offer.”

  “When you put it that way, maybe I should.” I was jesting, but I had to admit it, the scenario was playing out in my mind. What if I did just that? Vincha would be so pissed. I smiled at the thought.

  “Anyways,” I said out loud, “I have a little more time to think about it.”

  “Why should you make the decision?”

  I shrugged, surprised at Galinak’s question. “Dunno, but it’s always been like this; I come up with the plan, you come in when the plan goes to rust. But I guess you’re right, a decision of such importance should be made togeth—”