by E. R. Torre
“Wait!” Commander Meyers said.
The ARWs didn’t stop and Commander Meyers and Inquisitor Damien were forced to keep up with the group.
“Your dogs have removed their leashes,” Inquisitor Damien said.
Commander Meyers wiped the sandy dirt from his sweaty forehead.
“You better hope not,” he whispered. “I’m all that stands between them and you.”
Inquisitor Damien thought about that. He said:
“I sincerely hope that remains the case, Commander.”
Inquisitor Damien, Meyers, and the ARW units were inside the foundry.
Both Commander Meyers and Inquisitor Damien were amazed at the size of the building. Inquisitor Damien reached for the computer embedded on his trench coat sleeve.
“Can I use this?” he asked.
Meyers looked to Unit 1. The ARW didn’t respond so Commander Meyers nodded.
Inquisitor Damien activated his computer and took a reading. The computer analyzed the building’s interior and cross-referenced it with other structures.
“It’s a foundry designed to create starship parts,” Inquisitor Damien said. “Specifically, port shields. It’s several orders of magnitude larger than the largest foundries in Phaecia.”
Inquisitor Damien shut the computer off. Unit 1 moved on and Commander Meyers and Inquisitor Damien followed.
They walked deeper and deeper into the foundry, eventually nearing the first of the ARW bodies.
“Any sign of… of them?” Meyers asked Unit 1.
Unit 1 didn’t say. Both Inquisitor Damien and Commander Meyers eyed the first of the destroyed ARWs. Its body crumbled after turning to ash. Thanks to the winds from the sand storm, it looked like formless debris.
“Have you seen anything like this before?” Inquisitor Damien asked.
More sweat rolled down Commander Meyers’ pale face.
“You know who’s capable of this, don’t you?” Inquisitor Damien said. “Tell me. By the Gods, tell me what you know.”
Commander Meyers’ mouth opened and he was about to talk. He thought better of it and shook his head.
“It can’t be,” he muttered.
Before Inquisitor Damien could press the point, Unit 1 and its companion were once again on the move. Commander Meyers and Inquisitor Damien again followed. Soon, they neared the remains of the second ARW.
“It looks intact,” Inquisitor Damien said. “Are you sure it’s…?”
“The unit is no longer functional,” Unit 1 said.
Inquisitor Damien looked from Commander Meyers to Unit 1. He spoke to the ARW.
“Can I examine it?”
Commander Meyers’ eyes were suddenly on Inquisitor Damien.
“I give orders here!” he said. “Stay where you are!”
Inquisitor Damien did. The ARWs ignored the two humans and walked around, their glowing red eyes taking in any clue as to the attackers’ whereabouts. They were no longer interested in Commander Meyers or Inquisitor Damien. Meyers rubbed his face.
“I’m in charge here,” he muttered.
Inquisitor Damien looked from Meyers to his ARWs. He leaned in close to Commander Meyers and whispered:
“I’m sworn to help the Empire, Commander. Even though you brought me and my crew here against our wishes, we remain loyal soldiers. We can be an asset if you let us.”
The fury and fear in Commander Meyers wavered. He wiped more sweat from his forehead.
“Very well, Inquisitor,” he said. “You want to examine the ARW, go ahead.”
“Thank you, sir,” Inquisitor Damien said.
He walked to the still ARW and bent down. As he did, he spoke.
“What turns an ARW into ash?”
Commander Meyers hesitated before saying:
“An energy weapon of some kind. It overloads the ARW’s internal pieces and burns them to a crisp.”
“You know of such a weapon.”
“Yes,” Commander Meyers admitted. “My grandfather… he found some vid files on that ship he took from Saint Vulcan. They showed an energy weapon taking out what appeared to be a… an ARW unit. I saw the film shortly before it, and the ARW prototype, were taken away.”
“Saint Vulcan designed the ARW units,” Inquisitor Damien said. “It makes sense she’d have a means of terminating them. Were there any schematics for this weapon?”
“None.”
“So Saint Vulcan had the weapon. She’s dead and therefore can’t be behind its use here.”
“No.”
“Unless she had her own Milities Generation,” Inquisitor Damien said. “Maybe they’re the ones behind our trip.”
Inquisitor Damien gently pushed the second ARWs corpse. Ash fell from the creature’s joints.
“The body shell may be intact but the inside is ash,” Inquisitor Damien said. “Why the difference?”
Commander Meyers shrugged. Inquisitor Damien leaned in closer. He spotted five holes on the creature’s otherwise smooth facial place. He fit his hand over those spaces.
“Did you see this, Commander?” Inquisitor Damien said.
Commander Meyers bent down and saw the holes in the creature’s face mask. Upon seeing them, he stood back up and faced Unit 1.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” he said. “What does it mean?”
Unit 1 offered no answer.
“It would take something incredibly strong to not only hold an ARW unit down, but also pierce its armor,” Inquisitor Damien said. “Something as strong as… as strong as they are.”
Commander Meyers’ eyes opened very wide.
“Is that what we’re fighting?” he screamed at Unit 1. “Other ARWs? You knew, didn’t you? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Suddenly, Unit 1 moved. It took a step forward. Its chest pressed against Commander Meyers. Inquisitor Damien quickly got to his feet and pulled the Commander back.
“Easy,” he said. “Let’s you and I think this through. Together.”
They moved away from Unit 1 and returned to the ARW’s remains. Commander Meyers’ body shook with both fear and anger. He whispered:
“Thank you.”
Inquisitor Damien ignored the words and pointed to the sand around the fallen ARW.
“Look here.”
There were footsteps in the sandy floor.
“Footsteps?” Commander Meyers muttered and managed a bleak laugh. “Like a cheap mystery.”
“How about we see where they take us?” Inquisitor Damien said.
Meyers and Inquisitor Damien followed the trail until reaching one of the foundry’s exits. The sand there was blasted by winds.
“Swirl patterns,” Inquisitor Damien said. “I noticed similar patterns on the other side of the foundry.”
“What caused this?”
“Bursts of air delivered in a circular motion,” Inquisitor Damien said. “A vehicle. A small hover vehicle, one capable of carrying two people. A hovercycle?”
“They’re noisy,” Meyers said. “My soldiers would have heard—”
Commander Meyers shook his head.
“The rumbling,” he said. “Between that and the Camouflage they’re using, their departure was covered.”
“The rumbling’s gone,” Inquisitor Damien said. “We may be able to hear them now.”
Commander Meyers nodded.
“I’ll ask Unit 1 to check.”
“Do so,” Inquisitor Damien said. “Ask gently.”
They returned to Unit 1’s side.
“Unit 1, we found evidence of a small transport vehicle at the end of the foundry,” Commander Meyers said. “You saw it too, I imagine?”
“We have,” Unit 1 said.
“Have you detected any noises which could come from such a vehicle?”
“None within a fifty mile radius,” Unit 1 said.
“They can’t be too far away,” Commander Meyers said.
“They cannot,” Unit 1 said.
Commander Meyers returned to Inquisitor
Damien’s side.
“I guess we wait,” Inquisitor Damien said before shaking his head. “I just don’t get it.”
“What?”
“Why we’re here,” he said. “Assuming we were brought here by at least two other ARWs, why go to all this effort to get us here then take us out one by one? There has to be something else going on.”
Inquisitor Damien knew Commander Meyers was right. There was a dark energy surrounding the Megacity. Something didn’t feel right and the Milities ARWs felt it, too.
“There has to be some other reason for them to come all this way,” Inquisitor Damien said. “Something beyond ridding the universe of your soldiers. Is there anything –intelligence or material– worth getting one’s hands on in Arcadia?”
Commander Meyers shook his head.
For now there was no answer, only more questions.
55
From his vantage point beside the hovercycle Elias stared through a crack in the wall before him and at the foundry’s entrance.
The Goliath shuttle floated above the military transport while two ARWs guarded it. The massive foundry lay dark and forbidding in the dying haze.
Lying on its back and on the ground in front of Elias was the being which, until a few minutes before, thought itself Laverna DeCastillo. She didn’t move. Her eyes were open yet unfocused. The room they were in was on the ground floor of a deserted office building which lay only three blocks away from the foundry.
As close as they were to their pursuers, Elias and Laverna were safe for the time being. That would soon change.
Elias heard a low beep. The hovercycle’s power cell neared critical. Once it slipped into that mode, perhaps in as little as five minutes, the Camouflage Unit would shut off and they would be exposed.
Elias focused on Laverna.
She hadn’t moved since Elias took command of her body and got her to load him on the hovercycle and drive them here.
“You need to get up,” he whispered.
Laverna didn’t react.
“Please.”
Laverna’s eyes were suddenly upon Elias. She spoke without moving her lips.
“How do I continue?”
“You have to find a way,” Elias said.
Laverna’s stared past her companion. Elias’ twisted fingers pressed against Laverna’s forehead.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he touched her. “I have to go back inside.”
Laverna didn’t react. For several long seconds her body was still.
Then, her right arm twitched.
Darkness filled the world Elias entered.
There was no one around and nothing to be seen.
He moved on.
Cold stiffened his limbs and slowed him down. Yet another obstacle to surmount.
In the distance appeared a dim light. He ran toward it though it lay very far away.
He stepped into that light.
He felt Laverna’s essence here, but her thoughts were gridlocked. One pressed against the other until she could not think at all.
He felt her anger, her shock. Her sadness. Her sense of betrayal.
How dare this body lie about what it is?
“Laverna,” he said.
Leave me alone.
“I wish I could,” Elias said. “This is all my fault. I’ve always tried to take care of many things at once and when I saw the opportunity to do so here, I acted before everything was ready. Before you were ready.”
To this he received no answer.
“Listen to me,” he implored. “Please.”
The light dimmed and the area grew icy cold. Elias’ limbs stiffened. Soon they would not move at all.
“There is more you don’t know,” he said. “About me. Us.”
He waited for a reply but didn’t get any. The light, however, remained. There was still hope.
“You are not the first to go through this,” he said. “Do you want to hear about the others? Do you want to hear about me?”
The light grew brighter and he reached out. He reached out as far as he could…
He touched it…
They stood feet apart.
Laverna DeCastillo, dressed in her scavenger gear, worked a dry creek. She was covered in sweat and sand and didn’t pay attention to the man behind her. Not even when his shadow settled over her.
The desert plain around them extended for miles. Grains of sand picked up by the breeze flew across the distant, dead fields. At times they twisted into small whirlpools.
“This is where I belong,” Laverna said.
“No. It isn’t.”
Laverna laid her metal detector on the ground and grabbed a shovel. She used it to dig a small hole and then sat back.
In the hole was an enormous diamond.
Laverna ignored it. She grabbed her tools and moved away. Soon, she was digging in another spot. There were hundreds of holes around them. Each exposed incredible treasures. All were ignored.
“Come with me,” he told her.
“I don’t want to.”
“Please,” Elias insisted. “You can return if you want to. Please—”
Elias let out a groan and clutched his stomach. He bent over.
Laverna felt his pain.
“What is it?” she asked.
Elias’ eyes were upon her. They were no longer sparkling blue.
“It’s almost…almost too late,” he said.
Elias fell to the ground and Laverna reached for him.
They touched…
Laverna awoke on the floor and in an abandoned office.
What happened to the foundry?
The incoming light exposed ancient, rusted desks and office furniture. All were covered in thick layers of sand
Laverna’s attention returned to the light. It streamed in through several windows. Beyond them were buildings that stretched far into the sky.
She thought about this world and its structures. She thought of the dust and sands and the shining light of the sun.
She thought of everything but what she was.
You’re a machine. A machine that thinks itself human…
Laverna’s body shook. She could barely hold her thoughts.
She saw Elias from the corner of her eye. He sat on the ground and beside her hovercycle. His back was to it and his head down. She approached him.
“You tricked me,” Laverna yelled. “You forced me back.”
The anger built until she could barely control it.
“What in Hades are you? Are you like me? Are we like those creatures?”
Laverna’s hands came up and for what seemed like the very first time, she had a clear look at them. Her skin was smooth and pink and sported no imperfections. Her fingernails were exactly the right length, neither too long nor too short. At the tips of her fingers were small rips. It was where the metal probes exited her finger tips.
Laverna’s attention returned to Elias.
“You took everything from me,” she said.
Elias’ head remained down. He was unconscious and, she realized, connected to the hovercycle’s power cell.
He’s feeding energy from his body into the Camouflage Unit.
“By the Gods,” Laverna muttered. “That’s why you’re in such pain. You’re draining your body to keep us hidden. But once your energy is gone…”
Once his energy was gone, he could not come back.
“You’re sacrificing yourself for me,” Laverna said. She angrily shook her head. “I didn’t ask for this. I don’t want you to do this for me. Why couldn’t you just leave me alone?”
She grabbed Elias by his shoulders.
“Why?!” she yelled.
Upon grabbing Elias’ shoulders, her vision dulled.
Just as moments before Elias entered Laverna’s body, she now felt herself enter his.
Deep.
Deeper still.
The world around her was dull gray and Elias was somewhere in the distance. She approached. Soon, she sp
otted a dark form. It sat hunched over, unmoving. She got closer, until she saw who sat there.
Instead of Elias, the figure was that of a woman.
Her features sharpened, revealing dark, steel grey shoulder length hair. Her eyes were deep blue. Just as blue as Elias’. She looked to be about his age and, like him, her frame was slight.
The woman smiled.
“Hello,” she said.
“Where’s…”
Laverna stopped in mid-thought. The woman’s smile revealed a set of perfect teeth. Elias’ teeth.
“By the Gods,” Laverna said. “You… you’re Elias?”
Behind them appeared Bordertown. The Bordertown Laverna remembered.
A male form also appeared before them. It was Carson. Beside him was Max. Beside them appeared the many others Laverna encountered in both the desertlands and Bordertown. None looked human. Their skins were pale, plastic. They were mannequins frozen in place.
Laverna reached up and caressed Carson’s face. He was cold. As cold as she was.
Still more people appeared around them, including all the members of her Gehinnom Squad. Osborne, Harrison, and the elderly lady Laverna tried so very hard to save. Unlike the Bordertown people, they looked human.
“These people were not figments of your imagination,” the woman said. “They were real.”
The people, including Gehinnom’s soldiers, faded away. So too did Bordertown.
“There’s one missing,” the woman said. “Have you forgotten…?”
Laverna shook her head.
“I didn’t forget,” she said.
A new form, a single person, appeared before her. It was another woman. She was older than Laverna yet looked more than a little like her.
“Mother,” Laverna said. “I’m… I’m so sorry.”
Laverna closed her eyes. Her sadness faded, replaced by anger.
“What the fuck is happening?” she yelled. “I’m a machine. Why the fuck am I feeling these emotions?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” the woman said. “You’re more than just a machine.”
“I’m nobody,” Laverna shot back. “I’m nothing.”