Sisterhood of Suns: Daughters of Eve

by Martin Schiller

  Rather than spending the rest of their time drifting slowly to the ground on emergency chutes, the van withdrew and assumed a more respectful distance.

  Signysdaater nodded. “Gaanz gaaf. Ve don’t need zem getting under our feet. Fekking blood-drinkerz!”

  She landed the cruiser alongside a group of other police vehicles and popped the doors. “Follow me,” she urged.

  A police Captain met them halfway to the Command ‘Truck. “See those Firewomen? Mask up and help them out! EOD’s cleared the location.”

  Signysdaater saluted her, and led the way to a group of firewomen who were passing out exposure masks. She took one for herself and gave another to Maya. “From here on out,” she said, “do vhat za F-D tells you. If I need you, I’ll call you on za psiever.”

  Maya had just enough time to don her mask before a paramedic was tugging at her sleeve and pulling her along. They moved into the smoke filled chaos, using the built in bioplasmic sensors to tell them where they were going. It showed far more than Maya wanted to see.

  Teams of firewomen were hustling out injured civilians on hoverstretchers, while others were helping those that could walk to find their way to safety. There were just as many that were beyond saving however.

  Maya had only managed to go in a few dozen meters before she saw her first body. It was a woman dressed in what looked like a Harvest Maiden’s costume, but her legs had been blown off at the calf and she lay unmoving in a puddle of gore.

  A leg from someone else lay right next to her body. It wasn’t from an adult though. Instead, it had come from someone small. A child’s leg, she realized. There was a disembodied hand a little further on, and something else that vaguely resembled a torso.

  Maya looked away, unable to stand the gruesome tableau. Then the paramedic was pulling at her again, and she gratefully allowed herself to be led away. The firewoman and her companions had found a survivor, and after they had loaded the woman aboard their hoverstretcher, she helped them to run it out to the waiting ambulances. Away from the smoke, and all the bloody little bits and pieces that had once been people.

  Everything blurred together after that; running into the smoke once again, past more horrors and then out with the living, over and over. Sometime later, she found herself sitting on the fender of a fire unit, her mask pushed up and off of her soot covered head, drinking water. At that moment, even the finest champagne couldn’t have competed with the taste.

  As she poured some of it over her head, Signysdaater wandered up and sat down next to her, saying nothing. She didn’t have to. Her violet eyes did all of her talking for her. They displayed a mixture of sadness and weariness, mixed up with a lifetime of dealing with hardships. There was also a hard resolve in them, and Maya envied her for that. At that moment, she didn’t feel terribly strong herself.

  “Ve juzt got vord from Command,” the Zommerlaandar announced a moment later. “Za Marionites did zis. Zey found a van vith zeir pamplets in it, and zome bomb making shess. Zey have a suspect too; zome bita who vas in za Marines.”

  Maya sat up straight, and used her psiever to access the Police omni.

  She recognized the image that came up on her data-monocle, and the name. It was Ellyn n’Elemay. Almost five years had passed since she had seen that face, but thanks to all of the memory training that Lady Ananzi had put her through, she still remembered it.

  The woman had been listed as a ‘subversive’ in a file being maintained by the Station Chief for the Expeditionary Fleet. On instructions from Thermadon, Sarah had had the data purged, claiming that the woman’s case would be handled ‘at a higher level’. At the time, this had struck her as odd, but now she knew. It was more than odd. It was the work of Angelique bel Thana and the Agency.

  Gazing out over the sea of rescue vehicles towards the Command Modules, Maya was in shock. Until that instant, she realized that she hadn’t really understood the woman’s significance, or the purpose behind the Agency’s manipulation of the Marionites.

  It was worse than glass sales, she thought. Worse than what they had done to Mariaa Estovaal. Worse than all of it. And it made her angry. Very angry.

  An instant later, she spotted Sarah and Angelique walking together towards the Command ‘Truck.

  ***

  At first, Kaly had no sense of time or place. Then she realized that she was lying on the floor of the car. Dense smoke filled the air above her, punctuated by the orange glow of flames licking their way along the roof.

  There was death in that smoke. If she rose, she knew that her lungs would be fatally seared, so she stayed low and crawled towards the car’s doors instead. An all too familiar ringing in her ears deafened her, but as she inched along, it subsided, and other sounds slowly became perceptible. They were screams. Screams of pain and fear.

  When her fingers found the doors, she tried to pry them open, but they resisted her, and she groped upwards for the emergency release lever. Instantly, her hand felt as if she had just shoved it into an oven, and she cried out in pain. But she didn’t stop until she found the controls, and when she did, she gave them a hard pull.

  Damaged by the blast, the doors only opened up a few centimeters before they jammed, but the air that rushed in through the gap was deliciously cool and sweet, and Kaly laid her head next to the opening taking it in in huge gulps.

  Then she felt a hand clutching at her leg and looked down. It was the old woman who had given up her seat. She reached down to her, grabbing her by her dress and pulling her up until her head was level with the door.

  Outside, she thought she heard something, and croaked out a cry for help as loudly as her lungs would allow. As a fit of coughing and retching cut this short, metal fingers appeared in the crack and then the doors came apart with a loud squeal of overstressed steel.

  Kaly found herself looking up into the lenses of a Fire Department rescuebot. The machine reached in and pulled her and her companion out onto the platform. When it had dragged them a safe distance away, the rescuebot put breathing masks over their faces and then began to scan their vitals. A team of paramedics appeared next, bearing hoverstretchers, and they went to work loading the old woman aboard.

  They also tried to persuade Kaly to accept a ride, but she refused, and staggered up to her feet under her own power. Because of her uniform, and with so many other victims all around them, the firewomen didn’t press the matter, and gave her directions to the ambulances waiting outside before they moved on.

  Even with all the smoke, and confusion, Kaly was still able to identify the epicenter of the blast. It was hard to miss. The third car in the magnorail train had been peeled wide open by the explosion. Now, it was lying on its side, and huge tongues of flame were gushing out from where the windows had once been.

  This was the same car that she had seen N’Elemay exiting.

  And not far away from this, were the remains of the waste receptacle that the ex-Marine had used. It too had exploded and its deadly shrapnel had cut through the crowds like razorblades. Those that weren’t lying dead, or were too seriously wounded to move, were wandering around in shock, covered in blood.

  She went to the nearest woman, and took her by the arm, guiding her away from the carnage. All the while, the victim kept asking her where her daughter was, and Kaly kept up a stream of meaningless reassurances as they walked out.

  She really didn’t know if the child had survived or not, and she didn’t want to mention the bloody mess that she had seeing lying among all the other corpses near the shattered waste can. It had been suspiciously child-sized, and the only one of its kind.

  Instead, she just kept them moving. That, and processing the terrible truth. Her friend, her former teammate, and the woman that she had always thought of as the very epitome of a Marine, had been the one who had planted the bombs. Ellen n’Elemay was a terrorist.

  ***

  Kaly was treated for burns and given oxygen. Then, when she was ready, she was shown into the Mobile Command Center. Still
reeking of smoke and with her uniform in tatters, she was given a chair to sit in and a hot cup of kaafra. Sarah conducted her debriefing, while Angelique audited the proceedings.

  “I want you to tell me everything that you can, Corporal,” Sarah began. “Everything that you remember from the time that you entered the station. No detail is too small, or too insignificant.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Kaly replied. Then she related all of the details that she could remember. When she reached the part where she had spotted Ellen n’Elemay, Sarah brought up two-dozen holos, including one of the ex-Marauder.

  “Look at these images carefully,” she instructed her, “and identify that woman for me.”

  Kaly’s brow furrowed, but no more than a second passed before she pointed directly at the one containing N’Elemay’s data.

  “That’s her,” she said. “I’d know her face anywhere. We served in the same unit together.”

  “You’re positive?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Sarah closed the other files and left the image hanging in the air. “Did you see anyone else that you recognized? Or anything that seemed out of the ordinary?”

  Kaly shook her head. “No, ma’am. Just her.”

  “Corporal, I want to personally congratulate you for the heroism that you displayed today,” Sarah said. “The RSE is proud of you. Your actions exemplified everything that our organization stands for. Just the same, I want you to talk with one of our psychs when you leave here.”

  Kaly began to object, but Sarah waved it off. “This has been a very traumatic event, N’Deena, and no one could go through what you have without having some problems with it. See the psych. That’s an order.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Kaly rose and saluted her.

  “And if you remember anything else,” Sarah added, “I want you to contact me, or the General immediately. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Angelique got up from her chair at this point. “I would also like to add my congratulations to the Colonel’s, Trooper. Well done.” She bowed to her, and Kaly returned the gesture. “You are dismissed. A car will take you to your hotel and help you to get inside.”

  Kaly gave her puzzled look. “Help me, ma’am?” She didn’t see any reason for needing any help. A ride back was all she really required.

  “Yes,” Angelique told her. “Help. The media will want to interview you. Remember your obligation to keep everything that you went through confidential. This is an ongoing investigation.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Kaly replied. She saluted again, and left the trailer.

  “Well,” Angelique said when she and Sarah were alone again. “It certainly seems that Ellen N’Elemay possesses a flair for the dramatic. I seriously doubt that anyone in the Supreme Circle will object to anything that the Agency asks for now.”

  Sarah’s expression clouded, and Angelique noticed it. “Please do not tell me that you are having any regrets,” she said. “What we did was right.”

  “I am not as certain,” Sarah finally confessed. “The cost…” She was looking at the footage of the devastated station, coming in live over the holojectors from the emergency vehicles orbiting overhead.

  “Sarah!” Angelique exclaimed. “I am truly surprised at you! You know as well as I do how dangerous democracy and freedom is. Those are the very things that have made our Sisterhood weak.’

  “Thanks to N’Elemay and her criminal gang, the way is now clear for real leadership to ascend to power. We will finally have the order and strength that we need, not chaos and mob rule. What does it matter if we must lose a few to save the many? Surely you can appreciate this.”

  Sarah was nodding in reluctant agreement when Maya burst into the trailer.

  “Is this what you wanted?!” Maya demanded. “THIS?!”

  Sarah stood and seized her by the arm. “Be silent you little fool!” she hissed.

  Maya pushed her away. “No Sarah! I won’t fekking be silent! You made this happen—you and that bitch!” Her finger stabbed out at Angelique.

  Angelique ignored her and addressed Sarah. “I thought that you said that you had her mind scrubbed,” she said coolly.

  Sarah answered sheepishly. “I-I meant to—.”

  “Hey you know what, Angelique?” Maya spat, “Fek your precious little Agency and fek you! You’re all fekking traitors!”

  “Maya,” Sarah said soothingly, “you do not understand the situation. Just come with me and we will talk it over.”

  “No!” Maya snapped. “I’m not going anywhere with you—with any of you! I’m done with all this shess! You let that N’Elemay woman run loose, and you let the Marionites do this! You knew this was going to happen! You might as well have planted the fekking bombs yourselves you kuntas!”

  As she said this, a group of police supervisors were coming into the trailer, and they stopped in mid-stride, a mixture of concern and confusion writ plain on their faces.

  “Ma’am?” one of them asked. “What’s she talking about? What does she mean?”

  “Sarah, get this under control, or I will,” Angelique warned. Her hand was wandering to her holster.

  Maya caught the motion and saw the murder in her eyes. No matter what Sarah did, or didn’t do, Bel Thana intended to kill her. She had just become a liability.

  Before either of them could react, Maya embraced her symbiote and vanished.

  The other kaapers let out a collective gasp. “What the fek?!” one of them stammered. “Did you just see that?”

  Angelique rounded on the woman. “See ‘what’ officer? I didn’t see anything and neither did you. Zat klaar?” As one, the group of policewomen began to back away from her towards the door, clearly more concerned about incurring her wrath than unraveling the mystery.

  Angelique’s adjutant appeared at that moment and seized the initiative, shouting at them to report right away to the Fire Department for more assignments. Her tactic worked; in seconds, Angelique and Sarah were alone once again.

  “You told me that her symbiote had been deactivated,” Bel Thana snapped.

  “I thought it was,” Sarah protested. “She must have read the code from me when I was using it. It is the only explanation.”

  “Of course,” Angelique replied astringently. “The only possible explanation. With the information that she has, and a working symbiote, she is a problem for us.”

  “I understand,” Sarah said gravely. “I’ll take care of her myself.”

  Angelique inclined her head in a curt dismissal, her green eyes icy with restrained fury as Sarah accessed her own symbiote and disappeared.

  She had always considered Sarah to be the very epitome of efficiency, but now she had her doubts. Clearly, the little street tramp had seriously impaired her lover’s judgment.

  Angelique addressed her adjutant by psiever. I want you to make certain that Sarah keeps her word and terminates Maya n’Kaaryn. If she fails, assign someone else to handle the matter. I want Maya dead.

  When the officer signaled back affirmatively, Angelique took a moment to compose herself, and then gave the adjutant an additional order to see to it that the guards standing watch over the trailer were not to admit anyone—even women in uniform, and regardless of rank. After that, she took advantage of the secure communications equipment.

  Director Susa ben Paula, now officially a five star general, answered her immediately. Bel Thana didn’t waste the woman’s time with the particulars of the bombing. Ben Paula already had all of that data, and there was a far more pressing matter to discuss.

  “Susa,” Angelique said. “I think that it is time that we make the Hive ready for the Queen Bee.” The Hive was the code name for a facility that had been in place since the Second Widow’s War. Located on Durandel in the Halasi Elant, it served as a safe haven and a fallback position for the government in the event that any threat to the nation’s security proved too dire for the capitol to remain a viable option.

  “I agree General,” B
en Paula replied, “and I want you to spearhead that operation for me. The moment you are done there, you are to leave for Durandel and take along whoever you think you might need.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Angelique answered. “I will advise you when the Hive is fully operational.”

  “Bian,” Ben Paula said. “One other thing; the Chairwoman’s office advised me that she will tour the disaster scene this afternoon. She also plans to make a speech to the nation during her visit. Is the site secure?”

  “It will be,” Bel Thana assured her.

  They ended their conversation there, and Angelique erased any record of it. The existence of the Hive was too sensitive to risk leaving any loose ends behind.

  Next, she sent off several private messages. The first was to her household staff, telling them to pack her things for the journey to Durandel.

  The second was to Senatrix Layna n’Calysher, advising her to send her daughter off on an extended trip—and as far away from Thermadon as possible. The third and last one was sent to her adjutant, letting her know about the upcoming visit by the Chairwoman.

  With that, she opened up her valise and withdrew a tiny vial of perfume. It had been custom made for her, and at great cost. Out of a perverse sense of humor, but also in homage to her ancestress, she had dubbed the scent Lucrezia. Carefully dabbing it behind her ears, she settled in to wait, and to let history take its inevitable course.

  Ten minutes later, the Chairwoman and Director ben Paula arrived together, accompanied by a huge security detail. Angelique met them and provided a detailed report of the incident. Afterwards, she accompanied them to a podium that her officers had hastily erected for the Chairwoman’s address to the nation.

  Later, after the speech was over, both women privately complimented her about her perfume. They had no idea that they had been breathing in their own deaths the entire time.

  CHAPTER 11