Old Ironsides

by Dean Crawford

  ‘Major Graham Lees, CSS. Would you come this way please?’

  Kaylin followed the major toward a smaller shuttle, this one designed for atmospheric flight only. She found it hard to conceal her annoyance at being approached literally as she had set foot on the planet – no, she corrected herself, before she had set foot on the planet. The landing pad was suspended a hundred feet above the surface on thick pillars. A gantry led from the main pad across to a smaller pad where the CSS shuttle awaited.

  Kaylin climbed aboard and Major Lees strapped in as the access door closed automatically in silence and the shuttle’s Higgs Drive engaged. The small craft lifted off and glided silently out over the city, affording Kaylin a fresh glimpse of her Utopian surroundings.

  The Statue of Liberty stood guard over the city’s harbor as it had done for hundreds of years, before the plague even, now coated with a nanotech film that ensured she was always pristine in appearance, the film designed to be so slippery that nothing, not even damp, could stick to it. Beyond she could see a coastline and a few scattered dwellings of the super-elite set against the vast forests that now covered what had once been New Jersey.

  The island of Manhattan loomed into view, the soaring sky scrapers towering up into the scattered cumulus cloud and beyond. Kaylin marvelled at the sprawling expanse of museums, mansions and the CSS Headquarters tower in the centre, dwarfing the Freedom Tower that had also stood for so many centuries. Central Park’s angular block of greenery housed the wildlife sanctuary, where exotic beasts were allowed to roam in large enclosures for limited times before being returned to their native habitats, allowing the children of the elite access to them for short periods to understand the nature of the planet that had given birth to the human race. Among the natural animals such as lions and elephants there roamed holographic representations of dinosaurs so vivid that it had apparently become a rite of passage for teenage boys to stand firm as a Tyrannosaurs stalked toward them. Few passed the challenge. Kaylin had dearly hoped to take a walk in the park during her stay for she would never have been able to afford to visit this place by choice, one of only ten major inhabited cities remaining on the planet.

  ‘I thought that I’d be getting some down-time before picking up the escort job,’ Kaylin said as she stared out the shuttle’s window and the spectacular panorama.

  ‘The timeframe has been altered,’ Lees replied, barely looking out of the window at the Manhattan skyline. ‘We’ve had to move things forward a bit due to unforeseen circumstances.’

  Kaylin forced herself to turn away from the vista and focus. ‘Who’s the mark?’

  ‘That’s classified.’

  ‘It’s what? You want me to protect somebody and you’re not going to tell me who they are?’

  ‘The individual is highly sensitive and the work requires the utmost discretion. If you’re concerned about your ability to maintain decorum in this role then we’ll be happy to find a replaceme…’

  ‘I’m good for it,’ Kaylin cut Lees off. ‘The guy can be a mass murderer for all I care as long as I get to walk among the rich and the famous down here for a few days. Tell me what you can about them so at least I have some idea of what their likely weaknesses are.’

  ‘Weaknesses?’ Lees frowned.

  ‘Are they likely to attempt flight from their escort? Where would they go if they did? Who are their allies, their contacts, the people they could turn to if in need? Are they trained in military skills? Come on, you know the drill surely?’

  Lees raised his chin a little, somewhat annoyed at the insinuation.

  ‘The mark is a male, thirty four years of age. He’s not a flight risk and he has no known contacts in the city. He has military combat experience and worked law enforcement. That’s all I know.’

  Kaylin stared at Lees for a long moment as the shuttle began descending toward the CSS Headquarters, a large domed building in north Manhattan surrounded by landing pads and hundreds of giant holographic icons denoting the flags of all Earth’s historic nations united under the banner of the CSS. They were not there just to advertise the unity of CSS: rather, they reminded all of the fragmented and untrusting nature of history’s warring nations and the reason for the existence of the CSS and its archaic forbearer, the United Nations.

  ‘He’s a former cop and soldier?’ she echoed. ‘What the hell did this guy do to get himself a protection squad and an escort?’

  ‘He’s not a criminal.’

  ‘What is he then? A witness?’

  Lees inclined his head. ‘Of sorts.’

  ‘What theatre did he fight in? The Aleeyan War?’

  ‘No.’

  Lees was wearing a taut expression that Kaylin recognized as one typically displayed by suspects who were trying hard not to reveal anything they shouldn’t. Her own eyes narrowed as though she were trying to penetrate Lees’ veil of silence with will alone.

  ‘Name?’

  ‘Classified.’

  Kaylin sat back in her seat as the shuttle touched down. ‘Will I actually meet this man that I’m supposed to be protecting or will he be kept in a box wherever he goes?’

  ‘He’s at the medical center. We’re heading there now, if you will?’

  Lees gestured to the opening access door. Kaylin unbuckled from her seat and climbed out onto the landing pad, once again savoring the scent of the fresh air as she was directed toward a hatch in the building guarded by two armed soldiers wearing the distinctive light blue jump suits of the CSS security and peace-keeping force. Each held a plasma rifle at port arms, the magazines deactivated. Defensionem ut impetum : Defense as attack, or so the old motto of the CSS went. Only combat-ready troops like the Marines wore camouflage, another reminder that the CSS was an organisation for defense, not attack.

  The interior of the CSS bay entrance was likewise guarded by more security personnel, also with weapons deactivated, and a series of scanners designed to prevent anybody taking anything into or out of the building that they shouldn’t. Without her weapon, Kaylin strolled through the security screens without a hitch as Major Lees joined her.

  ‘It’s this way.’

  Kaylin sighed and followed the major dutifully toward an elevator bank, hoping that this escort duty would be over soon and she could grab a few days R & R out in the city and the endless wilderness beyond.

  ***

  IX

  ‘Good morning, how are you feeling today?’

  Nathan sat on the edge of the gravity pad as Helena entered the room. He had slept for several hours, the lights in his room automatically dimming to match his circadian rhythm – or so he had been told. A small meal the previous evening had been laced with a substance designed to promote the production of both melatonin and adenosine, chemicals responsible for governing sleep.

  ‘I’m okay.’

  The roughness in his voice was gone now, natural re-hydrants from his gel suit balancing his body’s requirements and removing toxins from his blood. Despite the traumatic nature of what he had experienced the day before, and of the centuries long biostasis he had endured, Nathan was beginning to feel a little more human again. His appetite had returned and it seemed that anything he asked for could be produced and sent to his room within minutes – although Helena had expressed her concern for his choice of breakfast. Bagels, bacon, eggs, fried bread and two rounds of near nuclear-strength coffee apparently hadn’t gone down well with the “nutritional team” she had assembled.

  ‘You look more like your old self,’ she observed as she sat on a semi-transparent chair close to the bed. ‘We have pictures,’ she added by way of an explanation.

  Nathan wasn’t sure what else that they had put in his meals but his muscles felt stronger and his legs no longer quivered when he stood up. The aching behind his eyes had vanished and he had noticed that his hair, which had felt stiff and wiry when he first awoke, was now clean and glossed with a healthy shine that would have made Angela envious and…

  Nathan’s shoulders sank as he
recalled that his wife, his family, were long gone. It seemed as though he kept forgetting that they were no longer around, the realization returning time after time to taunt him.

  ‘It’s natural to miss them,’ Helena said, ever perceptive of his emotions. ‘It will be a long time before you can truly move on, Nathan.’

  Nathan lifted his head and looked at her. ‘If I choose to.’

  Helena watched him for a moment and he could almost see her mind working to choose the right words.

  ‘Hanging on to one’s pain is a natural response to the trauma of losing loved ones,’ she said. ‘Denial is another. Both, however, simply attempt to deal with emotions rather than resolve them.’

  Nathan smiled, a ghostly little smile with empty eyes. ‘That wasn’t what I meant.’

  Helena sat silently for a moment, thinking again before she replied.

  ‘There would be no stigma, if that was your ultimate choice.’

  ‘You’d let me go?’

  Helena’s features creased slightly and Nathan was surprised to see genuine pain there in her expression as she replied. ‘It is not our choice to make. It’s yours, Nathan. But I and many others would miss you greatly.’

  ‘You don’t even know me.’

  Helena inclined her head in acquiescence. ‘Not truly, no, but I’ve studied you for many years and our team has been working towards this moment throughout that time. We all feel a responsibility for you Nathan, and the hope that you’ll be able to pull through this.’

  Nathan scowled before he realized it, his mouth running away with itself.

  ‘Sorry not to put your team’s feelings ahead of my own.’

  ‘That’s not what I meant and you know it,’ Helena scolded. ‘Your anger is understandable but many people have worked very hard to bring you back from hibernation and give you a second chance at life, a new life here with us.’

  Nathan looked up at the room around him as a surprising thought crossed his mind. ‘Where are we, exactly?’

  ‘New York City,’ Kaylin replied. ‘You’re in the finest medical center in mankind’s history, being cared for by some of the world’s best physicians.’

  ‘You mean that guy who looks like a walking lightbulb?’

  ‘Doctor Hans Schmidt is a renowned neurosurgeon and scientist,’ Helena said, ‘who is responsible for some of the greatest advances in neuroscience and regenerative technology ever conceived. The work he did last century was truly ground-breaking.’

  ‘Last century?’ Nathan echoed. ‘How old is he?’

  ‘It’s a long story,’ Helena replied. ‘You’ll learn about that later.’

  Nathan raised one eyebrow, unimpressed. ‘When can I get out of here?’

  ‘That would be up to the powers-that-be,’ Helena explained. ‘They’re concerned that you’re not ready to face the world outside, that things are simply too different and that it will be a struggle to…’

  ‘How about letting me be the judge of that?’ Nathan suggested. ‘I can’t walk out of here because that door only opens for you and the doctors.’

  ‘It can’t open for you because you don’t have an ID chip.’

  ‘And who has the right to keep me locked up in here? I want to take a look around.’

  ‘It’s for your own good. I’d like to allow you that right but I don’t have sufficient authority to…’

  ‘Why not go and ask?’

  ‘I doubt that will…’

  ‘I insist.’

  Helena looked at Nathan for a moment longer, and then she stood and moved for the door without another word. Nathan sensed that she felt somewhat insulted by him, but he had already decided that her feelings would have to wait. The cop in him was coming back and he was damned if he was going to sit here and just wait to be told what he could and could not do.

  Helena looked over her shoulder at him as the door vanished before her with a ripple of blue light, as though it were some sort of illusion or hologram.

  ‘I don’t think that you’re ready yet.’

  Nathan shrugged. ‘Only one way to find out.’

  Helena sighed, turned away and walked through the door.

  Nathan launched himself silently across the room and rushed past her through the open doorway into the corridor outside. Helena heard him move and turned to grab him, but he was too quick and nipped out of her reach.

  ‘Ooops, sorry,’ he chanted as he hurried away down the corridor. ‘Well, now that I’m out I may as well go for a walk.’

  ‘No, Nathan, stay in your room!’

  Nathan turned and jogged down the corridor, which followed a gentle curve to the right. Ahead he could see broad concave windows through which shone sunlight in wonderfully bright beams that glowed before him, and he barely heard Helena’s protestations as he hurried to the windows and squinted into the bright sunlight as he ran past.

  Nathan’s heart skipped a beat and he began to slow, shielding his eyes with one hand as he stared out across the vast panorama before him. He came to a stop in the center of the windows, which reached from the corridor’s floor to ceiling, and almost lost his balance as he realized how incredibly high up they were, maybe a thousand feet above the ground.

  The city of Manhattan was recognizable enough to him, and he could see in the bright haze the Statue of Liberty in the far distance beyond soaring silvery spires of chrome and steel that dwarfed even the one in which he stood. But all around in every other direction was nothing but open wilderness, dense forests and plains. Nathan lowered his hand from his eyes as he surveyed the vast country before him; he could see no roads, no railways, no towns. No sign of humanity’s presence.

  Helena moved alongside him and stood in silence as Nathan took it all in.

  From the clouds above a shuttle descended in utter silence, drifting across the sky. Sleek, bullet shaped and with stubby delta wings, Nathan could see no control surfaces or engines and could tell that the large craft was moving far too slowly for the wings alone to be holding it aloft. Its silvery fuselage glinted in the sunlight as it descended toward what looked like an immense airport on the shores of Brooklyn.

  Nathan spoke softly, his eyes fixed on the shuttle. ‘Where are all the roads?’

  Helena looked confused. ‘The whats?’

  ‘Roads,’ Nathan said. ‘The railways, the people – where is everybody?’

  Helena gestured to Manhattan.

  ‘The city is home to a half million people,’ she said incredulously. ‘It’s the largest single city on the planet.’

  Nathan looked out across the wilderness to the west. ‘And there, out there?’

  ‘There’s nobody out there except trekkers, wildlife watchers and scientists, all of whom work out of lodges and guest houses built among the forests,’ Helena replied. ‘Most of America has been given back to the animals that live here. The nearest populated city is Denver, and beyond that Los Angeles on the west coast, but only a quarter million people live in LA.’

  Nathan closed his eyes. ‘Denver,’ he said, ‘Colorado.’

  ‘Yes,’ Helena replied, and then she got it. ‘Aurora, where you lived, it’s near Denver.’

  ‘I want to go there,’ Nathan said.

  ‘Nathan, I don’t think that it’s a good idea yet to dwell too deeply on the past and…’

  ‘It’s not a request,’ Nathan said quietly.

  There was no threat in his voice and yet he could tell that he would move heaven and earth to get back to Aurora, no matter who or what stood in his way. Damn it he’d walk there if he had to. He turned to Helena, who rubbed her temples and sighed.

  ‘I’ll try to arrange it,’ she said.

  Nathan was about to thank her and to apologize for being such a pain in the ass, when a young man in an all-in-one blue suit hurried up to her.

  ‘Doctor, the escort is here. They’re on their way up.’

  Helena nodded and turned to Nathan.

  ‘Looks like you might get your wish after all,’ she said.

>   Helena set off down the corridor and Nathan hurried after her. ‘What escort, and why do I need one?’

  ‘Because of things like this,’ Helena replied, clearly upset. ‘You’re already showing signs of disobedience, arrogance and a distrust of authority.’

  ‘That’s because I’m being kept in the dark, locked in a room by people I don’t know who don’t have any authority over me!’

  ‘You’re a police officer,’ Helena replied. ‘You should understand the chain of command.’

  ‘I was a cop four hundred years ago and worked for people I knew. A lot’s changed since and I don’t answer to people I don’t know.’

  ‘But I do,’ Helena said as she rounded on him. ‘If you want to run about getting yourself into trouble that’s your call, but don’t drag me with you. I’ve waited for you for four years of my career so that I could help you to adjust to this new world, and I can tell that all you’re going to do is tear apart everything that we’ve achieved!’

  ‘Well I’m real sorry that you disapprove!’ Nathan growled back. ‘I forgot that this was about you and your damned team!’

  Helena scowled and stormed toward an elevator, which had opened to reveal two armed guards carrying heavy looking rifles of some kind. Helena stalked into the elevator and spoke over her shoulder to them.

  ‘Put him back in his room.’

  Nathan saw the two men stride toward him.

  ‘So I’m being put back in my cage now then doctor?’ he shouted. ‘When’s feeding time? Do I get any toys to play with?’

  Helena said nothing as the two guards came closer and Nathan tensed up as he went up onto the balls of his feet.

  ‘Either one of you touches me I’ll rip your arms off.’

  One of them swung his rifle around to point at Nathan and Helena suddenly burst back out of the elevator.